WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 97 



and even the steep side of the hill is dotted with cot- 

 tages, with gardens at an angle of forty-five degrees 

 or more, and therefore difficult to work. Here stands 

 a group of elm trees ; there half a dozen houses ; next 

 a cornfield thrusting a long narrow strip into the centre 

 of the place ; more cottages built with the back to the 

 road, and the front door opening just the other way ; 

 a small meadow, a well, a deep lane, With banks built 

 up of loose stone to prevent them slipping only broad 

 enough for one wagon to pass at once and with cot- 

 tages high above reached by steps ; an open space 

 where three more crooked lanes meet ; a turnpike gate, 

 and, of course, a beerhouse hard by it. 



Each of these crooked lanes has its group of cot- 

 tages and its own particular name ; but all the lanes 

 and roads passing through the village are known col- 

 loquially as " the street." There is an individuality, 

 so to say, in these by-ways, and in the irregular archi- 

 tecture of the houses, which does not exist in the 

 straight rows, each cottage exactly alike, of the mod- 

 ern blocks in the neighbourhood of cities. And the 

 inhabitants correspond with their dwelling in this 

 respect most of them, especially the elder folk, be- 

 ing " characters " in their way. 



Such old-fashioned cottages are practically built 

 around the chimney ; the chimney is the firm nucleus of 

 solid masonry or brickwork about which the low walls 

 of rubble are clustered. When such a cottage is burned 

 down, the chimney is nearly always the only thing that 

 remains, and against the chimney it is built up again. 



4 



