OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



rejoice to see their revival, provided only he 

 could name the martyrs? 



But I have no right to speak of the Vil- 

 lage Green as wholly a thing of the past, al- 

 though such symbols of order and discipline 

 as the stocks and the whipping-post have gone 



by. 



Travellers rarely meet with them, it is true; 

 but we do not travel by stage-coach nowadays. 

 We do not face the old orderly frontage of 

 quiet, outlying towns, as we did when we 

 clattered down the main street to the common 

 and the tavern and the pump. If we travel 

 thitherward, we are thrust into the back- 

 sides of towns upon some raw cut of a rail- 

 way, amid all manner of debris and noisome 

 smells. Now I suppose that old-time villagers 

 took a pride in their common, with its stately 

 trees— in their court-house, their breadth and 

 neatness of high-road, as being the objects 

 which must of necessity fasten the regard of 

 those from the outside world who paid their 

 town a visit. The two deacons who lived 

 opposite, would never decorate their door- 

 yards or walks, for the entertainment of 

 each other, but rather for the admiration of 

 the public, which must needs pass their doors. 

 But yet — and it is a curious fact in the history 



156 



