WAY-SIDE HINTS 



main until the mechanicians shall have devised 

 some airy carriage which shall drop visitants 

 from the clouds upon the threshold of the 

 cosey old hostelrie. There being thus, as it 

 were, a new focal point of the town life, it 

 wants its special illustration and adornment. 

 The village cannot ignore the railway : it is 

 the common carrier ; it is the bond of the town 

 with civilization; it lays its iron fingers upon 

 the lap of a hundred quiet valleys, and steals 

 away their tranquillity like a ravisher. 



What then? Every village station wants 

 its little outlying Green to give character and 

 dignity to the new approach. Is there any 

 good reason against this? Nay, are there nDt 

 a thousand reasons in its favor ? In nine out of 

 ten wayside towns, such space could be easily 

 secured, easily held in reserve, easily made at- 

 tractive; and if there were no room for a 

 broad expanse of sward, at least there might 

 be planted some attractive copse of evergreens 

 or shrubbery, to declare by graceful type the 

 rural pride of the place. He would be counted 

 a sorry curmudgeon who should allow all 

 visitors to make their way to his entrance- 

 hall, through wastes of dust and piles of offal ; 

 cannot the corporate authorities of a town be 

 taught some measure of self-respect, and wel- 



159 



