106 ROUND THE YEAR 



until the middle of the nineteenth century. During 

 the last fifty years, however, there has been a marked 

 concentration of population jn Yorkshire. Out- 

 side the great towns there has been a considerable 

 aggregate increase, due to the growth of manufactur- 

 ing villages, health resorts, and suburban houses, all 

 dependent upon manufactures. But the proper rural 

 population has declined. Unroofed cottages are 

 common in Wharfedale, and a far larger number 

 have been swept away altogether. There was a time 

 when princes and parliaments would have interposed to 

 check the evil by such blundering enactments as they 

 could devise. We have learnt by experience that 

 mankind cannot be effectually driven to adopt an 

 occupation and a place of abode which accord with 

 the views, not of themselves but of their rulers. 



The importation of cheap corn has materially re- 

 duced the area of ploughed land within recent years. 

 In every part of England are great expanses of pas- 

 ture and meadow which waved with corn within the 

 memory of men still living. The day is at hand when 

 the vast majority of Englishmen will dwell in cities. 

 A hundred years ago the vast majority were rustics. 



Was it better to live in England then than now ? 

 Better in some ways, no doubt. Men worked, if they 

 did not sleep, in pure air, and in sight of the trees and 

 the blue sky. The simple out-of-door pastimes of 

 Shakespeare's day were better than the music-hall 

 and the street-organ. There were then no wilder- 

 nesses of streets to cut the children off from the very 

 possibility of knowing the face of Nature. 



Some things have remained much the same through 



