CO ATE FARM. 11 



be such a place. Swindon is a luncheon-bar ; 

 that is all. There is, however, more than a 

 refreshment-room at Swindon. First, there 

 has grown up around the station a new town 

 of twenty thousand people, all employes of 

 the Great Western Eailway, all engaged upon 

 the works of the company. This is not by 

 any means a beautiful town, but it is not 

 squalid ; on the contrary, it is clean, and looks 

 prosperous and contented, with fewer public- 

 houses (but here one may be mistaken) than 

 are generally found. It is an industrial city 

 a city of the employed skilled artisans, skilled 

 engineers, blacksmiths, foremen, and clerks. 

 A mile south of this new town but there are 

 houses nearly all the way the old Swindon 

 stands upon a hill, occupying, most likely, the 

 site of a British fortress, such as that of Lid- 

 dington or Barbury. It is a market town of 

 six or eight thousand people. Formerly there 

 was a settlement of Dutch in the place con- 

 nected with the wool trade. They have long 

 since gone, but the houses which they built 

 picturesque old houses presenting two gables 

 to the street remained after them. Of these 



