STUDIES IN NATURE 



ket-making, straw-plaiting, wood-carving, lace- 

 making. Some of these handicrafts do indeed 

 survive in favoured places, but for the most part 

 the village folk are forgetting their beautiful 

 workmanship. Before the days of railways, 

 when it was difficult and costly to send goods 

 about the country, each village would grow and 

 make most of the various things that are neces- 

 sary to carry on the daily life of the people. 

 We know how much we require for even the 

 simplest household, and can easily gain some 

 idea of the variety of village life a hundred years 

 ago. It is true that it is now much easier to 

 bring food and stuffs from other parts of the 

 country, where they can perhaps be got cheaper, 

 and for this reason many of the old industries 

 have unfortunately died out, and people will 

 often buy things brought from a distance that 

 might have been better made by themselves or 

 their neighbours. 



If we now begin to consider what buildings 

 we shall want in our village, we shall not have 

 much difficulty in counting them up. There 

 must be a church, a school, farms, barns and 

 cowsheds, a wind-mill or water-mill not very far 

 off to grind the corn into flour, a malt-house and 

 brewery, a post-office, an inn or public-house, 

 workshops and smithy, and, most important of 

 all, houses and cottages of all sizes, surrounded 

 by gardens, for the people of the village to 

 dwell in. 



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