82 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



created by the well-to-do residents, the bare 

 room, the tea and coffee, the more or less 

 clerical atmosphere, the bagatelle board, 

 the newspapers and magazines, the few 

 volumes of " sound " fiction lose their charm, 

 and are unavailing as a counter-attraction 

 to the homely warmth and cheerful con- 

 viviality of the inn. In only a very small 

 percentage of our villages is any kind of club- 

 life possible apart from the public-house, and 

 the diatribes of well-to-do and well-meaning 

 members of city clubs against those who 

 frequent the village inn are often strongly 

 resented by even the steadiest and most sober 

 labourers, whose sole opportunity for social 

 good-fellowship is furnished by the bar 

 parlour. Regret it as we may the fact remains 

 that the one universal institution in rural 

 England devoted to recreation is the public- 

 house. Some of the sterner men avoid it 

 altogether, though they possess no alternative 

 resource. We have allowed a powerful and 

 dangerous trade the virtual monopoly not 

 only of rural drink-selling but of rural amuse- 

 ments ; and a strange alliance exists between 

 brewers and Temperance advocates to prevent 

 even the trial in England of a system of 

 public control and " counter attractions " 

 which has made Norway, once the most 



