144 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



What all this may have to do with the topic of 

 Village Greens, may be not quite clear to the reader ; 

 but I will try and develop its bearings. All the lesser 

 towns through which or near to which a railway 

 passes, have virtually changed face ; they confront 

 the outside world no longer upon their embowered 

 street or quiet common, but at the " station." There 

 lies the point of contact, and there it must remain 

 until the mechanicians shall have devised some airy 

 carriage which shall drop visitants from the clouds 

 upon the threshold of the cosy 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 com- 

 mon carrier ; it is the bond of the town with civiliza- 

 tion ; 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 not 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 attractive ; and if there were no room for a 

 broad expanse of sward, at least there might be 

 planted some attractive copse of evergreens or slirub- 



