HAPPY VILLAGE 17 



who made such places must have attained however un 

 consciously a rare harmony of soul in accord with the 

 land and clime they live in. A few years ago not more 

 than four centuries three quarters of the land of Eng 

 land was waste. Then the people began to cut slips off 

 the thorns and briars of their Eden and stuck them into 

 the ground, along side a ditch &quot; a yard deep, two feet 

 across the top and one foot at the bottom.&quot; The kindly 

 ground and clime lured root and buds from these quicks 

 and dog roses no longer merely thorns and briars ; the 

 birds fed, roosted and nested in their protection, sowing 

 hips and haws, acorns and hazel nuts, and the wind blew 

 unseen battalions of seed against the thickening barrier. 

 The seeds stopped where the birds stopped ; the English 

 hedgerow was built ; and presently the old wastes were 

 like garden closes, as friendly as an open fire in a hospi 

 table room. Waste land became field or paddock. They 

 set these thorns too along side the sheep path and cattle 

 track that wound lazily up to the homestead : and some 

 times in longer, straighter lines on either side the line of 

 abundant daisies that always grow thickest where the 

 primeval roads were trodden along the ridges. 



The villages begin to revive and enjoy a livelier social 

 life and have not lost their old charm ; but there are 

 threats. What if the English village should vanish or be 

 ruined ? What a fall would be there, my countrymen ! 

 I have seen one clean vanish : and the tale of it has been 

 told* 



Three miles outside Marlborough, the lowland begins 

 to rise to a famous down, A few years ago a charming 

 and prosperous village stood on the edge, and com 

 manded a view of a wide prospect of corn and cultivated 

 land, all of it producing its quota of food and supporting 

 a vigorous population. In the village or hamlet built in 



T.V.E. 



