HAPPY VILLAGE 21 



to distinguish it from the next village, vaingloriously 

 called Great. This &quot; Great &quot; village a generation ago 

 boasted over 800 inhabitants, most of them engaged 

 directly or indirectly in husbandry. To-day its popula 

 tion is just over 200. In other words, three-quarters of 

 the people have vanished. The fortune of this village is 

 no exception. Look down at that magnificent thirteenth- 

 century church with its battlemented tower in the 

 plain below. It would be half-empty, if the whole 

 hamlet, man, woman and child, attended service there. 

 They would scarcely number a congregation of a hundred 

 souls, but if we wish to go back into history, the founda 

 tions of houses, great and many, are everywhere trace 

 able. The property, so-called, consists of about 2,000 

 acres of land of good land. Not long since I saw a 

 moderate field of seed clover sold as it stood for 1,000, 

 and the glebe which is grass, let for 738. an acre. One 

 of the farmhouses is a magnificent example of Elizabethan 

 masonry. The walls are thick enough to provide ingle- 

 nooks and roomy seats within their breadth. There 

 are four other farmhouses of sufficient comfort and 

 solidity, with good outbuildings. The cottages are very 

 picturesque, and on the whole roomy and comfortable. 

 The estimated value of the whole of the 2,000 acres, of 

 the Elizabethan manor-farm and other farmhouses, of the 

 cottages and the rest, is not more than 4 an acre. With 

 its ups and downs of fortune the character of these 

 villages keeps true to the type. &quot;Yarrow revisited * 

 suggested sotne disquieting thoughts, but the inspiration 

 of the scene is as of old. I walk to the two old hollow 

 walnut trees in the great glebe and tap the trunk. Out 

 flies a white barn owl as it flew out a generation ago 

 when its ancestors hatched a hen s egg inserted in the 

 nest by an experimental schoolboy. The villagers still 



