OLD ENGLISH VILLAGE LIFE. 167 



great boon to the working men. We see, then, here a very wide 

 interval indeed between the labourers, a very large class, and 

 the farmers and wealthy residents above them. But, neverthe- 

 less, though in appearance they may be compared with the 

 old cottars and bordarii, they have advantages unknown to the 

 latter : cheap living, increasing comforts, high wages, and much 

 consideration. They are far better housed and far better 

 educated. 



We notice, then, in conclusion, as the result of our survey of 

 village life, the evidence of stability in the midst of change. 

 What is light and superficial, representing only a passing phase, 

 floats down the stream of time and leaves behind scarcely a 

 trace of its presence, but that which is good and wholesome lives 

 on from age to age. The threatened depopulation of the 

 villages is a temporary movement, like the damp fogs in winter 

 which hang with their heavy pall around us in the Trent valley, 

 or like the water floods that rise and overflow our meadows. 

 These things have their day and disappear, but there are good 

 and permanent elements behind what is thus fleeting and transi- 

 tional. We cling in simple faith to the things which are stable 

 and unshaken, and we know that it is through the conservation 

 of all that is best in our country life that we shall be able in the 

 future to make steady progress in that slow and patient evolution 

 from lower to higher forms, which has hitherto been evident 

 in the country district, which has been the scene and ground- 

 work of this story. 



