The Village ‘ Street.’ 89 
the ground-plan of the village. All the odd nooks 
and corners seem to have been preferred for building 
sites; and even the steep side of the hill is dotted 
with cottages, with gardens at an angle of forty-five 
degrees or more, and therefore difficult to work. 
Here stands a group of elm trees; there half-a-dozen 
houses; next a cornfield thrusting a long narrow 
strip into the centre of the place; more cottages 
built with the back to the road, and the front door 
opening just the other way ; a small meadow, a well, 
a deep lane, with banks built up of loose stone to 
prevent them slipping—only broad enough for one 
waggon to pass at once—and with cottages high 
above reached by steps; an open space where three 
more crooked lanes meet; a turnpike gate, and, of 
course, a beerhouse hard by it. 
Each of these crooked lanes has its group of 
cottages and its own particular name; but all the 
lanes and roads passing through the village are known 
colloquially as ‘the street.’ There is an individuality, 
so to say, in these by-ways, and in the irregular 
architecture of the houses, which does not exist in the 
straight rows, each cottage exactly alike, of the modern 
blocks in the neighbourhood of cities. And the 
inhabitants correspond with their dwelling in this 
respect—most of them, especially the elder folk, being 
‘characters’ in their way. 
Such old-fashioned cottages are practically built 
around the chimney ; the chimney is the firm nucleus 
