9 



who could afford to build strongholds for the protection of their fami- 

 lies and persona] retainers, but who, in tames of war, yet needed to be 

 in close vicinity to the larger fighting forces of the town. Neither the 

 castle nor (lie hovel being placed with any reference to the enlargement 

 of the town, or to public convenience in any way, streets were formed 

 through the suburbs, as they became denser, in much the same way as 

 they had been in the original settlement; then, as the walls were ex- 

 tended, the military consideration again operated to enforce the idea of 

 compactness in every possible way. 



The government of these towns also, however its forms varied, was 

 always essentially a military despotism of the most direct and stringent 

 character, under which the life, property, health and comfort of the 

 gnat body of their people were matters, at Lest, of very subordinate 

 consideration. 



Thus the policy, the custom and the fashion was established in the 

 roots of our present form of society of regarding the wants of a town, 

 and planning to meet them, as if its population were a garrison, to be 

 housed in a barrack, with only such halls and passages in it, from door 

 to door, as wOuld be necessary to turn it in, to sleep and feed, and 

 turn it out, to get its rations. 



It naturally fell out that when at length the general advance of 

 society, in other respects, made it no longer necessary that a man 

 should build a castle, and control, as personal property, the services 

 of a numerous body of fighting men, in order to live with some degree 

 of safety in a house of his own, apart from others, all the principal towns 

 declined for a time in wealth and population, because of the number of 

 opulent citizens who abandoned their old residences, and moved, with 

 servants and tenants, to make new settlements in the country. 



The excessive suppression of personal independence and individual 

 inclinations which had before been required in town-life caused a strong 

 reactionary ambition to possess each prosperous citizen to relieve him- 

 self as much as possible from dependence upon and duties to society in 

 general, and it became his aim to separate himself from all the human 

 race except such part as would treat him with deference. To secure 

 greater seclusion and at the same time opportunity for the only forms 

 of out-door recreation, which the rich, after the days of jousts and 

 tournaments, were accustomed to engage in, all those who could com- 

 mand favor at Court, sought grants of land abounding in the larger 

 game, and planted their houses in the midst of enclosures called 

 parks, which not only kept neighbors at a distance, but served as nur- 

 series for objects of the chase. 



The habits of the wealthy, under these circumstances, though often 

 gross and arrogant, and sometimes recklessly extravagant, were far 



