COTTAGES AND FARMS 



29 



And how pleasant, both in use and appearance, are 

 the hand hunting-gates, and the oak stiles, with the con- 

 venient foot-board and the massive rounded rail, that by 

 the end of the summer shows a bright polish from the 

 friction of the labourers' corduroys. 



It is sad to see, in place of these sympathetic homely 

 things, made in the place and suiting it to perfection, 



. 



& 



An Oak Stile 



miles of dull and ugly iron-work from a distant manu- 

 facturer's pattern-book. 



It is scarcely too much to say, that it is the almost 

 culpable insensibility to the true value and Tightness of 

 these locally-made things, on the part of landowners and 

 their agents, that is robbing rural England of so much of 

 her priceless heritage of simple beauty. 



There is no need for anything to be ugly, not even the 



