Some Changes
There was not much alteration in the outward appearance of the
villages and the "look" of the country round them for many
centuries. Indeed even now many of the villages themselves are not
greatly altered in their general arrangement. Down to the times of
the Tudor kings the old land and manor customs had gone on since
Saxon days, changing but very slowly. Many of the class which had
been villeins in the Middle Ages had become yeomen; some had got
lands of their own, and some land on the old manors, which they
rented. But they did not alter very much the old way of treating
the land, and it was only gradually that farm-houses sprang up away
from the villages.
In some parts of the country these lonely farm-houses are more
common than in others. There are, for instance, a good many in the
Weald of Sussex which sprang up first as huts in forest clearings,
and afterwards became houses with farm-buildings attached to them.
On the borders of great lonely heaths and commons we can often see
very old and very small cottages, with walls of clay, or wood,
or stone, according to the district in which they happen to be.
Long ago some squatter built his little hut here, and out of pity,
perhaps, or through carelessness, the lord of the manor took no
notice. There he remained, year after year, until custom allowed
him to look upon it as his own; and in time it actually became
his private property. Such squatters in lonely places were often
looked upon more or less with fear by the timid folk living in the
distant village. They did not care to do or say anything to upset
the stranger, fearing for the safety of their sheep, cattle, and
poultry. Many little holdings and small farms began in this way.
Many of the farms, though they were separate holdings, still had
strips in the big fields of the parish. The crops were sown and
gathered according to the ancient customs, and the cattle turned
into them and out on the waste lands at certain seasons, just as
they had been in the Middle Ages.
But about the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a
pretty general movement towards breaking up these big fields
into separate parts, and letting each farmer have his portion to
himself, so that he might know exactly what land was his and what
belonged to his neighbour. So it came to pass that Enclosure Acts
were passed for parish after parish. The old common arable fields
were divided among those who had rights in them. Then many of the
old wastes, heaths, commons, and marshes were treated in the same
way.
That caused a great change in the appearance of the parish. Instead
of the fields in long, straight strips, with unploughed balks
between them, the strips belonging to each farmer were thrown into
one, and hedgerows planted. In time they became smooth fields,
separated from each other by hedges, in which grew here and there
timber trees. The old cart-tracks, winding across and round the
common fields, in time became lanes bounded by high hedges. The
trackways across many of the old wastes and commons in a similar
way were turned into lanes, and the waste broken up into fields.
Still, a good deal of the waste land was left, and has never yet
been enclosed. So far as we can see now, this is not likely to
happen, because we feel more and more every year that, for the
sake of the health and recreation of the people, it is absolutely
necessary to preserve as many open spaces as possible. Some of
these wastes and uncultivated, or only partially cultivated,
lands have been brought under the spade and the plough during the
war-time, and all over the country people have heartily set to work
to increase our "homegrown" food supply.
[Illustration: _Hayes Barton Farm, Devonshire, the reputed
birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh (1552). It is in the picturesque
Elizabethan style, with thatched and gabled roof, mullioned
windows, and gabled porch_]
The fields, the hedgerows, and the lanes which delight us so much
in the country are, most of them, some two hundred years old.
When the farm had its own separate fields allotted to it, it became
convenient for the farmer to live in the midst of his land. So
we find the farm-house and its buildings, with a few labourers'
cottages, a long way out of the village, and away from the church.
If you take notice you will find that from this outlying farm-house
there is usually a pretty straight field-path to the parish church.
A good deal could be said about our forests and woodlands--their
importance, and the part they have played in the making of England.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries especially, there was
great attention paid to the cultivation of trees, and many of the
owners of private park-lands did excellent work in promoting the
growth of timber. But in the nineteenth century there seems to have
been a considerable falling-off in this respect, and far-seeing men
at times warned us that we needed to pay more attention to trees
and forests and to the growth of timber. The terrible blizzard
which swept over the country in March, 1916, brought down thousands
and thousands of fine old trees, and the needs of our army and navy
during the war-time has made sad havoc in parks and plantations,
so that one of the urgent needs of the days in front of us is
systematic attention to "afforestation", in order to "make good"
the terrible wastage.
Hamlets have grown up away from the old village green, its church,
and its manor-house. The roads were often so bad that horses
frequently cast their shoes, tires came off wheels, and wheels came
off carts and coaches; so under many "a spreading chestnut-tree" a
little smithy and wheel-wright's shop arose. A smithy is always a
centre of life and news, as everybody knows. You can see to-day,
along many of our roads, sheds and shops being opened, where
broken-down cycles and motor-cars can be repaired and supplied with
odds and ends which they may happen to need. Round these hamlets
have in time sprung up, and in scores of places the hamlet has
become of more importance than the old village, and has grown into
a little town, with new churches and chapels and public buildings.
In these war-years large numbers of quite new townships of enormous
size have sprung up in connection with the making of munitions,
and the provision of hospitals and camps, and as yet we know very
little about them as a whole. Some are only temporary, but others
have "come to stay", and in them new industries on a big scale will
probably be developed. All this means change--change of appearance,
change of ideas, change of methods.
Then there are the districts where new industries and manufactures
have been planted. That is too large a subject to deal with here,
but think of the great changes these have wrought on the face of
the country in the coal and mineral districts of England in the
last two hundred years!
Again, there are the railways. Notice how little townships have
grown up round the railway stations, especially on the main lines
in districts near a big town. Houses spring up for the hosts of
people who, like streams of human ants, hurry to the station to
catch the early morning trains, and, as the afternoon wears into
evening, come again from the station to snatch a few hours' rest at
home.
We have said nothing of
"The beauty and mystery of ships,
And the magic of the sea",
and the part they have had in the making of our towns and villages.
This subject would require not only one but many books, and then
we shall only just have begun to think about it, and to find out
how little we know. Our wonderful Navy, our Merchant Sailors, our
Fishermen--what do we _not_ owe to them for what they have done for
us in the terribly anxious times through which we have passed and
are still passing! It is good, in spite of all the awful suffering,
to have lived through these years, and to have seen something of
what can be done by sacrifice of self, co-operation, and just
"sticking to duty"--on land, on sea, under the sea, and in the
air, in busy towns, and in quiet country places.
Yes, the life of our towns and villages is a very interesting
subject. Nature and Man each works for and with the other; both
are full of mystery, life, beauty, and high inspiration, if we
could only use our eyes to see, our intelligence to understand, our
hearts to sympathize, and our hands to work, for the things that
are true, and lovely, and pure.
[Illustration: _Modern Industry_]
Transcriber's note:
There are four illustrations that were marked as [Illustration}.
They have each been given a caption.
Page 72 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Diagram of the Shape
of a Villein's House_]
Page 142 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Diagram of a Large
House_]
Page 174 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Diagrams of Layouts
for a Boy's Game_]
Page 200 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Modern Industry_].
A paragraph break has been inserted on Page 143 after
[Illustration: _Diagram of a Large House_].