COUNTRY LIFE AND THE SMALLER TOWNS.
In the last Lecture we saw how the history of England, and the monuments which have come from it, surround the schools and the universities, and influence the upbringing of the men whom we know here in India as officers of the Army and of the Navy, as Civil Servants, and as merchants. Let us now, however, describe the early surroundings of those whom we know chiefly as the rank and file of the Army and as the sailors of the Navy.
Let us consider the homes of the people outside the Metropolis—the small towns scattered over the whole land, and the hundreds of little villages, the farms, and the cottages in the green countrysides and by the shores of the sea.
1.
View of Chipping Campden.
Here is the little town of Chipping Campden, in the West of England, set in a valley amid low hills and shaded by green trees, with its church tower rising in the centre. Do you see the sloping roofs of the houses which speak of a rainy climate, and the chimneys rising from their ridges, telling of the cold winters and of blazing fires round which in the long evenings the families gather?
2.
Street in Chipping Campden.
This is a street in the same little town of Chipping Campden. Is it not peaceful and silent? How different the lives of the people brought up here from those who live in the sound of the unending traffic of London!
3.
A Business Street.
Here is another street in a country town, with shops where food and clothing are sold. There is an inn, too, which bears the sign of a Cock. The use of signs instead of names to distinguish houses is an old custom which has survived from the times when men could not read. See the school children gathered in the street watching the photographer who is taking the picture.
4.
A Residential Street.