England Is a Village Book

ENGLAND IS A VILLAGE By C. HENKY WAR. KEN Illustrated by DENYS WATKINS PITCHFOKD New York E. P. DUTTON CO., INC. 1941 For Heinz FOREWORD THIS chronicle of village life was mainly written during the two months of comparative calm which were destined to be the sinister prelude to total war. Moreover, the calm was emphasized, at least in the countryside, by coincidence with one of the bitterest spells of winter weather within living memory. For a few weeks Larkfield as I have called the village experienced something of that self sufficiency which was the basis of English rural life in the days before Enclosure. And now, as I write this introductory note, every vestige of that calm has been shattered. Larkfield watches the approach of happenings which have no equal in terror or frightfulness. And meanwhile spring unfolds with a completeness only matched by the completeness of the winter that preceded it the English countryside puts forth her loveliest and best to front the enemy, like a kneeling angel holding faiths front line. Already the Larkfield I have tried to picture in these pages wears the aspect of a dream ... but it is a dream that must be kept before our waking eyes when the horrors that sought to blind us are past. For it is from the ashes if such must be of the Larkfields of England that our phoenix strength shall rise. Englands might is still in her fields and villages, and though the whole weight of mechanized armies rolls over them to crush them, in the end they will triumph. The best of England is a village. May 1940 C. H. W. ix CONTENTS Chapter One pa g e r Chapter Two 2I Chapter Three 39 Chapter Four 5I Chapter Five 63 Chapter Six 79 Chapter Seven 99 Chapter Eight II7 Chapter Nine I3I Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve I73 Chapter Thirteen I9I Chapter Fourteen 209 Chapter Fifteen 225 Chapter Sixteen 237 ILLUSTRATIONS The village under snow frontispiece Snowdrifts by the roadside page 13 Telegraph pole 19 Promise of Spring 3 3 House martin 37 Timber and plaster in Essex 45 Harvestbottle 49 A corner of an old tarn 57 From any English hedgerow 69 Sheaf of oats 87 The end of the day 93 Pigeonbouse 97 Children call them the Keys of Heaven 105 The village carpenters handiwork 127 Essex cart 130 Coming home from the fields 135 Winnowingfan 144 The lane and the barn 149 Mutz 153 Wild Campion 165 Scythe in apple-tree 171 W rfj glove and lillhook 179 Afore and foal 189 Br0fe windmill under the stars 201 Com W y 208 By the millopool 217 Kneading trough 224 A flock of peewits 229 Rookery 235 Tic tftf fif sun that trings the labourer home 247 Essex thatch 250 Signpost 251 xiiiRead More