COUNTRY LIFE
AN astonishingly gloomy account of English villages is sketched in an else charming little book by Mr. Orwin, who sees salvation for rural England only in much larger villages, advantaged by factories, and in larger farms. (" Problems of the Countryside," by C. S. Orwin. Cam- bridge Vniversity Press, 3s. 6d.) His experience and mine must be completely different. Even the smaller villages, as it seems to me, are very much livelier than they were for a good many reasons, of which perhaps the chief is the multiplication of omnibuses ; and I think the villagers would rather take 'bus journeys at intervals to the nearest town than rely on the self-sufficiency of their own village. Good shops and good films are now within easy reach ; and in regard to the children, so are good schools. The Women's Institutes, the Young Farmers, and such flourishing institutions as the Village_Froduce Associations, and Allotment Associations, have all added their quotas ; and the cottage gardens have never been more fondly tended. In the little' book, written in very pure English, I delighted to see in the index: "Agriculture—see Farming." It would, perhaps, have been even more engaging if it had said: "see Husbandry," which is among the best of words.
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