IN QUEST OF AN ENGLISH VILLAGE.
AT the annual meeting of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, held on July 11th, mention was made of a scheme, which has already been outlined in the Spectator, for acquiring an unspoilt English village, which should be preserved in its original state as a standing record of the rapidly passing beauty of the countryside. A great deal of interest has since been taken in the statement made at the meeting by the Princess Louise, President of the Trust, to the effect that she knew a village which would exactly answer the purpose. The Princess naturally did not name the village which she had in mind, but in view of the possibility that some owner of a beautiful village may consider the idea either of presenting it to the Trust, or allowing the Trust to acquire it on favourable terms, it may be useful to outline again the scheme which has been proposed.
Briefly stated, the proposal is that the National Trust should try to acquire some beautiful old English village which has not yet been spoiled by the addition of the typical modern jerry- built cottage, hideous with its staring red or yellow brick and slate roof, and its entire lack of artistic design. Such villages are still to be found, though they are becoming rarer, and it may well happen that if purchase were long deferred search might be made for the ideal village in vain. Having acquired the village, the object of the National Trust would be to preserve it unspoiled for all time; not, of course, by ejecting its inhabitants, but by retaining them as tenants under a model landlord, living their village life and working their cottage gardens, paying fair rents, and being in retut n assured
of proper sanitation, repairs, and so on. But the village would not stand alone. It would be advisable, if possible, to purchase with it a hundred acres or so of adjoining land, so that not only could the village expand naturally, as fresh cottage-room would be needed in turn for newly married couples, or for settlers attracted by the neighbourhood of the old-world buildings, but proper control and supervision could be exercised over the design of the cottages added. The village itself would be preserved as it stood, and no fresh buildings would be allowed within a certain distance of its main street, but the added cottages would be placed in convenient positions about the neighbouring lanes and by- ways. No doubt the control and supervision needed from the Trust as model landlord would be considerable, and for that reason, when the scheme of purchase of a village was first outlined in these columns, it was proposed that one village, to begin with, should be selected. But it would be possible, no doubt, to enlarge the scheme and to acquire not merely one but several old English villages of different design and styles of building, varying with the materials at hand to the local carpenters and masons. The Pall Mall Gazelle, in referring to the scheme, makes the excellent suggestion that every English shire should "make a point of choosing and pre- serving for itself one of its own best villages." That is excellent; but first let the National Trust get one ideal example. Then, and the way shown, let others follow. One county, one unspoilt village, is a thoroughly sound principle.
To come to the practical question of aequiring an ideal old English village, when once the selection has been decided upon, it may seem at first sight a formidable undertaking, apart from all questions of preservation and supervision, to find the money to purchase a dozen or more of county cottages and the necessary acreage adjoining them. When, however, you begin to look into the matter, and in particular to examine the condition under which landlords to-day own and hold such property as English country villages, the matter begins to take a rather different aspect. To take first the position of the landlord; the ownership of cottage property is not always an unmixed blessing. The rent which farm hands can pay out of their wages is not large enough to bring in a paying percentage on the capital sunk in building, and out of the rent have to come rates and repairs, so that the net income obtainable from a group of cottages is not only small in itself, but is obtained by considerable expenditure of time and trouble. It may very well happen that the owner of the cottages and the land which make up a country village finds
himself the possessor of a damnosa hereditas, of which he would be only too glad to rid himself, if it were not for two
things: first, the dislike that he will very likely feel at the idea of handing over to some one else a property which may have been in his family for generations, with the possibility that the character of its buildings may be destroyed and the link between squire and cottager be broken ; second, the difficulty of finding a purchaser at any price. Suppose, then, that to such a landowner the National Trust were able to offer not only a sum which would bring him in a net income equal to or even exceeding the income he was giving up, but also a promise that the village as it stood should be preserved intact and unspoiled for ever, would he not be tempted to close with the bargain at once ? No one else, at all events, he might reflect, would be likely to make him such an offer; he would be saved the responsibilities without losing the income of a landlord; and he would feel that his favourite village was safe from the spoiler for his own life and his sons' after him. And he, as a private citizen, does not stand alone as being anxious to rid
himself of the responsibility of unproductive ownership. Th3 duke and the squire, pace the Radical agitator, are not the only
landlords of rural England. There must be Oxford and Cam- bridge colleges which would welcome almost any proposition within certain limits that would exchange their property in villages and land in the country for a sum in cash which they could invest in chosen securities and leave it there to look after itself. There must, again, be property held by the Department of Woods and Forests, and by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, which its present owners would probably be glad to get rid of at a price, and the price, for the reason given, ought not to be high.
There is another aspect of this question of the acquisition by the National Trust of a typical English village, to join the gallery of landscapes and ancient buildings which it already possesses, and it suggests a curious reflection. We have discussed the question of purchase of a typical village, but why should not such a village be presented by some generous donor to the nation ? It is a simple question to ask, but it is not so easy to find a satisfying answer. Somehow or other it happens that the making over to the nation of a gift of this kind is a remarkably rare event ; indeed, compared with the number of gifts of other kinds which the nation receives year by year, the presentation of such a thing as a natural landscape is almost a portent. Other gifts are given and received without more than formal notice. A collector sends to the British Museum a valuable vase or bronze ; another presents or bequeaths to the National Gallery a wonderful picture or a collection of pictures ; in either case the gift may be worth thousands of pounds, yet it is offered and accepted almost as a matter of course. But how often in comparison does it occur to a generous donor to present to his fellow-citizens a more valuable picture than the famous portrait or Old Master, in the form of a natural landscape, or stretch of open country ? For whatever reason, generosity seems to stop short with the giving of the non-natural. Men will readily give each other the work of men's hands ; it is a far rarer thing to dedicate to mankind the work of nature,
or of man's work in natural surroundings, such as the village of our scheme. But the idea of such giving and dedication grows and expands, as is proved by the growing possessions and cares of the National Trust. The gift of a village may yet be included in its extensions.
Whether presented to the nation, or acquired by the Trust by purchase, a collection of two or three more English villages, unspoiled by the modern craze for cheap and ugly building, would be in the true sense of the word unique. Such a collection, we imagine, would embrace villages of varying types, the limestone of the west and south-west, the half timber of Shropshire and Herefordshire, the thatch and whitewash of Sussex, the mellow brick of East Anglia, the greys and buffs of the stone of the South Midlands. It would be a collection such as no other country in the world possesses or can possess. Our English Tillages, with their supreme sense of peace and homeliness, with their gardens glowing from the crocuses of March to the cluster-roses and the lilies of midsummer, with their roofs set among apple-blossom and immemorial elms, are part of the best of our national heritage. It is our duty to keep such a heritage for those that come after us, and to hand it on untouched and unspoiled.
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