THE WOMEN'S INSTITUTES
SIR,—Sir William Beach Thomas, in his admirable plea for the "local characters" of the village as a " self-sufficing " unit, remarks: "Even Mr. Massingham . . . will acknowledge the service now being done by women's institutes." It is the " even " which surprises me. If, as Sir William says, I am "the laudator ternporis acti," I should be among the first to welcome their activities, since they have revived those "local characters" which he justly appraises. And indeed not only do I welcome them but I often give talks to the institutes. Sir William will perhaps forgive me if I rebut the gentle charge of the laudator. If I have sought to draw attention to certain merits of the old England, it is not because of the antiquity but because the sense of local com- munity which Sir William advocates was highly developed in the past but has been ignored, overridden or stamped out since the Enclosures and the Industrial Revolution.—! am, Sir, &c.,
H. J. MASSINGHAM.
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