COUNTRY LIFE
Ordering a Barrow
A charming essay was written by Mr. Richard Church on the subject of ordering a spade, and it gives the title to his latest book. His experience was much in my mind when I went last week to the village wheelwright to ask whether he could put a barrow to a wheel. The antique wheelbarrow had collapsed like Wendell Holmes's " One-Hoss-Shay." Everything went at one moment, except only the wheel. Yes, he would fit a barrow to my wheel and grassholder, but there would be delay. He had never been more busy in his life. Owing to petrol rationing all manner of people were return- ing to horse and pony traffic. Governess carts, pony traps, dogcarts, milk floats, and ramshackle vehicles without a specific title were all returning to favour,'and all the company of their users flocked to the wheelwright, a craftsman whom even Mr. Stun would recognise as a fellow artist. The roads already have ample evidence of the turn of fashion. The most antique dweller in the village might well say with un- conscious humour: " It makes one feel quite early Victorian." One of the few carriages not seen on the road is the barouche landau, of Jane Austen memory.
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