COUNTRY LIFE
An Historic Village
Parish Councils, whose powers at best are small, have begun—or such is my impression—to nurse higher ambitions. This opportunity has come with the movement for more playing fields. " Playing fields " is an elastic term. It may mean a space with see-saws for infants, a football and cricket ground, or a bathing place for stalwart youth or even, it seems, a serene spot suitable for rustic seats where the elders may admire nature. Gifts or leases of such places are being made to parish councils ; and a new line of activity is opened to them. One village that I know of has a young children's play- ground, a bathing pool in the stream and within the last few months a place of natural recreation for all ages. A ninety- nine years' lease, plus a hundred pounds for maintenance, has been given to the council of some hundreds of yards of the Devil's Dyke. The place was previously neglected and despised. Today the village has made discovery of its own historical dignity. The dyke is very beautiful ; and is wonderful for the immense toil that was spent on it : in one place it is nearly two chain deep and nearly three chain across. The earthwork is one of the most remarkable in the country ; but has only just been rediscovered and put into its proper niche in history. The rediscovery and the gift have made the village history-conscious for the first time in its experience. It feels that even Caesar and the Roman immigrants were late-comers. This old village, beside the Belgic Dykes and the Roman Oppidum, possesses a mill that is in the Domesday book, an inn of extreme antiquity and, of course, a glorious church. What a pity to own such treasures and not to be conscious of your own wealth !
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