Country Life
Tile CRAFTSMAN'S PLACE.
Some new light on the meaning and philosophy of village crafts was thrown on my ignorance last week by a succession of talks with some western craftsmen and women and a sight of their works in progress. That some crafts are reviving is as certain as that some are vanishing ; and recent experience goes to show that very small adaptations may revive a mori- bund trade. Most of the crafts arose in response to local needs : the blacksmith made the farmer's harrow and shoed his horses ; the carpenter made the farmer's cart out of local timber, as, I believe, the Courthope workmen continue to make them in those Sussex oak woods, out of which was repaired the roof of Westminster Hall. The weavers made the- village cloaks and, out of another material, thatched the stacks. With local wattle, walls were built for the garden as well as shelters for the sheep. Local pottery adorned the chimneypiece and supplied the garden with flower-pots.
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