A NEW " DOMESDAY."
In some Oxfordshire and Berkshire villages the children are busy making new Domesday books, with almost exciting results. They survey the parish with the help of the six-inch Ordnance map, note the names of fields (some many centuries old and often very quaint), with the nature of the crops and stock, and geology, track down old sites (of pounds, springs, wells, tithe enclosures, and what not), tabulate trades and
means of communication, trace out historic landmarks, and finally acquire such a perception of the identity and charm of their village and district (to-day and yesterday's) as shall make it a home indeed. Incidentally, they have made several archaeological discoveries. This lively form of education should become universal. Every- village school- master, indeed every village householder in a position of any influence, should possess to this end a new pamphlet— Village Surceymaking, an Oxfordshire Experiment, issued by H.M. Stationery Office at la. net. Among minor details a delightful local doggerel is recorded from Idbury :-
" Fog on the hill, water to the mill ; Fog in the hollow, fine day to follow."
Did not the weather bureau -ask us all this week after the Piccadilly cyclone for-accounts of local weather experiences ?
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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