Rural England Cottage and Village Life

Rural England Cottage and Village Life by P. H. Ditchfield. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781851709977.

The love of country life is a plant of recent growth in the minds of dwellers in the city. On those who live amidst the fields and lanes of rural England it has always shed its fragrance, but we are so accustomed to its perfume that we rarely stop to consider whence this sweetness springs. In this book we have tried to understand why we admire the beauties of rural scenes, of the cots by the wayside, and in what their merit consists, and so to enable ourselves to appreciate more fully their charming character. The artist, Mr. Quinton, has depicted some of the most beautiful examples of rural homes that England affords. These I have tried to describe, to discover the secrets of their attractiveness, and to compare them with modern dwellings which lack their comeliness. - from the Preface