It is to be hoped that those who are in a position to preserve any
existing custom in their own neighbourhood will do their utmost to
prevent its decay. Popular customs are a heritage which has been
bequeathed to us from a remote past, and it is our duty to hand down
that heritage to future generations of English folk.
CHAPTER XIX
THE VANISHING OF ENGLISH SCENERY AND NATURAL BEAUTY
Not the least distressing of the losses which we have to mourn is the
damage that has been done to the beauty of our English landscapes and
the destruction of many scenes of sylvan loveliness. The population of
our large towns continues to increase owing to the insensate folly
that causes the rural exodus. People imagine that the streets of towns
are paved with gold, and forsake the green fields for a crowded slum,
and after many vicissitudes and much hardship wish themselves back
again in their once despised village home. I was lecturing to a crowd
of East End Londoners at Toynbee Hall on village life in ancient and
modern times, and showed them views of the old village street, the
cottages, manor-houses, water-mills, and all the charms of rural
England, and after the lecture I talked with many of the men who
remembered their country homes which they had left in the days of
their youth, and they all wished to go back there again, if only they
could find work and had not lost the power of doing it.
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