Highways and byways in Surrey . s the suddenest change. Kingston,with the oldest memories of all Surrey towns, is as new andnoisy as a thoroughly efficient service of tramways can make it;and then, within a stones throw of bricks and barracks, youcome upon acres beyond acres of level farmland, bean-fieldsand cabbage-fields and all the pleasantness of tilled soiland trenched earth and the wealth of kindly fruits, ^\hen Isaw the fields by Ham on a hot day in August there were 236 PEASANTS IN THE FIELDS country women gathering runner beans into coarse aprons,stooping over the clustered plants, th
Highways and byways in Surrey . s the suddenest change. Kingston,with the oldest memories of all Surrey towns, is as new andnoisy as a thoroughly efficient service of tramways can make it;and then, within a stones throw of bricks and barracks, youcome upon acres beyond acres of level farmland, bean-fieldsand cabbage-fields and all the pleasantness of tilled soiland trenched earth and the wealth of kindly fruits, ^\hen Isaw the fields by Ham on a hot day in August there were 236 PEASANTS IN THE FIELDS country women gathering runner beans into coarse aprons,stooping over the clustered plants, the humblest and hardiestof workers of the farm. Under that hot sun, in the wide spacesof those unfenced fields, with no English hedge to shut offneighbouring crops and tillage, the air of those bent, lowlyfigures was of French peasantry, French nearness to the difficultlivelihood of the soil. They might have gleaned for Millet ;they should cease their work at the Angelus. Teddington Lock, a mile down stream from Kingston .c^^mM*. Richmond Bridge. suburbs, joins Surrey to Middlesex and the tide to the tidelessriver with a vast piece of engineering. Further down. Eel Pieisland breaks the stream, a bunch of chairs, tables and trees,where, for all I know, others may still eat and praise eel the fascination of this stretch of river is on the Surreybank, where Ham House- stands among noble trees. HamHouse is not a show house ; and indeed, considering itsnearness to Richmond and London, it would be impossible XXI THE CABAL 237 that it should be. There are limits to the claims which maybe made upon owners of historic houses who may also wishto live in them. But Ham House holds other magnets thanits pictures and relics of Stuarts and Lauderdales. Ihe guide-books catalogue the pictures, and perhaps I need not copythe catalogues. The real fascination is Ham House with itshistory, the meeting-place of the great Cabal. But you maysee that Ham House from a distance; the house as theDu
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Keywords: ., book, bookdecade1920, richmond, richmondbridge, riverthames, surrey
