The cottages and the village life of rural England . r cakes in Kentish ale, and pass the rest ofthe day in old-fashioned conviviality. The Red Lion Inn and theother hostelries are well patronised, and then Biddenden resumesits accustomed quietude, as we see it in the illustration, until thememory of the twin sisters is again celebrated.* The historianof Kent, Hasted, regards the notion that the sisters were joinedtogether as a vulgar tradition, arising from the figures on the cakes,and says that their real name was Preston. The church shownin the drawing was built in the thirteenth century, w
The cottages and the village life of rural England . r cakes in Kentish ale, and pass the rest ofthe day in old-fashioned conviviality. The Red Lion Inn and theother hostelries are well patronised, and then Biddenden resumesits accustomed quietude, as we see it in the illustration, until thememory of the twin sisters is again celebrated.* The historianof Kent, Hasted, regards the notion that the sisters were joinedtogether as a vulgar tradition, arising from the figures on the cakes,and says that their real name was Preston. The church shownin the drawing was built in the thirteenth century, with subsequentadditions. The tower is a fine fifteenth-century structure of thePerpendicular style, with battlements and stair turret. Withinthe church there are the remains of a rood screen. Biddenden and its maids and cakes have drawn us away fromour architectural studies of cottages, and we must hark back tothe scent and hunt up the quarry. One matter I had almost * Old English Customs Extant at the Present Time, by P. H. Ditchfield(Methuen). 70. LIFE OF RURAL ENGLAND forgotten in the construction of our chimneys. We must have alightning-conductor, not a vain thing with wires and glass, buta goodly plant, the herb house-leek. If you plant this on yourchimney-stack or roof you can defy the lightning—at least, if youhave faith, the simple faith of a humble cottager. 7i VII THE FOUNTS OF LIGHT AND AIR And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Soit was when the worlds were framed by the Great Architect ofthe Universe, the first days glorious work; and when we frameour houses we must have light therein, the source of health andhappiness, of all material things the first and best. It seemsstrange to recall the time when there was a tax on the light thatshines through our window-panes and cheers our hearts with itsbright rays. In old farmhouses we often notice windows that havebeen bricked up. This was done on account of the window-taximposed by a foolish Government
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectcottage, bookyear1912
