OUR ENGLISH
TOWNS AND VILLAGES
OUR ENGLISH
TOWNS AND VILLAGES
BY
H. R. WILTON HALL
Library Curator, Hertfordshire County Museum; Sub-LibrarianSt. Alban's Cathedral, &c. Author of "Hertfordshire: a Reading-Bookof the County", &c.
LONDON
BLACKIE & SON, Limited, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.
GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
1906
PREFACE
Many things connected with the history of ourtowns and villages have to be passed over in anordinary school history reader. In the followingpages an attempt is made to call attention in simplelanguage, very broadly and generally, to connecting-linkswith the past in our towns and villages.There are many relics and customs yet remainingin many places, which, with a little care and attentionto local circumstances, may be made helpfulin teaching history, so that it shall be somethingmore than a collection of names, dates, battles, andlists of eminent persons.
The book is intended as a reader, not as a text-bookto be worked up for examination purposes.Its aim is rather to arouse interest in the "whyand the wherefore" of things which can be seenby an intelligent and observant boy or girl in theplace in which he or she lives: to do for history,and the subjects connected with it, what "nature-lessons"are intended to do in their "sphere ofinfluence". Attention is being directed to localities,their special history, physical, political, industrial,and commercial, as it has never been before in ourEducational history; and all that a special localitycan contribute in the way of illustration and exemplificationis worth knowing, understanding, andutilising.
It is hoped that this book may be of some servicein quickening intelligence in looking out for "thingsto see". The observation which is directed tonoting the numbers on the motor cars, the namesof locomotives, and the collection of postage-stampsand picture post-cards, can also be usefully turned,say, to noting the styles of architecture which reallymark broadly great periods of our national life anddevelopment; and may help us, perhaps more thananything else, to arrange our ideas of the days ofold in a proper order and sequence. An old buildingmay be an excellent date-book.
The chapters are intended to be suggestive, notexhaustive, and may be expanded by the teacherin conversational or more formal lessons as his ownpredilection, taste, and judgment shall direct.
Local and County Histories, Guide-books andHand-books will be found of great service to theteacher in dealing with special districts. Thegeneral subject embraces a very wide range ofliterature, but amongst books readily accessiblemay be mentioned English Towns, by E. H. Freeman;English Towns andEnglish Villages, byRev. P. H. Ditchfield; and the Rev. Dr. Jessopp'sEssays in The Coming of the Friars and<