Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreaders Team
By ARTHUR H. SAVORY
1920
As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of acentury for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of thecountry, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largelyawakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history andpeculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field isthus open to residents with opportunities for observation andresearch.
Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly becausethose capable of doing so have not recognized that what are thetrivial features of everyday life in one generation may becomeexceptional in the next, and later still will have disappearedaltogether.
Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published hisNatural History of Selborne, was the first, and I suppose the mosteminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, ashis book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few haveattempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring idealwhich village historians can keep in view, not without some hope ofproducing a useful description of country life as they have seen itthemselves.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help offriends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book.Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters whilestill in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr.Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help ofothers—besides those whose names I give in the text—has been lessgeneral and mostly confined to some details in the historical part ofthe first chapter, and to portions of the subject-matter of the last.Mr. Hugh Last, Fellow of St. John's College, Oxford, most kindly gavemuch valuable time to the examination of the Roman coins and assigningthem to their respective reigns; he contributed also the notes on theEmperors, with special reference to the events in Britain whichoccurred during their reigns. Mr. Dudley F. Nevill of Burley helped mein a variety of ways, and Mr. C.A. Binyon of Badsey supplied some ofthe historical details and information about the ancient roads.
Looking back over the years I spent at Aldington, I see much moresunshine and blue sky than cloud and storm, notwithstanding thedifficulties of the times. It is a continual source of pleasure to goover the familiar fields in imagination and to recall the kindly facesof my loyal and willing labourers. I trust that what I have written ofthem will make plain my grateful remembrance of their unfailingsympathy and ready help.—ARTHUR H. SAVORY.
January, 1920.