From where the sea-road touches the Island, up to Mr. Charrington's home, the "Manor House," is exactly a chain mile. After the fields, the road turns sharply to the right, and proceeds along a fine avenue of shady trees until the "village" is reached. For several years in succession parties of the Unemployed have been sent to Osea by the Mansion House Committee, the _Daily Telegraph_ fund, and other agencies, and it is partly by means of their work that roads were made, sewers laid in the village, and the costly sea-walls strengthened. There are quite a lot of people who can hardly conceive a picturesque village without, as its central adornment, a village inn. Personally--though, no doubt, there are such places--I have never seen an English village without a public-house. Certainly in any novel dealing with country life the village inn is always mentioned, and frequently plays a spectacular part in the story, while upon the stage a village scene is never complete without the rustic public-house. Not so at Osea, though I defy any one to find a more picturesque little spot than this tiny settlement in the heart of the Island. Apart from the one that I have just mentioned, there are other features about the village that make it unique. In the first place, it is incredibly small at present. In the second, the buildings form a most astonishingly picturesque blend of old and new. There is an old, flower-covered cottage as one enters, beyond it is the village shop, where every necessary can be obtained. The farmer who farms the cultivated land of the island lives there in a charming old house. Close by in the little village square are enormous elm trees with seats built round their trunks, affording a most grateful shade upon a hot day. There are a few other quaint houses of considerable age, and two of the prettiest and most artistic little bungalows that I have ever seen. These are but the beginning of a whole series of these charming little residences, and are already occupied. With their red roofs, white walls, and green-painted windows, they are as neat and dainty as one of those delicate models of chalets that one buys in Switzerland.