What is this country town like after all these years? There are a few changes in the buildings, but not many. The market-place, the corn exchange, the cross, the old inn, are all there. The church has been restored; the pillars have been deprived of their plaster and are once more of polished stone, the high pews are replaced by low benches, the roof is opened up, the east window is restored, other windows are in course of restoration; it is now a noble and very beautiful old church. The organ and choir have been sent to the chancel; the “three-decker” has made way for a small and richly-carved pulpit; there is light, colour, brightness in the church and its decorations, a light and colour which appear also in the service. The other changes in the town are not so apparent. You will find, however, that the farmers’ ordinary is no longer held--the times are now too bad. Nor do gentlemen drink port all the evening; the old port is all gone. The inn is a house of call for bicyclists, who drink beer or tea; there are not so many finely appointed dog-carts driving in and out--landlords, like their tenants, are badly hit. The market is not so well attended--there are fewer rustics. The saddler especially is a melancholy man, because the agricultural depression has struck him hard--a man can go on using an old saddle for years. All the shopkeepers, however, are gloomy, their shops hardly yield them a living. The lawyer’s income has suffered grievously, so has the doctor’s; their daughters have left the town and are getting their own living by working at something or other. All the young men have gone. Everybody leaves the town who can, for it is a place of decay. Yet is the town really brighter and better than before; far and wide its arms stretch out to its sons who have gone away. Some are ranching in Canada, some are fruit farming in California, some are practising medicine on Ocean Liners or in colonial towns, some are teaching in schools and colleges at home and in the colonies, some are labourers on farms in Manitoba or British Columbia, soon to be themselves owners of farms. The town is poorer, there are fewer people; yet, apart from money, it is a far richer place than it was, with broader minds, with fewer prejudices, and greater knowledge. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER VII THE DAY OF NEW IDEAS “Voices call us--whither? Ah! whither?” It is doubtful business to ascribe new ideas to a whole people. For change of ideas is more gradual than change of manners. We may go on for a long time acting under one influence and thinking that we believe in another. But from all that has gone before, I think we may assume a change in the governing beliefs and sentiments of the nation greater than any change since the time of Queen Elizabeth, when the old faith gave way to the new and with the new faith came new courage, new arts, new enterprise, a new literature.