There is much temptation lying about, though, for the enclosers
of the world. The rough common land stretches over the whole of
the knoll, and down to its base, and away along the hills behind,
of which the Hawk's Lynch is an outlying spur. Rough common land,
broken only by pine woods of a few acres each in extent, an
occasional woodman's or squatter's cottage and little patch of
attempted garden. But immediately below, and on each flank of the
spur, and half-way up the slopes, come small farm enclosures,
breaking here and there the belt of woodlands, which generally
lies between the rough wild upland, and the cultivated country
below. As you stand on the knoll you can see common land just
below you at its foot narrow into a mere road, with a border of
waste on each side which runs into Englebourn street. At the end
of the straggling village stands the church with its square
tower, a lofty grey stone building, with bits of fine decorated
architecture about it, but much of churchwarden Gothic
supervening. The churchyard is large, and the graves, as you can
see plainly even from this distance, are all crowded on the
southern side. The rector's sheep are feeding in the northern
part, nearest to us, and a small gate at one corner opens into
his garden. The Rectory looks large and comfortable, and its
grounds well cared for and extensive, with a rookery of elms at
the lawn's end. It is the chief house of the place, for there is
no resident squire. The principal street contains a few shops,
some dozen, perhaps, in all; and several farm houses lie a little
back from it, with gardens in front, and yards and barns and
orchards behind; and there are two public-houses. The other
dwellings are mere cottages, and very bad ones for the most part,
with floors below the level of the street. Almost every house in
the village is thatched, which adds to the beauty though not to
the comfort of the place. The rest of the population who do not
live in the street are dotted about the neighboring lanes,
chiefly towards the west, on our right as we look down from the
Hawk's Lynch. On this side the country is more open, and here
most of the farmers live, as we may see by the number of
homesteads. And there is a small brook on that side too, which
with careful damming is made to turn a mill, there where you see
the clump of poplars. On our left as we look down, the country to
the east of the village is thickly wooded; but we can see that
there is a village green on that side, and a few scattered
cottages, the farthest of which stands looking out like a little
white eye, from the end of a dense copse.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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