Change in the Village

as they stroll homewards after the Saturday night's shopping in the town, or on a fine Sunday evening they may make up little parties to go and inspect one another's gardens. Until recentlyâ??so recently that the slight change may be ignored at least for the presentâ??the prevailing note of this so restricted intercourse was a sort of textit{bonhomie, or good temper and good sense. With this for a guide, the people had no need of the etiquette called " good manners," but were at liberty to behave as they liked, and talk as they liked, within the bounds of neighbourliness and civility. This has always been one of the most conspicuous things about the peopleâ??this independence of conventions. In few other grades of society could men and women dare to be so out- spoken together, so much at ease, as these villagers still often are. Their talk grows Chaucerian at times. Merrily, or seriously, as the case may be. subjects are spoken of which are never alluded to between men and women who respect our ordinary conventions. Let it be admittedâ??if anybody wishes to feel superiorâ??that the women must be wanting in " delicacy " to countenance such things. There are other aspects of the matter which are better worth considering. Approaching it, for instance, from an opposite point of view, one perceives that the average country labourer can talk with less restraint because he has really less to conceal than many men who look down upon him. He may use coarse words, but his th...