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by Arthur H. Savory

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Title: Grain and Chaff from an English Manor

Author: Arthur H. Savory

Release Date: August 21, 2004 [EBook #13239]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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GRAIN AND CHAFF FROM AN ENGLISH MANOR

By ARTHUR H. SAVORY

OXFORD

BASIL BLACKWELL

1920

PREFACE

As a result of increased facilities within the last quarter of a
century for the exploration of formerly inaccessible parts of the
country, interest concerning our ancient villages has been largely
awakened. Most of these places have some unwritten history and
peculiarities worthy of attention, and an extensive literary field is
thus open to residents with opportunities for observation and
research.

Such records have rarely been undertaken in the past, possibly because
those capable of doing so have not recognized that what are the
trivial features of everyday life in one generation may become
exceptional in the next, and later still will have disappeared
altogether.

Gilbert White, who a hundred and thirty years ago published his
_Natural History of Selborne_, was the first, and I suppose the most
eminent, historian of any obscure village, and it is surprising, as
his book has for so long been regarded as a classic, that so few have
attempted a similar record. His great work remains an inspiring ideal
which village historians can keep in view, not without some hope of
producing a useful description of country life as they have seen it
themselves.

It is a pleasure to acknowledge with grateful thanks the kind help of
friends and correspondents which I have received in writing this book.
Mr. Warde Fowler was good enough to look through the chapters while
still in manuscript, and I have also received great help from Mr.
Herbert A. Evans, who has read through the proofs. The help of
others--besides those whose names I give in the text--has been less
general and mostly confined to some details in the hi