daily, receiving urgent orders and enquiries by telephone.

The villages in the Vale of Evesham and the Cotswolds afford an
excellent illustration of building in harmony with surroundings, and
the suitability of making use of local materials. Thus, in the Vale we
find mellow old brick, has limestone, half timber and thatch; while on
the Cotswolds, oolite freestone and "stone slates" of the same
freestone seem the only suitable material. Where the ugly pink bricks
and blue slates have of late years been introduced, they appear out of
place and contemptible. There is an immense charm about these old
villages of hill and vale, and it is curious to think that Aldington
was an established community with, probably, as many inhabitants as at
the present day, when London and Westminster were divided by green
fields.

A story is told of the time before the line to Oxford from
Wolverhampton and Worcester was built, when persons visiting Oxford
from the Vale of Evesham had to travel by road. An old yeoman family,
having decided upon the Church as the vocation for one of the sons,
sent him, in the year 1818, on an old pony, under the protection of an
ancient retainer for his matriculation examination. On their return,
in reply to the question, "Well, did you get the young master
through?" "Oh, yes," he said, "and we could have got the old pony
passed too, if we'd only had enough money!"

Partly as an excuse for a bicycle ride I used often to visit distant
villages where auction sales at farm-houses were proceeding, and
sometimes I came home with old china and other treasures. Wherever
there are old villages with manor houses and long occupied rich land,
wealth formerly accumulated and evidenced itself in well-designed and