News from Nowhere; Or, An Epoch of Rest / Being Some Chapters from a Utopian Romance

dotted over with trees, and awhile after came to another market and town-hall, as we should call it. Although there was nothing famil

r, one long house on either side of the way, built of timber an

uth: it goes from here northward and west right over Paddington and a little way down Notting Hill: thence it runs north-east to Primrose Hill, and so on; rather a narrow strip of it gets through Kingsland to Stoke-Newington and Clapton, wh

many things about me which I did not know, in spite of h

on the north side, where even the oaks and sweet chestnuts were of a good growth; while the quicker-gr

dition of dreamy pleasure, so that I felt as if I should like to go on for ever through that balmy freshness. My companion seemed to share in my feelings,

o be especially fine specimens of their race, and enjoying themselves to the utmost; some of them were hanging about little tents pitched on the greensward, and by some of these fires were burning, with pots hanging over them gipsy fashion. Dick explained to

with children," said I, pointing t

rage them to it; they learn to do things for themselves, and get to notice the wild creatures; and, you see, the less they stew inside houses the better for them. Indeed, I must tell you that many grown people will go to live in the forests through the summer; th

I talk I must be answering questions, which you are thinking, even if y

again, and so merely for the sake of tiding o

he fresher for school when the summer ge

th children. We talk, indeed, of a school of herring, and a school of painting, and in the former sen

etymology; and I thought I had best say nothing about the boy-farms which I had been used to call schools, as I saw pretty clea

ord must come from educere, to lead out; and I have heard it used; but I ha

heard this frank avowal; and I said, rather contemptuously

will not find one of these children about here, boy or girl, who cannot swim; and every one of them has been used to tumbling about the little forest ponies-there's one of them now!

the teaching of their minds," sa

ng; and as to that, it is a simple affair. Most children, seeing books lying about, manage to read by the time they are four years old; though I am told it has not always been so. As to writing, we do not encourage them to scrawl too early (though scrawl a little they will), because it gets them into a habit of ugly writing; and what's the use of a lot of ugly writing being done, when

ey know how to read and write, don't they le

y a huge number of communes and colleges on the mainland. These are the principal languages we speak in these islands, along with English or Welsh, or Irish, which is another form of Welsh; and children pick

der languag

Greek along with the modern ones, when they do

aid I; "how do y

can easily get someone to tell him what are the best books to read on such or such a s

do they learn? I suppose th

people care much about history; and you know," said my friend, with an amiable smile, "we are not like that now. No; many people study facts about the make of things and the matters of c

mean that children le

nd some children who will take to books very early; which perhaps is not good for them; but it's no use thwarting them; and very often it doesn't last long with them, and they find their level before they are twenty years old. You see, children are mostly given to i

esides, I was using my eyes with all my might, wondering as the old horse jog

let his subject quite drop

ng them so happy over work which is not much sought for. And besides, these students are generally such pleasant people; so kind and sweet t

just as we came to the top of a rising ground, down a long glade of the wood on my right I caught

stminster Abbey-what

ou done with it?"

nturies ago: as to the inside, that remains in its beauty after the great clearance, which took place over a hund

ain, and said, in rather a doubtful tone of voice, "Why,

me before he could control himself; th

s, and public nuisances; and it was so energetic, and had such good reasons to give, that it generally gained its point; and I must say that when all is said I am glad of it: because you know at the worst these silly old buildings serve as a kind of foil to the beautiful ones which we build now. You will see several others in these parts; the place my great-grandfather lives in, for instance, and a big building called St. Paul's. And you see, in this matter we need not grudge a few poorish buildings standing, because we can always build elsewhere; nor need we be anxious as to the breeding of pleasant work in such matters, for there is always room for more and more work i