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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
164
Does
it
seem
to
promise
a
return
of
the
time
when
the
old
English
names
of
all
our
flowers
were
common
on
rustic
lips--by
which,
indeed,
they
were
first
uttered?
The
fact
that
flowers
and
birds
are
well-nigh
forgotten,
together
with
the
songs
and
the
elves,
shows
how
advanced
is
the
process
of
rural
degeneration.
Most
likely
it
is
foolishness
to
hope
for
the
revival
of
any
bygone
social
virtue.
The
husbandman
of
the
future
will
be,
I
daresay,
a
well-paid
mechanic,
of
the
engine-driver
species;
as
he
goes
about
his
work
he
will
sing
the
last
refrain
of
the
music-hall,
and
his
oft-recurring
holidays
will
be
spent
in
the
nearest
great
town.
For
him,
I
fancy,
there
will
be
little
attraction
in
ever
such
melodious
talk
about
"common
objects
of
the
country."
Flowers,
perhaps,
at
all
events
those
of
tilth
and
pasture,
will
have
been
all
but
improved
away.
And,
as
likely
as
not,
the
word
Home
will
have
only
a
special
significance,
indicating
the
common
abode
of
retired
labourers
who
are
drawing
old-age
pensions.
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