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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
205
XIII.
If
some
stranger
from
abroad
asked
me
to
point
out
to
him
the
most
noteworthy
things
in
England,
I
should
first
of
all
consider
his
intellect.
Were
he
a
man
of
everyday
level,
I
might
indicate
for
his
wonder
and
admiration
Greater
London,
the
Black
Country,
South
Lancashire,
and
other
features
of
our
civilization
which,
despite
eager
rivalry,
still
maintain
our
modern
pre-eminence
in
the
creation
of
ugliness.
If,
on
the
other
hand,
he
seemed
a
man
of
brains,
it
would
be
my
pleasure
to
take
him
to
one
of
those
old
villages,
in
the
midlands
or
the
west,
which
lie
at
some
distance
from
a
railway
station,
and
in
aspect
are
still
untouched
by
the
baser
tendencies
of
the
time.
Here,
I
would
tell
my
traveller,
he
saw
something
which
England
alone
can
show.
The
simple
beauty
of
the
architecture,
its
perfect
adaptation
to
the
natural
surroundings,
the
neatness
of
everything
though
without
formality,
the
general
cleanness
and
good
repair,
the
grace
of
cottage
gardens,
that
tranquillity
and
security
which
make
a
music
in
the
mind
of
him
who
gazes--these
are
what
a
man
must
see
and
feel
if
he
would
appreciate
the
worth
and
the
power
of
England.
The
people
which
has
made
for
itself
such
homes
as
these
is
distinguished,
above
all
things,
by
its
love
of
order;
it
has
understood,
as
no
other
people,
the
truth
that
"order
is
heaven's
first
law."
With
order
it
is
natural
to
find
stability,
and
the
combination
of
these
qualities,
as
seen
in
domestic
life,
results
in
that
peculiarly
English
product,
our
name
for
which--though
but
a
pale
shadow
of
the
thing
itself--has
been
borrowed
by
other
countries:
comfort.
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