Our Village.

Navy leather spine with raised banding and gilt title. Blue and tan marbled boards.

A Near Fine copy overall, charmingly illustrated by Hugh Thomson. Our Village, by Mary Russell Mitford, was one of the first books written which show the poetry of everyday life in the country; and Miss Mitford may fairly be called the founder of the school of village literature. There is no connected story, but the book contains a series of charming sketches of country scenes and country people. The chronicler wanders through the lanes and meadows with her white greyhound Mayflower, gossips about the trees, the flowers, and the sunsets, and describes the beauty of English scenery. The chapters on The First Primrose, Violeting, The Copse, The Wood, The Dell, and The Cowslip Ball, seem to breathe the very atmosphere of spring; while others tell interesting stories about the people and village life. In her walks, the saunterer is accompanied by Lizzy, the carpenter's daughter, a fascinating baby of three, who trudges by her side, and is a very entertaining companion. Descriptions of the country are dwelt on more frequently than descriptions of the people, but there is a capital sketch of Hannah Bint, 'who showed great judgment in setting up as a dairy-woman when only twelve years old' besides various short discourses on schoolboys, farmers, and the trades-people of the town. The scenes are laid in "shady yet sunny Berkshire, where the scenery, without rising into grandeur or breaking into wildness, is so peaceful, so cheerful, so varied, and so thoroughly English" (Bartleby). Our Village is a collection of about 100 literary sketches of rural life written by Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855), and originally published during the 1820s and 1830s. The series' first appeared in The Lady's Magazine. The full title is: Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery. The vivid series was based upon life in Three Mile Cross, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield (south-east of Reading in Berkshire), where she lived. Miss Mitford's own short preface states: 'The following pages contain an attempt to delineate country scenery and country manners, as they exist in a small village in the south of England. The writer may at least claim the merit of a hearty love of her subject, and of that local and personal familiarity, which only a long residence in one neighbourhood could have enabled her to attain. Her descriptions have always been written on the spot, and at the moment, and, in nearly every instance, with the closest and most resolute fidelity to the place and the people. If she be accused of having given a brighter aspect to her villagers than is usually met with in books, she cannot help it, and would not if she could. She has painted, as they appeared to her, their little frailties and their many virtues, under an intense and thankful conviction that, in every condition of life, goodness and happiness may be found by those who seek them, and never more surely than in the fresh air, the shade, and the sunshine of nature. (1835 Edition, I, pp.-vi)'