Clustered around its parish church and green, or strung out along a curving road, the English village often seems the very embodiment of tranquillity. Winding lanes, thatched cottages, and red-brick Georgian houses bespeak a way of life that has developed peacefully over centuries, uninterrupted by war or invasion. Yet, the occasional castle or fortified manor house bears testimony to a more turbulent past, and it should not be forgotten that the style of many village churches--Romanesque or Norman--was originally borne across the English Channel on the wave of conquest. Each English village possesses its own distinct character, formed by history, location, and, indeed, local building materials. There is a world of difference between the dark-stone villages of the north and the Pennines and the thatched, half-timbered architecture of East Anglian and southern communities. Village forms and layout differ widely too. Eton, in Berkshire, is arranged along a high street and centered on a famous college. The Dorset village of Cerne Abbas is dominated by the figure of a naked, priapic giant, carved into a hillside some 1,500 years ago. In Hawkshead, Cumbria, it is still possible to visit the school attended by William Wordsworth; in Mevagissey, Cornwall, the delights of a Cornish shipping village remain virtually intact. The richness and diversity of the English village are celebrated here in absorbing commentary and magnificent photography by James Bentley and Hugh Palmer. Grouped by area and subdivided by county--northern, midland, eastern, southern, and western--this splendid volume describes and illustrates the most beautiful villages and that most beautiful of lands--"this earth, this Realme"--this England.
