Early in the morning the drums and bugles began the usual bedevilment;
and shortly after six I dressed, and we had breakfast at the mess-room,
shook hands with Lieutenant Shaw (our more especial host), and drove off
to the railway station at Ash.
I know not whether I have mentioned that the villages neighboring to the
camp have suffered terribly as regards morality from the vicinity of the
soldiers. Quiet old English towns, that till within a little time ago
had kept their antique simplicity and innocence, have now no such thing
as female virtue in them, so far as the lower classes are concerned.
This is expressing the matter too strongly, no doubt; but there is too
much truth in it, nevertheless; and one of the officers remarked that
even ladies of respectability had grown much more free in manners and
conversation than at first. I have heard observations similar to this
from a Nova-Scotian, in reference to the moral influence of soldiers when
stationed in the provinces.
WOOTON.
Wooton stands in a hollow, near the summit of one of the long swells that
here undulate over the face of the country. There is a good deal of wood
behind it, as should be the case with the residence of the author of the
Sylva; but I believe few, if any, of these trees are known to have been
planted by John Evelyn, or even to have been coeval with his time. The
house is of brick, partly ancient, and consists of a front and two
projecting wings, with a porch and entrance in the centre.
Pages:
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440