Эта книга — репринт оригинального издания (издательство "New York, E.P. Dutton & company", 1921 год), созданный на основе электронной копии высокого разрешения, которую очистили и обработали вручную, сохранив структуру и орфографию оригинального издания. Редкие, забытые и малоизвестные книги, изданные с петровских времен до наших дней, вновь доступны в виде печатных книг.Some vague speculations passed through my mind as to how old the village might be. I had heard some person remark that it had formerly been much more populous, that many of its people had from time to time drifted away to the towns; their old empty cottages pulled down and no new ones built. The road was deep and the cottages on either side stood six to eight or nine feet above it. Where a cottage stood close to the edge of the road and faced it, the door was reached by a flight of stone or brick steps; at such cottages the landing above the steps was like a balcony, where one could stand and look down upon a passing cart, or the daily long straggling procession of children going to or returning from the village school.