PRE-WAR ENGLAND

Southland Times, Issue 25312, 15 June 1935, Page 13

PRE-WAR ENGLAND

The Case For The Steward I am making a voyage of discovery through the works of Constance Holme, and enjoyment is with me. “Crump Folk Going Home” was in introduction to her work, and now I have read “The Lonely Plough,” which must be ranked as a work in every way its equal. In fact, one is not sure if “The Lonely Plough” should not be placed rather in advance of its companion, because it is more closely knit, and conjures up more potently the odours of English soil. Like “Crump Folk Going Home,” this novel deals with a world that has passed away, a world that poured out its blood in the war years, survived that terrible test, and then found itself''shattered by the burdens of the first years of peace. A new strata was raised, new ideas unfurled, and the solid foundations were cracked and lifted. Since then, of course, the trials of an economic blizzard have found out many of the new arrivals and have driven forth a further class of the old people; but in place the old foundations are going back. On this a new structure will be built and one may hope that it will contain many virtues of the past, but it cannot be the same, and so when Constance Holme wrote of the place of the stewards of the soil in 1914 she was limning a world already at the point of death—though she was not aware of the fact. “The Lonely Plough” was published in May of that year, a few weeks before Britain entered the conflict. These are conditions which must return in part—the basis of them must, Men will regain their love of the soil, and farm it with affection, not as the soulless application of labour, individual or collective. After reading “The Lonely. Plough” one can understand how strong this association of man with land can be, and how dangerous it is to sever the tie, to make the soil nothing more than a generous if capricious implement of production over which commissars and overseers may stride with official boots. This novel is the story of a landed estate in northern England, and the relationship of landlord, agent and tenant supply the living action in a drama brought in by a flood. Adversity is met by co-opera-tion, the loyalty of the people uncovers itself. Here we have the landlord, the agent and the tenant pictured as they are in the main, honest and actuated hy sound intent, living and moving in accord with the standards they believe to be right. To-day so much is said about exploitation that one realizes how often evil motives are seen where none exist. The central figure is tire steward, whose position in relation to the three main interests of the estate is difficult. Constance Holme has touched one of the central themes of land occupation in pre-war England, and she has given us a picture the historical value of which cannot be overrated. It is a powerful novel, girt by healthy sentiment and breathing tinderstanding of the land which nothing can conceal. And it is a novel written in a style that commands attention and remembrance. “The Lonely Plough” by Constance Holme (Oxford University Press London, through Hyndman’s, Dee street). ) —