It was still the custom of the countryside to build with local materials produced as close to the selected site as possible, for transport was difficult, even the best of country roads being more fitted for horseback traffic rather than heavy loads.

So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that escapes the notice of many people their whole lives through. Colour gives way to form: every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky. New vistas, obscured all Summer by leafage, now open up.

It is the fashion to talk of our changing climate and bewail the hot summers and hard winters of tradition, but how seldom we pause to marvel at the remarkable constancy of the weather from year to year.

The wife ought to have the first child and the husband the second, then there wouldn't ever be any more.

It was ordained that our earthly pilgrammage should be a struggle, and life would be a tame affair if everything went smoothly.

We cannot bring the good old days back but, if we must eat mass-made foods, get laws passed to insist upon its goodness and purity.

Pale purple as the bloom om a ripe plum, veined with the gold of late flowering gorse, set with small slender birches,just turning yellow,with red-berried rowans and thicket of bracken, the heath lay steeped in sunshine.

happiness depends more upon the state of mind - and body, perhaps - than upon circumstances and events.

Some great poet or philosopher once said that he who goes to nature for comfort must go to her empty handed , and I think he was right.

You can lock up from a thief, but you can't from a liar.

Now, with the glamour of the past upon them we are inclined to look back on old world festivities with regret and consider present day dances as a poor substitute for the old. From an artistic point of view, they maybe, but in individual freedom and independence of spirit they mark a stage upward.

Any artwork needs time and patience and needs above a quiet mind.

Strict honesty was the policy of most of them although there were a few who were said to 'find anything before 'tis lost' and to whom findings were keepings.

Words as to the inner emotions do not come readily to me, for I have led an isolated life mentally and spiritually.

The luxuries of the few were becoming necessities of the many.