The Open Air: An Anthology of English Country Life

Excerpt from The Open Air: An Anthology of English Country Life

Another form of isolation has been brought by mo tors into country districts. One's circle of friends is no longer the circle of a ten-mile radius. On the contrary, one's circle of friends has small geographical reference. One friend is forty miles in one direction, another twenty-five miles in another, half-a-dozen are in Lon don, one in Hampshire and so on. Thus people living in a place may have no part in that place fundamentally, or in any place. Whereas in the old days whoever lived round about you, unless they were extremely difficult, you fitted into your circle of friendship. The more so cially gifted thus helped out the less, and the whole was leavened. Now, by more peremptory standards, we choose only those With whom we are 'in sympathy' the spontaneous functions of local life consequently de cay and the number of lonely old people must be le gion. Young people must earn their living in cities, so the country that is not within week - encl radius of Lon don is given up to the elderly and retired.

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