ABSTRACT
In 1860 the idea of a village church was still embodied in some country parishes. The squire was in his pew, his friend the parson in his stall, respectable farmers in pews, and on benches the labourers in smock frocks, delicately embroidered at front and back, their wives often in scarlet shawls. The men sat passive, not following in books, some unable to read, but silent with a stolid attentiveness, not liking to be absent because of the squire or the farmer or habit, but in no way sorry to be there, men without hostility and with quiet acceptance ... In some country parishes this time-honoured structure continued to the end of the century and beyond.1
