[littlemanpoet]

Thanks, Estelyn, for your interesting comments on arts and crafts. I'm rather liking the interesting bit especially about Smith of Wootton Major.

Elsewhere in Icelandic Journals, Morris is quoted:

What a mournful place this is---Iceland I mean [...] how every place and name marks the death of its short-lived eagerness and glory [...] What littleness and helplessness has taken the place of the old passion and violence that had place here once---and all is unforgotten

I find that last word very enticing. It seems rather appropo of the state of mind of the Elves and Numenoreans.

From News From Nowhere come more such offerings. It's a utopian revolutionary novel. It contains a de-urbanized England. As to lifestyle:

[England] is now a garden, where nothing is wasted and nothing is spoilt, with the necessary dwellings, sheds and workshops scattered up and down the country, all trim and neat and pretty

There is no unnecessary mechanization, "useless toil" obliterated and replaced by "useful work".

All work which would be irksome to do by hand is done by immensely improved machinery; and in all work which it is a pleasure to do by hand machines is done without

Pleasurable work includes house-building, gardening, farming, smithing and weaving; and there is an abundance of mills.

The food is simple and excellent: pies, wine, and of course pipe and tobacco. Every house is

amongst the fields with pleasant lanes leading down to them, and each surrounded by a teeming garden

Children are not being crammed full of useless knowledge but live a free, outdoor life of camping and cooking in the woods. Book-learning is delayed as long as possible. Nothing but story-books until they're fifteen years old.