From Country Town at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

A man who traveled ii the Middle Ages must have been confused by the numerous systems of reckoning time that varied from country town town to town and country to country. Under the Roman Empire years were indicated by the names of the consuls; in the West no consuls were appointed after A. D. 534, and in the East, after 541.

On the other hand, his country cousin might be the rage of the town as a portrait photographer and yet have to do a lot of commercial work, too, to keep his volume up to where it will give him a good living. Thus, it is not only the country photographer's privilege to work in varied fields, it is almost demanded of him, if he is to make his livelihood from country town the local market for pictures. Sales aren't automatic in the small town market, either. It's still necessary to push your product and push it vigorously. You can't hang up your shingle and wait for the customers to come to you. Rural people in general probably are less photo-conscious than city folk and require just as much salesmanship to make them buyers of your work.

Rural Districts. The supreme example is offered by the Cotswolds, a stretch of hill country overlapping Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire, which grew rich on the medieval wool trade and surrounds a number of remarkably beautiful small country towns. Each town has a fine church and a redolence of prosperity—once of merchants, now of tourism and prosperous agriculture. The Cotswolds area is stone country —dry stone walls, stone cottages, splendid stone mansions, all set in hills so contoured and wooded by nature and art that they seem to form one enormous park.