- ID
- c81
- Title
- "O! More Than Happy Countryman."
- Genre
- Essay
- Page Count
- 3
- Word Count
- 5000
- Publisher
- Field
- Publication Year
- 1941
- Document Types
- Full-text Online
- Social Commentary
- Massingham, H.J.
- Topics
- Rural Living
An essay included in the 1943 O More Than Happy Countryman as well as subsequent versions of that book.
Bates addresses various issues related to 'rural regeneration', including education, labor and wages, and the increasing interest of town-dwellers in country life.
Of note is the exclamation mark in the title, which is thought to be an error, one which would be repeated at least once in subsequent years. The title itself is drawn from the poetry of Virgil, ('O more than happy countryman, if he but knew his good fortune...') which Bates would have known from a stone inscription in the office of Robertson Scott, editor of The Countryman magazine and also from his editorials, which all featured it during his tenure.
A column critical of Bates's essay, by H.J. Massingham and also in The Field, provoked an angry response by Bates.
In The Field (London, May 24, 1941, pp. 644-646, attached)
