Heaven's Gate
A Story of the Forest of Dean (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Heaven's Gate: A Story of the Forest of Dean<br><br>A few words upon the locale of my story before the curtain is raised and the actors are seen upon the stage.<br><br>You must realize that the village you are going to see belongs to a past age, - to England before railways had been established long enough to affect the small hamlets buried away in rural districts, before emigration had carried away its thousands to the free life of the New World, before schools had been established by Government for the education of the poor. The England of to-day holds out her hands to the poor, with her board schools, her art, and (recently) her music schools, where all are welcome to a free education who have talent of a high order or genius. The England of the days of which I write kept all her opportunities for culture and refinement among the classes of the nobly born or wealthy. Individual efforts were made by the land owners to improve the condition of the poor on their estates; but the English peasant inherited the instincts of the serf from whom he was descended with a liberal endowment of his vices, and was not to be raised to a higher level by any half measures. The refinement of education had seldom been tried upon his undeveloped nature.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.