Our Village is a collection of about 100 literary sketches of rural life written by Mary Russell Mitford

Mary Russell Mitford

Mary Russell Mitford , was an English author and dramatist. She was born at Alresford, Hampshire. Her place in English literature is as the author of Our Village...

 (1787-1855), and originally published during the 1820s and 1830s. The series first appeared in The Lady's Magazine. The full title is: Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery. The vivid series was based upon life in Three Mile Cross

Three Mile Cross

Three Mile Cross is a village in the civil parish of Shinfield, to the South of Reading, and immediately North of the adjoining village of Spencers Wood, in the English county of Berkshire....

, a hamlet in the parish of Shinfield

Shinfield

Shinfield is a village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, just south of Reading. It contains and is administered by the unitary authority of Wokingham District.-Geography:...

 (south-east of Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

 in Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

), where she lived.

Miss Mitford's own short preface states:

'The following pages contain an attempt to delineate country scenery and country manners, as they exist in a small village in the south of England. The writer may at least claim the merit of a hearty love of her subject, and of that local and personal familiarity, which only a long residence in one neighbourhood could have enabled her to attain. Her descriptions have always been written on the spot, and at the moment, and, in nearly every instance, with the closest and most resolute fidelity to the place and the people. If she be accused of having given a brighter aspect to her villagers than is usually met with in books, she cannot help it, and would not if she could. She has painted, as they appeared to her, their little frailties and their many virtues, under an intense and thankful conviction that, in every condition of life, goodness and happiness may be found by those who seek them, and never more surely than in the fresh air, the shade, and the sunshine of nature.' (1835 Edition, I, pp.v-vi)

Editions

• Original Edition: (Whittaker & Co, London), Volume 1 1824; Volume 2 1826; Volume 3 1828; Volume 4 1830; Volume 5 1832.
• New Edition in three volumes: 1835 (Whittaker & Co., London), with vignettes engraved by Baxter.
• New Edition: (MacMillan & Co, London 1893), with introduction by Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie
  Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie
  Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie, née Thackeray was an English writer. She was the eldest daughter of William Makepeace Thackeray.- Life :...
  
  , illustrated by Hugh Thomson (1860-1920).

• Our Village is fully and openly accessible in the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature Digital Collection