"The everyday life of Nook Farm was lived less in the single family sphere than in the social area where families met on common ground. The informality of the old farm was perpetuated and enlarged in the 1870s and 1880s. The houses appeared to be irregularly spaced on one enormous fenceless estate. Winding among the trees were paths and shortcuts that the neighbors used without going to the street. Doors were always unlocked, and residents of the farm walked in and out of each other's houses at any time of day without knocking."

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