An imitation of traditional rural life-styles became fashionable - either that of the
gentry, if affordable, or, if it was not, or if one's politics barred
identification with the landed upper class, that of the peasantry, with
its rough edges smoothed away. Ersatz countrymen proliferated.
Before the war, writers like Kipling and Rider Haggard had set a
pattern by turning themselves into pseudosquires, whereas affluent
radicals, like Mrs. Charlotte Wilson, first a Fabian and then an
anarchist, began to take up residence in country cottages. Mrs. Wilson
was a trend setter of radical chic: At her insistence, her husband, a
stockbroker, gave up their comfortable London house and bought a
cottage. "It is a charming and quite idyllic little farm," Edith Nesbit,
another middle-class radical, wrote after a visit in 1885:

They have two rooms — study and kitchen. The kitchen is an idealized
farm kitchen, where of course no cooking is done - but with a
cushioned settee - open hearth, polished dresser and benches, and
all the household glass and crockery displayed mixed up with aesthetic
pots pans curtains chairs and tables- a delightfully incongruous but altogether agreeable effect.