The Embattled Mole in the Garden proved the impossibility of expecting to sacrifice the merely flippant to the practical; A Place in the Country was evidence that he could be thoroughly entertaining regardless of the feelings of family and friends, tell a good many good stories, and inject a wholesome amount of fact, all unaware; now Be It Ever So Humble is the place in the country grown up, settled down (for the moment) In the garden, and presenting his readers with a surprise. The flippancy is still there -- but he is practical. He still tells good stories, and he has fewer barbs for the neighbors. And he shows how a colonial manor may arrive via a pig pen.