Provincialism \Pro*vin"cial*ism\, n. [Cf. F. provincialisme.] A word, or a manner of speaking, peculiar to a province or a district remote from the mother country or from the metropolis; a provincial characteristic; hence, narrowness; illiberality. --M. Arnold.
Yet the population here is relatively stable, and neighborhoods are almost village-like in their provincialism. With the cheapest compact cars in England costing almost $10,000, and gasoline $4 a gallon, few low-income families in Hartlepool own cars.
I took the train to Eltville at the area's eastern end, a small town filled with a jumble of half-timbered houses and an old fortress overlooking a wide stretch of the great river. A refreshing provincialism was apparent from the first.