Well, it is true that few things in this world can top a good Stilton, as Wallace and Grommit can testify.

And, to bring this slightly back on topic, a great example of the contrast between Court and Country life (albeit in the hyperbolic and metaphoric tone of the fairy tale) can be seen in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale -- just compare the paranoid, insane aura of the Court in the first half of the play to the extended view of the Shepherds' feast day in the sendond half (which, btw, has some rather funny parodies of contemporary broadsides, imnsho).