124 "TRESPASSERS" 



picture. Here is cause indeed for pity, almost as 

 much as for blame. They would probably be other 

 than they are if they knew how ; they do not know. 



Under such circumstances one can well imagine 

 with what desperate earnestness they would oppose 

 any encroachment upon what they conceive to be 

 their just prerogatives. To close this avenue of 

 escape from the dull round of artificial existence 

 would be, as it were, to divert the one free breath of 

 life they know. Therefore, whatever betide, the 

 game must be preserved ; the "hawk," or be it what 

 it will, must die. 



It is now time to set up our warning. In the wide 

 territory of Nature is a little island, unlovely under 

 many aspects, but while millions of busy hands and 

 heads toil in it, our own. Our own, to administer 

 according to the instincts of our race, whether it be 

 that few shall hold and many till, or that time and a 

 broadening mind shall shape old things anew. But, 

 whilst the few hold, let them hold as in trust. If 

 they will preserve game, let them do so without 

 offence ; but let them also not offend against the 

 Nation's trust. The British fauna is the property of 

 the British folk, British as they are British, and by 

 an older title. The pedigree of one member of it, 

 could it be but traced, would cast more lustre upon 

 its discoverer than all the pedigrees of so-called 

 nobles since society began. Here in these rocks and 

 trees, but much more in these things that fly and 

 walk and swim and creep, is a history that thinking 

 man is just beginning to decipher. It is our history, 

 stretching back into farthest time. Yearly the 

 preciousness of this record is revealed more and 



