NOBLESSE OBLIGE 45 



kept a pack of hounds, or held vast shooting- 

 rights, or were known to be liberal landlords 

 "if you kept on the right side of them." On 

 the other hand, in counties where landowners 

 were unpopular as a class, Executive Com- 

 mittees entered their parks and did their duty. 

 It was in districts in which farms were mostly 

 let at uneconomic rents that we saw the weak- 

 ness of Committees, composed almost entirely 

 of tenant-farmers. 



Most of us expected in war-time, surely, that 

 great landowners who bore historic names, 

 instead of waiting for the issue of Cultivation 

 Orders, would themselves be taking the field 

 astride the tractor. Yet opposition was shown, 

 not only in districts which might be de- 

 scribed as " dukeries," but also inside the 

 Cabinet. Indeed, two great landowners, who 

 were Cabinet Ministers, put up so stubborn a 

 fight against the right of the nation to enter 

 their parks that the Prime Minister, I am told, 

 kindled with a spark of Celtic fire, frightened 

 them into submission by warning them that a 

 half-starved population might come and burn 

 down their stately country mansions. 



To illustrate the extraordinary lack of public 

 spirit on the part of great landowners, I will 

 present some of my own personal investigations 

 made in February and March 19 18. 



West Sussex is a county which is largely 

 owned by three historic families — the Duke of 



