NOBLESSE OBLIGE 55 



come under the agent's notice and be immedi- 

 ately communicated to his lord. Unfortunately, 

 however, through some oversight, or through 

 the wrong filling in of forms by uneducated 

 men, or through not memorialising the author- 

 ities and the Tite Barnacles in the proper way, 

 the eager desire for allotments, expressed as 

 far back as the previous October, had not been 

 granted. This was all the more extraordinary, 

 for immediately one left the village and took 

 the road to Thursley nothing but acres and 

 acres of undulating grass land and woods were 

 visible. 



On one side of the narrow lane, over-arched 

 by a bridge, which supports a private four- 

 mile motor track that takes Lord Pirrie into 

 Haslemere without having to touch the vulgar 

 high road, the grass land was occupied by 

 deer, pheasants, and rabbits, and on the other 

 side by picturesque West Highland cattle, and 

 again by pheasants and rabbits. A small piece 

 of cultivated land was visible which, during 

 our tragic struggle for bread, had been cropped 

 with buckwheat and lupin, for pheasants must 

 have grain, though peasants may lack bread. 

 This park consisted of about 2500 acres inter- 

 spersed with woods. 



Seven men, who did not live in Lord Pirrie's 

 cottages, were bold enough to ask to be 

 allowed to cultivate a quarter of an acre of 

 this uncultivated land each. Two of these 



