244 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



for his own use. However, against all this it has 

 to be remembered that the preservation of all 

 game pheasants more particularly is very costly ; 

 and to state that every pheasant which is reared 

 on an estate costs at least ten shillings is very 

 much the reverse of an exaggeration, the average 

 cost being over rather than under that sum. 

 Therefore, when it is considered that the market- 

 price of a brace of pheasants, i.e., the price at 

 which the game-dealer purchases them, does not 

 exceed six shillings (indeed, the sum is very 

 frequently even less), it will be seen that the 

 landlord who shoots his own coverts makes 

 the public a present of some twelve or fourteen 

 shillings for every brace of pheasants which 

 he sells to the game-dealer. This is a side 

 of the question very generally overlooked by 

 the public, and a fact for which the latter have 

 every reason to be grateful. Were the * land 

 and game for the people ' party to have their way, 

 it would not, I take it, be very long before every 

 variety of our British game-birds would become 

 extinct. 



The rearing and preservation of game at the 

 present time may almost be regarded as an 

 industry, by reason of the number of employes 

 who are engaged for the purpose on the various 

 estates throughout the country ; but, as I have 

 shown, in those instances where the shooting of 

 an estate is not sublet, it is an industry which, 

 although providing employment for a large num- 



