PRESERVATION 83 



ting the 500 acres of park and policies, 

 practically the whole estate is cultivated 

 on a four years' course, most of the land 

 being too light to be laid down in per- 

 manent pasture. This is, of course, an 

 essential condition if you wish the land to 

 carry a heavy stock of partridges, and in 

 many parts of the country the ever- 

 increasing waste to the game preserver's 

 eye of land laid down in permanent 

 grass presents a partridge problem of 

 which no solution seems possible. The 

 ground is fortunate in being well watered 

 by a number of springs and streamlets, 

 and a dry summer can be faced with 

 equanimity. 



No main line of railway, with deadly 

 maze of telegraph wires, crosses the estate; 

 roads, footpaths, and rights-of-way are not 

 inordinate in number, while the popula- 

 tion is purely agricultural and the farms 

 above the average in size. The fields run 

 big, some reaching 60 to 80 acres ; they 

 are, for the most part, divided by solid 

 earthen banks with sloping sides, which, 



