RECT.AMATION OF WASTE LAND. 411 



employment of labour, and the creation of new habitations 

 for men and their families. The " bridegroom " of the 

 parable has come upon us " foolish virgins " in the shape 

 of war, and now we discover what it is to have lamps in our 

 hands without the necessary oil — which by a little fore- 

 thought we might so easily have secured ! Waste land, 

 with trees neglected, brushwood, bracken, furze, heather 

 and the like, favom's game. Some sixty years ago a story 

 was told me of the late Prince Consort, who had by invitation 

 of the owner been shooting over some Derbyshire moors. 

 Inquiring as he was by nature, he had carefully examined 

 the soil and discovered that it would bear excellent crops. 

 " What unconscionable waste," so he is said to have remarked 

 to his host, " to leave such good land to lie idle under 

 heather ! " " W^hat," so his host is reported to have 

 retorted with amazement, " spoil the moor ! That would 

 be vandalism." 



That is one cause. Like the poet Gay in Pope's estima- 

 tion, we have spent " on silver loops and garments blue," on 

 sheer luxuries, what was entrusted to us for a nobler purpose. 



But there is another cause as well, really of a graver 

 complexion. What inducement has a landowner under 

 our present land system to reclaim or to plant, especially 

 if he has no large command of funds ? That would mean 

 money out of his pocket, to ensure a benefit to some future 

 successor. He may be on the look out for laying by for 

 the children who do not inherit the land. Or else he may 

 be thinking of his own amusements and enjoyment of 

 life. It is not every landlord that has the public spirit, 

 the intelligence, the enterprise, the money, and the youth, 

 — when he began — of Coke of Norfolk, or of Lord Somerville, 

 Lord Egremont, or the Duke of Bedford of those days. 

 Abroad, in most cases, outlay upon such work ensures a 

 direct return in grist or in meal. The fruit drops into the 

 lap of the man who planted the tree. If the land has not 

 already repaid the outlay, if the trees have not grown up 

 to felHng height, while he was the possessor, the increased 

 value will swell the selling and valuing price of the property, 

 even in its only half-matured state, just as a three months' 



