THE 



PINE AND HEATHER COUNTRY 



IN PRAISE OF PINE-WOODS 



THE southern home counties are at present the scene 

 of a sudden change of ideas on the subject of " eligible 

 building property," which must before long alter not 

 only the general appearance of large tracts of country 

 which have, until now, remained almost uninhabited 

 since the memory of man, but also the character and 

 mode of life of what were until lately among the most 

 rural and primitive districts of the South. The rush to 

 the pine-woods, with its transference of capital from the 

 suburbs not only of London, but of the great towns of 

 the Midlands and the North, to the heaths of Berk- 

 shire, Surrey, and Western Hampshire, is assuming the 

 dimensions of an urban exodus. Measured by the 

 standard of the realized wealth and spending power 

 which it represents, it must be allowed to count in 

 some degree as a makeweight against the loss to the 

 rural districts by immigration to the towns. That the 

 movement is not a mere foible of the hour, but based 



