3 o 4 IS COUNTRY LIFE STILL POSSIBLE? 



if "young England" has a marked taste for riding 

 anything, it is probably the safety-bicycle. Organized 

 athletics do not flourish in the country nearly so well as 

 in a London suburb or a fashionable watering-place. 

 But these counter-attractions are mainly, though not 

 wholly, for young men and it must not be forgotten 

 for young ladies. Later, the disabilities of country 

 life, and the necessity of the hourly fillip given to the 

 mind by close and easy contact with the executive centre 

 of the world at Westminster and the financial centre in 

 Capel Court, become more and more imperious. To 

 the man who has really been engaged in affairs, the 

 mere perusal of the morning papers is a poor substitute 

 for the day-long possibilities of telegrams and special 

 editions. Even if he secures a constant supply of 

 " news," he wants the right people with whom to talk 

 it over. In London, he can generally find the man he 

 wants. In the country he is often at a loss to find a 

 kindred spirit with whom to discuss subjects unconnected 

 with the petty interests of rural life. Hence the country 

 house tends to become a mere annex to the town 

 establishment, reserved for brief intervals devoted to 

 recovery from town life. 



But rest, repose, and beauty are not the only enjoy- 

 ments which rural life has to offer. The country is not 

 solely a playground and a sanatorium, a tame and 

 temporary recruiting-ground after the excitements, great 

 or little, of the town. Even its beauty may pall and 

 fade, as Wordsworth found, and Mr. Ruskin has 

 confessed, unless the conditions which make country 

 life possible are better understood than they are by some 



