IS COUNTRY LIFE STILL POSSIBLE 1 ! 309 



process is reversed. To many dwellers in the country, 

 the possibility of close and intimate acquaintance with 

 the wild life of the district is one of the most lasting 

 pleasures which it affords. Much has been written 

 and much has been read upon the subject ; but what 

 has not been seen is always new, and what has once 

 been seen never loses by being seen again. But much 

 has never yet been seen or understood. 



Our eyes are barely open to the facts of the flight 

 of birds. We know little of the changes in animal 

 life wrought by the sudden influences of wind, rain, 

 cold, and heat, and next to nothing of parts of the 

 life of some of our commonest quadrupeds. No doubt 

 sport fills a great place in the life of countrymen. 

 " From February to September I fish," said one noted 

 sportsman, " and when it is wet I make flies. From 

 September to February I shoot, and when it is wet I 

 make cartridges." But though sport does, and always 

 will, hold a prominent place among country amuse- 

 ments, the care of domestic animals, gardening, planting, 

 and the observation of wild life and scenery, with the 

 due ordering of a household, give a guarantee that part 

 of the time spent in the country shall be both pleasant 

 and profitable. But country life has more to offer 

 than this. To the health and vigour of the body, 

 which make the mind elastic, it adds another condition 

 without which study and mental effort are at a dis- 

 advantage. Real leisure and freedom from interruption 

 are nowhere so easily obtained as in the country. " It 

 is a good year for the grouse/' remarked a visitor to 

 Sir Walter Scott's old servant at Abbotsford. " Yes ; 



