196 THE COMPLETE SPORTSMAN 



open air, which combined the maximum of per- 

 sonal discomfort with the minimum of susten- 

 ance, possessed a certain indefinable charm 

 which many people found to be altogether irre- 

 sistible. The picnic was the commonest and 

 most popular form of entertainment provided 

 for the delectation of country-house guests, and 

 denizens of the Stately Homes of England would 

 have looked upon a spring day as wasted if some 

 portion of it had not been devoted to the pleasant 

 task of eating jam-sandwiches on an ant-heap 

 or in a bed of stinging-nettles. To be able to 

 enjoy one's tea out of doors on some bleak, 

 wind-swept hillside, or in the seclusion of a 

 midge-infested glen, was regarded as one of the 

 chief advantages of a country existence; and 

 elderly persons of both sexes wrestled firmly but 

 politely with one another for the privilege of 

 carrying hampers full of cold food to the top of 

 some local eminence which had been fixed upon 

 as a convenient site for the proposed picnic. 



The selection of a suitable spot was always 

 fraught with enormous difficulty, being usually 

 determined either by the necessity of obtaining 

 a picturesque view of the surrounding landscape 

 (without which the choicest cucumber-sand- 

 ^^dches and the richest seed-cake would appear 

 insipid) or by the convenient proximity of that 

 spring- water and combustible fuel which were 



