46 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



motion of the idea that the country is to be 

 treated as a playground. 



It is difficult to obtain accurate figures, 

 but it is clear that an increasing quantity of 

 land is being kept partially or wholly for sport. 

 This is done by landlords who either can 

 afford to do without their rent and to incur 

 considerable expense in addition, or else find 

 that the sporting rent obtainable is as high as, 

 or even higher than, the agricultural. In the 

 latter case, they cannot be condemned from 

 the business man's point of view ; but, from 

 the point of view of the nation, the conse- 

 quences are obviously disastrous. Land which 

 might be used for productive purposes is 

 farmed but carelessly, or left altogether idle. 

 The economic resources of the country run to 

 waste, and gradually deteriorate. The general 

 results are deplorable enough in the case of 

 landowners who fill a definite position in the 

 social life of the country. But, as a matter 

 of fact, and more particularly in the south of 

 England, an increasing number of the owners 

 who make sport their main object are men 

 who have made their money in business, who 

 use their country houses as hunting or shooting 

 boxes, and who do not recognise, as attaching 

 to the privileged position of landowner, any 

 especial duty towards the local population. 



