80 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



and strangers collected on horseback and in 

 motor cars and surrounded by all the embel- 

 lishments of wealth connected with the 

 most costly amusement in the world, is a con- 

 tention of about the same validity as the well- 

 known one that the fox enjoys being chased 

 and devoured. The joy of sport for those 

 who can afford it is undeniable ; few pleasures 

 to the writer's mind can compare with those 

 of shooting and fishing, but agricultural 

 labourers and village tradesmen are learning 

 to require something more solid than a 

 vicarious satisfaction derived from the sight 

 of other people's amusements. A fair pro- 

 portion of British farmers are genuinely keen 

 about field sports, and here and there you will 

 find individual labourers standing up for the 

 privileges of the " gentry," who occasionally 

 require them as beaters. But I know of few 

 sights more pathetic to those who long for 

 better things in rural England than the group 

 of extra men and boys sometimes collected 

 for the beating of our coverts the least 

 efficient, the most hopeless of our poor folk. 



Outdoor games do not naturally fall to the 

 lot of men and boys who have no half -holidays, 

 and not even a Bank holiday, nor, thanks to 

 the force of Protestant tradition, much chance 

 of using a portion of their Sundays for healthy 



