SOME OTHER REMEDIES 243 



tural estates, which for various reasons may 

 have ceased to be financially or socially 

 attractive to the owners. Nor are such appre- 

 hensions on behalf of country sport confined 

 to the landowners. A very considerable 

 number of our English farmers are genuine 

 lovers of sport, who occasionally ride to hounds 

 and frequently " walk up " their rabbits, or 

 sometimes enjoy by permission or invitation 

 a shoot over the turnips and stubble or a day 

 round through the coverts. Vast sums of 

 money are spent on country sport. The 

 words " Up goes a guinea, off goes a penny, 

 down comes half-a-crown " are not a wholly 

 inaccurate summary of the finance of first- 

 class pheasant or grouse shooting. Some- 

 thing like a million sterling must be spent on 

 the upkeep of the 176 packs of foxhounds in 

 England alone, apart from the vast sums 

 expended on wages and fodder. In the face 

 of even so moderate a demand as the 

 valuation of English land impassioned 

 appeals were made to the farmers to resist 

 insidious attempts to destroy English sport 

 and the circulation of money caused by 

 such sport in rural districts. What would 

 happen when a Government boldly declared 

 for State purchase on a large scale of our 

 rural estates ? 



