248 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



those who look for truth and reality beneath 

 the pleasant surface of the view. The hill on 

 which I write is covered by thin, worthless 

 grass, and short scrub useless, amid utter 

 neglect, for man or beast ; below, some forty 

 acres of good pasture land are reserved for 

 golf ; on every side trees grow singly in most 

 haphazard fashion. Further away compact 

 woods form coverts for thousands of pheasants, 

 and in the distance lies the beautiful vale of 

 Aylesbury, controlled by a great landlord. 

 The eye may range for miles with scarcely the 

 sight of a human habitation, and the chief 

 relaxation of the ill-paid labourer is, appar- 

 ently, to witness the pursuit of a tame stag by 

 persons who spend far more on one day's run 

 than his entire weekly wages. 



How long will England tolerate such misuse 

 of her fertile soil ? The life of the few in such 

 an environment as that which lies around me 

 is full of pleasant things : the truer life of 

 the country that of those who till the soil 

 and feed the nation is moribund. Who shall 

 deliver us from the body of this death ? The 

 splendid ideals of Liberalism are too often 

 neutralized by the personal wealth or selfish 

 ambition of its representatives, the cautious 

 concessions of Toryism have no more effect on 

 the maladies of our land system than a gift of 



