EVERLASTING QUESTION 103 



Vivendi by which both may be maintained 

 on the same ground can only be a plant 

 of delicate growth, dependent for its 

 existence on a mutual readiness to make 

 allowances for the mistakes and misunder- 

 standings which no amount of good inten- 

 tions can wholly serve to avert. 



In handling such a thorny problem as 

 the continual and more or less inevitable 

 strife between fox-hunter and pheasant- 

 preserver, it seems certainly easier 

 should the word be not altogether out 

 of place in this context to hold the 

 balance fairly if personal experience of 

 blank days and closed coverts on the one 

 hand, or ravaged nests, slaughtered poults, 

 and unpremeditated bouquets of pheasants 

 on a grand scale on the other, have not 

 come to warp the judgment of an other- 

 wise open mind. For without wishing to 

 betray the generous hospitality for which 

 our English country homes are so de- 

 servedly famous, it would seem matter 

 for fair comment to note the general 

 impression which the ordinary stranger 



