DEBATEABLE LAND 85 



been done, is a method of reasonin<; which may be held 

 partly accountable for the catastrophe of agriculture and for 

 the costly eccentricities of so-called estate management. 

 Indeed, the lapse of years pleaded in its defence is often the 

 most vulnerable point of an institution. 



Tested by these proper standards, there is a weak point 

 in the armour of the Buckhounds as an institution. More- 

 over, it is a weak point which cannot be adequately or 

 intelligently guarded by any ' J'y suis, j'y reste ' justification. 

 At the best, any such justification is to my mind only a 

 disengagement, and not a parry. Curiously enough, how- 

 ever, this real weak point to which I refer has never been 

 attacked by the critics. As I am in a good-natured mood, 

 I will just indicate the outlines of what I mean. 



AVire in Middlesex, the villa in Berks, the pheasant in 

 Bucks, all the apparatus of population and residential 

 amenity have changed the face and the habits of the Queen's 

 country. The Master is obliged to constantly bear in mind 

 that in many parts of a wide district he no longer has the 

 free warren essential to stag-hunting. 



Disraeli was proud of London because its environs could 

 not be reached with ' fatal facility.' I think the passage occurs 

 in ' Tancred.' But this evidence of expansion is no source 

 of satisfaction to the Master of the Buckhounds. When 

 arranging his meets he will often regret the days when a 

 lad}' friend of Mr. Bogers was made ill by a fright she got 

 from an omnibus on her way from Kichmond to London.' 



Some day, the want of country must decide the Buck- 



' ' At that time,' says Mr. Eogers, who had called to inquire after the 



invalid, ' omnibuses were great rarities, and while Miss was coming to 



town, the footman, observing an omnibus approach, and thinking she might 

 like to see it, suddenly called in at the carriage window, " Ma'am, the omni- 

 bus ! " Miss , being unacquainted with the term, and not sui-e but an 



omnibus might be a wild beast escaped from the Zoological Gardens, was 

 thrown into a dreadful state of agitation by the announcement.' — Tabic Talk 

 of Samuel Rogers. 



