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 



