PRINCE 6^ PEASANT, PEER &= PHEASANT 109 



and the trade ; the great carts outside disgorging their 

 loads of game from Northern and Eastern and Western 

 Railways, other vans filling up with large boxes and 

 crates for Southern lines, for Paris, Monte Carlo, or 

 Rome. And mark the price — three or four shillings 

 for the bonny, delicate bird that has cost the much- 

 abused country landlord ten or more. How can a man 

 be reviled by any political economist for placing an 

 article of food upon the market at one-third of what 

 it has cost him to produce ? 



Look in another direction. See the village inn, 

 the village shop, and the cottage hearth, and listen to 

 the jubilation over the hard money and good cheer 

 that close the big week's shooting at the Hall. What 

 joyous little streams of extra wealth have flowed from 

 its generous portals to the surrounding homesteads ; 

 and would they ever flow if it were not for the famous 

 high pheasants in the valley, below the great clumps 

 and belts that shelter the pasturage of the park, or 

 the crops on the uplands? Ask at the post office, 

 the county bank, the market town, and the railway 

 station. 



But I have not done yet. Turn your eyes to 

 Birmingham, and see the busy hands at work upon 

 stocks, locks and barrels, rods, loading machines and 

 extractors ; to the brilliant workshops of St. James's or 



