LANDSCAPE AND LARDER 215 



Suffolk, which are such an addition for breeding and 

 shooting purposes to the strictly cultivated land ; or 

 the broken ground below the moors in Scotland or in 

 the English moorland districts, which form shelters and 

 nurseries for the grouse ground proper. Witness the 

 moors themselves, or such an extent of pure forest 

 ground as the New Forest. But I am perhaps digress- 

 ing into mere truisms ; we must go more practically 

 into details. 



There are certain exceptions to this rule for the 

 actual harbouring of pheasants. For instance, a large 

 beech wood, though beautiful in itself where the trees 

 are well grown, will never hold them, since you cannot 

 find any undergrowth which will flourish in it. Yet, 

 on the other hand, the beech mast will help to feed 

 them, and they can run, as they love to do, easily 

 under the great trees, as .you will find to your cost 

 should you have well-stocked coverts of other sorts, 

 and there are large beech woods on the far side of your 

 boundary. On the other hand, if you have beech 

 woods in the centre of your own ground you will find 

 them of great value. Now a word as to these same 

 woods. If they consist of magnificent timber trees 

 already in their full prime, having been judiciously 

 thinned by a former generation, leave them alone ; you 

 will not better them as a ranging and feeding ground, 



