loS 
XATURE XOTES 
k-gislation so strongly urged by the distinguished Chairman of 
to-day’s proceedings ought to be some encouragement to him 
not to relax his efforts or his great influence, but to wage battle 
with the forces of snobbery quite as much as w'ith the inertia 
of public bodies in favour of what remains of the British fauna. 
I have just referred to the rage which seizes people, chiefly 
of the— as yet — uncultivated classes, for deflowering the country- 
side when it is at its most beautiful. The other day I walked 
alongside two plump, comfortable town women, down for a day 
in the country, who had entered one of the woods in this neigh- 
bourhood, and were gazing with rapture on a carpet of primroses. 
“ Why, I should like to roll on ’em, I should,” remarked one 
woman to the other. I do not know that she actually carried out 
this threat, but when I passed by half an hour later the place 
had lost much of its beauty. Many of the roots had been dug 
up, and an inordinate number of the blossoms had been picked. 
There it was, ravaged, ruined from the point of view of the artist 
for at least another year. Some of the primrose roots carried 
away may have blossomed in the woman’s back-yard or little 
garden, and if so, I hope they did her soul some good. The 
better ideal to have aimed at, however, would have been to 
have brought that woman (or her children, who are perhaps 
more teachable) to realise that the primroses looked far better, 
were far more appropriate, growing in their own way, in their 
own surroundings ; and further to have so worked and arranged 
things that this woman and her like should be able by a cheap 
train service and by easier hours of work to come and gloat over 
this beauty ; as the leisured classes, if they have any spiritual 
leanings, are able to do at the present time. It is not now 
the people of leisure and education who go round digging up 
ferns and plants, and picking enormous quantities of flowers. 
The fashion has descended several steps in social rank, like 
other fashions that the poor are unthinking enough to copy 
from the rich. 
The leisured classes, however, still wreak their wicked will 
on what should be regarded as the national beauty of Britain. 
There are plenty of ways of obtaining a sound knowledge of 
horsemanship and indulgence in that most healthful of all 
exercises — riding — without the excuse of hunting a fox or a stag 
with hounds. I certainly do not advocate the extirpation of the 
British fox ; if I had my way I would reintroduce the wolf, the 
bear, and the other items of our lost mammalian fauna, but not 
for the purpose of pursuing them over the countryside, often 
under conditions of great cruelty, and to the sore damage of 
useful crops. Neither would I keep them as the fox is now 
kept, so that it is a source of the greatest inconvenience to those 
who try to earn a living by poultry farming, or who desire to 
introduce swans or other aquatic birds agreeable to the eye 
into lakes and ponds. The fox, like the wolf and the bear, 
various kinds of deer and bison, might be kept in sanctuaries. 
