affection they fail to gain.

Alas! that there should exist in so many country places that class
feeling that is called Radicalism. It is perhaps fortunate that under
the guise of politics what is really nothing else but bitterness and
discontent is hidden and prevented from being recognised by its
true name.

There are many country houses that are shut up for the greater part of
the year for other reasons than agricultural depression, often because
the owner, while preferring to reside elsewhere, is too proud to let the
place to a stranger. This should not be. Let these rich men who own
large houses and great estates live _in_ those houses and _on_ those
estates, or endeavour to find a tenant. We repeat that the landowners
who really feel the stress of bad times for the most part do their duty
nobly. They have learnt it in the severe school of adversity. It is the
richer class that we should like to see taking a greater interest in
their humble neighbours; and their power is great. The possessor of
wealth is too often the tacit upholder of the doctrine of _laissez
faire_. The times we live in will no longer allow it. Let us be up and
doing. In many small ways we may do much to promote good fellowship, and
bitterness and discontent shall be no longer known in the rural villages
of England.



II.

In the dead of winter these old grey houses of the Cotswolds are a
little melancholy, save when the sun shines. But to every variety of