I am quite aware that when federal devolution becomes really infectious
and every county insists on a legislative assembly of its own it may be
necessary to turn some of these great houses into Parliament chambers,
and the rural civil service will also no doubt insist on having offices
comparable with the vast hotels which their parent bodies occupy in
London. But this will not account for nearly all the ancestral seats,
and, in calling the attention of the Minister of Health and Housing to
this little memorandum of mine, I would specially urge him to note how
it will solve some of the most difficult problems which confront him
to-day.

There will be a rush upon these potted villages, and that will ease the
situation in towns and free a number of cottages for agricultural
labourers too. There will be a rush, not only because of the advantages
which I have already enumerated, but because all the people who live in
Soping Hall will be able to put "Soping Hall" on their notepaper, and,
if they like to pay for it, two _wyverns rampant_ as well, and everyone
outside the circle of their immediate friends will imagine that they
have not only bought the whole place but even become the possessors of
the flock of wyverns that used to be pastured on the Home Farm.

Three acres and a cow was all very well in its way, but what about two
wyverns and a flat? Evoe.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Dame_ (_seeing the signpost_). "Stop, Jenkins--stop!
I think it would be safer to turn back. They may have catapults or
something dangerous."]