COUNTRY LIFE

Saving the Bridges A great number of old bridges, which are among the greatest structural beauties of rural and urban England, are threatened by the unconscionable loading of modern lorries. An expert committee is now engaged in research work, undertaken on their behalf. Three bridges (one in Buckinghamshire) have been finally condemned since they are_ past saving, and have been consigned to the research workers for experimental purposes. If it is discovered just what weight they can safely carry, or fail to carry, their dissolution may save the life of many another bridge. An ingenious method for testing their strength has been devised and is being practised. Instead of the more obvious method of piling weights on the top till the breaking or cracking point is reached, weights are suspended from a chain encircling the arch and the effect of the increased strain is watched from a barge beneath. We cannot spare our old bridges. Such stone arches and parapets as bridge the Ouse between Huntingdon and Godmanchester—to give one illustration— are as glorious as say the arches of the almost mediaeval grammar school or the adjacent mill that was not so long ago destroyed by municipal Goths.

Bird Sanctuaries

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is to discuss the question of sanctuaries at its annual meeting held next week in London. This annual report of the Norfolk Trust is full of almost startling evidence of the influence of sanctuaries. On Blakeney Spit, which is not a very big place, there nested last year 2,177 pairs of common tern, 46 little tern, 23 red- shank, 121 ringed plover, 17 oyster-catchers and about 30 pairs of shelduck. How nicely fitted for birds both place and clime must be is curiously witnessed by the fate of the Sandwich tern watched at Blakeney. Ten pairs laid clutches of eggs ; but there came a blast of cold wind from the north- east, and these more tender birds pecked holes in their own eggs and fled the district. One of the great reasons for particular sanctuaries lies in this niceness of birds. They seek certain very particular conditions ; and if they are not to be found they desert the district altogether.

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Fastidious Birds That strange, aboriginal stretch of East Anglia known as Breckland is one of the districts that has supplied the rare combination of qualities sought by some of our rarer birds ; and it was for this reason that its afforestation distressed bird-preservers. Some bits have happily been saved. The afforesters on their part can claim that if they have banished some birds they have encouraged at least one species, and that of peculiar interest. Perhaps the best thing in this report—and it is full of good things—is a photograph or two of nesting cross-bills (the birds fabled to have pulled the nails out of the Cross). The nest, the birds themselves and the fir twigs (when they nest in February) are singularly clear and characteristic. Other good photographs make the report (procurable from the Hon. Sec., 31 Surrey Street, Norwich) a pleasing possession, even for those who are not technically interested in the mass of bird and sanctuary lore to the found in its thirty pages.

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The Bittern

The sapient figure of a bittern standing on one leg has become the emblem of the agents of bird protection in Norfolk. This year the wise bird makes a county boast. The pioneer effort in Bird Protection was made by the Breydon Society in 1888, one year before the formation of the Royal Society for Bird Protection. The date indicates how new, as history goes. is the cult of bird protection, even in England itself. So fond and faithful and classical an observer as Gilbert White wrote without a qualm of the popularity of the wheatear —first of our spring visitors—on the table of the country house. In two country houses known to me are specimens of bittern, proudly shot and stuffed, as a memorial of their skill and observation, by the owners. Before this sort of ornithological zeal the bittern wholly and completely vanished. Thanks to Breydon and the R.S.P.B. and the Norfolk Trust and many other protectors, notably Lord Desborough at Pickling Broad, the bittern has become an almost common bird. I believe that Mr. James Vincent, the most highly expert perhaps of sanctuary keepers, has himself watched more than 60 nests which have duly nursed young birds to maturity. It is certainly not for nothing that the bittern decorates the cover of the yearly report of the wild birds' protection committee of the Norfolk Naturalists' Trust.

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English Roses

That wholly excellent body which is dubbed the " Flowers and Plants Committee " is extending its belief in the plan of " knowledge for nothing." The system was quaintly and admirably demonstrated last year when model gardens were shown—of all unlikely places—in the Chairing Cross underground station, and leaflets on fruit trees and flowering shrubs given away. They were models of straight infor- mation, not offensively erudite, and proved very popular. They certainly did good, and spread abroad the excellent doctrine that the first act of wisdom in any gardener is to grow the best. No economy is so bad as buying bad stuff. The newest leaflet, issued this week, is on roses, and is called " Gather ye Rosebuds." It is certainly popular and brief, and is not intended for the rosarian specialist ; but it will give most of us information on the better varieties, their purchase, and treatment. The garden that, so to say, belongs to the pamphlet (issued by the Committee from 68 Victoria Street, S.W. 1) is, of course, in the Regent's Park, and deserves a visit from any gardener. This co-operation between the Ministry, the commercial grower and the public is proving fruitful and is capable of considerable extension. Roses, we are reminded, may be planted at any time between October and April, if a period of open weather is selected.

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An Ancient Sport In pursuit of some of the ancient lore of rural England I have come upon evidence (doubtless a commonplace to the historian) of the antiquity of present practice in the sport. Most hunting people will tell you that foxhunting, as we understand it, began in the early eighteenth century, a few years before the birth of that admirable writer of English, Peter Beckford, whose " Letters " on hunting have become a classic. This is more or less true in a general reference. Foxhunting did not come into any great eminence till stag- hunting waned. Nevertheless, the ways of those who pursued the fox, even as early as the fourteenth century, had sonic curious similarities to today's practice. The natural history of the fox was studied then even more carefully than today ; and earth-stopping, at precise hours of the day, or rather night, was an art in itself. And then, as now, the earth was called an earth and animals went to ground. The dogs used were often " grayhounds." The greyhound is of course (as we know from old bas-reliefs) one of the most ancient breed of dogs ; but have the historians of dogs quite decided how far those so-called grayhounds were speed dogs ? The very oldest references to foxes impress the fact that " lie stinketh " ; and the music of the pack is suggested in sonic of the very passages that refer to the greyhound.

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Nose or Speed?

On this point of scenting powers it is arguable—it is indeed being argued—our modem foxhunters have helped to destroy the foxhound's sense of smell. It was said to me this week by one ardent member of one of our famous Midland hunts : " Our hounds never kill a fox ; they are much too well-bred ! " The emphasis laid on such points as " cat feet " has excluded— such is the argument—more valuable points such as the keen and faithful nose possessed, say, by the splay-footed, bandy- legged, rough-coated, slow-moving Welsh hound. The show bench which has altogether ruined the fox-terrier by lengthen- ing and straightening both his nose and his legs has committed a similar crime, at any rate towards the legs of the foxhound. It may be welcome to some and horrible to others that in one hunt at any rate hounds of the type of Peterborough winners arc being crossed with the old rough Welsh hound ; and the latest progeny—to my eyes at least—have more than one point of superiority over the darlings of the show bench. It is a pity that you cannot make acuteness of the senses a show point.

W. BEAM TIMMAS.