COUNTRY LIFE
COUNTRY folk in most, perhaps all, counties are wondering sadly what is to be the fate of their larger country houses. They cannot all, like a famous Herefordshire house, be converted into lunatic asylums or, like a Hertford example in the war, into maternity hospitals or, like another, into preparatory schools. A good many are becoming hostels or hotels, and a few, country clubs, though such institutions have not come to flourish with us as in North America. One that had considerable attrac- tions, has been demolished, and another in its neighbourhood is not unlikely to be accorded the same fate. A solution that is, I think, growing in popularity, is a form of symbiosis, so to say. The house is divided, not into flats, but into several compartments each let separately. If the. neighbours are congenial—and this may often be arranged—the method is agreeable to all. The garden and surroundings are kept up, and the neighbourhood is benefited. I have heard -a quite enthusiastic account of one such experiment. The worst aspect of a deserted country house is the ruin of the garden, as my eyes tell me most weeks.
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