Presumably other country houses in other places have been so
dismantled and destroyed—not by fire, but by deliberate purpose. -They are worth more as scrap wood and brick, and stone than as homes, than as little hubsof culture, little social ganglions of vital sensation. But seeing is believing ; and wheii one sees the roof coining off, the walls being taken down, we must believe that the country house of the Victorian Age is actually _and in fact in large measure doomed. This house is not alone, though its fate is more complete and dramatic than the retrogression of its neighbours. One more comma' house in the vicinity has been not demolished, but made suitably small. Neither the house nor the acres are on the old scale. Another scarcely a mile away is classed among " the white elephants." It will probably, remain in being for a generation or two, but the general feeling is that it is more likely to house a school or a club than a countryman who hunts with the hounds, perhaps is an M.F.H., or preserves game or plants his garden with fine trees.
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