Country Life
BY IAN NIALL 'I THOUGHT you might perhaps be interested in an extract from Sir Simonds d'Eurs's History of Parliament,' says Mrs. M. W. Acworth, of London, NW3. "On Thursday 28th Novem- ber in the 9th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth [1566] a bill was introduced for the preservation of corn by destruction of crows and other vermin." The Bill was passed but the crows still have it and farmers complain as they did four centuries ago!' This was news to me. I am a little vague as to whether the farmers themselves were to destroy the crows or whether Parliament proposed to do the job for them. If the first was the case it seems time the NFU checked up, and if the second was the intention some awkward questions could have been asked of election candidates not long ago. 'What do you intend to do about the crows?' would surely have brought a witty answer in Woodford Green. To think that crows have been not just unprotected, but illegal, for nearly four hundred years!
Previous page
