A Coimeirimb - The extinction of the country house is
not necessarily lamentable. That great and famous country house, Downharn Hall, in Norfolk, set in lovely woods and heaths, populous only with rabbits, pheasants, and partridges, has recently been pulled to pieces by the Forestry Commissioners, and in its ruin served a better as well as a newer purpose. Its stones and bricks and slates have reappeared in various homesteads for foresters and smallholders. It may be as well that a billiard room or a racquet court—to quote two recent examples—should be converted into small homes. We may as well welcome change, if we can. What. many of us fear is that the change is too haphazard, too hugger-mugger, that the destruction of houses may affect the rural.charm of England only less adversely than the erection of pink roofed bungalows, jaundiced petrol pumps,.and jerry-built tea shacks. Trees are destroyed as well as brick walls, and none is planted in their stead.
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