and more vested
in those who regard it as luxury could have enabled this sacrifice of
farming to sport to continue so long. It is the source of continual
complaint and resentment on the part of the farmers, who are only
pacified by allowance being made to them out of their rent for damage
done by game.

The expense of keeping up large places becomes heavier every year,
owing to the constantly-increasing rates of wages, etc., and in
some cases imposes a grievous burden, eating heavily into income
and leaving men with thousands of acres very poor balances at their
bankers to meet the Christmas bills. Those who have large families
to provide for, and get seriously behindhand, usually shut up or let
their places--which latter is easily done if they be near London or
in a good shooting country--and recoup on the Continent; but of
late years prices there have risen so enormously that this plan of
restoring the equilibrium between income and expenditure is far less
satisfactory than it was forty years ago. The encumbrances on many
estates are very heavy. A nobleman who twenty years ago succeeded to
an entailed estate, with a house almost gutted, through having had
an execution put in it, and a heavy debt--some of which, though not
legally bound to liquidate, he thought it his duty to settle--acted
in a very spirited manner which few of his order have the courage to
imitate. He dropped his title, went abroad and lived for some years
on about three thousand dollars a year. He has now paid off all
his encumbrances, and has a clear income, steadily increasing, of
a hundred thousand dollars a year. In another case a gentleman
accomplished a similar feat by living in a corner of his vast mansion
and maintaining only a couple of servants.

In Ireland, owing to the lower rates of wages and far greater--in the
remoter parts--cheapness of provisions, large places can be maintained
at considerably less cost, but they are usually far less well kept,
partly owing to their being on an absurdly large scale as compared
with the means of the proprietors, and partly from the slovenly habits
of the country. And in some cases people who could afford it will not
spend the money. There are, however, notable exceptions. Powerscourt
in Wicklow, the seat of Viscount Powerscourt, and Woodstock in
Kilkenny, the beautiful demesne of Mr. Tighe, are probably in as
perfect order as any seats in England. A countryman was sent over to
the latter one day w