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THE UTILITY OF MOTOR VEHICLES
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more like Mrs. Partington than they could be persuaded to believe.

To come to other country pursuits, both for shooting and fishing, rapidity of transport will do wonders. You have often, for instance, in Scotland a lodge near your forest where the stalking is good, and possibly a few brown trout in the burn below. But ten miles away, perhaps over a good road, there is an excellent sea trout or salmon river which is only accessible after a good deal of organisation, and if the road is hilly, the expenditure of an hour or an hour and a half of time. The new mode of locomotion will make river, loch, and forest accessible from the same centre. Moreover, many places in Scotland which are beyond ordinary driving distance from the station, thirty or forty miles away, will not be so cut off from the outer world as at present, and your 'Times' will be only one day instead of three days late. On precipitous roads, if your horse backs you have frequently a very nasty moment or two; but motor-cars do not shy, neither do they back unless you wish them to do so. Proverbially, once more, there is nothing so uncertain as fishing. You may have a good day and wish to stay till the very latest moment, or the water may be out of order, the fish not on the rise, and you may find it desirable to alter your whole day's plans. If you have driven a long distance the horses must have rest, and very often have been put up at a farm^some way from the water, whereas the motor is left on the road at the spot nearest the stream, and should you decide in favour of some other kind of sport, or a return home, you can change the rod for the gun, or rejoin your wife, go back to your garden, or possibly to 'bridge' or 'ping-pong.'

For ordinary partridge- and pheasant-shooting in England motors have already taken their place as practical vehicles; and I may here remark that it is all-important that we should not lead motor manufacturers to imagine their cars are only to be used in the summer-time, when the roads are good and when you can arrive at the end of your journey with your paint showing in all its glory. For country work the car ought to be