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''Land and Water'' was the title of a British magazine best known for its commentary on the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
and its aftermath. The title was also used in earlier magazines about country sporting life. Tracing the title is challenging due to limited availability and miscataloguing of the magazines.


Title history of ''Land and Water''

The
British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
's catalogue traces the magazine that became ''Land and Water'' back to 1862, with the founding of the "town and country newspaper" known as ''The Sporting Gazette''. According to the British Library's tracing, the magazine continued in 1879 as ''The Sporting Gazette and Agricultural Journal'', in 1880 as ''The County Gentleman, Sporting Gazette and Agricultural Journal'', then in 1903 as ''The County Gentleman'', in 1905 as ''The County Gentleman and Land and Water". However, between 1866 and 1905 at least, ''Land and Water'' existed as a separate title – "Land and Water, The Landed Interest, Field Sports, & County Families Organ", and featured a mix of advertisements and articles ranging from London clubs to venues and dates for hare coursing. The Saturday 17 July 1897 issue was marked Vol LXIV No 1643. The issue dated Saturday 9 February 1901 was Vol LXXXI no 1,829, and bore the same header although by then it was printed in blue ink rather than black. The earliest mention of a ''Land and Water'' magazine in the British Library catalogue is for "a journal of field sport, sea, river fisheries and practical natural history, incorporated with The Country Gentleman", beginning in 1866. (A "nature magazine" of the same name was started by Irish fishery reformer William Joshua Ffennell in that same year.) It is unclear whether "Country Gentleman" in the catalogue indicates a typographical error or a separate publication; there were other magazines that used that title, including the London-based ''Country Gentleman's Magazine'', and the American ''
Country Gentleman ''The Country Gentleman'' (1852–1955) was an American agricultural magazine founded in 1852 in Albany, New York, by Luther Tucker.Frank Luther Mott (1938A History of American Magazines 1850–1865"The Country Gentleman", page 432, Harvard Univ ...
'', a popular magazine of the time. While many reference sources today continue to confuse "Country Gentleman" and "County Gentleman", page scans from the start of World War I clearly show the title ''The County Gentleman and Land & Water''. Another wholly unrelated magazine sharing the same title was published by Amy Dencklau from 1974 to 2017 in Fort Dodge, Iowa.Dencklau, Amy. "Land and Water - Our Journey." ''Land and Water'', Vol. 61, No. 10, March/April 2017, pp. 8-9. Archived fro
the original.
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''Land and Water'': The World's War

In 1914, the magazine's coverage shifted to World War I. The change was initiated by James Murray "Jim" Allison, then advertisement manager of ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
''. Until 1916, the magazine would continue to be published as ''County Gentleman and Land & Water'', but issues from the start of the war onward were later bound in volumes titled ''Land and Water'', subtitled "The World's War". Issues of the magazine from 1916 onward were simply titled ''Land and Water''. The World War I ''Land and Water'' was edited by the well-known
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
writer
Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...
. Editing it was the only steady employment ever held by Belloc, who otherwise "lived by his pen". Belloc made numerous trips to the Western Front on behalf of the paper, and also collected information from well-placed friends in the ranks of the Army. The journal gained quick popularity and within a short time of being launched its circulation passed the hundred thousand mark. Belloc, always a forthright and bellicose writer, excelled in warlike editorials and stirring articles. He had always had considerable dislike for the Germans, going back to his French antecedents and to having served in the French Army at the time when French bitterness over the loss of Alsace-Lorraine was at its peak. During the war, this was very much in tune with prevailing British attitudes. In various articles Belloc characterised the war being fought as a duel between "Pagan Barbarism" and "
Christian Civilization Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the History of Western civilization, history and formation of Western society. Throughout history of Christianity, its long history, the Christian Church, Church has been a major source of so ...
", stating that the nominally Christian German Empire was ruled by “Prussianism”, which he later characterised as “an anti-Christian attitude which takes the form of an Army”. He expressed regret that numerous fellow-Catholics were fighting on the opposite side, especially from thoroughly Catholic Austria, stating his belief that Austria’s local troubles had been used by the Germans as a springboard to launch a World War. The journal was charged with highly inflated estimates of enemy casualties, and Belloc's over-optimistic estimates of when the war would end with an Allied victory were several times proved premature – which did not harm its popularity. On one occasion during the war Belloc is known to have confidentially told
G. K. Chesterton Gilbert Keith Chesterton (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English author, philosopher, Christian apologist, journalist and magazine editor, and literary and art critic. Chesterton created the fictional priest-detective Father Brow ...
, with whom he was friendly, that "it is sometimes necessary to lie damnably in the interests of the nation". During the war the magazine also employed
Arthur Pollen Arthur Joseph Hungerford Pollen (13 September 1866 – 28 January 1937) was an English journalist, businessman, and commentator on naval affairs who devised a new computerised fire-control system for use on battleships prior to the First World W ...
as writer on naval issues. After the end of the war, the journal continued covering world events, such as the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
and the
Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
, where Belloc strongly supported an intervention to crush the
Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...
. However, in 1920 it ceased publication, and was absorbed by '' The Field'', thus returning to its sporting roots. ''The Field'' is still published today.


References


External links


''Land and Water'' digital archive, 1914-1918
at
The Online Books Page The Online Books Page is an index of e-text books available on the Internet. It is edited by John Mark Ockerbloom and is hosted by the library of the University of Pennsylvania. The Online Books Page lists over 2 million books and has several fe ...
via
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and the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Land and Water 1914 establishments in the United Kingdom 1920 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Defunct sports magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1914 Magazines disestablished in 1920 World War I publications