page_title: Land and Water
section_title: Land and Water: The World's War
hierarchical_section_title: Land and Water / Land and Water: The World's War
caption_attribution_description: English: The County Gentleman and Land &amp; Water November 14, 1914 Cover from copy at Archive.org https://archive.org/stream/countygentlemanl01belluoft#page/n4/mode/1up
context_page_description: Land and Water was the title of a British magazine best known for its commentary on the First World War 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.
context_section_description: 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.   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 writer Hilaire Belloc. 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", 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, 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 as writer on naval issues.
  After the end of the war, the journal continued covering world events, such as the Treaty of Versailles and the Russian Civil War, where Belloc strongly supported an intervention to crush the Bolsheviks. However, in 1920 it ceased publication, and was absorbed by The Field, thus returning to its sporting roots.  The Field is still published today.
caption: Cover, The County Gentleman and Land & Water 14 November 1914
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