10 FEBRUARY 1894, Page 18

EXMOOR.

[To TIM EDITOR OP TEl "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—I venture to invoke your powerful aid. Some time since you remarked that before long Somersetshire would be the only county unspoiled by railways. On Thursday, February 15th, at half-past 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the proprietors of the Great Western Railway will be asked to approve of a Bill to make a new railway in Devonshire. It is believed that this is the first step in the scheme announced last summer in the Somersetshire papers for a railway from the Barnstaple and Ilfracombe line to the Minehead line. Such a scheme, if carried out, must ruin the wildest and most secluded parts of Exmoor and its surrounding country,—the home of the red-deer. The present coach-routes afford cheap and ample accommodation for visitors, and such a line can never pay. In the interests of all lovers of Nature, I beg your valued influence to stop such a scheme.—I am, Sir, &c., EDMUND A. B.A.GSHAWE.

13 St. James's Square, Bath, February 3rd.