11 FEBRUARY 1905, Page 3

We desire to associate ourselves with the timely and vigorous

protest uttered by the Times on Tuesday against the destruc- tion of the Avon Bank between Bristol and the sea. The action of the Corporation, with the sanction of the Board of Trade, in permitting quarrying to be carried on unchecked on the face of Leigh Woods is all the more surprising since, while it is seriously affecting the value of house property in Clifton, the stone which is extracted and used for repairing the Bristol roads, though cheap, is of inferior quality. It is further pointed out that, if quarrying must go on, it can be carried out in the rear of the cliff, thus reducing the injury to the river-bank to a minimum; while if the river-bank were bought outright, at the owner's price, " the burden would be scarcely felt by Bristol, and the city would reap untold advantage in the salvation of a strikingly beautiful suburb." Surely the citizens of a city whose fame is " so ancient and so eminent among us" will not let surroundings among the most beautiful possessed by any British town be destroyed rather than find the money required.