A MEMORIAL GIFT TO THE NATIONAL TRUST. [TO TRH EDITOR
Or TRH " SPECTATOR:1
SIR,—Your readers will be glad to know that at the last meeting of the National Trust we accepted an important gift of an open space, which has the added interest of being our first possession of a memorial to a brave man fallen in the war. The donor, Mr. A. V. Paton, makes only two stipulations. First, that it shall be preserved for the use of the public in its undisturbed natural beauty; and secondly, that there shall be placed on it a single stone in memory of the death of his brother, Captain Morton Brown Paton, 10th South Lancashire Regiment, attached to the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers, who fell gallantly fighting for his country at Acid Baba.
The gift is a very opportune one, for it calls attention to a method of memorials to the heroic dead which we hope may be multiplied to the lasting honour of the fallen, and to the constant use and enjoyment of generations yet to be. It consists of twenty-six acres of wild moorland, within seven miles of the Liverpool Town Hall, at Thurstaston Hill, Cheshire. From it a glorious view is obtainable
of the estuary of the Dee and the blue hills beyond, and also of the picturesque rolling country towards the Mersey. It is adjacent te- a public recreation-ground, which, in the custody of the Birkenhead Urban Council, has been wisely lot alone and preserved in its state of natural beauty. The National Trust decided to ask the same-- Council to be custodians of this additional pleasure-ground.—We • are, Sir, &c., H. D. RAWNSLEY.
25 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W. S. H. HAMER.
[We have been hoping that this most beautiful and appropriate form of memorial for a gallant soldier would be much used, and we are delighted to record the first example We are very glad to note that there is to be a memorial stone, and trust that it will set forth the details of the action in which the officer commemorated died. In no better way can the past be made known to succeeding generations.—En. Spectator.]
Previous page
