An Historian's View
The whole subject of National Parks is to be discussed on October 16th by Professor G. M. Trevelyan at the annual conference of - the C.P.R.E. at Leamington. Preservation owes him a great debt. The same cannot be said of those who sold the most Shakespearean bit of England left along the road from Leamington to Stratford-on-Avon. His motion is that the Government set up without delay a National Park Authority. This, of course, implies the creation of a string of parks. The ideal is not unattractive ; but some of us have an uncomfortable fear that the scheme is urban rather than rural, that the object is not so much the preservation of wild beauty and wild life as the provision of labelled footpaths, hostels, motor parks, picnic grounds and—save the mark !- gazebos for occasional trippers from towns. The other principal subject to be discussed at Leamington is the green belt, not the London green belt only, but green belts in general. There again is a worthy ideal ; but it was disturbing to find the members of a Parish Council far outside the circumference of London's green belt clamouring to be included. They wished to purchase their local commons in order presumably to attract more urban visitors. There is some danger of the fact being forgotten that the countryman, too, enjoys the country, especially " the deep, deep country," the unharnessed country.
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