VANDALISM IN THE NEW FOREST.
LTO TER EDITOR Or THE "SPECTATOR."'
SIR,—The New Forest is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and valued of our national possessions. Every one who has visited it knows that it has two distinctive features : its lovely woodland scenery and its wide stretches of moor, purple with heather in summer and yellow with gorse in spring. During the last three weeks these moors, by an order which can only be termed barbarous, have been so disfigured as to make driving in the New Forest a pain instead of a pleasure. Broad strips are to be burnt on each side of every road and by-road. The work is far advanced. Heather and grass are burnt black, charred skeletons are all that remain of the yellow gorse bushes, and in many places fine old hollies and thorns which can never be replaced have been allowed to burn. The beautiful road from Stony Cross to Picket Post, the moor above Holmsley Station, the corner near Burley School, are only a few of the many places which have been thus irretrievably spoilt. For the thousands who visit the Forest at Easter and at other holidays, and who see it only from the road, half the beauty of the district has been destroyed; and what guarantee is there that the official who has been capable of such an act will not contrive to destroy the remaining half? We are informed that the burning is intended to put a stop to wilful and accidental fires. Surely, Sir, the remedy is a strange one. Are we to suppose that the authorities entrusted with the preservation of this national park cannot devise anything less drastic than the disfigurement of the Forest roads ? Fifty miles of these have already been burnt, but it is in the hope of miring what remains that I venture to appeal to the influence of your well-known paper.—
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