I hope that the coffers of the National Trust will
bulge as the result of Harold Nicolson's broadcast appeal last Sunday. The more one sees of what the Trust is doing and has done the more one deplores its inability to do more for lack of funds. There seems to be a strange failure to understand that when a large and historic house is giVen or bequeathed to the Trust what is actually acquired is more often a liability than an asset, for the cost of upkeep can be formidable. Sometimes part of the house can be let, as in the case, for example, of Polesden Lacey ; and sometimes the whole house, when what is of chief value to the public is the grounds. But it is obvious that the Trust cannot keep its present properties in order, much less accept new responsibilities, without public support. As chairman of a small local Trust committee whose expenditure persistently exceeds its income I can endorse all Mr. Micawber's views on that subject. These observations may remind some who heard my distinguished colleague on Sunday night and whose intentions (like mine) were good, but whose execution of them (like mine) was bad, that the address to send to is 42 Queen Anne's Gate, S.W.1.
Previous page
