Ken Wood has been saved for London, and last Saturday
the King' performed what was evidently to him the• very pleasant task of making the public free of this magnificent addition to its open spaces. A striking passage in the King's speech was that in which he appealed to those who may enjoy Ken Wood to refrain from disfiguring such a place of beauty by littering the ground with paper and other rubbish. Alas ! it is recorded in the newspapers that the customary litter began to appear immediately afterwards in its usual proportions. What apparently ineradicable perversity is it that causes a great many persons to wish to visit a beautiful place and yet to dis- figure it even while they are enjoying it ? We know, however, that public fashions can be changed and that evil habits can be bodily removed—for instance, the habit of spitting in railway trains and similar places has practically come to an end. But evidently in some cases the process of reform is a long one.
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