28 OCTOBER 1949, Page 15

Four Paradises During the year the Council for the Promotion

of Field Studies has proved itself to be of really national value, and its work is likely to be greatly enlarged to include younger students. The four chief centres— at Flatford Mill, at Dale Fort, Pembrokeshire, at Juniper Hall (once famous as the home of French emigres) and at Malham, in Yorkshire (a centre in part supported by Leeds University)—have all attracted a full and steady stream of students, from schools, universities, training centres, the Colonies and the general public. Flatford, for example, will have entertained some 1,500 by the end of the year, for the centres are open— and popular—even in the least attractive months. Some students were already good naturalists (but became much better before they left); some " incapable of identifying a buttercup or too frightened to touch a tiny crab." Anyone even remotely connected with education should read the annual report, which is attractively illustrated (C.P.F.S., 10 Exhibition Road, S.W.7). The beneficent influence of a week at one of these centres has astonished even those who expected most from the movement ; and the enjoyment has been obvious. Comparisons, of course, are odorous ; but Dale Fort, the most remote, has been uniquely fortunate not only in the central site but in facilities for visiting the bird paradise of Skokholas Island.