30 JULY 1932, Page 16

THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—There is one aspect of the spoliation of the countryside which has been left unmentioned by your correspondents, namely the wholesale condemnation by the urban and district councils of really picturesque old cottages which are being labelled as " unfit for human habitation " chiefly because they have no " damp-course." A Communistic Act of 1930 is being used as a lever for their destruction. They are weather-tight, picturesque, with excellent gardens, but they are to be replaced by " council cottages," the very name of which connotes drab uniformity of the jerry-builder type, chiefly constructed of breeze-block Belgian bricks and the shoddiest rough- cast.—I am,