THE PRESERVATION OF RUNNYMEDE
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—! write to you in the capacity of Chairman of the Magna Carta Commemoration Committee, one of whose objects is the perpetual conservation for the public of places associated with the grant of Magna Carta ; and this letter has speeia: reference to the place which has the deepest association of all, namely, Runnymede. From time to time there appear in the Press two statements which cause considerable concern to my Committee. The first is a suggestion that Runnymede should be embellished by monuments of various kinds : these vary from temples of Liberty to granite cairns, and are as alien in spirit to Angevin England as could well be imagined. The people of Egham, in which parish Runnymede is situate, view all these sculptural plans with as much instinctive English horror as they would the erection of a petrol filling-station or an ice-cream soda store on the historic meadows.
It is, Sir, an almost marvellous occurrence that Runny- mede should have persisted all down the centuries in very much the same condition as it was in the day of its, momen- tary_ exaltation to permanent glory. The green fields and the ailver Thames recall in their pristine ,freshness the scene as it was on the grant of the Great Charter. Is not this something se11 worth, preserving, and would not future generations rightly curseus as anachronistic vandals if we marred the meadows' slid* with products of the mason's art ? In the ' • - • view of my COrrunittee, the greatest possible monument of Runnymede is Magna Carta itself and its own unchanged simplicity, _
The other suggestion which causes considerable. confusion with regard to the activities of my, Committee is that it is in co-operation or forms part of any other Society. As you will see,from our letter paper our objects are clearly cdefined, and from the inception of our Committee it has always been in entirely 'free and independent Society. The annual Com- memorations, which have created great interest and given, considerable satisfaction, have been solely organized by this Magna Carta Conunemoration Committee.—! am, Sir, &c.,
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