3 JANUARY 1931, Page 18

ENGLISH SCENERY.

Another aspect of England and of Britain is presented by Lord Crawford and Balcarres in as charming an essay as any countryman could desire. He calls it The Personality of English Scenery (Oxford Press. Privately printed), and its artistic value gains emphasis from the happy fact that Lord Crawford is chairman, a both witty and wise chairman, of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England. He is afraid that our scenery will presently be robbed of one of its chief glories, the native forest tree. Will he not then stir the C.P.R.E. to save the Warwick Road entrance into Stratford- on-Avon, which is being ruthlessly shorn of its trees, since Mr. Trevelyan rashly sold his estate to a body of land deve- lopers, a phrase that really means land destroyers ? There is one particular oak on the top of a grassy pedestal in Snitterfield, that is worth, there in its place, a thousand times more than its felled value.

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