THE IMPROVEMENT OF THLRLMERE SCENERY.

DWELLERS at the English Lakes and those who by fre- quent visits know the valley of Thirlmere will have had rude disappointment during the past few weeks to their ex- pectations of the management by the Corporation of its beau- tiful Lake Country estate.

Five years ago those Who realised how greatly the birch-tree belt and the sweet gale of the primeval moss at Shoulthwaite added charm of foreground to the noblest view of Helvellyn that is obtainable from the main road were grieved beyond words by the sudden destruction of these birches at the dictates of a committee of management, who, in their excess of zeal to turn a moss into arable and meadow land, had not seen that this was quite compatible with the preservation of the lovely birch grove at its northern end.

A great outcry was raised, and, although it was defended at the time by the Chairman of the Waterworks Committee on the ground that Manchester wished to tidy up its property, it was soon seen that a blunder had been committed by destroy- ing the finest nesting place for wild-bird life of a. certain kind, and that the larch saw-fly pest, which suddenly attacked the woods on the estate, had now fewer natural enemies to cope with. A hundred bird-boxes distributed about the property were a very poor equivalent for the natural nesting places that had thus been shortsightedly wiped out.

The comment made at the time was thought to be likely to make the Manchester Corporation more careful of the property which they had acquired under certain conditions relative to the good of the public. One of these conditions, for which we have largely to thank the late Right Hon. W. E. Forster, was that Manchester should be bound, in obtaining its Waterworks Bill, to consider the amenity of the district, and to preserve, as far as possible, its natural beauty. If not expressed in terms, it is, at any rate, the belief in the district that such was implied.

It is fair to say that Manchester did, in the initial stages of its work, carry out this compact faithfully. The spoil banks in connexion with its pipe track were either carted away or carefully sown over with grass or planted out, and latterly trees have been planted which will largely screen from the eye the nakedness of the dam wall, but it was quite evident from the beginning that the idea of leaving well alone, and to consider in the building of walls, or painting of gates, or slating of new buildings the natural materials or colour scheme of the district, was not part of the mind of Manchester, that wished to do all the work it did as "a credit to the municipality," and forgot that its chief credit would lie in maintaining the scenery in its natural condition.

It was not seen, however, till the last few years that the Corporation had determined to use all available land not wanted for pasture for the growth of marketable timber, and it was only within the last two years that an expert woodman was imported. Believing apparently that broad-leaved trees or bard wood trees were anathema, they appear to have determined, under the guidance of Professor Fisher, to plant only larch, spruce, and Scotch fir. They do not seem to have noticed that one of the chief beauties of Helvellyn lay in its long bare slopes of shale and fern, beautiful in summer—much more beautiful in its winter robe of russet and purple, reaching from the level of the mere to heaven.

And what was true of Helvellyn on the eastern side of the lake was also true on the western. The beauty of Armboth Fell descending sheer to the road between Artnbotla House and the dam, was to the minds of many, delightful ia its sense of rest and repose. They forgot that this would be lost as soon as the trees grew to any size, and that on the lake side the larches would soon become a screen that would prevent view of the lake. Still, in certain parts of the eastern road, borne on its high retaining wall, this would • never happen and people would always gaze across Thirlmens to the lovely woodland on the west between Fisher Crag and Bull Crag.

It chanced that part of the western woodland was a very fine oak wood, which in itself is a rarity in the English Lake district. It was the only oak wood upon the Thirlmere pro- perty. The trees, for the most part self-sown, are believed to have been the last remnants of the primeval oak forest which tradition says once extended from the Raise to Keswick. Beautiful in spring and summer, it was more glorious in autumn, and since it retained its leafage when the larch, cast- ing its spines, gave a sense of death to the landscape, this oak wood, with its warm colour and its lingering leafage, carried vitality far on into the winter months, and long before the leaf came was flushed with the tender colour of the new spring.

Birds and squirrels haunted this woodland. It was not too dense to allow of every tree having some individuality of its own. Largely self-sown, these trees were picturesque as only such trees can be. It was a great refreshment to all who passed on the western road to find themselves in a shadowy oak grove reaching up to heaven on one side of them and falling down towards the lake on the other. Some of the finest larches and Scotch firs on the estate were features of the woodland.

It chanced that atone end of this wood, the most beautiful ghyll upon the property, called Launchey or Lancelot Ghyll, went singing down to the lake through mossy boulders, each one of them a study, and on the banks of this ghyll these fine oak trees grew with abundant shadow and invitation to lovers of a mountain torrent to rest and gaze. None of these trees overhung the lake; indeed for the greater length of the wood a fellside pasture intervened between the woodland and the water. There was little chance of their leafage ever being blown into the lake, because the heights of .Armboth Fell and Fisher Crag protested them from the prevailing wind and allowed their leaves to fall quietly round about their trunks.

Suddenly these trunks were seen scored by the woodcutter's knife. The one or two people who noticed this appealed at once to the Waterworks Committee, but they appealed in vain, and towards the end of November at a very quiet time, when few, if any, pass that way, the timber merchant to whom the standing trees had been sold went to work, and within three weeks the beauty of centuries and, the possible beauty for

centuries more, was swept away. _ .

An outcry naturally arose in the Northern press. The only answer given was that this was part of the five years' scheme of afforestation which the Corporation, under expert advice, had set its hand to, and this notwithstanding the fact that the expert, in his report, had said that he understood that the Corporation wished to improve its old woods and plantations, and in face of the fact also that the Chairman of the Water- works Committee, Sir Bosdin Leech, averred that "this still represented the wishes of his Committee."

To the charge of wanton destruction of a unique piece of woodland the only answer given was that the Corporation, for every tree cut down, had planted ten others ; they did not say that these were all conifers, and planted in other parts of the estate. And to the suggestion that they had destroyed one of the chief glories of their possession, the Lord Mayor of Manchester, at a public meeting, asserted that if Ruskin could return to life again, he would say that, so far from damaging the scenery round Thirlmere, they had improved it I It had been suggested, by one of those who raised the eutery that it was possible that oak being at a fair price in the market, the Manchester Waterworks Committee had felt compelled to realise their oak wood to set off the loss of money on the agricultural experiment at Shoulthwaite Moss. But this was denied by the Chairman. It was not for money but on the advice of an expert forester that this cruel destruc- tion of the chief beauty of Launchey Ghyll had taken place. ~ We have," said the Lord Mayor, "to deal with the scenery there in the way most suitable for requirements. If we have cut down old trees that are of no use tons, we have planted ten new ones for every one we have cut down."

The trouble really seems to lie in the fact that the chief charm of a well-wooded property, which must always lie in its variety, is either not being realised or is of set purpose ignored by the Manchester Corporation. The idea of the use of a glorious oak grove to the heart and soul of man has not been dreamed of. There was no place on the whole circum- ference of the lake where broad-leaved trees could possibly be said to be leas likely to damage in any way their water supply. Under guidance of the expert they had shaved the little islets and promontories bare of all trees (this does not appear to have been done at Loch Katrine), and they might well be justified, for there trees might shed their leaves into the lake. But here at Launchey Ghyll there was no apparent justification for such a eanel massacreing of the innocents as has taken place.

Not only has the beauty of Launchey Ghyll been destroyed, but so inconsiderately has the tree-cutter been let loose upon the oak wood that a newly-opened stone quarry for road metal, which before was fairly bidden from view by leafy screen, is now exposed in its nakedness to all who pass by on either side of the lake The man with the axe has not only been at work in the oak. forest, but has been busy at intervals all the way along from Bull Crag to the Thirlmere Dam, and the result of his labour may be seen in the trimming officlose to the trunk, of all intermediate boughs between the ground and the head of the tree. The grace and beauty of the trees along the road has thus been marred, and though it is possible that the timber merchant may eventually give a larger price for each one of them, the delight they gave to all who passed by, which was beyond price, has gone.

It makes one despair of municipal management of estates in such a beauty spot as Thirlmere was, and might have been to all time. A Corporation that believes that its work in life is to improve scenery instead of leaving that scenery severely alone will probably not stop here. We may not live to see plaster casts of nymph and dryad imported to atone for the loss of this venerable woodland, but those of us who know bow delicately handled all natural scenery must be by those who are bent on improving it, and how every tree tells in the land- scape and every piece of woodland makes or mars it, must shudder to think what the future has in store for us, if the Lord Mayor and his Waterworks Committee really think that Ruskin, should he return to life, would say that instead of damaging the scenery the Corporation had now improved it