The dispute about the design for the proposed neW bridge
over the Thames at Richmond has brought the Royal Fine Arts Commission into action. The design is for a bridge with fortress-like towers, which are disliked by the local authorities of Surrey but are commended by the local authorities of Middlesex, on the opposite bank. Apparently the Surrey objectors yielded under protest, but they took courage again when the Royal Fine Arts Commission intervened. " The -river scenery at Richmond on the one side," says the Commission, "'and of the historic deer park on the other is calm and. essen- tially English in character. The slow-moving stream and the wide expanse of meadowland studded with fine trees combine to form a peaceful landscape with which the bridge should • harmonize." We wonder whether some member of the Commission had been rereading the fine description of the Richmond scene in The Heart of Midlothian.
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