For over half a century the Society for the Protection
of Ancient Buildings (20 Buckingham Street, Adelphi, W.C. 2) has been carrying on its. work, and its fifty-third Annual Report (28. 6d.) is informing and encouraging. Private owners of picturesque buildings that need repair but should not be destroyed seem as a rule to respond courteously to the Society's pleading. Local Councils are far less open to reason : as the report states, the East Sussex County Council is de- stroying Newcastle House, Lewes, and Battersea Borough Council the very fine Principal's House of St. John's College, which was designed by Wren or by a good pupil of his. The photographs of buildings before and after judicious repair are most instinctive. They should convince hesitating owners of old property that the aesthetic and the commercial argu- ments often coincide. Vandalism does not pay in the long run.
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