COUNTRY LIFE
A PRETTY example of village pride deserves recording and deserves support. Not long since the ancient elm-trees on the village green of Preston in Hertfordshire were felled to the scandal of the neighbourhood. The felling of the famous lime avenues in the Quarry at Shrewsbury did not arouse more bitter opposition. The elms were first planted to celebrate the coronation of George III, so they gave an historical date. Roused by this calamity to a singularly pleasant and beautiful village, the village people of Preston have succeeded in buying the manorial rights in the village green and have vested them in trustees appointed by the Village Meeting. At the same time, they have made plans, in collaboration with the County Association, and with encouragement from the County Council, to replant the green with appropriate trees. It is hoped that the £m° necessary for this beneficent work will be subscribed by lovers of village greens in general, and perhaps such organisations as " The Men of the Trees." It would be a wise movement if other villages (proud of their village green as French gardeners of their tapis vent) would get into their own hands such manorial or other rights. It is worth notice that the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who have owned a multiplicity of manorial rights, have of late years shown a readiness to sell at moderate rates. In my neighbourhood one large and one small common have been sold for £600 and £5o respectively, but neither of them to village authorities. Preston, near Hitchin, may provide a pioneer example.
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