PROTECTING HERTFORDSHIRE.
A most charming book, With seductive maps and yet more seductive suggestions, has been published on behalf of the
Hertfordshire County Council ; and it is likely to mark a definite stage' in the conservation of the charms of rural England. The first book of its sort—for the whole subject is new—appeared in Kent, where, thanks largely to Lord and Lady Miler's beneficent energy, the planning of a wide area especially threatened by industrial desecration, was co- operatively discussed by s large number of local Councils and planning specialists. The Hertfordshire book takes a rather wider sweep. It treats of the whole county as a self-contained unit, and advises precisely how it should be mapped out. It is reasonable to expect that the County Council will carry into effect without delay a number of this suggestions. It will certainly make a regional plan of the county to the end of preserving a wide belt of wild and agricultural land from all attacks of the builder or other desecrator. It is interesting that special emphasis is laid on river valleys. Hertfordshire wishes to preserve its Lea Valley as Berkshire its Thames. The Hertfordshire book owes a good deal to the preachers of the garden-city idea ; and, as most counties engaged in self-defence, to the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, from which many of the basic ideas have emerged. It should have the direct support of all lovers of rural England.
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