COUNTRY LIFE
A National Park
It is rather surprising perhaps that the Friends of the Lakes and their Honorary Treasurer, that most charming of writers, Mr. H. H. Symonds, are putting forth a special plea for converting the Lake District into a National Park. What is a National Park ? The phrase had its origin in spacious continents inhabited by great wild beasts, many of which were in some danger of extinction. Banff, with its bears and wild sheep, Yellowstone Park with its buffaloes, Kruger Park with its soo lions, are the outstanding examples. National Parks in the African and American sense are of course impossible in this little crowded island. What the votaries of English or Welsh National Parks mean is a district to which the public shall have untrammelled access. Access is the essential attribute ; and access may be hostile to the idea of sanctuary. The essential National Park in this sense is not any one district : it is the coast. The cardinal sin against the public is the prohibition of the coast, whether or no it is accompanied by the erection of ugly buildings. On the ideal of a free coastline let all lovers of England focus their energies. With a free coast- line no district will be favoured at the cost of another.
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