The Lakes
With this much reservation we must all acknowledge that the Lakes demand peculiar treatment. They are alongside a teeming population though themselves very sparsely populated. Only some part of the Pennines can compare with them in this regard. They are a geographical unit capable of accurate definition. It would be a national disaster, in consideration of the number of people who enjoy them in holiday time, if they were either denied to the public or subjected to the plague of barbed wire and the bungalow. They have suffered even from the Government itself, in the persons of the Forestry Commissioners, who prefer their conifers to look like streets in a geometric town. The Lakes need a strong defence and united treatment. If their object is best attained under the label of a National Park then let the National Park come into being. A great regional plan and efficient wardens are the first necessities. It is probable that a wide consistent plan cannot anywhere be assured without the compelling hand of the nation itself, though the county councils, if they had the goodwill, could perform the function in the Lakes as in Snowdonia and Devon and Cornwall.
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