THE ISLAND OF IONA : A PROTEST.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J
SIR,—To all who have ever enjoyed the privilege of a sojourn on that enchanted little island, and to many who have never been so fortunate, the news that Iona and the Ross of Mull are for sale will come with an inexpressible shock. The advertisement in Country Life of April 11th has doubtless come under the
notice of many of your readers, and before this reaches you an appeal may very likely have appeared in your columns.
But if such should not be the case, let me quote the relentless terms in which the attractions of this home of St. Columba are commended to the notice of the company promoter and the building speculator, even its hallowed associations, which should for ever preserve it from desecration, being offered up as inducements to the jerry-builder. It is described as— "Comprising over 30,000 acres, including considerable wealth in marble of a high artistic and decorative value, and rich red granite in inexhaustible quarries close to the sea ; whilst there is tertiary coal of good quality near the surface its rich attractive lands might be subdivided and disposed of at very con- siderable profit Iona has over 2,000 acres, is the most famous island in the history of the Christian Church ; it was the cradle of Christianity in the North, the sepulchre of many Kings and Scottish chiefs, and owing to its equable and natural salubrity of climate, its rich store of legendary and other lore, and the magnificent landscape and sea views, is unique."
Assuredly its attractions are not overstated, and, one might add, its silver sands provide the last feature that could be required to convert its noble solitude into the
cheerful degradation of an up-to-date watering-place. To open a refreshment-bar in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey would shock a greater number, but could hardly be a greater desecration. But surely we may hope that a fund may be quickly raised to save " this precious stone set in the silver sea" from the fate which threatens it. To properly conserve the character of the place the purchase should not be confined to the island of Iona, but should include a belt of land, with its rose-coloured rocks, on the opposite shore. I should gladly make what little effort lay in my power to add to such a fund from this side of the Atlantic.
[We have not seen the advertisement to which our corre- spondent alludes, but we share with him the hope that the island may be preserved for public uses. Could not the National Trust, which has done such splendid work in the preservation of places of natural beauty and historic interest, take the matter up ? But while agreeing with our correspondent in his desire to make the island public property, we must dissociate our- selves from even seeming to show sympathy with the very unjust and ill-considered view sometimes put forward in these cases, that because a landowner happens to possess a beautiful or historic piece of land he has no right to sell it. He has every right to do so, and we have no patience with people who are aesthetically and historically emotional at other people's expense. If a landowner decides, on economic or other grounds, that he must sell, it is monstrously unjust to perse-
cute him merely because the property he is probably com- pelled to sell is beautiful. If the public want, as we hope they do want, to preserve beautiful places, they Must pay for them fairly, and not blackmail the owners into an unwilling pecuniary sacrifice.—ED. Spectator.]
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