Country Life
SALVING ENGLAND.
The organized endeavour to preserve. or salve, rural England has begun to show a number of conspicuous successes in many counties, especially in the rather unexpected counties of Cornwall, Devon, and Leice,ster. Cornwall and Devon, through their excellent Lords-Lieutenant are working to some extent in co-operation, as is necessary, if much is to be done, owing to the utterly amazing increase of motor traffic in the South-West ; and almost all the worst horrors spring up in the wake of the motor : pink bungalows, blatant garages, demon pumps, gimcrack tea-shacks and scenic advertisements. The motor car is, or should be an aid to civilization. It utters the poetry of pleasant motion and enables us to visualize and understand the scenery of our own country as we could not before. But as E. V. L. wrote long ago, if I remember the words accurately : " We grant the poetry, the romance ; But look behind the veil ; Suppose that while the motor pants, You miss the nightingale."
The very speed of the car has made the county—much more the Rural District Council—too small a unit for adequate defence. The counties must group themselves.
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