A GREEN GIRDLE FOR LONDON.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.']
SIR,—In common, I believe, with many of your readers, allow me to thank you for your delightful article on this subject in the Spectator of May 18th, and to mention that, as papers describing a plan for surrounding London and other large towns with a belt of 'rural industrial villages" were handed to a friend to consider some weeks ago, your article makes me wish now to make two suggestions : (1) that to Mr. Bull's proposal for a "girdle of greenery" around London should be added one for establishing the said villages, which by their gardens, orchards, recreation-grounds (and perhaps in some places their "three acres and a cow "), would secure the greenery, would not only provide the carpenters, &c., needed for the villages, but would also be an object-lesson offered for relieving the overcrowded towns. This blending of a few handicraftsmen with agricultural workers, and in some cases milting both employments, would have a beneficial influence both on the mind and body of the occupants of the villages.. But (2) may I ask if in your estimate of cost of land you have not put it at an extravagantly high figure, one thousand pounds per acre ? Why should the promoters of schemes for counteracting the pathetic and terrible evils which have been denounced alike by eminent men in every rank of life be expected to pay about double the price paid by wealthy railway companies on an average? The English Legislature has shown during the last century a praise- worthy disposition to regard favourably the claims of the nation to secure land for purposes of public utility ; and I venture to believe that the securing the "green girdle" and the "rural industrial villages" as the "possession for ever" of the English people is at least as important a use to which English land can be applied as building any second- rate railway. Pray let us not be encumbered at this critical period of our endeavours to secure "room to live and grow in" by any false estimate of the expense for obtaining deliverance from evils of which the" Black Hole of Calcutta" was only a very temporary shadow. Let the true friends of the people who have risen up to effect this deliverance meet with grateful encouragement from public-spirited men like yourself and those multitudes whom you influence.—I atn, Sir, &c.,
Sydenhain :n Oxon, Wallingford.
HENRY SOLLY.
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