No act of local preservation has been more ardently and
indeed more wisely carried out than the salvation of the parts of Stoke Poges especially hallowed to the poet Gray. It is the fashion to belittle the " Elegy " as sentimental verse, monotonous in stress and unvaried by special observation. The critics, perhaps, forget the date at which it was written and the world-wide influence of the spirit that inspired it, However inadequately, it seems to me to express a most English something with a most English sentiment. Whatever we think of Gray's verse, we all agree that Gray's home and county is as English as anything in England and, alas ! as severely threatened. The local effort at Stoke Poges has been extended by the C.P.R.E. to the whole of the county, or at any rate that part of it called the Penn Country ; and it is hoped that a wide and thorough preservation plan will be strictly administered.
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