[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, I fear your
jubilation over the letter from " Two Aldermen of the Borough of Harrogate " is somewhat mis- placed. I have the misfortune to reside in Harrogate, a town which by nature would respond excellently to a display of that civic sense you so rightly applaud, but there can be few towns in which natural beauties are more thoroughly desecrated. One of the natural beauty spots at Harrogate for years past has been that beautiful avenue of trees, part of the old forest of Knaresborough, leading from the Stray down Wetherby Lane, up Hookstone Road and back to the Stray by Paley Lane, which has been probably the most popular promenade for both residents and visitors.
Possibly the Harrogate Corporation could not prevent the land falling into the hands of speculative builders, but they could at least have displayed a modicum of civic sense, and a slight appreciation of natural beauty, by insisting that such houses as were erected should not too grievously detract from the charm of the neighbourhood, instead of which, the Corporation have permitted the erection of most unedifying dwellings, many of the bungalow class, and hopelessly crowded together. They have pursued precisely the same policy along what was once a very pretty road leading along the north side of the far-famed Valley Gardens, and a still more glaring example of the Corporation's atrocious taste in domestic architecture is to be seen in the houses now being erected along Harlow Hill. Anyone who knew Harrogate before the War and revisited it to-day would be appalled at the altogether unnecessary ugliness for which the Corporation must be held responsible.—I am, 'Sir, &c., E. MILES-KNOT LP% Woodroyd, Woodlands, Harrogate.
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