Our Greatest Sanctuary " Within the space of a year
more than 2,000 acres of the Broads country have been made safe for all time as a nature reserve and for the enjoyment of the public." This proud claim is- made in the annual and fifteenth report of the Pilgrims Trust. In general, the Trust, which now controls a fund of some L2,75o,000, has done rather more for urban than country needs ; but its quick and generous response to a plea by the Norfolk Naturalists' Trust is outstanding. It has subscribed the purchase price of Major Buxton's- Horsey Estate along- side Hickling, the greatest of British sanctuaries, which itself was en- dangered by the death of Lord Desborough, its owner, early in 1945. Now the whole of this naturalists' paradise is safe. The place, with its charming waterways, gives a good example of the possibility, some- times denied, of squaring public access with natural history preservation. Even the furtive bittern and bearded tit (which I have watched at their nests in Hickling) are undisturbed by the wherries of holiday- makers. They certainly do less harm than the tribe of insidious collec- tors, against whom the wardens and watchers wage continual guerrilla warfare.
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