Decorated Roads
A very vigorous discussion took place at the Royal Horticul- tural Hall last week between the C.P.R.E. and the Roads Beautifying Association in order to reconcile what were thought to be the rather different aims and ideals of these two very friendly bodies. Professor Abercrombie, who set the debate in motion, gave the philosophy of the C.P.R.E. A roadside should be treated according to its place in the scenic scheme. It demands one sort of aesthetics in town, one in suburb, and one according to the particular nature of each rural district. This is sound and suggestive, but it needs cer- tain botanical qualifications. Exotics are not necessarily out of place in a rural district. After all, a great proportion of our trees—the lime and the larch, for example—are exotic ; and there is no good reason for refusing ourselves the beauty of Japanese cherry or Canadian maple or even Danubian sumach, and among bushes Mr. Lionel Rothschild put in a plea for various barberies and cotoneasters. What is abominable in road decoration is a close avenue of one sort of tree. To explore such an avenue in a fast car is more disagreeable than any alleged ugliness. Better too few trees than too many. After all, the essential beauty of a road is the country you see from it. Owners of houses who do not like the look of a road can plant themselves out. In the Fen country, where the roads are generally a little raised and the hedges few and low, the chief charm of the traveller comes from the spectacle of tilled fields and a wide survey. Contrariwise, the sunk roadway, say near Gaddesden, gets its charm from the almost overhanging foliage and what one may call its interior snugness, its " green shade."
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