KENTISH HEADLAND FOR THE PEOPLE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.") SIR,—Your well-known sympathy with the movement for securing open spaces for the people encourages me to ask whether• you will make known through your columns an opportunity which now occurs for securing one of rare beauty, and which commands an endless succession of those natural pictures which you have pointed out are at least as valuable to a nation as painted ones. There au-e at Crockham Hill, id Kent, eight and a half acres of a headland which commands an unbroken view of sky, wood, field, and hill from sunrise to sunset, from the grassy slope of its upland meadow far away to the blue distance. The slope of copse wood leading up to this breezy meadow has been starred with innumerable primroses and now is bright with masses of wild hyacinth and campion. All the foxglove roots tell us that later it will be set with their graceful spires. A few friends have secured the bulk of the money needed to purchase this hill. The total cost is £1,500, of which £1,150 is already given. So soon as the remaining R350 is received the land will be presented to the National Trust for• Places of Historic Interest and Natural Beauty. Gifts can be sent either to me, or to the office of the National Trust, 25 Victoria Street, S.W. The more the roads are crowded with motors, the more the lovely sites are occupied and enclosed by the numerous happy country homes now being established within reach of London, the more the Londoner longs for a space where he can com- mand a sight of beauty and a breath of fresh air, the more it becomes essential for the people to possess some of these upland slopes, where, on their• holiday on Saturday or Sunday, and when they go to small lodgings in summer, they may rest and rejoice in the beauty of earth and sky, and wander freely, gathering the wild flowers of wood and meadow.—I am,
190 Marylebone Road.
[We trust our readers will be able to help Miss Octavia Hill to realise yet another of the many noble projects she has put forth in the interest of her country. Here is a gift to the poor which is pure good, and to which no pauper taint can ever cling.—ED. Spectator.]
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