BY WANDLE BANKS
SIR,--Mr. James Pope-Hennessy's article under this title sent me back to John Ruskin, to re-read that stirring Ihtroduction to The Crown of ,Wild Olive in which he contrasts the beauty of the Wandle as it had been when he first knew it with the " insolent defiling " of its springs•by the year 1870 when he wrote: " Just in the very rush and murmur of the first spreading currents, the human wretches of the place cast their street and house foulness . . . . which, having neither energy to cart away, •nor decency enough to
dig into the ground, they thus shed into the stream, to diffuse what venom of it will float and melt, far away, in all places where God meant these waters to bring joy and health. Half a dozen men, with one day's work. could cleanse those pools . ... but that day's work is never given, nor, I suppose, will be."
" It is a pity," writes Mr. Pope-Hennessy, " that they (the people of Wandsworth) have done so little to cleanse or clear the River Wandle, or to tidy up its refuse-crowded banks." Clearly Ruskin's impassioned words have had little effect in the course of eghty- three years, and his sad prediction has been too accurately fulfilled. But would it not be a fitting tribute to the memory of one who, with all his shortcomings, has been a source of inspiration and of delight to countless readers, if his admirers joined together to see that the little stream of which he wrote so eloquently should, at long last, be purified and made wholesome ? If voluntary effort is called for, perhaps the members of Ruskin College could give a 19c1 I—Yours faithfully,
R. KENNARD DAVIS
On-the-Hill, Shepton Mallet
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