COUNTRY LIFE
SEVERAL characteristic spots Or districts in England are in a certain jeopardy. One is the Peak of Derbyshire, perhaps the most popular holiday haunt within the island. Now on June 3rd the Sheffield and Peak District branch of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England is holding its annual meeting at Longshaw, a property saved largely by the efforts of the Council for the National Trust. There is, I believe, some thought of pressing the claims of the district as a National Park; but for the moment the threats to the neighbourhood are of more instant concern. First, a huge cement works is meditated at the entrance to the Manifold Valley and a huge water scheme has been worked out for supplying Leicestershire. The water scheme does not seem to me to be a serious menace. Several of the big reservoirs are as beautiful almost as natural lakes, and even an extensive aqueduct may be a cause of beauty. Cement works are in a different class. Their dust may ruin gardens and other amenities at a radius of ten miles and more; and they are hideous in themselves. The green and pleasant land they destroy may much more than cancel the wealth they produce. The greatest care should be taken to locate them where they will do least harm, and to provide means of limiting the spread of their offensive dust.
Sanctuary Trees
It may be a crime, or at least an anti-social act, to cut down trees. It may also be a crime not to cut them down. The Borough Council of Reigate seems to have doubly sinned. Reigate Park, a very lovely place, was given to the people of the Borough over 20 years ago to be kept in its natural state and as a sanctuary. Before the war the local authority appeared to have decided that the obligation to preserve the place in its natural state absolved them from the work of clearing away dead wood and superfluous saplings. During the war their view of the trustee- ship changed so violently that they began to fell the best trees wholesale. The Park is historic, as well as lovely both in itself and in its prospects towards the Downs and the Weald; and its treatment may be made an object lesson. Only foresters and naturalists have the knowledge to decide how far such woods should be kept clear and how they should be re- afforested when old trees are felled. Just as the Council for the Preser- vation of Rural England have volunteer panels of architects to advise on the form of new buildings, so local authorities should appoint panels of specialists to advise on the upkeep and renovation of spaces committed to their charge. Let Reigate stand for an example. As to the meaning of "natural state " a good deal of cutting goes on in the best of the wild sanctuaries as a means of maintaining the right balance.
Wanted : A Wife An advertisement caught my eye for " a female bush-baby." How many people, I wonder, have the remotest idea what a bush-baby is. I had none till I looked it up. It is the one sort of lemur, that monkey-like tribe, which is found in Africa. How strange it is that the deep but narrow waters between Madagascar and the continent prevent the migra- tion even of birds (while the broad shallow. North Sea is a favourite migration route even for butterflies); and Madagascar has been almost as odd as Australia in its denizens from the Dodo to the Lemur. Another ad- vertisement noticed on the same day struck me as unusual. It sought "a biologist (rural bias)" for a post as assistant master in a school. It is a new thing to ask for bias in a man of science. However, the bias in question is the best bias.
In My Garden An agricultural labourer who came to dig a bed of my potager (gor- geously forested with the open flowers of sprouting broccoli) was horrified at my ignorance when I removed a few big stones. His view, which is general, was that they retain moisture and are, therefore, invaluable in dry weather. It is quite true that on the farm the most fertile fields are often the stoniest, and one farmer of my acquaintance puts less manure on them. But in a garden, where you would make a smooth seed-bed, a mulch of cut grass holds the moisture at least as well and further fer- tilises the plot. In the flower garden this is the date when the berberis Pratii seems to be one of the loveliest of shrubs, so well do the long yellow flowers consent to an aesthetic relation with the dull purple leaves. But most berberis are beautiful enough, even the very mixed seedlings that spring up here, there and everywhere, all different. My own favourite even compared with Pratii or Thunbergli is Henrii.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
Postage on this issue : Inland and Overseas, id.
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