The National Trust
A real need of the time has been brought into the open (or ought to be) by Lady Buxton's magnificent gift to the nation of a. commanding piece of the South Downs in Sussex. It has been claimed (by Mr. Kipling and others) that Sussex is the most English of all counties. It has the national and the county spirit as strong as any man in Elyria (witness its entirely excellent magazine). The Downs themselves are a national, possession in spirit though not in ,fact. Now Lady Buxton's gift is made to the National Trust, an admirable and permanent organisation ; but it is not national. It does not receive one penny of support from the nation ; and is always, so to say, in financial straits, that is to say, it has to look all gift-horses very closely in the mouth ; and to refuse and discourage a good proportion lest its poverty should become insolvency. Very few of its properties return an income, and they all cost money for defence and upkeep. If the National Trust were endowed even to the extent of so minute a sum, from the national point of view,, as £10,000 to £20,000, the salvation of precious bits of English soil would proceed at, a double rate, indeed, as is probable, at a: continually accelerating rate. In spite of the wise zeal both of the Council for the Preserv,ation of Rural England and of the National Trust we are ,actively discouraging such gifts of land at a time when more and more landowners are desirous of presenting their gems to the, nation, We have a propaganda body urging people to make such gifts ; we have a Tryst eager to accept them ; while we countenance a national neglect that often negatives the work of both these beneficent organisations.
* * *.
Previous page
