A GREAT NATURALIST
[To the Editor of T]n SPECTATOR.] The Spectator of August Ath Sir William Beach Thomas wrote appreciatively of the late Mr. T. A. Coward, the naturalist, and the sanctuaries which had been formed in Cheshire as a memorial to him.
. He referred to part of the reserve which " includes Marbury Mere." The memorial committee would have indeed been glad to include the whole mere in a reserve, but the actual 'sanctuary is in fact very much
At one end of the mere is a small fox-covert with a dense bed of reeds in and at the edge of the water ; it does not exceed six. acres in extent, but contains a really interesting fauna and flora. This wood, known locally as " Marbury Reed-bed," -is the whole extent of the ,Marbury reserve. The estate in which it lies had recently been broken up, and the committee' felt that in preserving intact the -part most valuable to the natural historian, a sanctuary would 'be secured that would be eminently suitable as a memorial to Mr. Coward, who- knew it so` well.
' Another and larger reserve in Mr. Coward's .inefnOry has also been secured. This is a woodland known as Cotterill Clough, in the valley of the River Bollin, near Altrineharn. It is some 131. acres in extent and was a well-known haunt of the old Manchester botanists eighty years ago. Here again Changes had made its preservation most desirable, for the part of the estate to which it belonged had been sold and many trees felled.
Now that these two reserves have been purchased and handed over to the Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, the memorial committee's chief concern is to raise an adequate fund for their upkeep.
The Hon. Treasurer, Mr. A. K. Lawson, Keriara, Rydal Drive, Hale Barns, Altrincliam, will be glad to hear from all who wish to honeur the memory of (to quote Sir William) " that best of naturalists. 'Fours sincerely, Frandley .House, near Northwith, Cheshire. A. W. Bova.,
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