ST. GEORGE'S HILL.
[To THE EDITOR OF THY "SIECT1TOL".1
SIR,—St. George's Hill is not yet sold, but is under an option to buy. For some time past my father and myself have been developing on a small scale and selling outlying parts. I should have liked to have continued this and to have ulti- mately left the centre and more beautiful part as a kind of public park. The Finance Act, however, has made this im- possible. Possibly undeveloped hind duty might have been 'avoided in consequence of the access a'.lowed to the public, but in this the estate is entirely at the mercy of the Com- missioner, from whose decision there is, under the Act, no appeal. An estate like this, which in its present state is, though I think appreciated by the public, almost non-pro- ductive of income, would have to pay very heavy death duties, and when an offer was made by a gentleman who proposes to develop it as a building estate, in consequence of the reasons stated I was bound to consider it. It is, I think, an impossible position to hold a property entirely at the mercy of a Govern- ment Department.—I am, Sir, &c., W. F. EGERTON.
[No fairminded man will blame Mr. Egerton, the owner of St. George's Hill, for selling. To do so would be to lay an intolerable burden on the shoulders of those who have the ill fortune to own beautiful or historic pieces of land. What is wanted is that the Government should encourage owners to prevent beautiful and historic sites from being built over instead of, as now, forcing them to realize by the compulsion of super-taxation.—En. Spectator.]
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