RIGHTS OF SCENERY AND OF WAY.
IN May last year a petition was presented by a Surrey ratepayer (Mr. St. Loe Strachey) to the Surrey County Council, praying for the appointment of an Amenities Com- mittee, to give advice whenever improvements and develop- ments might be undertaken by Departments of State or other public authorities. It was pointed out that owing to the increase in the number of inhabitants of the county, and the consequent extension of schemes of building and of road-making, there was considerable danger of the natural -beauty of the county being destroyed, either by inadvertence or for want of know- ledge, and that an Amenities Committee might be entrusted with the duty of examining proposed schemes and of making recommendations to the public authority in charge of them. This petition was considered by the Surrey County Council and was referred by their General Purposes Committee to the Eurrey members of the Ancient Monuments Committee, who presented their Report on October 28th. This Report was laid before the County Council by the General Purposes Committee on January 13th, when the County Council adopted the recommendation of the Committee that the petition be not acceded to. The Report stated that the Surrey members of the Ancient Monuments Committee could see "no possibility of constituting the proposed new Committee with any advantage to the objects of the memorial," but that they understood "that the General Purposes Com- mittee of the County Council are always prepared to consider representations made to them from any minor local authority with respect to any serious disfigurement of the County, and to use their good offioes to maintain the amenities of our County so far as their powers permit." We need not say that we are delighted that this latter intimation should have been received and approved by the Surrey County Council. The General Purposes Committee thus become in effect, if not in name, a central authority to whom local authorities, and individuals through local authorities, can appeal in the event of the amenities of the county being threatened, and can make their appeal in confidence that it will be carefully and sympathetically considered. This may have been the case for some time past, but if so we venture to say that it has not been generally recognized. It is eminently satisfactory that the fact should now be made public, and we can only hope that other County Councils may follow the excellent example of Surrey, and make their General Purposes Committees in effect, if not in name, Amenities Committees. An immense amount of good may be done, and an incalculable amount of aamage may be prevented, simply by the fact being known that there exists a body of persons who wilt make it their business to see that no unnecessary disfigurement of the countryside, or destruction of ancient or historical monu- ments, shall take place within the area over which they have authority.
In this respect the county of Surrey, and all who in London or elsewhere have access to its hills and commons, its villages
and churches, owe a debt of gratitude to the Council of the Surrey Archaeological Society, and in particular to its inde- fatigable members, Messrs. Philip Mainwaring Johnston, Ralph Nevill, H. E. Malden, and Hilary Jenkinson, who have published a Schedule of Antiquities of the county. Such a schedule will not only be of the greatest possible assistance to the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, when it conies to the turn of Surrey to have her antiquities catalogued by Government, but it will lead indirectly to the preservation of many "monuments" which might otherwise be disfigured or destroyed. Nothing tends more surely to protect and to keep from alteration and "improvement" any old building than the fact that it is described in a printed book as old and worth preserving. It becomes talked about; it is looked at with new eyes. People find that a book Las been pub- lished referring to antiquities of a certain distriot, and they turn to the pages describing their own neighbour- hood, or the parts they know beat, in order to see what buildings, or whether any buildings, are mentioned; and it often happens that they discover that a "monument" exists where they had noticed merely an obscure piece of stone or brickwork, or perhaps had noticed nothing whatever. We predict that there will be many who will pick up the Surrey Archaeological Society's schedule and will find with surprise that in neighbourhoods which they believe they know really well, possibly within a few hundred yards of their own houses, there exists a barrow, or the remains of British earth- works or a Roman encampment, or a bridge or ancient high- way, of whose history or even existence they have hitherto been completely ignorant. When such discoveries are made, the building, or barrow, or camp has gained one more protector. When the monuments of a church are appraised and set in order in a schedule, each reader of the schedule instinctively adds himself to the number of those who are determined that if the church is to be restored, there shall be reverent and skilled restoration, and not the destruction which was perpetrated in church after church in the middle of the last century. When a group of old farm buildings, ,even, is set down in a schedule as picturesque, the honour done to the old buildings somehow becomes reflected in the persons and minds of those who live near them, and the beauty of their grouping and their lichened walls and tiles becomes a settled possession of the neighbourhood, to be preserved by all possible means against the incursion of yellow brick and cor- rugated iron. It is sentiment, not Government, which is the main factor in preserving old buildings and fine views, and the publication of such schedules as that of the Surrey Archaeological Society breeds and increases sentiment of a particularly valuable kind, which finds practical expression in personal work and in lists of subscriptions.
A third most useful contribution to the amenities of the countryside seems likely to be made by the Surrey County Council. The Council at their meeting of January 13th adopted the suggestion of a member who proposed that the Public Control Committee should be asked to report on the feasibility of preparing a map showing the rights of way at present existing throughout the county. If the Committee report in favour of the proposal, a map, on the scale of six inches to the mile, will be prepared, and on it will be marked in red all the rights of way at present in use. The map is to be hung in the County Hall, and thus can be referred to by anyone who is desirous of knowing for certain whether any particular footpath or bridle-road is free to him. Such a map should prove of the greatest possible value. One danger, however, is to be foreseen. and we hope guarded against. There are certain rights of way which have been for so many years, and are now, so plainly and openly used by the general public, that the red-ink line will be traced on the map without protest from anyone concerned. But there are others which are either doubtful or disputed. There are paths which at present are used by the public, end over which on Saturdays and Sundays throughout the year, and on every summer evening, villagers and visitors and strangers alike walk unmolested and unquestioned. simply through the good nature and generosity of a particular landowner, yet which are not admitted by the landowner to be rights of way. There are other paths and bridle-roads which are claimed as tights of way by the public, or rather by that section of the publics which cares to assert itself, and which are openly proclaimed by the landowner to be his private property, to be placed within restrictions or to be closed altogether as he pleases. There are bridle-paths which stand in danger of being con- verted into footpaths by throwing stiles across them. There are footpaths from which a surprised public one fine morning finds itself warned as a trespasser. Perhaps no member of the public takes the trouble to protest, or to trespass and take the consequences; perhaps an enraged village breaks down fences and smashes gates and locks. In any case, it is plainly of importance that the question of rights should be settled. For that reason it is to be hoped that the Surrey County Council will not, when rights of way are doubtful or in dispute, be content to look on and to do nothing. The absence of a red line on the county map must not for an instant be regarded as evidence that no right of way exists. Even though the county authorities may have omitted to "note" a right of way, it must be open to anyone to assert and prove public rights—provided, of course, that they are provable. In other words, the map must be without prejudice to claims which do not happen to be recorded thereon. No doubt, however, this point has already been fully considered by the Council.
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