TREES IN THE SUBURBS.
(To THE EDITOR 00 THE " SPECTATOR.") Sin—I endorse every word of the letter signed " A Lover of Sunshine" in your issue of September 22nd. It is a thousand pities that the planting of trees in new residential districts, and the extent of their growth, cahnot be supervised by the Local Authorities as are other sanitary and hygienic regulations, for the exclusion of air and sunshine and the encouragement of damp and gloom are as detrimental to health as any shortcomings iii the matter of the latest improvements in water supply and drainage. The custom of planting trees round new houses is uni- versal, and although there is no objection to them for the first three or four years, after that time the evil effects increnae rapidly every year until, as can be seen in any of the older suburbs, every ray of sunshiue is excluded from the houses. However, people will have them. Four or five years ago, I raised a storm of indignation at Eastbourne by pointing out, in a letter to its leading newspaper, that the growth of the trees, of which there is a double line at close intervals in every road in addition to those in the private gardens, had then reached seek a pitch that, excepting on the sea front, the sunshine was excluded t the houses in every part of the town. In support of my remarks I quoted Richard Jefferies, who, to writing of the glories of "Sunny Brighton," about forty years ago, drew attention to the evil effects of trees near houses, and especially warned Eastbourne, which at the time he wroth was then being developed, of the danger it was running by planting no ndaty trees.-1 am, Sir, &c.,
E. lt.
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