The National Trust has received a new and most important
addition to its Gallery of Natural Pictures. On Tuesday, in a letter to the Times, Mr. John Bailey, the Chairman of the Trust, pointed out that Mr. George and Mr. Edward Cadbury, in making a magnificent gift, have created a new departure in the matter of preserving in perpetuity beautiful pieces of natural scenery. The gift in question is an estate of about 414 acres, situated among the Worcester Hills, near Birmingham. The special feature of the gift is that the land is not to be sterilized or turned into a kind of public park, but is to remain in cultivation, as now. The ploughs will make their furrows as of yore, the dramas of the hay and the corn harvests, so different and yet so alike, will be unfolded year by year ; and year by year will be seen the sowing of the seed, the feeding in the fields of sheep, cows, and horses, and all the other kindly incidents of tillage and the pastoral art —those " works of men and oxen "of which Homer speaks with a kind of cheerful awe. It does the human heart good to watch and ponder on such things as these, and they augment the cold beauties of nature. Will not someone now give the Trust an example of that perfect thing—an unspoilt English village ?
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