CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES' MEETING AT DOVER. 73 



month. Then Mr. Hugh Blakiston, Secretary of " The 

 National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural 

 Beauty," gave a brief account of the aims and modes of action 

 of that Institution. 



The National Trust, said Mr. Blakiston. was founded in the year 1894 

 by the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Hobhouse. the Ripht 

 Hon. James Bryce, Sir Robert Hunter, Miss Octavia Hill, and others, and 

 incorporated as a limited liability company for purposes which are shortly 

 set forth in the Memorandum of Association : — 



"To promote the permanent preservation, for the benefit of the nation, 

 "of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest ; 

 " and as regards lands, to preserve (so far as practicable) their natural aspect, 

 " features, and animal and plant life ; and for this purpose to accept, from 

 " private owners of property, gifts of places of interest or beauty, and to hold 

 " the lands, houses, and other property thus acquired, in trust fortheuseand 

 "enjoyment of the nation." 



No lands or tenements of beauty or historic interest, given or bequeathed 

 to or acquired by the Trust for the benefit of the Nation, shall, at any time, 

 whether upon the winding up or dissolution of the Trust, or otherwise, be sold 

 or otherwise dealt with in a manner inconsistent with the objects of the Trust ; 

 thus the Association affords ample security for the permanent safe custody 

 of all property committed to its care. 



Mr. Blakiston went on to remark that Great Britain is singularly rich 

 in historic buildings, and is singularly indifferent to their preservation. In 

 Austria, France, and Italy, it is considered one of the functions of a Minister 

 of State to look after these national treasures. As regards the objects of the 

 National Trust, the Queen's reign has been a peculiarly disastrous period on 

 account of the growth of large cities, which has been necessarily unfavour- 

 able to the preservation of ancient buildings. Though a certain amount of 

 destruction has been unavoidable, yet much might doubtless have been 

 averted. Putting aside monuments of prehistoric times, there were still, 

 buildings illustrating every stage of our history from the Roman Occupation 

 to the present day. But the increase of population, and its tendency to con- 

 gregate in large towns, are rapidly causing the more ancient central part of a 

 town to become a wilderness of shops, offices, and eating-houses, the people 

 frequenting these establishments by day sleeping in monotonous streets in 

 the suburbs, where the children see around them nothing to suggest to the 

 mind anything outside the dull round of every day life. It was most im- 

 portant that everything calculated to stimulate the imagination to realise 

 our past history or to develop a feeling for natural beauty should be pre- 

 served, if possible. Then, millions of people living far from our shores 

 look upon these Isles as their Old Home, and feel justly that our historical 

 monuments and beautiful scenery should be preserved in a manner worth}' 

 of our great history, i^ s examples of what the Trust has already done the 

 following instances may be selected : — 



It has, by purchase, obtained Barras Headland, opposite Tintagel Castle, 

 and will preserve it unbuilt upon, with all its gorse and thrift and close 

 cropped turf, to delight the dreamers of old Arthurian times, or the landscape 

 painter of to-day. 



