2 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



of many inanimate objects, and from feeling 

 towards them, in a way for which a narrowly 

 exact science gives no authority. We almost 

 endow them with personality; we feel strong 

 affection for them ; when they suffer injury we 

 grieve for them. The inroads of the railway 

 promoter upon lovely scenery are opposed 

 almost in a spirit of chivalrous defence of that 

 which cannot defend itself. The hills of our 

 native land we count almost among our personal 

 friends. How Surrey would mourn the loss 

 of Leith Hill ! Imagine the feelings of a Cor- 

 nishman who should return from mining in a 

 foreign land to learn that Brown Willy was no 

 more ! What fabulous sum would Shropshire 

 refuse for that most venerable of our hills, 

 the Wrekin, were it possible for a combine of 

 millionaires to move it ? Would Derbyshire 

 part with Kinder Scout, Lancashire with Pendle, 

 Yorkshire with Ingleborough, Whernside and 

 Pen-y-ghent? It would be sacrilege even to 

 suggest the possibility of betraying Snowdon 

 and Cader Idris, Scawfell, Skiddaw and Hel- 

 vellyn. And is not this feeling stronger, if 

 anything, across the Border? Yet all these 

 hills are but masses of inanimate matter that, 



