672 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 



I have also gone back, after the lapse of more than forty years, to the 

 village of Debenham in East Suffolk, where I was born and bred. Wind- 

 mills have fallen into disuse and fewer handicrafts are carried on in the 

 village street, but, throughout the thirteen-mile drive from the railway 

 station, architecture and agriculture presented the same appearance as of 

 old, even to the distinctive chestnut colour of the cart horses and the 

 manner of their harnessing to the plough. Visiting the school at Deben- 

 ham, I found no apparent change of type. The true-blue eyes character- 

 istic of the East Anglian stock preponderated as much as among the 

 children of two generations back whom I knew in my bojnsh days. As 

 I watched the school disperse, I felt that the charm of the high street 

 was due as much to the blithe movement of happy children as to the 

 statical background of old gabled houses. 



5. The Needful Background of Wild Nature. 



Urban and agricultural scenery, though utterly unlike in decorative 

 character, have the common element of human effort and contrivance. 

 The scenery of wild nature from which this element is absent is not 

 always more decorative than that of cultivated land. The landscape 

 which is, perhaps, most satisfying for residence is that in which civilisation 

 is seen with ample background of the wild. But in many English counties 

 there is no such background, for cultivation covers hill and dale. Therefore, 

 as we cannot everywhere view the wild, it is the more important to 

 preserve such complete landscapes of untouched Nature as we still 

 possess, refuges where we can steep ourselves in the aspect of spontaneity 

 with no reminder of Man or his works. Nature and Mankind are twin 

 sources of inspiration, but the intimate and moving scenes of human life 

 are not for the most part comprised in the outdoor view and do not there- 

 fore form part of the scenery of farm and city. Nature on the other hand, 

 though many of its wonders are microscopic, is most inspiring in the 

 general view, and it is necessary for full development of the personality 

 of a nation that the scenery accessible to the people should comprise the 

 untouched elemental prospects which are unrivalled in their power to 

 impart a sense of the Infinite. 



Of all the greater manufacturing countries with dense population, none 

 equals our own in accessibility of coast and proportion of coast line to area. 

 The sea shore provides a purely elemental prospect, the panorama of sea 

 and sky with its unmatched horizon and never-failing harmony of tone 

 and colour. The cliff by the sea presents from its precipitous verge an 

 outlook unsurpassed even by Alpine scenery. Here from our island home 

 we gaze upon a scene untouched by time, an image of infinity and eternity 

 unequalled in its potential influence upon the loftier imaginings of our 

 people. But although the view from the cliff cannot be impaired, access 

 to the view is often denied, and I submit that the time has come when no 

 new enclosure extending to the cliff should be permitted and no further 

 restriction of access allowed. 



6. Education in Scenery. 



It is the duty of the academic world to educate the nation in the 

 appreciation of its heritage of scenery. When the benefits of scenic 



