CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 447 



as places of natural beauty, yet which the Linnean, the Zoological, or the 

 Entomological Societies might agree with a local society in thinking worthy 

 of protection as being the home of some rare plant ; the haunt of some rare 

 bird ; the breeding-ground of some rare insect ; the place where birds of 

 passage assemble prior to migration or seek repose when they return. Again, 

 the only hope of preserving such a spot may be to purchase it and convert 

 it into a ' sanctuary.' 



It is hardly necessary to say to the delegates of local societies that while 

 the acquisition of a sanctuary is indistinguishable from the acquisition of 

 an amenity, the management of the two must differ in principle. While an 

 amenity must remain accessible to the public, a sanctuary must be made as 

 nearly as possible inviolate : the conservation and supervision by competent 

 caretakers of any sanctuary must be more rigid and relatively more expen- 

 sive than in the case of a property secured to safeguard local amenities. It 

 is even less necessary to remark that it is, if possible, more undesirable that 

 members of a local society should impose on their successors the responsi- 

 bility of ownership of a sanctuary than that of ownership of an amenity. 

 It may, however, be worth while to point out that this burden is just as 

 unnecessary in the one case as in the other. A sanctuary need not be ' a 

 place of natural beauty ' ; even if it be, in fact, entitled to be so regarded, 

 the National Trust may be debarred from accepting the burden of owner- 

 ship because a sanctuary becomes valueless unless access to it be denied. 

 But local societies may approach the Society for the Promotion of Nature 

 Reserves, a body empowered by charter to own sanctuaries of the kind. 

 That Society will require to be satisfied that the property offered to it is, in 

 fact, suitable as a sanctuary, and will be as careful as the National Trust to 

 satisfy itself that the funds provided for its maintenance are adequate. If 

 it be desirable that a property to be acquired in order to safeguard local 

 amenities be declared in advance by the National Trust ' a place of natural 

 beauty,' it will be even more advisable to have it declared in advance by the 

 appropriate authority that a property to be acquired as a sanctuary is in 

 fact suitable as a ' nature reserve.' In connection with a proposed sanctuary 

 it must be remembered that questions of expenditure may arise which do 

 not occur in the case of properties acquired to safeguard amenities. Where 

 a stretch of woodland, subject in the past to a periodic ' coppice-fall,' is 

 acquired so as to ensure the continued existence of some rare plant, it may 

 be essential to maintain the old practice, even if there be no longer any 

 demand for hoops and faggots, lest the species whose preservation is aimed 

 at be choked and disappear. Similarly, where a piece of fenland is acquired 

 because it is the breeding-ground of some rare insect, the invasion of 

 shrubby vegetation must be carefully and constantly checked, while there 

 must be a seasonal cutting of reed and sedge, though there may no longer 

 be a demand for thatch, lest the conditions become unsuitable for the insect- 

 life the ' sanctuary ' was acquired to preserve. Necessities of the kind — 

 those quoted are mentioned from actual experience — will enable local 

 societies to satisfy the friends to whom they may appeal for funds that, in 

 the case of a ' sanctuary,' money for maintenance is as essential as money 

 for purchase, and that the endowment of a ' sanctuary ' may call for more 

 capital than its acquisition. These necessities enable us to realise, further, 

 that to acquire a ' sanctuary,' and then leave it without adequate protection 

 and careful management, means an unpardonable waste of effort and 

 resources. Since the proper maintenance of a ' sanctuary ' may often 

 entail more extensive interference with natural growth than the proper 

 maintenance of ' a place of natural beauty ' usually demands, it may often 

 be impossible for those in charge of a ' sanctuary ' to carry out their duties 



