August, 1911.] 



127 



Timbers 



who has never seen a field of corn and 

 red poppies rippling under the soft 

 summer wind, or the waving tops of a 

 green forest, or heard the soughing of 

 the breeze in a pine wood ; and yet there 

 are probably hundreds and thousands 

 such in these islands. 



Now it should be quite possible foi the 

 mlers of every large city and town to 

 see that open spaces are provided for the 

 recreation of the inhabitants. Much has 

 and is being done in this respect, and 

 this exhibition is a witness to all it is 

 hoped to do in the future. But I am not 

 concerned here with the provision of the 

 open spaces, but with tree planting and 

 the beautifying, not only of the open 

 spaces, a comparatively easy matter, but 

 of the streets and their neighbourhood. 

 When we talk of trees in streets, the 

 usual idea is, I think, an avenue. Those 

 who have seen the beautiful lime 

 avenue at Trinity College, Oxford, know 

 what a beautiful thing it is. An avenue 

 is a very beautiful thing. But there 

 are many streets far too narrow to 

 take an avenue, and yet it is quite 

 possible that there may be a situation 

 at one or both ends where a tree or a 

 clump of trees can be put ; and picture 

 the difference such a clump, changing 

 in colour with the season, will make to 

 the amenity of the street. Or there 

 may be one or more small gardens where 

 small trees or bushes and flowering 

 shrubs might be grown, where bright 

 green grass bands or plots may be put, 

 and which if kept in order can be 

 maintained bright and beautiful. Such 

 clumps and bushes and grass bands and 

 plots are, we know the natural conco- 

 mitant of the more well-to do portion of 

 the community. But so are they often 

 the accompaniments of the better parts 

 of the city and town. On the continent, 

 for instance, you do not want for beauty 

 in the fine boulevards to be found in 

 Paris or Brussels ; the Uuter den Linden 

 is a thing of beauty in sprine in Berlin ; 

 whilst the famous Ring of Vienna is as 

 fine a piece of city tree decoration as 

 you could wish to see anywhere. 



In these islands we are far behind the 

 Continent so far as the beauty of our 

 streets go. Boulevards as understood 

 on the Continent are entirely abseut 

 from most of our big cities. In the 

 exhibition I see on the wall two fine 

 sketches of a new proposed road in 

 Liverpool. These are laid out in the 

 proper spirit, and certainly not one of 

 the least important parts of the town 

 planning is the laying out of spacious 

 tree-bordered roads, or even better, be- 

 cause more picturesque, if space is avail- 

 able, with a double line of trees and a 



walk down the centre of the road, like 

 the Unter den Linden in Berlin. Parks 

 and open spaces we have in our great 

 cities, and very beautf ul many of them 

 are. In many cases they are, however, 

 situated at considerable distances from 

 the densely congested poorer parts of 

 the town. 



Here in Edinburgh, a city the natural 

 advantages of the setting of which it 

 would be difficult to beat, I can picture 

 George Street as having a very different 

 appearance with a fine green row of 

 trees down each side. I think the addi- 

 tion of a row on the shop side of Princes 

 Street would add beauty to one of the 

 finest streets in Europe, whilst, to men- 

 tion others, Hanover Street, Frederick 

 Street, and the other streets running 

 off up the slope would look infinitely 

 more picturesque with trees on either 

 side ; and once the trees were up they 

 would break the force and chill of the 

 most petsisteut prevailing wind I have 

 met ! But it is not only in the wealthier 

 part of the city that work of this nature 

 should be carried out. Trees should be 

 planted in lines or clumps, or as single 

 trees in the poorer and more densely 

 populated quarters of the city. It 

 should not be possible for a child to 

 grow up in any quarter of a city with- 

 out being in daily contact with trees 

 and plant growth. It should be render- 

 ed possible for the town-bred child to 

 know the changes of seasons, not merely 

 by temperature only, but by recognising 

 the early beginnings of life in the year 

 with the first snowdrop, to be followed 

 by the crocus, and shortly .after by the 

 budding of the earliest trees. It should 

 be possible for him to know and, if he 

 will, see for himself the trees and other 

 plants flowering and seeding in due 

 season. 



It may be said that this will be 

 difficult of realisation in the densely 

 populated poorer quarters of the town. 

 May 1 tell one more small story which 

 I think points a way? 



Some years ago I was stationed in 

 Darjeeling, in the eastern Himalaya. 

 Darjeeling is a town of considerable size, 

 the summer headquarters of the Govern- 

 ment of Bengal, and possesses one of the 

 great views of the world, the superb 

 snowy giant Kinchin Junga, to see which 

 and Mount Everest beyond all devout 

 tourists to India make a pilgrimage. 

 The town is situated on a ridge and 

 outlying spurs, the houses embosomed 

 in Cryptomerias, oaks, and other hard- 

 woods. Beautiful as is the place in 

 itself, with its incomparable setting of 

 eternal snows, it came to be recognis- 

 ed that much could be done with the 



