IMPENDING DESTRUCTION OF KEW AIT. 133 
such a lovely scene, are most brought together ; such visitors 
would loudly declaim against tearing away so fair a mask of 
beauty, which hides the ugliness of man’s creation in the rear ; 
and all our foreign co-workers in the cause of Nature would 
realise to the full the force of the taunt levelled at the English 
by the first Napoleon when he said that they were “ a nation of 
shop-keepers.” 
Thousands of pounds are yearly spent by the Government in 
the adornment of Hyde Park, Regents’ and Battersea Parks and 
the Thames Embankment, with the result that all that money 
can do there is as nothing to the perfection wrought by Nature 
alone at Kew Ait ; yet the Commissioners refuse to expend a 
sum which is a mere drop in the ocean in comparison, to save 
the most beautiful object between London and Richmond from 
destruction. We have only to lock around us and we see on 
every side evident signs of the desire of men in these days to 
make use of Nature to clothe with brightness that which is of 
itself gloomy and dreary : the back-yard corner is turned into a 
moss- and fern-covered rockery ; the window-sill in the narrow 
street is filled with geraniums ; every spare patch of ground 
around the signal-boxes, and amidst the vast acreages of coal- 
sidings, of railways in the North of London may be seen covered 
with flower-beds or flourishing crops of vegetables ; and yet 
where Nature has sought herself to cast a graceful mantle over 
a scene distasteful and unpleasing to the majority of mankind, 
her aid is rudely spurned by callous officials. 
From an article by the editor of the Richmond and Twickenham 
Times — himself one of the most active members of our Society 
in this matter — we gather that it was possible to save the 
Corporation Island at Richmond, which was exposed if anything 
more to the wash of the tide and from passing steamers, 
by protecting the trees and banks at a small but judicious 
expenditure — it is fully as easy to do so in the present instance. 
As already stated, this subject now occupies the minds of all 
Selbornians ; indeed it could hardly be otherwise, as attention 
has been persistently directed to it by the Editor of this maga- 
zine for the last three months. It is in response to his invitation 
that I make this appeal, and I have every hope that his efforts 
will not be in vain. Gloomy though the outlook with regard to 
the future of the beautiful Kew Ait has appeared, there is no 
cause for despair. United action on the part of Selbornians has 
before now met with thorough success, and will assuredly 
do so again. It is said that Mr. Leopold de Rothschild has 
generously promised to contribute towards the expense of keep- 
ing the Ait intact— an offer which ought to put to shame those 
in whose custody it is, who can, from the funds at their disposal, 
well afford to pay for the whole undertaking. Other simi- 
larly minded private donors would doubtless act in like 
manner ; but it ought not to be necessary for them to do so. 
The love of what is beautiful is surely stronger in the minds of 
