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NATURE NOTES. 
the public than it is with those who have shown themselves in 
this matter so utterly unworthy of the trust which is reposed in 
them. By public protests, in and out of Parliament, they ought 
to be compelled to do their duty. If that cannot be done, let 
them be at once deprived of the guardianship of this beautiful 
island, whose worth they do not understand or appreciate. 
So with a little pecuniary aid from others the burden will be 
taken off the shoulders of those whose duty it is to bear the 
whole expense, and no other course will be open for them but to 
give over to a body banded together to lovingly preserve it 
a shrine of Nature which was doomed to be desecrated by its 
unfaithful guardians. 
Archibald Clarke. 
[The force of Mr. Clarke’s argument with regard to the value 
of the Ait as a screen between Kew Gardens and the historic, 
but hideous, town of Brentford may be well seen from the 
accompanying sketch from the Daily Graphic, for which we are 
much indebted to the proprietors. As seen in the case of the 
“ Grassholnr Outrages,” the Daily Graphic is one of the foremost 
of the London papers to call attention to actual or threatened 
invasions of the beauties of Nature, and so deserves the support 
of all Selbornians. — Ed., N.N . ] 
A BOOK FOR NATURE LOVERS. 
Lyrics and other Poems, by Lady Lindsay, 2nd edition. London (Kegan 
Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co.). The very first work reviewed in Nature Notes 
was Lady Lindsay’s charming book About Robins, to which we gave unstinted 
praise, both for its intrinsic merit and for its fidelity to the principles of our 
Society, of which the writer is an ardent member. The spirit of Nature-love is 
equally strong in the beautiful little volume of original poems which is now before 
us, and which has well deserved to reach in a very short time a second edition. 
Those of us for whom the hysterical and unintelligible verses, so fashionable af the 
present day, have little or no attraction, will gladly welcome a book of fresh and 
simple poems, which deal principally with the manner in which the beauties and 
wonders of nature are interwoven with all our joys and sorrows, our sweetest 
memories and our deepest pain. 
For although Lady Lindsay calls only one of the three divisions of her book 
“ Songs of Nature,” the title would be equally applicable to them all. Take, for 
example, the following concluding stanza from the “ Queene of the Medowes,” 
which might well head a Selborne leaflet against the uprooting of flowers : — 
“ Meadow sweet, my meadow sweet, 
City walls can ne’er be meet, 
Dear, for thee ! 
Should I take thee from thy glade. 
And bid thee bloom in prison’d shade ? 
Nay, let be.” 
The spirit of reverential enjoyment in which the authoress regards the world 
around us is well shown by the following lines from “ Gloaming ” : — 
“ Oh is not this most sweet of any time or hour, 
After the garish day, and ere the night-clouds lower ? 
’Tis as though Nature’s self should pause upon her way, 
Grey-clad and pilgrim-like, to meditate and pray.” 
