SELBORNIANA. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Proposed Memorial to the Poet Thomson. — As we mentioned in 
our last issue, the Richmond Branch of the Selborne Society is anxious to erect 
a suitable monument to James Thomson, whose name is intimately associated 
with Richmond. At present his only record, besides the tablet in Richmond 
Church, is a crumbling worn-out board in the plantation of Pembroke Lodge, 
at the end of the gravel walk leading from Richmond Gate, on which are 
the lines given on the accompanying figure, for the use of which we are indebted 
to the editor of the Rural World. These have been attributed to Jesse the 
naturalist, but according to Mr. T. F. Wakefield, who has brought this matter 
forward, they are not his, nor is their author known. Mr. Wakefield has dis- 
covered other Richmond poets unknown to fame — one who begins some verses 
with the following stanza: — 
“ On the brow of Richmond Hill, 
Which Europe scarce can parallel, 
Ev’ry eye such wonders fill 
To view the prospect round.” 
Mr. Wakefield considers these “ lovely lines,” wherein we cannot agree with 
him. Thomson’s verses, however, are another matter, and we think our readers, 
especially at Richmond, will read with interest the appreciative essay by Mr. 
Lionel Johnson, which appears at the beginning of the present number of Nature 
Notes. The Kichmouil and Twickenham Times, always actively Selbornian, 
warmly supports Mr. Wakefield’s proposition. 
The Earlier Opening of Kew Gardens. — A letter from “A Country 
Botanist,” complaining of the annoyance experienced by visitors to London who 
go down to Kew in the morning and find the Gardens closed, was published in 
the Daily Graphic, and a representative of that paper subsequently consulted the 
assistant-director, Mr. D. Morris, on the subject. Mr. Morris’s views are pub- 
lished in the Daily Graphic for October 4 ; and we find in them nothing that 
has not been answered by anticipation in the last issue of Nature Notes. Mr. 
Morris says that people could not be admitted to the houses before noon, but, so 
far as we are aware, no one has suggested that they should be so admitted. 
They might, however, quite easily be allowed in the Museums, just as they are at 
Bloomsbury or South Kensington. Whether the beds are “ kept up to the highest 
pitch of excellence ” is a matter of opinion ; they certainly are in no way superior 
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ApriCa^ounj BlhomMet^mbera dreary at^rrtK 
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