82 
NATURE NOTES 
of beautiful scenery which may be imperilled by railway 
engineers, jerry builders, or other foes of Nature. The Society 
“ Pour la Protection des Paysages de France ” has only been 
in existence for about three years, but it has stretched out a 
strong hand to save the Forest of Fontainebleau from disfigure- 
ment, and it has rescued two waterfalls from the dismal fate 
of the Falls of Foyers, which we allowed to succumb to sordid 
uses. It has also prevented the quarrying of a picturesque rock 
in Brittany. Why is not our National Trust equally successful ? 
Public opinion is on its side. The ordinary man, if he is asked 
whether the Cheddar Cliffs are to be destroyed, or the gorge 
of the Avon defaced, replies without any hesitation. No. Prob- 
ably, if a vote could be taken, the project of intruding a railway 
into the Capel Curig district would be emphatically rejected. 
Townsfolk do not leave home in the summer to see railway 
tracks. They can study the beauties of a railway train any day 
of the year, and one object of the summer vacation is to get 
away from tramcars, telephones and railway stations. Yet the 
National Trust will, probably, be unable to save Capel Curig 
or the Cheddar Cliffs. The inevitable inference is that it ought 
to be armed with greater powers of prohibition and of com- 
pulsory purchase. If a railway which aims at robbing the 
public of the beauty of a favourite bit of scenery can safely be 
invested with coercive rights, why not a Society which seeks 
to protect the public enjoyment against depredators ? — Liver- 
pool Mercury. 
Richmond Park. — His Majesty having decided that game 
preservation is to be abandoned in Richmond Park and that 
the plantations are to be thrown open, we hope that proper 
precautions will be taken in effecting the change of management. 
The rabbits require to be largely reduced in numbers for the 
protection of the trees and turf. The deer are, in our opinion, 
too numerous, but will certainly require as much care as ever 
in the winter and protection from hooligans on horseback who 
think it sport to drive these tame and graceful creatures. The 
trees have not for years had sufficient attention paid to them. 
There is, therefore, plenty of work for even more park-keepers 
than have been hitherto employed. The plague of motor cars 
makes it unfortunately necessary to construct paths for pedes- 
trians alongside all the roads in the Park, 
Death of Miss Frances Power Cobbe. — On Easter Tues- 
day, April 5, at the age of eighty-one. Miss Cobbe passed away 
at her beautiful home at Hengwrt, Dolgelly. Her long life was 
not only, as she herself described it in her autobiography, so 
“ pleasant and interesting” that she would have been willing to 
have it over again, but it was a life devoted to the defence of 
the suffering and oppressed and to philanthropic and humani- 
tarian work. Her later years were mainly occupied with a 
