202 
NATURE NOTES 
and all the unsightliness of a bustling dockyard on the little 
eyot which nestles immediately opposite Kew Palace and Kew 
Gardens. Happily, the beauty and quietude of this Thames 
resort have been spared such an intrusion on the part of the 
company having premises at Brentford who proposed it. 
But another scheme that will fill all river-lovers with renewed 
fear is threatened, for the erection of a wharf and an ugly 
galvanised iron shed on a portion of the gardens of Cambridge 
House, Hampton Wick, which have a long frontage to the 
Thames, just opposite Canbury Gardens, is in contemplation. 
This land, some eighty feet in width, has been purchased 
from the trustees of the late Miss Barker, wdth the view to its 
becoming a trading centre, and if the new owner’s plans are 
carried out, we shall ultimately see a beautiful piece of Thames 
scenery disfigured by barges in the river and timber piled up on 
the shore. 
The idea is all the more repugnant because some years ago, 
when a similar movement was on foot whereby the Kingston 
bank would have been marred by incongruous wharves and 
sheds, house owners at Hampton Wick, fearful of the hand of 
the spoiler, subscribed ;^i,ooo, and successfully prevailed upon 
the Kingston Corporation to turn their riverside meadows into 
three-quarters of a mile of Canbury Gardens. Those gardens 
have since been a source of delight to all their many visitors. 
As might be expected, the latest effort to construct a wharf 
at this spot has aroused strong feelings of resentment at Kingston 
and Hampton Wick. Without loss of time many inhabitants 
have been sending to the Thames Conservators protests against 
the scheme. 
Whatever may be the attitude of the Thames Conservancy 
in this case, there is no disguising the fact that some of the 
aggrieved inhabitants are a little sceptical of that body. They 
do not forget that the conservators treated with far too much 
kindness the scheme for building a dockyard at Lot’s Eyot. 
Fortunately, in that instance, the Board of Trade intervened, 
in the interest of the public . — Daily Chronicle. 
Commons and Footpaths Preservation Society, Croydon 
Branch. — This active branch of an excellent society has been 
carrying on the important work of verifying footpaths. For this 
purpose ten walks of from eight to twelve miles each have been 
organised during the past spring and summer. The Footpath 
Registrar is Mr. M. G. Sharpe, and the Honorary Secretary 
Mr. E. A. Martin. 
Boa-Constrictor in the New Forest. — The botanists and 
entomologists of the New Forest have long looked upon vipers 
as “all in the day’s work ; but the news that a boa-consirictor, 
the length of which increased rapidly by narration, was at large 
in that generally peaceful region naturally created a scare. It 
was confidently reported to have strangled and eaten a donkey, 
