NATURE NOTES. 
114 
into practice sound principles, and they have made good use of it. Besides the 
enormous improvement which has resulted from thinning-out, the fresh planta- 
tions, some of which are now approaching maturity, are particular!)’ deserving of 
notice. And this is the proper time to see it all at one phase of “ its best,’’ when 
the leaves are young, and the blossoms are profuse. You must be a frequent 
visitor to understand all the resources offered here. No one could believe the 
wealth of blossom, of the crab, the service-tree, the thorn, who had not seen the 
Forest within the last two or three weeks. Of course, the less distinguishable 
flowers of the oak and the other forest trees proper are still more abundant. It 
is only in early May that these things can be e-xamined and enjoyed to perfection. 
IValthamsiow. Edward Smith. 
The Old Deer Park, Richmond. — -Visitors to Richmond travelling by 
road will have noticed an extensive grassy tract or enclosure on the western side 
of a ha-ha between the Royal Gardens and the town, and opening cut widely to 
the south-west till the river is reached. In it, and to be seen from the road, 
are the Kew Observatory, and, obscured by private enclosures, the .\thletic 
Ground, the parade used each year by the Yeomanry, Volunteers, the Flower 
and Horse Shows, &c. It is retained by the Crown, but let out to an inhabitant 
as grazing land, and sublet to a large golfing club. Across the meadows the 
sounds of Isleworth bells float, and glimpses of the tower of the church and the 
roofs of houses may be obtained from the Kew road. Except for the privileged 
purposes mentioned, this Park has been inaccessible to the general public, a state 
of things which has been acquiesced in or regarded with indifference till very 
recently. Before these lines reach the reader, the new lock, foot-bridge, and 
weir will have been opened with circumstances of pomp and rejoicing to the in- 
habitants of Isleworth and Richmond. The new bridge is fairly contiguous to the 
inhabited parts of Isleworth, but the Surrey extremity abuts on a reach of the 
Thames remote from the business part of Richmond, the primary object of the 
new weir and bridge being to hold back the waters of the Thames. The import- 
ance of the new approach to Richmond from Middlesex, and its bearing upon the 
use of the Old Deer Park, have only of late been realised. 
M'hen the Dysart Trustees brought forward a scheme last year which threatened 
the view from Richmond Hill, a prominent member of the Town Council and 
one of the Committee of the local branch of the Selborne -Society formulated pro- 
posals by which a fund to purchase the threatened ground could be secured by the 
sale of a portion of the Park for building purposes, among the incidental advan- 
tages of which would be the provision of a road giving direct access to the bridge 
from Richmond across the Park. It was, no doubt, owing to the desire to keep 
possession of all the open spaces with which Richmond is so well endowed that 
this scheme fell flat upon the public. The proposals of a syndicate to obtain 
possession of the park, to be used by them as a source of income, though in- 
fluentially supported, happily appears to have fallen through. A more recent 
proposal, submitted to the Town Council by Mr. \V. Thompson, seems much 
more hopeful. This gentleman, who has proved himself to be in thorough accord 
with the views of the Selborne Society in the many struggles at Richmond, pro- 
poses to obtain a lease of the Park from the Crown to the Corporation, chiefly to 
provide a footpath, but incidentally to provide much-needed playing grounds free 
to the youths of the neighbourhood, and to sublet to the Golf Club and other 
Associations now using the park, throwing the remainder open to the public. No 
better proposals have, so far, been brought forward. As the Richmond Town 
Council have referred the matter to one of its Committees to report upon, it is to 
be hoped that some such scheme will be favoured by the Crown, as it is highly 
desirable that a vast open space of this character should be in the hands of the 
public authority than that it should be built upon or used as private speculation. 
Kew. John Ali.e.x. 
Mr. Henry Smith, F.R.C.S. — We have recently lost a valued contributor 
by the decease of this eminent surgeon. .Mr. Smith was a naturalist of the prac- 
tical kind, whose writings bore the stamp of actual acquaintance with his topic. 
He was a particularly close observer of bird-life : during his long residence in 
London, he seldom failed to make a trip to the Botanic Gardens in the Regent’s 
