206 
NATURE NOTES. 
THE DESTRUCTION OF NATURAL SCENERY. 
A^IPERIXG %\*ith the natural beauties of heaths and 
commons has not 5’et become extinct. The author 
of that excellent work, English Commons and Forests, 
noticed on pp. 61-7, warned his readers that not- 
withstanding all that had been done to fortify our open spaces 
against attack, the enemy would still find weak spots in the 
line of defence. That presage has but lately been only too 
well justified, a couple of instances now to be related being 
ready to hand. 
It seems strange that the inhabitants of a district who have 
had the good sense to purchase for their own enjoyment the 
remainder of what was once a fine open space, should mar their 
work by trying to rival Nature as a landscape gardener. Yet 
such is the case, a correspondent writes to say, at Hayward’s 
Heath, near Brighton. The whole of the heath, save one portion, 
was enclosed many years ago, and gave its name to the township 
which was built upon it. The piece of open common that was 
left has now become public property, but the authorities at Hay- 
ward’s Heath are treating their acquisition in an extraordinary 
manner. The furze is being cut down, and the whole of this bit 
of “lovely r\*ild heath,” as our correspondent terms it, is being 
laid out as a formal garden. When a large common has been 
secured for public recreation, this is rarely done on account of 
the expense (though we shall shortly detail a notable exception 
to this general rule) ; but small open spaces are peculiarly liable 
to suffer in this way, as they afford a special temptation to the 
meddling propensities of local boards and similar bodies, whose 
attempts at horticulture often end in egregious failure. On 
that account, therefore, it becomes us to raise our voices against 
the designs of the would-be horticulturist quite as much as 
against the inroads of the speculative builder. Let us not be 
misunderstood ; no one would be so foolish as to condemn the 
transformation of a rough, swampy meadow, for instance, which 
is not common land, into a smiling garden ; but no amount of 
showy beds and bright borders can compensate for the efface- 
ment of the furze, heather thyme, eyebright, bedstraw and hare- 
bell, which are scattered in profusion all over our English heaths 
and commons. 
A case of graver issue presents itself in the matter of 
Mitcham Common, a large open space of 6,000 acres, lying 
between Mitcham and Croydon. Some years ago this common 
was placed under the ^Metropolitan Commons Act. The Cor- 
poration of the City of London made a grant of of 
its general maintenance, and its care and control were vested in 
an elective body of conservators. But the lords of the manor 
seem to have retained their rights, and to have gone on removing 
the gravel and digging the turf in the same reprehensible manner 
as for years past. A golf club from London appeared on the 
