THE FALLS OF FOYERS. 
165 
the Daily Chronicle, that has done so much for London, befriend also the 
country-loving Londoner, and print the protest of the sufferers from barbed wire, 
and point out to them what steps should be taken, and where redress can be 
found ? And surely there are some of us who will spare neither time, nor trouble, 
nor money in the endeavour to convince the haughty plutocrat that even in a 
remote village his arrogance may be pushed too far. I enclose my card.” 
Here is another complaint from the same issue : — 
“ Dr. J. Fletcher Little writes, calling attention to the threatened loss of the 
public rights over Burley and Hawksworth Moors, in Yorkshire. A few weeks 
ago some persons who were walking over the land in question were warned off by 
a gamekeeper as trespassers, and since that time there have been numerous com- 
plaints of similar molestation of people who imagined they were merely exercising 
a public right. Dr. Little points out that these moors are unenclosed and ‘ unre- 
gulated,’ and that the public have crossed them at will in all directions from time 
immemorial. They are, he says, fragments that remain to the people after vast 
tracts have been filched away, and their value becomes greater as the people of 
the West Riding continue to aggregate in large towns full of mills, workshops, and 
warehouses. The views are extensive and fine, the purity of the air is unrivalled, 
and the antiquities are numerous and interesting. This, also, is a case on which 
the Commons Preservation Society would do well to keep a watchful eye.” 
Last 3 'ear we spoke of the state of the trees in our London 
streets — a matter which surely demands the attention of all 
interested in the welfare of the metropolis. We propose ne.\t 
month to return to this subject, and only mention it now as con- 
nected in some measure with the other cases mentioned. 
It is, indeed, but seldom that public feeling is aroused against 
the land-grabbers and despoilers who, in spite of protests, con- 
tinue their unprincipled actions ; and it is, therefore, with much 
satisfaction that we record the prompt action of the Bourne- 
mouth Town Council, as recorded in the Daily Chronicle of August 
8. Having decided on August 6 that the land filched from the 
public should be restored, the Council at once set to work to 
carry out their decision. 
“ The Bournemouth Town Council lost no time in givingeffect to their decision 
of Tuesday to clear away the obstruction placed in the South Road at Bourne- 
mouth by the Mayor (Mr. Merton Russell Coates) and Sir George Meyrick (the 
ground landlord). The road, which leads to the cliff front, was originally 30ft. 
wide, and ran between East Cliff Hall, the mayor’s private residence, and the 
Royal Bath Hotel, of which he also is the proprietor. It was narrowed in 
December last to 7ft., the odd 23ft. being thrown into the grounds of East Cliff 
Hall, and a large bank of earth was planted with shrubs, while a privet and gorse 
hedge was planted on the sea frontage. A carriage drive, entered by a new 
gateway, was made to the Bath Road, and a handsome summer-house was fixed 
in an elevated corner of the newly-acquired ground looking out to sea. At three 
o’clock yesterday morning the assistant surveyor (Mr. .Smith) and several 
assistants, with fifty-six men and a dozen horses and carts, arrived on the spot. 
The first sod in the banks was cut out as the pier clock chimed the early hour, 
and by ten o’clock the road was cleared and restored to its original width. There 
was no opposition at all. The mayor was away from Bournemouth, and no 
notice was taken of the proceedings from either his residence or the hotel. The 
earth was tipped over the cliffs to fill up gaps in the front, and the turf sods were 
used to strengthen several weak places in the cliffs. The shrubs were carted to 
the public'pleasure grounds and replanted there, and the summer-house was placed 
bodily on a trolley and carried to the corporation yard. Few people were about 
at the early hour, the affair being kept very secret ; but as the town awoke the 
