THE ANNUAL CONVERSAZIONE 109 
forest reserves, and poisoned or shot when he strayed from 
them. Anyone wishing then to get a glimpse of wild Nature 
could do so, with no more personal danger than occurs to them 
in the Yellowstone Park or in the game reserves of Africa; 
For if you leave wild beasts alone, they leave you alone. 
A movement, moreover, should really be promoted for the 
maintenance and extension of the beauty of England in town as 
well as in country. A Board should sit on the subject of cor- 
rugated iron, and pronounce as to whether it is really fit for 
exposure to the human eye. No doubt by painting it and finish- 
ing off its sharp edges, corrugated iron could be easily worked 
into our social economy without danger to our artistic morality. 
Another crying iniquity is the advertisement board. No one 
has the courage to grasp this nettle, because there are so many 
vested interests at stake, including those of the distiller. Look 
at the Sussex country round Brighton. When you get within 
twenty miles of Brighton, if you have any sense of appropriate- 
ness or love of beauty left in you, it is better to shut your eyes. 
Nature has shaped this land of weald and down in such a way 
that it was once scarcely exceeded in picturesqueness by any 
other part of England. What is it now ? Simply a dumping 
ground for the most hideous advertisement boards to be found 
anywhere within the three kingdoms. Surely this is not prac- 
tical ? This must lessen the passengers and sightseers carried by 
the Brighton Raihvay ; this must in some way affect the vogue of 
Brighton ? I have little or no fault to find with Brighton itself. 
I like a town to be a town, and Brighton is a very engaging 
town, with many attractions. Its museum alone is worth a visit. 
But I do feel that some legislative body should be brought 
into existence to determine what shall be town and what shall 
be country, that the towns shall be built not only to suit the 
latest ideas of sanitation, but to please the eye and inspire the 
mind ; that the country shall be kept as the country, and that 
anyone who destroys and ravages the beauty of the countryside 
shall be dealt with as the abominable, if unconscious, malefactor 
that he or she is — at any rate from the point of view of those 
who think there is any mental and moral value in beautiful 
scenery and the interesting wild life of birds and beasts. 
Unhappily, I am conscious that even if the present audi- 
ence is good enough • to listen with patience to these few 
remarks, outside the circle of the Selborne Society they will 
find no echo at all. The whole rest of the English world is 
either perfectly indifferent or actively malevolent where scenery 
or the preservation of wild beasts and birds is at stake. 
To appreciate and to wish to maintain the beauty of English 
landscapes is thought to be either the professional peculiarity 
of a landscape painter (though landscape painters are nearly 
dead of inanition whilst the fashion is in for the purchase and 
re-purchase of Old Masters and the sneering at Modern) or of 
minor poets — since there are no major ones — or of cranks : 
