IRature IRotes : 
tlbc Selborne Society’s flftagasine 
No. 144. DECEMBER, 1901. Vol. XII. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Richmond Hill View. — It is, of course, a subject for the 
heartiest rejoicing that — though at an unnecessarily exorbitant 
price — the Marble Hill estate has been practically secured from 
the builder, and that without the necessity of any appeal to the 
munificence of the private donor ; but it is by no means yet 
time to rest on our oars. It is, perhaps, a matter for regret 
that no assistance is ever to be obtained in this country to such 
expenditure from Imperial funds; but England has not yet 
learnt the lesson of the highest greatness of a little country 
which the King of the Belgians enunciated the other day. It 
will be well for us to scrutinise very carefully any “ arrange- 
ments ” as to the extinction of common rights on the Dysart 
estates which may be coupled on to the Bill necessary to secure 
Marble Hill. The view is, however, already seriously damaged 
by the row of villas already erected, and is still more seriously 
affected by the immediately threatened “ development ” of the 
Cambridge House river-frontage. Will not some public-spirited 
man secure this property and dedicate it to the public ? It 
would then be possible to plant a screen of poplars to hide 
the ugly little red brick villas ; and, perhaps, Cambridge 
House, if retained, might be similarly screened and converted 
into a museum. 
Footpaths. — We have received the following letter from 
Miss L. Marshall, a valued supporter ; but, in view of the very 
general absence of taste in our public bodies, we hesitate to 
altogether endorse the writer’s suggestions. 
“During a summer in the Tyrol, I have been much struck by the work done 
by difierent Verschonerungsvereine (answering in some respects to our Kyrle 
Society) in conjunction with the Austrian Alpine Club. The work is directed by 
persons of taste and refinement often living in distant parts of Germany. They 
undertake to make paths and keep them in repair and also to indicate the way to 
