224 
THE SPOILING OF THE LAND. 
jVERY one will allow that there is a vast difference 
between profession and practice, and this discrepancy 
may be observed in various matters not altogether 
unconnected with Selbornian principles. Ladies are 
habitually tender-hearted, yet they appear, even at meetings of 
the Selborne Society, with “ ospreys ” in their bonnets. We 
felicitate ourselves on our increased appreciation of music as 
evidenced by the large attendance at the high-class concerts 
which Mr. Robert Newman provides at Queen’s Hall ; but we 
do not scruple to strike matches during the prelude to Lohen- 
grin, or the vorspid to Parsifal — quite the contrary, for the 
hall echoes with the reports — and Mr. Newman, apparently 
thinking that music cannot by itself be attractive, carefully 
refrains from any attempt to control the outrage upon Wagner. 
The London County Council plants hundreds of unnecessary 
trees in unsuitable places on Hampstead Heath, and propounds 
equally efficacious schemes for “ improving ” the view at Chelsea 
and Battersea ; }^et it is incapable of doing anything to relieve 
the dreary monotony of the borders on the Victoria Embankment, 
or to introduce the numerous hardy flowers which would make 
the present depressing arrangements radiant and beautiful. 
In the same way we are never tired of writing about the 
charms and beauties of Nature. If we were to bring together all 
the books written on this text during the last ten or twenty 
years we should have an extensive library. Yet at the present 
time a policy is being pursued, if not throughout the country, at 
any rate in almost if not quite in every direction within a radius 
of fifty miles from London, which, if persisted in with the 
determination of the last two or three years, will result in the 
destruction of some of the most delightful features of our country 
walks, and in the extermination of the objects which, for the 
naturalist, give to these walks their special charm. We called 
attention to this at some length in Nature Notes for July, 1896, 
and the importance of the subject justifies our recurring to it ; 
for so far as we are aware, nothing is being done to check the 
vigorous and general attack upon much that a Selbornian might 
be supposed to hold dear. 
The special charm of a country lane or unfrequented road is 
largely due to the varied and free-growing shrubs which form 
the hedges, the flowers which adorn the banks, and the strips of 
grass of greater or less width which border the roads on either 
side. That the needs of cultivation require each of these to be 
kept within certain bounds no reasonable person will deny. The 
hedges must not grow so high as to overshadow the fields which 
they bound ; the banks, especially when, as often happens, there 
is a ditch or trench at their foot, must not be allowed to interfere 
with the course of the rain or other water; the grassy margins 
must not encroach upon tlie roadways. These provisions are 
