IRature IRotes, 
'ftbe Selborne Society’s dbaoasuie. 
No. 2. FEBRUARY 15, 1890. Vol. I. 
VANDALISM AT HAMPSTEAD. 
ISS AGNES MARTELLI, Hon. Sec. of our Northern 
Heights Branch, calls our attention to an important 
letter by Miss Octavia Hill, published in the Daily 
Graphic of January 31, which we had already marked 
for reference. Miss Hill would herself have communicated with 
us on the subject, but for a regrettable illness, from which we trust 
she will speedily recover. She has done as much as any man 
or woman living to render the objects of the Selborne Society 
attainable to those living in London. There is not a move- 
ment for the preservation and securing of open spaces and 
public parks for the people which has not been largely indebted 
to Miss Octavia Hill for its success, and it would ill become us 
to refuse any support which we may be able to give her in her 
unselfish and arduous labours. 
On the present occasion our sympathy is more than usually 
hearty; for Miss Hill’s object is not to obtain an open space 
where none at present exists, but to preserve the natural 
features of ground already secured — features which, once taken 
away, can never be restored. The 265 acres of land lying 
between Hampstead and Highgate have been recently secured 
for the people, and, to a large extent, by the people. 
“ The land was well-known to hundreds. It was the walk 
on Saturday afternoons and fine Sundays, and on Bank holidays, 
of numerous groups of happy pedestrians. There you might see 
the father leading two little children by the hand, the boys 
fishing for tadpoles in marsh or pond, the children filling their 
little hands with buttercups or sorrel. There the overworked 
professional man would find his quietest walk at sunset ; there 
one might climb the hill — far from the dust of road and noise of 
wheels — the great city, with all its traffic and noise, lying in the 
distance below. Certainly the hopes of most of the donors were 
