SELBORNIANA. 
77 
subjects, and the chapters headed “An October Abroad,” dealing, as they do, 
largely with the author’s observations in England, give this volume a special 
interest. 
Gleanings in Old Garden Literature, by W. C. Hazlitt (Elliot Stock), is one 
of those pleasant, chatty volumes which all garden lovers like to read. It con- 
tains information about gardening in the days of Elizabeth and Evelyn ; talks 
about Kew in olden days, and the nurseries at Old Brompton, Fulham, Battersea 
and Deptford ; a short bibliography of garden literature ; chats about arbours and 
grottoes, window and cottage gardening, physic gardens and kitchen gardens, and 
not the least useful feature, a good index. It is unnecessary to say that the 
printing and binding are first rate of their kind. 
Messrs. Cassell send us a selection of the handy little pocket volumes forming 
their National Library, in which collection, by the way, we find singularly few 
dealing with Natural History. Those before us are The Nat in at History of Set- 
borne, in two volumes ; Raleigh’s Discovery of Guiana ; Spenser’s Shepherd s 
Calendar ; Mungo Park’s Travels in Africa, two volumes ; Voyagers’ Tales, 
from Hakluyt ; Johnson’s fourney to the Hebrides, and 'Waterton’s Wanderings in 
South America. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Destruction of Beautiful Derbyshire Scenery. — Miss Ellen 
Ilibbert, of Godley Vale, Manchester, sends us the following ardent plea for 
the preservation of a beautiful landscape. 
“ Permit me to appeal for help from the Selborne Society on behalf of the 
lovely valley of Miller’s Dale, in Derbyshire. It is sad enough to have quarries 
and limekilns on each side of the valley, with the smoke and disfigurement, but 
surely the white refuse need not be thrown down the slopes, destroying and 
burying trees, shrubs and herbage, not in one place only, but anywhere alongside 
the road that the carters may find most convenient. It seems to outsiders most 
unnecessary that, in a district of limestone, it should be permitted to erect kilns, 
and devastate the hillsides in a valley which is one of the glories of the county. 
The hideous destruction in the Bakewell Road leading out of Buxton is a sight 
to make one weep. Ruskin fulminated against the construction of the railway 
years ago in Tors Clavigera, and again in the latest number of Prceterita. I 
knew Buxton in the old days before the railway was made, and the greatest 
charm about the place was the first part of the Bakewell Road, a little over a 
mile, winding alongside the river Wye, between cliffs richly clothed with trees, 
shrubs, flowers, ferns and mosses. Sad, indeed, it was to any lover of nature, to 
see the cliff above the river ruthlessly cut away, with its growth of ash, hazel, ivy 
and yew, that the railway line might run along a terrace half way up. Kind 
Nature might in a few years have hidden part of the terrible scar with fresh 
growths, but the windings of the stream had to be bridged over, and this was 
done, not with stone bridges, which some little vegetation might in time have 
rendered sightly, but with uncompromising iron, which after a quarter of a 
century remains bare and hideous as ever. The worst has yet to come. The entrance 
to a side valley is guarded by a limekiln, and the municipality of Buxton have 
placed their gas and sewage works at the entrance to the road, so that anyone 
wishing to enjoy a glimpse of a former paradise, must pass through purgatory to 
reach it. I suppose it was the cheapest plan to arrange these matters so, and yet 
thousands of pounds have been spent in beautifying Buxton by public gardens, 
&c., all of which are poor and mean indeed compared with this natural beauty, 
which it has not been considered worth while to preserve.” 
“The Bird Protection Act ” Farce.— Under the above title an inter- 
esting letter from Mr. Charles Dixon appears in the Standard of May 1st. As 
the subject is such an important one, we reproduce the greater part of Mr. Dixon’s 
letter : — 
“ As the spring days advance, and the country side becomes more attractive. 
