“ RES TOR A TION .” 1 5 3 
will strive to preserve also the trees and flowers that gather round 
its walls, and the birds that have found in its desecrated altars 
* a nest where they may lay their young.’ ” This paragraph was 
written in accordance with a suggestion of Mr. G. A. Musgrave, 
to whom the Selborne Society owes its being. Mr. Musgrave 
has always contended that our Society should number among its 
objects the preservation for the reasonable use of the public of 
spots endeared to memory by beauty or association, and the pro- 
tection of objects of antiquarian interest. At the suggestion of 
Mr. Musgrave (who is now co-trustee of the Society with Sir 
John Lubbock) words to that effect were inserted in the Rules 
of the Selborne Society at the last Annual Meeting. But while 
we are in thorough sympathy with the general aims of the 
Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings, we cannot, of 
course, always endorse its action in the case of individual build- 
ings, nor be responsible for the strong opinions which it some- 
times expresses concerning erring “restorers.”] 
It appears to me that one of the chief reasons why so many 
ancient buildings have been and are being destroyed throughout 
the country, by what is called “ restoration,” is that the people 
concerned are completely ignorant of the point of view held by 
the members of your most excellent Society. They fail to see 
the wonderful effect which nature has had upon such buildings ; 
how she has taken them and clothed them, and made them 
belong to their surroundings, and become a part of the earth, 
giving them a delicacy and variety of colouring, and softening 
crude forms and textures in a manner which must make any 
modern builder feel that his work ought not to be judged until 
Time has laid his hand upon it. 
H ow charming it is when rambling through the country to 
come upon a well-wooded churchyard, with its church, which has 
been growing under the hand of man from the time of the Con- 
quest, or possibly long before., all covered with lichens and 
mosses, and the windows filled with horny-looking old glass ; and 
on the other hand, what a shock one receives upon entering an 
old churchyard, such as that at Selborne, to find that the ancient 
church has been “ restored,” and in the place of lichen-covered 
walls and roofs, are to be found walls of newly dressed stones 
all neatly pointed with black mortar, new glass in all the win- 
dows, and blue or purple slates on the roofs, with perhaps a 
bright-red jagged tile ridge to finish the agony. 
What would Gilbert White have said if he had seen this 
noble church in its latter days! And as far as I know, there is 
not left an ancient church in his neighbourhood which has not 
been “ restored.” I should like to induce Selbornians to study 
our ancient buildings, both ecclesiastical and domestic. So little 
effort is needed to make a beginning, and when once started, it 
will be found a most fascinating study. Let them but learn 
sufficient to enable them to date the different portions of a build- 
