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NATURE NOTES. 
ing within, say fifty years, and they will soon find themselves 
tracing the history of the building and seeing its different stages 
of growth ; and this will bring them to raise their voices and pens 
in protest when a “ restoration ” is proposed, for they will know 
after studying “ restored ” and unrestored buildings what the 
process means. They will prefer the damaged but veritable 
Norman capitals on the north side of the nave of the church of 
Christchurch, Hants, to those on the south side which are the 
work of the carver of to-day. They represent his view of what 
he believes Norman carving was like. He may have been 
interested in the work, but certainly we are not ; and are we not 
justified in grieving over the original work which has gone to 
make way for his new ? 
Ancient buildings are undying records of the past. It is 
always sad to see them dwindling away under the hand of Time, 
but it is maddening to see them being destroyed and falsified, 
and left as lying records, through the ignorance and folly of man- 
kind. How it is that more have not listened to the telling w r ords 
of Ruskin on the subject is strange, and yet this is so, and it is 
proved by the fact that the Society for the Protection of Ancient 
Buildings only numbers about four hundred members. It may 
be that its work is not known, and therefore I will as its Secre- 
tary, and one who does know, explain that the Society’s com- 
mittee — composed of hard-working professional men — meet 
every week, and so long as its funds hold out they are prepared 
to send down and survey any ancient building, and give its 
custodians a careful, written report explaining how the build- 
ing in question can be repaired, saved from decay, and rendered 
fit for use, without entailing the inevitable destruction which 
follows upon “restoration.” The Committee often has plans 
and specifications for church repairs sent for them to give an 
opinion upon, and when I say that in spite of no time being 
lost the weekly Committee meetings seldom last for less than 
two hours, it will be seen that the Society has undertaken no 
light task. Indeed I am often astonished at the perseverance of 
some of its members, who have clung to it and worked for it for 
over thirteen years. Thackeray Turner. 
9, Buckingham Street, 
Adelplii, London, W.C. 
THE EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCE OF THE 
SELBORNE SOCIETY. 
HERE is only a step between the sublime and the- 
I ridiculous, and I cannot but think that many people 
take this backward step in considering the aims of 
the Selborne Society, who, if they would but look 
closer at it, wrnuld see that, if not sublime, it is at any rate- 
