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NATURE NOTES. 
the interesting and venerable buildings of the London Charter- 
house, and to build over the gardens and quadrangles with which 
Thackeray familiarised all England. Staple Inn, again, and 
Barnard’s Inn — two of the Inns of Chancery which once played 
an important part in the education of lawyers — have been, so 
far, saved from the hand of the destroyer mainly through the 
exertions of the same Societies. And at the present moment the 
Open Space and Ancient Building Societies are seeking to pre- 
vent the sacrifice of Emanuel Hospital, Westminster — Lady 
Dacre’s kindly foundation — to that spirit of false utilitarianism 
which sometimes intrudes into the management of ancient 
charities. 
The attempt to manage Crown lands with a view to 
pecuniary profit alone has also been stoutly opposed by the 
Open Space Societies. Air. Fawcett was the first boldly to la) 7 
down the principle that in such a case as the New Forest the 
interests of the nation were better served by the preservation of 
a national pleasure-ground than by the slight increase of revenue 
which might possibly arise from enclosure and tillage. At the 
present moment it is sought to apply this principle to Sudbrook 
Park, Richmond, an appanage to Richmond Park, to the full 
enjoyment of which its preservation intact largely conduces. 
Sometimes, however, there is nothing for it but to buy the 
land which is required for the public enjoyment. In such cases 
the first move is generally made by one or other of the Open 
Space Societies, and a special committee is subsequently formed. 
The splendid tract of land lying between Hampstead Heath, 
and Highgate, Clissold Park, Stoke Newington, and the Lawn 
at South Lambeth — for some years the home of the late Mr. 
Fawcett — have thus been rescued from the builder, while a similar 
movement respecting the Hilly Fields at Lewisham is not yet 
assured of success. In these cases the rates, metropolitan and 
local, the funds of the City parochial charities, and private 
purses have all alike been laid under contribution, and skill and 
judgment were required to adjust means to ends, and conduct 
the purchase to a successful issue. Robert Hunter. 
[To be continued). 
SYMPATHY OF BIRDS WITH THE‘IR KIND. 
HERE is no doubt as to the cruelty shown by wild 
birds and beasts to suffering and feeble members of 
their own kind. It is a factor, not to be ignored, in 
the all-important law of the survival of the fittest. 
We read an instance of it in Miss Durham’s interesting little 
account of the deserted jackdaw in last month's magazine. 
But, as Schrader well shows in his Prehistoric Antiquities of the 
Aryan Peoples, we must not forget that man himself in his primi- 
tive barbarous state did not scruple to kill (and often eat) use- 
less infants, and feeble individuals of his own tribe. 
