SELBORNIANA. 
55 
SELBORNIANA. 
The L.C.C. and Hampstead Heath. — Not content with the persistent 
neglect, to which we have more than once called attention, of the gardens under 
what is supposed to be its care, the London County Council is proceeding on its 
mischievous course. When Dulwich Park was being put into order, many 
unfavourable comments were published, on the ground that the natural features 
of the locality had been needlessly destroyed ; but the London County Council had 
its defenders, and judgment was suspended. On the present occasion, however, 
the list of names, eminent in every department of art and literature as well as m 
other ways, attached to the petition which we reprint, is sufficient to convince 
every one that a gross outrage is being perpetrated upon all lovers of nature and 
of beauty. Hampstead Heath is one of London’s most precious possessions, and 
it is nothing less than monstrous that it should be thus at the mercy of a muddling 
and meddling body like the London County Council. It will be time enough for 
the Council to turn their attention to Hampstead, when they have raised the 
Embankment Gardens to the level of those of a small P'rench provincial town — a 
level of which at present they fall lamentably short. 
The following is the text of the petition, which is signed by John E. Millais, 
P.R.A. : Hubert Herkomer, Vice-P.R. W.S. : James U. Linton, P.R.I.P.W.C. : 
George Du Maurier : Walter Besant : Alfred Ainger : R. Norman Shaw, R.A. : 
C. Santley : Octavia Hill : James Martineau : Heibert Beerbohm Tree : George 
A. Fripp, R.W.S.: Hanio Thornycroft, R.A. : Rogers Field, M.Inst.C.E. “We, 
the undersigned artists and other admirers of the wild and picturesque beauty of 
Hampstead Heath, do most urgently petition the London County Council to put 
an immediate and final stop to some of the work now proceeding there — namely, 
the cutting and burning of the old gorse bushes, the filling of hollows in paths with 
sand taken from banks and knolls, the drying up of small ponds by throwing in 
ashes, mud, &c.” 
Serve Them Right ! — “ William Mobey and Charles Williams, of Bexley, 
Kent, were charged under a warrant before the Totnes County Bench yesterday 
morning with damaging Devonshire hedges. The evidence went to show that 
the prisoners were engaged with a horse and cart in the wholesale removal of 
ferns, about 5 cwt. of roots being found in an outhouse. Previous convictions 
were recorded, and the Bench inflicted fines, Mobey and Williams 50s., 
together with the amount of damage. The money not being forthcoming, Mobey 
was sentenced to six weeks’ hard labour, and Williams to one month.” — West- 
minster Gazette, January 21. 
[This will please our Ambleside correspondent who writes: “ I wish some- 
thing could be said on the subject of the wild ferns that are carried out of this 
district by the visitors every summer. The coach drivers have a practice of making 
up baskets for their passengers, while the latter get lunch in the hotels. I know of 
two coach routes on which this is done, and probably it is not all. It is useless to 
appeal to the men, since it is a matter of gain to them ; it should be rather the 
public that should be appealed to not to take the ferns which, in nineteen cases out 
of twenty, do not live after removal.” — E d. N.N.'\ 
Fisll and. Light. — I shall be glad to know whether gold and silver fish 
suffer when in a bright artificial light. I saw some in a shallow bowl of water on 
a dinner table exposed to bright gas light and heat. 
E. C. S. 
Furs. — Some of my friends are desirous to know what furs may be bought 
without fear of extirpating rare animals, and without cruelly in the manner of 
slaughter ; the last point being of primary importance. If you can supply a list 
of furs to be used, or to be specially avoided, I should be grateful. 
Laura Mary Forster. 
“ Sent for Preservation ! ” — This is how the Bedfordshire folk encourage 
the visits of rare birds to their county : — “Within the past fortnight a number of 
very’ rare birds have been shot in various parts of Bedfordshire. A pied variety of 
