66 
NATURE NOTES 
shy of our feathered songsters may find a safe refuge in which 
to rear their broods. This idea has probably been a valuable 
means of attracting subscriptions, is deserving of all support, 
and is a pledge that will have to be made good to those who 
have given their money conditionally upon the birds being cared 
for. It must be remembered, however, that no part of the open 
space can be railed off from the public, save temporarily for the 
purposes of planting and gardening. Vigilance on the part of 
the police and other attendants in enforcing the laws against 
bird-catchers, and nest- and egg-stealing in the close season, will 
be the best safeguard, and this will have to be most stringently 
carried out. For the rest, provided they are unmolested, the 
birds may be left to manage for themselves. Parts of the Wood 
there must be which will probably be less frequented than others, 
and few will credit the protective instinct that birds possess in 
concealing their nests. I believe it is a common mistake to 
think that because nests cannot be found, therefore there are none. 
Furthermore, what is just as important, though quite as hard 
to bring about — Churchyard-Bottom Wood should be a plant 
sanctuary. To many minds flowering plants cannot appeal in 
the same way as organisms endowed with a higher form of life ; 
but all will agree that they are none the less “ pleasant and 
lovely in their lives.” Both gathering and uprooting (for one 
leads to the other) in a spot so near the heart of London should 
be entirely forbidden. 
It remains, in conclusion, for members of the Selborne 
Society who dwell in the neighbourhood of the metropolis to be 
grateful that yet another open space has been spared. A few 
glances at the many woodcuts in Knight’s or Walford’s histories 
of London and its suburbs will reveal the singular quaintness 
and beauty of many a rural spot, now covered with sordid and 
crowded streets. It may be argued, possibly with justice, that 
no such gloomy fate awaited the fair slopes of Churchyard- 
Bottom Wood. Not in the near future, may be, but granting 
that even mansions had been erected on the hill-side, what 
guarantee was there that a hundred years hence they would not 
have been pulled down and have given place to streets of small 
houses. The various bodies that have striven together to com- 
plete the hard work of purchase have done wisely and well. In 
the eyes of future generations will they be found equally 
deserving of the motto ascribed to the honour of the builder of St. 
Paul’s Cathedral — “ Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.” 
They fashioned not the Wood, indeed, but they saved it. 
Archibald Clarke. 
Gilbert White’s MSS. — Mr. W. Ruskin Butterfield, of 3, Stainsby Street, 
St. Leonard’son-Sea, writes to say that, as he is preparing a new edition of 
White’s “Selborne,” he is anxious to borrow for a few days a catalogue of the 
sale of White’s MSS. on April 26, 1895, and would prefer one marked with 
prices and names of purchasers. 
