These discoverers of England are so many that they compel
some social adjustments, and they will probably continue to
ltiply. It is as much on their behalf as fur the direct pre- servation of England that Regional Planning is demanded. It is sometimes argued by opponents of the Bill now under discussion—and, indeed, of the policy of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, which has had much to do with the Bill—that it and they legislate more for the townsman than the countryman. After all, this is necessary. The number of " those whom towns immure " is in our island extravagantly large ; and the more of them who are attracted into the country the better for them ; and if proper arrange- ments are made the better for the country too. We do not want an abrupt dichotomy into countryman and townsman, Into the slow-witted and the too-clever-by-half. No village to-day is isolated, is out of touch with the rest of the world – not even in Herefordshire This means that the village has lost its chief, though most picturesque, disqualiflration. Even the Parish Councils are sitting up and taking notice, defending rights of way, protecting commons ; and a much livelier sense of their powers and duties is perceptible in the Rural District Councils. Penetration by the townsman awakens the country- man to a livelier sense of the value of his home scenes.
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