WALKS BY THE RIVER WANDLE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."] Stn,—The approach to London park and suburban common is• too often unrefreshing to pedestrians, and it has long seemed to me as if what London needed most was pleasant walks barred to motors and other wheeled traffic, radiating from centre towards suburb, and, so far as possible, connecting the larger areas of open space. The river Wandle rises at Carshalton, flows into the Thames at Wandsworth, and so passes through some still rural districts, and some thickly inhabited. By the action of local authorities and private donors, several public gardens and small parks on its bank have been secured and dedicated to the people. A local com- mittee, with representatives of the various Open Spaces Societies, has now been formed to purchase other• laud so as to increase the number of these oases, and also, as far as may yet be possible, to connect them by pleasant footpaths on the bank—wide or narrow, as may be feasible. This would serve as an example of what might be done elsewhere. You, sir, who have more than once referred to the beauty of our English streams, will realise how much such a walk would gain by being made along the bank of a river. Ruskin has written of the beauty of the Wandle; its shores are associated with Nelson ; it still has exquisite banks in places. I saw blue anemones in masses there a year or two ago, while the sails of the boats near Wandsworth would rejoice an artist. The committee ask for £3,000 to purchase the most suitable land, and they see their way to secure a rpile and a quarter of the bank, or other land as may seem good. It is hoped that arrangements would be made to vest such land in the National Trust. I earnestly hope donors will come forward, and I will myself gladly receive donations.—I am, Sir, du:,
OCTAVIA HILL,
192 .741arylebone Road. Treasurer, Kyrie Society.
[Miss Octavia Hill's scheme is one of the most attractive which even she, the champion preserver of beautiful places, has ever devised for the help and solace of the town-dwellers. We mean to return to the subject, but must say here how devoutly we hope that she may get the very modest sum for which she asks. What an opportunity it affords for some rich Londoner who desires to do something for his fellow- dwellers in the Metropolis to commemorate the King's accession ! No one is surprised if a collector-of china gives a £3,000 vase to the South Kensington Museum. Will not someone set the example in the natural instead of the
artificial things of beauty P Cmsar gave "his walks on this side the Tiber " to the people of Rome. The walks on either side the Wandle are, we warrant, not less beautiful, and certainly much greener.—En. Spectator.]
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