COUNTRY LIFE
ALL gifts to the National Trust are interesting ; but the latest has for me a peculiar interest. A good piece of it is to be a sanctuary for bird, butterfly and plant, and this district—Woolacombe and its hinterland in North Devon—is associated in my memory with a number of rare experi- ences in natural history. Thereabouts I saw my first merlin's nest. There- abouts in a narrow valley (which its owner, he once said to me, would like to leave to the National Trust) I have watched buzzard and raven nesting in close proximity ; but the winner of the proxime accessit was a great tit that nested in the bottom of the b►uzard's nest! A nest of the " furze-chat," a clump of butterfly orchis, a sudden immigration of scores of Painted Ladies and hawk-moths arc other memories of the region. Miss Chichester, inheritor of a noted name in those parts, had previously given a great headland and a glorious hill looking over Woolacombe Bay towards Lundy Island, and this wide and valuable area further inland will set the flourish on her generosity. Naturalists and all landscape lovers will be grateful, as the phrase goes, " in perpetuity."
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