THE DESECRATION OF ENGLAND
[To the Editor of TILE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have just been motoring from Brighton to Eastbourne through what once as it was the most essentially English coast scenery, was also the loveliest. What is it now I Alas Alas 1 Small bits of it still remain but for how long ? The " Guildhall Development Co." threaten one bit of coastline, other building companies follow suit. What, however, I write to you about is " Peacehaven." I really think any person who loves England and her countryside, could shed tears when they pass through it, but there it is and must remain. Can nothing be done ? The inhabitants, who seem mostly to belong to a class having little money to spend, are making pathetic efforts to beautify it according to their ideas—each bungalow for itself with no unity—" ornamental " rock gardens whose foundation is builders' rubble—whitened stones, &e., joined with wilting trees and flowers (totally unsuitable sorts for an exposed dry place) to make a good example of the " Gay wee Gehenna " of Mr. Max Beerbohm. New I wish to make a suggestion. Could not the Council for the Preservation of Rural England employ someone to give advice to bungalow dwellers and builders—advice not necessarily more expensive than their own designs would be ? Most of the people who are destroying England are not doing so wilfully, but simply they are not educated as to what is beautiful and have only elementary ideas as to trees, shrubs, &c., and as they are English each owner is strongly averse to his property resembling his neighbours, if it can be avoided. Now this advice must be tactfully pressed on them. As regards " Peacehaven " could not a subscription be raised in Brighton and Eastbourne, and unemployed men engaged to help make roads, plant suitable trees in groups, properly shielded from the sea winds, and do something to make this eyesore on the fair face of the Downs a little better ? Thousands of motorists pass through it every day and I am sure would be glad to contribute something to try to remedy this terrible bit of ugliness. Then two more suggestions. Could not petrol pump proprietors be encouraged to plant a crescent of, say, pollarded willows or poplars round their premises, which would hide the unsightly debris of old derelict ears, &e., which often surround them while not preventing intending customers seeing their signs, and will nobody invent some receptacle (why not a tin box with lid sunk in the -ground) to hold the tools of allotment holders instead of the terrible little wooden erections which now make these useful plots so
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