THE PRESERVATION OF NATURAL PICTURES. [To THE EDITOR OP THE
"SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The concluding portion of the article on " The Quest of an English Village " in your issue of July 20th puts so well what is in the minds, I am sure, of so many people that I am surprised that it has not led to comment in your pages.
It is, as the writer says, an astonishing thing that hereto- fore our men of wealth have been ready to make costly presents of works of art to the nation, but have not so far come for- ward with any gifts on a great scale to preserve places of natural beauty or of archaeological interest. Whereas it seems possible to find a donor of tens of thousands to save a picture from leaving the country, the National Trust has difficulty in raising a few thousands for any of its purchases. It may surely be argued that the preservation of our finest scenery, or of an historical building, is a more pressing need than the retention of a work of art by a foreign master. The latter is not destroyed by the alien purchaser ; it is probably accessible to the connoisseur (who alone can really appreciate it) even after it leaves our shores. For the serious student of a particular painter a trip to the Continent or a voyage to America is not impossible. But a fair landscape given over to the jerry-builder is lost for ever to the world, and it is the loss of something which appeals to those of every class. There is no question of a value artificially raised by the fashion of the moment or of a doubtful authenticity.
One could wish that Mr. Balfour, who has pleaded so eloquently for the raising of funds for the buying of works of art, would give his powerful advocacy to help to preserve for future generations something of the loveliness of rural England.
It may be said that there is enough and to spare of fine scenery without spending money to save parti- cular spots that may be threatened. Considering the rapid growth of urban areas we can scarcely agree to this, and in any case it can be maintained that places of exceptional beauty, such as the head of Windermere, with its effect of mountain and water combined, which the National Trust is trying to save, are so rare in their perfect loveliness that not one of them can be spared.
Each of such places, indeed, is a picture quite alone of its kind; it can be destroyed but cannot be reproduced—a picture which in its daily variations of sunshine and cloud represents a gallery of landscapes, beyond the powers of the masters of any country or of any age.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
