CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES' MEETING AT DOVER.
73
month. Then Mr. Hugh Blakiston, Secretary of "The
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural
Beauty," gave a brief account of the aims and modes of action
of that Institution.
The National Trust, said Mr. Blakiston, was founded in the year 1894
by the Duke of Westminster, the Earl of Carlisle, Lord Hobhouse, the Right
Hon. James Bryce, Sir Robert Hunter, Miss Octavia Hill, and others, and
incorporated as a limited liability company for purposes which are shortly
set forth in the Memorandum of Association :—
"To promote the permanent preservation, for the benefit of the nation,
"of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest;
"and as regards lands, to preserve (so far as practicable) their natural aspect,
"features, and animal and plant life; and for this purpose to accept, from
"private owners of property, gifts of places of interest or beauty, and to hold
"the lands, houses, and other property thus acquired, in trust for the use and
"enjoyment of the nation."
No lands or tenements of beauty or historic interest, given or bequeathed
to or acquired by the Trust for the benefit of the Nation, shall, at any time,
whether upon the winding up or dissolution of the Trust, or otherwise, be sold
or otherwise dealt with in a manner inconsistent with the objects of the Trust ;
thus the Association affords ample security for the permanent safe custody
of all property committed to its care.
Mr. Blakiston went on to remark that Great Britain is singularly rich
in historic buildings, and is singularly indifferent to their preservation. In
Austria, France, and Italy, it is considered one of the functions of a Minister
of State to look after these national treasures. As regards the objects of the
National Trust, the Queen's reign has been a peculiarly disastrous period on
account of the growth of large cities, which has been necessarily unfavour-
able to the preservation of ancient buildings. Though a certain amount of
destruction has been unavoidable, yet much might doubtless have been
averted. Putting aside monuments of prehistoric times, there were still,
buildings illustrating every stage of our history from the Roman Occupation
to the present day. But the increase of population, and its tendency to con-
gregate in large towns, are rapidly causing the more ancient central part of a
town to become a wilderness of shops, offices, and eating-houses, the people
frequenting these establishments by day sleeping in monotonous streets in
the suburbs, where the children see around them nothing to suggest to the
mind anything outside the dull round of every day life. It was most im-
portant that everything calculated to stimulate the imagination to realise
our past history or to develop a feeling for natural beauty should be pre-
served, if possible. Then, millions of people living far from our shores
look upon these Isles as their Old Home, and feel justly that our historical
monuments and beautiful scenery should be preserved in a manner worthy
of our great history. As examples of what the Trust has already done the
following instances may be selected :—
It has, by purchase, obtained Barras Headland, opposite Tintagel Castle,
and will preserve it unbuilt upon, with all its gorse and thrift and close
cropped turf, to delight the dreamers of old Arthurian times, or the landscape
painter of to-day.