nd workshop could
not have been better expended than in supporting it.

But it had another value still--which they too helped to
sustain--the value of beauty. Parliament has several times
intervened to save the Lake District from the desecrating intrusion
of useless railways. So, too, the beauty of these woods, and
grain-grown hills, of the very common, is worth preservation at the
hands and votes of the operatives in factory and mill. If a man
loves the brick walls of his narrow dwelling in a close-built city,
and the flowers which he has trained with care in the window, how
much more would he love the hundred living pictures like those round
about Thardover House! After any artificer had once seen such an oak
and rested under it, if any threatened to cut it down, he would feel
as if a blow had been delivered at his heart. His efforts,
therefore, should be not to destroy these pictures, but to preserve
them. All the help that they can give is needed to assist a King of
Acres in his struggle, and the struggle of the farmers and
labourers--equally involved--against the adverse influences which
press so heavily on English agriculture.

THE STORY OF SWINDON

We have all of us passed through Swindon Station, whether _en route_
to Southern Wales, to warm Devon--the fern-land--to the Channel
Islands, or to Ireland. The ten minutes for refreshment, now in the
case of certain trains reduced to five, have made thousands of
travellers familiar with the name of the spot. Those who have not
actually been there can recall to memory a shadowy tradition which
has grown up and propagated itself, that here the soup skins the
tongue, and that generally it is a near relative of the famous
'Mugby Junction.' Those who have been there retain at least a
confused recollection of large and lofty saloons, velvet sofas,
painted walls, and long semicircular bars covered with glittering
glasses and decanters. Or it may be that the cleverly executed
silver model of a locomotive under a glass case lingers still in
their memories. At all events Swindon is a well-known oasis,
familiar to the travelling public. Here let us do an act of justice.
Much has been done of late to ameliorate many of the institutions
which formerly led to bitter things being said against the place.
The soup is no longer liquid fire, the beer is not lukewarm, the
charges are more moderate; the lady manager has succeeded in
substituting order for disorder, comfort an