you may see a barge looking gay and bright drawn by
an unconcerned horse on the towpath, with a man lazily smoking his
pipe at the helm and his family of water gipsies, who pass an
open-air, nomadic existence, tranquil, and entirely innocent of
schooling. He is a survival of an almost vanished race which the
railways have caused to disappear.

Much destruction of beautiful scenery is, alas! inevitable. Trade and
commerce, mills and factories, must work their wicked will on the
landscapes of our country. Mr. Ruskin's experiment on the painting of
Turner, quoted in our opening chapter, finds its realisation in many
places. There was a time, I suppose, when the Mersey was a pure river
that laved the banks carpeted with foliage and primroses on which the
old Collegiate Church of Manchester reared its tower. It is now, and
has been for years, an inky-black stream or drain running between
stone walls, where it does not hide its foul waters for very shame
beneath an arched culvert. There was a time when many a Yorkshire
village basked in the sunlight. Now they are great overgrown towns
usually enveloped in black smoke. The only day when you can see the
few surviving beauties of a northern manufacturing town or village is
Sunday, when the tall factory chimneys cease to vomit their clouds of
smoke which kills the trees, or covers the struggling leaves with
black soot. We pay dearly for our commercial progress in this
sacrifice of Nature's beauties.

CHAPTER XX

CONCLUSION

Whatever method can be devised for the prevention of the vanishing of
England's chief characteristics are worthy of consideration. First
there must be the continued education of the English people in the
appreciation of ancient buildings and other relics of antiquity. We
must learn to love them, or we shall not care to preserve them. An
ignorant squire or foolish landowner may destroy in a day some
priceless object of antiquity which can never be replaced. Too often
it is the agent who is to blame. Squires are very much in the hands of
their agents, and leave much to them to decide and carry out. When
consulted they do not take the trouble to inspect the threatened
building, and merely confirm the suggestions of the agents. Estate
agents, above all people, need education in order that the destruction
of much that is precious may be averted.

The Government has done well in appointing commissions for England,
Scotland, and Wales to inquire into