osse that were made at a
time when the town was, for the moment, the most important in Great
Britain. Yet the Town Council, a year ago, destroyed part of this wall
and filled a section of the fosse for the purpose of providing a site
for a new elementary school. No doubt, in that school, books "approved
by the Department" will instruct scholars in the past history of the
burgh, but the living witness of that history must first of all be
carefully obliterated. All the rest of this ancient and historic
enceinte was condemned a few weeks ago to complete destruction, merely
on the plea that the site would be convenient for workmen's dwellings.
The monument has now been saved, but it has taken the whole country to
do it!

Here were chosen officials, governors of no mean city, absolutely
oblivious of these important interests committed to their care, and all
for want of having drilled into them these broader views which Professor
Geddes puts forward so well.

He has himself done practical work in Edinburgh on the lines he lays
down, and I have lately had occasion to note, and call attention to the
advantage to the city of much wise conservatism in regard to our older
buildings which he and his associates have shown.

In Edinburgh we have the advantage that our older monuments, [Page:
131] in which so much of the past life of the city is enshrined, are
firm and solid; and it takes some trouble to knock them down. Hence for
some time to come we shall preserve here object-lessons in civic
development that will be of interest to the country at large.

From MR. WALTER CRANE (President of Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society)

Professor Geddes' very interesting "Study in City Development" is highly
suggestive, and shows how great a difference thoughtful and tasteful
treatment might make in dealing with such problems. It is sad to think
of the opportunities wasted, and of the more ignorant and often too
hasty clearances for traffic which have often been apparently the sole
motives in city improvement. The conservation of historic buildings,
whenever possible, the planting of trees along our streets, the laying
out of gardens, the insistence upon a proportional amount of air and
open space to new buildings would go a long way towards making our
bricks-and-mortar joyless wildernesses into something human and
habitable.

Whether, under favourable circumstances and the rare public spirit of
private owners, much can be done, or to