Page:The Preservation of Places of Interest or Beauty, 1907.djvu/25

 of "La Société pour la Protection des Paysages," and of a "Committee for Picturesque Sites and Monuments" connected with the 'Touring Club' of France, the circular expresses sympathy with the object of these bodies, and requests the Engineers to instruct their agents that "in all operations such as the opening of new routes of communication (roads, railways, tramways) alterations in thoroughfares and frontages, laying out of streets, plantations, or clearances of timber, they shall have always in mind the obligation of respecting the existing beauties of nature, and as far as possible enhancing such beauties." In England, indeed, we are prone to think that the Engineer’s idea of enhancing natural beauty is not to be trusted; we prefer nature unadorned. But in England we have no public opinion which would produce such a circular as that quoted. And the suggestion of the Minister is not mere talk. I remember to have been particularly struck, before I was aware of the official intimation just quoted, by a light railway recently opened in Brittany from St. Brieuc to Paimpol; it is undoubtedly the fact, that the graceful arcading of the viaducts which cross some of the deep valleys of the district, far from detracting from the beauty of the landscape, lends an additional feature of interest.

But France has gone further. Last year an Act was passed at the instance of the Society for the Protection of Landscapes, which in principle gives to places of general interest from an artistic or picturesque point of view a protection analogous to that given to the more notable Historic monuments of the country. In each Department a Commission headed by the Prefect is to schedule such places, and the proprietor is to be asked to accept a servitude preventing alterations except by leave of the Commission and with the approval of the Minister of Fine Arts. In case of refusal, the place may be expropriated by the Commission. And