II. HERNE-HILL ALMOND BLOSSOMS 49

on the enclosed side built a brick wall to defend themselves. Then the path got to be insufferably hot as well as dirty, and was gradually abandoned to the roughs, with a policeman on watch at the bottom. Finally, this year, a six foot high close paling has been put down the other side of it, and the processional excursionist has the liberty of obtaining what notion of the country air and prospect he may, between the wall and that, with one bad cigar before him, another behind him, and another in his mouth.¹

58. I do not mean this book to be in any avoidable way disagreeable or querulous; but expressive generally of my native disposition-which, though I say it, is extremely amiable, when I’m not bothered: I will grumble elsewhere when I must, and only notice this injury alike to the resident and excursionist at Herne Hill, because questions of right-of-way are now of constant occurrence; and in most cases, the mere path is the smallest part of the old Right, truly understood. The Right is of the cheerful view and sweet air which the path commanded.

Also, I may note in passing, that for all their talk about Magna Charta, very few Englishmen are aware that one of the main provisions of it is that Law should not be sold;* and it seems to me that the law of England might preserve Banstead and other downs free to the poor of England, without charging me, as it has just done, a hundred pounds for its temporary performance of that otherwise unremunerative duty.²

59. I shall have to return over the ground of these

*“To no one will We sell, to no one will. We deny or defer, Right, or Justice.”

¹ [Compare the description of the neighbourhood, past and present, at the beginning of Fiction, Fair and Foul: Vol. XXXIV. pp. 265-267.]

² [In December 1876 the lord of the manor of Banstead (Sir John Hartopp, Bart.) was proposing to build on, and enclose parts of, Banstead Downs and Heath. The freeholders and copyholders of the manor formed a Preservation Committee, a member of which, Mr. W. Hale White (see below, p. 582), wrote to Ruskin, who guaranteed £100 towards the expenses of the committee. An action (Robertson v. Hartopp) was commenced, and after long, costly, and complicated litigation, the committee gained its object. See an article “A Victory on the Downs” in the Pall Mall Gazette of August 16, 1886.]

XXXV. D

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