Saving the Pass.
(To the Editor.)
Sir,—The account given by Canon Rawnsley of the state of the negotiations for a Sty Head motor road is by no means reassuring. The scheme, he tells us, is “in abeyance”. But there is great danger in schemes that are in abeyance, unless there is some counter-movement for keeping them so; and unfortunately in this case the opposition to the scheme is more in abeyance than the scheme itself. A wealthy man, it seems, has left money to be used for ruining the Pass; but no wealthy man, as far as we know, has provided means for saving the Pass. There is danger, too, in the very fact that the proposal has been so long before the public; for things which get to be regarded as “certain to come”—and the Sty Head road is often spoken of in this way—have a knack of actually coming at last.
Canon Rawnsley tells us that the local Road Board is a body of practical men, who will not sanction the making of the highway unless convinced of its “commercial necessity”. But, in such a matter, there is no such thing as commercial necessity. There are, of course, commercial interests; but these, unless our whole contention be wrong, ought not to override the higher and more real interests which value Mountains above Mammon. It is gratifying to know that Cockermouth and Bootle have (so far) not assented to the scheme ; but I submit that the fate of so priceless a gem as the Lake District ought to rest in the safe keeping not of Cockermouth and Bootle, but of the heart and conscience of the people. The question, in brief, is not a local but a national one.
It seems clear that, if such spots as the Sty Head are to be preserved, lovers of mountain scenery must not trust to these schemes of destruction being in abeyance, but must themselves be in activity. What is needed is an organisation which will oppose every attack of the sort, and will give public warning when any of Nature’s sanctuaries are threatened. Had such a society existed in the past, the unspeakable desecration of Snowdon by the “summit railway and hotel” might have been prevented. If no such society exists in the future, what has been done on Snowdon may yet be done on Scawfell.
HENRY S. SALT.
53, Chancery-lane, W.C.,
Oct. 6.