The hoi polloi spoil the ambience, according to the well-to-do in London

Pharisees in Hyde Park

The correspondence in The Times on the subject of Hyde Park has been characterised by a somewhat pharisaical tone. Anyone who was not in the best of clothes who has frequented it has been set down as a “tramp”. There is no doubt that any practice such as washing at the fountains and dressing under the trees and so forth should be stopped. But on the other hand nothing could be worse than to try to keep Hyde Park for what are comprehensively called well-to-do people.

It is a tribute to the usefulness of the park that the poor and the distressed go to it and enjoy some fresh air and pleasant vegetation: it answers its best purpose when it becomes a place of enjoyment to to the masses. The Sunday preaching and political haranguing are another matter, and in our opinion should be stopped on the same principle – that although they may amuse a few loafers, to the general public, high-born and low-born alike, they are an unmitigated nuisance and spoil the legitimate enjoyment of the park.

Tunbridge Wells lights

The electric light has just been installed at Tunbridge Wells at a cost of £25,000.

The corporation have had the advice of Mr Preece, the electrician of the general post office as their consulting engineer, and his designs have been carried out by Mr HLP Boot, the resident engineer. Plant for supplying the electricity is fixed in Corporation yard near the South-Eastern Railway goods station. Sufficiently powerful lamps light some of the main streets, the chief public buildings and rooms and many of the shops and private houses.