convenient for streets; and there are some quarters in this German town
ruined in this way, and the people have agreed together to improve
matters. Every owner is to be given credit for his share in the total
value of the improvement that is found to accrue from the re-arrangement
of these undesirable divisions, and any difference of opinion as to the
just share and proportion is to be referred to an impartial arbitrator.
All the owners will gain, though some a little more than others. That is
an example that we may do well to try and follow, and in some way or
other improve the money value, and social value, and hygienic value of
towns, and if necessary compel the carrying out of improvements when
some few might be disposed to hold out against them.




[Page: 130] WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS

From PROF. BALDWIN BROWN (Professor of Fine Art in the University of
Edinburgh)


I am glad of this opportunity of saying how cordially I agree with the
method adopted by my friend Professor Geddes in dealing with the life of
cities. He treats the modern community and its material shell as things
of organic growth, with a past and a future as well as a present,
whereas we too often see these wider considerations ignored in favour of
some exigency of the moment. A historic British town has recently
furnished a striking object-lesson in this connection. The town
possesses portions of an ancient city wall and fosse that were made at a
time when the town was, for the moment, the most important in Great