Page 31 - History 2020

urban masses, “a few acres where the hill top enables the Londoner to rise above the

smoke, to feel a refreshing air for a little time and to see the sun setting in coloured
glory which abounds so in the Earth God made. We all want quiet. We all want
beauty … we all need space. Unless we have it, we cannot reach that sense of quiet in
which whispers of better things come to us gently.’ She worked with Robert Hunter,
solicitor for the Commons Preservation Society, to campaign against development on
Parliament Hill Fields, Vauxhall Park and Hilly Fields in London and ultimately, along
with Hardwicke Rawnsley, went on to found the National Trust for Places of Historic
Interest or Natural Beauty in 1895 so that green spaces could ‘be kept for the

enjoyment, refreshment, and rest of those who have no country house’. For the next
17 years until her death in 1912 Octavia continued to fight for the preservation of the
countryside. She helped the National Trust to buy and protect its first land and
houses and campaigned for the preservation of footpaths to ensure everyone had
right of access to the land.

Octavia Hill’s legacy is controversial. She was determined and strong-minded and

believed that private enterprise and charity could solve the problems of the poor.
She therefore opposed the pioneering welfare reforms of the Liberal governments
after 1906 such as free school meals, council housing and universal old-age pensions.
Octavia Housing continues to provide homes for thousands of people in inner-city
London and in 2020 the National Trust is celebrating its 125th anniversary, with over
250,000 hectares of farmland, 780 miles of coastline and 500 historic properties,
gardens and nature reserves, as their website proclaims “for everyone, for ever.” It is
the major institutional expression of the cultural theme of “England as a garden.”