The Roots of the National Trust

The National Trust was formally constituted on January 12th, 1895. The vision of three pioneers – Octavia Hill, the housing reformer, Sir Robert Hunter, solicitor of the Commons Preservation Society, and Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, a Lake District clergyman, the Trust was vested with the power to 'promote the permanent preservation for the benefit of the Nation of lands and tenements (including buildings) of beauty or historic interest'. The idea of the new organisation had first occurred to Hunter and Hill ten years earlier when, working in London and still in their forties, they were closely in touch with other leading social reformers. The three shared an intense love of nature and a belief in its healing power which, in the case of Hill and Rawnsley had been fostered by their relationship with John Ruskin.