A name on the bench

Original non-fiction-style practice text.

The new bench bears a donor's name in letters large enough to read from the path. The view beyond it belongs to no donor: hills, a patch of water and a railway line which occasionally interrupts the picturesque arrangement. I sat down expecting to resent the inscription and found the bench extremely comfortable.

Someone had paid for a useful thing. Gratitude is not difficult. What troubles me is the possibility that public generosity must always arrive with a permanent announcement of who supplied it. The previous bench had collapsed without leaving the name of anyone to whom we could be thankful. We had simply used it for years.

Perhaps the plaque will encourage another donation, and perhaps my irritation is a small price for dry seating. I cannot disprove either possibility. I should still like one place to sit where being grateful does not require looking at a person's name. The view would survive anonymity. I suspect the gift would too.

Assess the writer’s attitude towards the named donation bench. Use three details from the text to support your answer.