[To THN EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR:I
SIR,—Our house and street decorations well expressed our loyalty last week, but there is one aspect of these decorations which leaves room for improvement. We have hung flags and coloured materials from our walls and balconies and on the trees at our gates, and the effect, though symbolical of our loyalty, was also, I fear, symbolical of our taste, and was really trying to that sense aesthetic which we try to cultivate. For we take the flags that are used for naval and military purposes and reproduce them in cheap calico, with hard and crude reds and blues, and we give these flags a background of English masonry or of green trees and leaves. In both cases the result is that the eye longs to turn away, and the whole being is thankful when the decorations are taken down. We forget that the flags we use are copied from those which, when in use on board ship, have an atmospheric background, and that the bald colouring, which is necessary for distinctness when flags have to serve for language, does not, then, challenge our taste. I am not referring to the decorations in the streets of London and large towns, where Venetian masts and "striders" were largely used, for the very reason that the flags were thereby brought away from masonry, and floated, as they should, in open space. We want for decorative purposes, such as those of last week, flags and hangings of deep, subdued tones which will blend with and enrich our walls, while for our trees I can but think that we should do well not to bring any artificial colour into close proximity with their beauty- Let us hope for better things next time.—I am, Sir, &c., E. J. E.
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