and rug-making, toy-making, lace-making, embroidery, smocking, knitting, pottery, plain and ornamental leather-work, bookbinding, stencilling, &c., &c.
The class-holders who organize the work locally are in all cases voluntary workers. Those of them who possess sufficient knowledge and leisure often give the instruction themselves. In other cases, where means are forthcoming, paid teachers are employed. Besides providing teaching, the Association gives encouragement to many self-taught craftsmen. The work produced under these circumstances must necessarilyvary very much in artistic excellence. Designs, • carefully chosen by a special Committee, are sent out from the central office at the Royal Albert Hall to all who apply for them; but all possible encouragement is given to original designers. The power of invention has been called forth in unsuspected quarters. Many people who are unable to pursue a regular trade develop unexpected talent in inventing funny and ingenious toys or homely furniture. Not only disabled soldiers, but crippled lads and girls, and even old fellows in workhouses, have been helped to turn their brains and hands to use in this way. In some of the larger classes a very high standard of execution has been reached, and industries have developed which are now practically independent of the mother Society.
Two great men, John Ruskin and G. F. Watts, were from the beginning in heartiest sympathy with the work of the Association. In a small volume called Plain Handicrafts Mr. Watts wrote : " The rush of interest in the direction of what are understood RS worldly advantages has trampled out the sense of pleasure in the beautiful, and the need of its presence as an element essential to the satisfaction of daily life, which must have been unconsciously felt in ages less absorbed in acquiring wealth for itelf alone, proved by the fact that in everything done or used then, there was an apparent touch of the artistic sense, in buildings, in costumes, in pageants, in all things from a temple to the meanest utensil. Our Art Congresses would have been in old times as needless as congresses to impress on the general mind the advantages of money-making would be in these. The necessity to make all classes acquainted with the written language by which human thought is conveyed is now universally felt; the object of plain handicraft is to widely open the book of nature. The boy encouraged to imitate some natural object will ever after see in that object something unseen and unknown to him before, and he will find the time he formerly did not know what to do with (a state of being that continually drives thousands to the congested Metropolis) henceforth full of pleasurable sensations."
Mr. Watts also was a generous helper to the funds of the Association.
Many artists, principally architects and other decorative workers, have helped the Association, by giving their time either in teaching or in judging the results of the work done. The great difficulty that has to be encountered is in the choice of designs. In earlier ages workers were preserved from countless: mistakes by the fact that they had never seen anything but the art of their own country, made to suit their own lives, and for the use of local materials. Now we are all bewildered by seeing all round us scraps of every kind of architecture, and we are presented with such an immense variety of materials and such elaborate tools, that it is necessary to have considerable experience, besides natural taste, if we are to avoid vulgarities. That is why the village craftsman can hardly be expected to do-well without seine guidance.
The work is necessarily a system of incessant " moving on." Every year many of the pupils, who have begun as lads and lasses of fourteen, pass out of ken and are absorbed into the world of professional workers. Many of the classes have developed into prosperous trading concerns no longer needing the help of their teachers. Many of the best and most inspiring leaders and helpers have, alas! been removed by death. But 'in compensation there is continually the pleasure and interest of welcoming new recruits both among teachers and pupils; and when the original classes come to an end with the lives of their founders, there is often consolation in receiving new and interesting work sent from some hitherto unknown village. The Association cannot have too many of such new recruits and departures, and we would ask all who are interested in our national handicrafts, and who recognize the value of winter .occupations and supplementary earnings for our villagers, to put themselves into communication with it.
• A whole group of classes have owed their inspiration to friends and pupils .of Ruskin, inhabiting the Lake Country. Beautiful and original silversmiths' work, copper repousse, hand-woven linens,' woollens, silks, especially original and refined embroideries, still come from this famous region. Clusters of workers in the West Country and in Buckinghamshire-have revived Honiton and other laces. Groups of weavers and wool-spinners are to be found.mainly in Dorset and Wiltshire. At one time some specially charming pieces, of, furniture,
inlaid with entirely original designs and beautiful effects of colour, were made under the tuition of three gifted sisters, in three different counties. It would be impossible to enumerate or describe the interesting work that came from all parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. I write in the past tense because the continuous development and progress of the work came abruptly to an end at the beginning of the war. The elder lads and many of the teachers went to the fighting-line. Girl pupils also found war work, and every sort of national service claimed the time and thoughts of those who had worked hardest for the objects of the Association.
The question is now, can the old extended work be revived? It is believed that it can—mainly because a new need for its usefulness has sprung up, namely, the demand for providing sedentary occupations for the disabled soldiers, who have E0 large a claim upon us all. Already many of these men are being taught in our classes, as well as in Convalescent Homes and Settlements, and in the endeavour to collect their productions together for sale, and to bring these new pupils into touch with those professional workers who can best inspire and help them, the Home Arts and Industries Association are now organizing an Exhibition, which will take place front November 5th to 8th inclusive in the Drapers' Hall, Throgmorton Street, which has been generously lent to them for the purpose by the Drapers' Company. There such classes of the Association as have been able to get to work again (under circumstances in many cases of great difficulty) will exhibit their handiwork side by side with that produced in war hospitals and the like places. It is earnestly to be hoped that the public will interest itself in this Exhibition, not only because it is necessary for the existence of the Association that their products should be sold, but also because it is only by making their system more fully known that they can hope to draw into their net the many disabled men who have learnt something of some handicraft in hospital, and who have now returned to distant and scattered homes. These men, unless they can be kept in touch with some one who can help them, find it almost impossible to perfect themselves in the art they have chosen, and very difficult to market their productions.
The public can best help them through the medium of the organization that I have described, as to which further particulars can be obtained from the Secretary, Royal Albert Hall,
South Kensington.—I am, Sir, &c., MARY LOVELACE.
[It gives us great pleasure to support Lady Lovelace's plea for the restarting of an institution so admirable in its origin, and now to be made one of the ways for helping the men who served and saved the State when the great tempest struck us. We sincerely hope that our readers will be able to aid in this good work.—ED. Spectator.]
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