ART IN OUR TOWNS.
[To THE EDITOR OF ras "SPECTATOR."] entirely agree with what you say in your interesting article on "Art in our Towns," in the Spectator of Novem- ber 19th, as to the culture which a community derives from noble architecture. Who, for example, can measure the influence which St. Paul's Cathedral has on the tens of thousands who pass it every day P They cannot be unaffected by the dignity and graceful serenity with which it rears itself ,above the ignoble buildings which crowd and jostle each ether round its base. It seems a perpetual summons to a less worldly and higher life than we lead. Imagine its destruction ! With what desolation this would affect the lives of those who look up at it every day ! What unconscious motives towards noble conduct would somehow be withdrawn ! The fact is, a great man's soul is in the structure, and it is that which -addresses us. All must feel with you that there are singularly few worthy buildings—that is, buildings that 'educate us—in our great provincial towns. It may be that this absence partly accounts for a certain inferiority of tone --a certain woodenness of the imagination—with which we are sometimes charged. Be that as it may, we have quietly accepted and acquiesced in ugliness as an essential part of our lives. But what shall we say of those acres of ugliness which are inhabited by the masses both in London and in the Provinces ? What great feelings and ideas can find expres- sioli in a population born and nurtured amid such an environment ? What wonder if they seek relief in the nerve exaltation supplied by the society, the alcohol, and the gas of public houses. Yet, for myself, I have much hope for our art future, chiefly because we are
gradually becoming conscious of, and dissatisfied with, the ugliness of our lives, and we are beginning to look with questioning and critical eyes at every new building which is erected in our midst and every fresh picture which is imported into our galleries. And this leads me, if I may, to add a very few words on oar provincial galleries. I hold that the maintenance of an art gallery has become absolutely essential to the culture and self-respect of a great English community, and that no painting or otber work of art can be too great and noble for it. I think that it is due to our working classes and art students who cannot visit London, still less the Continental galleries, to have some oasis of beauty and sincerity where they may find refreshment and elevation of heart. In soy opinion, the working classes have at least as true an appreciation of great art as the wealthy, many of whom have conventionalised away their sense of beauty and reality. I was much touched some months ago by a poor man telling me that he and his wife regularly took their Saturday half-holiday opposite Mr. Holman Hunt's great picture of "The Triumph of the Innocents." I believe that our provincial galleries are destined to have as great an influence on the art culture of England as the galleries of London itself. The former are in their infancy, and they thus, doubtless, include not a few inferior works. But this has been inevitable. Every collector of anything accepts at first specimens which he will reject as his collection develops, and it is hardly less true of our national than of our pro-. vincial galleries. I trouble you with this letter because I believe that we are on the eve of important provincial art developments, if, indeed, these developments have not already begun. I understand that the walls of more than one of our important galleries are overcrowded, and that their manage- ment committees will have to consider whether more space shall be found by extension, by weeding, or by both pro- cesses. But of two things I am very sure—(1) that their further development will create much popular enthusiasm, and (2) that the higher their managing boards aim—that is, the nobler the works of art they procure—the greater will be the delight of their citizens,—especially their working classes.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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