30 JANUARY 1932, Page 17

ENGLISH AS SHE IS WROTE

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,--Vast sums are spent in England on the education of the people. The continents quoted below come from the visitors' book in a Cornish church which I recently visited. They would seem to show that, if the aesthetic appreciation of those taught in the schools has been awakened, we have .still-some way to go before the expression of this awakening -can be suitably set down in words. It should be explained that the visitor writes his name in the first column and in the sreond records his reaction to the beauty round him..

I append. a selection :

" Quite quiet " A Garden of God" "Very much so" ditto - "planed skillfully " (sic) " O.K."' " Lovely (Sidesman C. of E.)" " too beautiful to express " " same here " " How beautiful are thy courts after an absence of 20 years I " " Pax vobiseum " " Unique—very " " literally beautiful::

We may well feel " rail est M pour qu'on is vole el non pas pour qu'on en park "—ow tame dcrive1---1 am,-, Sir, ate., 1