SOUTH LONDON FINE ART GALLERY. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
"SPECTATOR."] you allow me to repeat in your columns this year an appeal which was so well responded to twelve months ago that I am encouraged to make it again ? It is to ask, on behalf of the South London Fine Art Gallery, for the loan of pictures for the months of August and September. During that time, when every one who can go out of town does so, the streets and squares of the West End are very empty and quiet; but the activity of poorer parts of London is undi- minished, and their inhabitants remain at work all the year round. It is to cheer them and their children, and to show them something of the wide world of art, that such a place as the South London Gallery has been built, and upon its walls beautiful pictures are always to be seen ; but this is a special appeal for a special time, and I know that many owners of pictures would be quite ready to lend them, if they realised the pleasure it would give to others, and were sure that they would be carefully guarded. The present building, which includes a fire-proof gallery, 70 ft. by 34 ft., is not yet two years old, but the institution dates back for some twenty-four years. It is supported by voluntary subscriptions and gifts, and managed with the least possible expenditure ; is free to all poor people and all children, and the purchase of a penny catalogue admits any one else. Sir Frederick Leighton is its President ; Sir James Linton, Messrs. Wyke-Bayliss, G. F. Watts, Walter Crane, E. Burne-Jones, and other artists are upon the Council, and have contributed works of their own. The Earl of Dudley lent us nine of his old Italian pictures for a couple of months this spring, after they came from the exhibition of "Old Masters" at Burlington House. We have also the rudiments of a museum, and for this any objects of interest would be most welcome. Thousands of people, in- cluding many children (who are amongst the most interested and intelligent of the visitors), come every week to the Gallery, and on Sunday evenings especially (for Sunday opening is an integral part of our scheme) the numbers are very large. A most generous gift has been lately made to the institution, for the purpose of building a lecture-hall and library in connection with the picture-gallery, and many books have been already promised for it; but others will be wanted. We have struggled through great difficulties, but now, if we can count upon the same kind of help that was given us last year, we hope to make in the middle of a crowded part of working London, for the delight of those who cannot get even a couple of days away from its streets, a storehouse of imagination and beauty which will be a place of refuge to them. Pictures that may be lent will be gladly sent for, if notice is given either to me or to the Secretary, Miss Olver, South London Fine Art Gallery, Peckham Road, Camberwell, S.E.—I am, Sir, &c.,
GEORGIANA BURNS-JONES.
The Grange, North End Road, West Kensington.
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