LORD LEIGHTON'S HOUSE.
[To THE EDITOR OF TUE "SPECTATOR.") a recent issue you inserted an earnest appeal for an endowment fund for Lord Leighton's house. Will you allow me to add a few words on the same subject ? The proposal to preserve the house and dedicate it permanently to the public en- joyment has been long talked of, but it seems doubtful if the reasons which recommend it are adequately appreciated. Li the first place, the Persian tiles which line the staircase and the Arab Court are a source of rare and never-failing pleasure. Some one, I believe, has suggested that they might be taken out and preserved in the South Kensington Museum. The sug- gestion recalls the anecdote of the French lover who had his lady's pet kitten killed and stuffed in order that its charms might be more conveniently enjoyed. In the Arab Court the tiles are not exhibited as a curiosity; they decorate a room which can be used; and they have a setting supplied by great English artists,—by Edgar Boehm and Walter Crane. In the second place, the sketches and studies which are collected at Leighton House introduce us to the workshop of a great craftsman. Beautiful in themselves, they show the strivings of a mind to which perfection of work was a religion. To the English nation, accustomed to treat art as a play- thing, such seriousness of purpose is a most timely teacher. Further, the house is exceptionally well adapted to be the home of chamber-music. In Germany concert-rooms are built for this purpose ; in England a concert-room is a concert-room, and must be used alike for orchestra and quartet. It is admitted by those qualified to judge that chamber-music nowhere sounds quite so well as in the large studio at Leighton House, with its audience ranging from a hundred and fifty to two hundred. The same room is well suited to lectures and readings, while the series of studios covering the upper floor form an admirable setting for small collections of pictures,—witness the exhibition of sketches illustrative of folk-lore new on view- l'axis full of small museums, each dedicated to its own subject; London has scarcely one. Germany preserves the houses of her great men; London is reckless a them. Leighton House reminds the world of the life and work of a true artist more vividly than any bust or monument; it forms a place of charm and interest in the midst of the miles of houses which fill up the Royal borough of Kensington. It may be confidently hoped that the wealthy inhabitants of that borough will lose no time in adding to the gift of Lord Leighton's sisters that endowment which is necessary to its full enjoyment, and will establish in their midst the arst Memorial Art Gallery in London.—I am, P.S.—Communications on the subject may be addressed to the Curator, Leighton House, Holland Park Road.
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