REVIVING CRAFTS.
On behalf of the country—Kentish and Hertfordshire villages as well as Welsh mining areas—it would be well if Londoners (in the phrase of a famous head master) "would embalm in their notebooks" the address : 26 Victoria Street.
It is the place where the work of rural craftsmen is to be seen and bought ; and the rural crafts represent a great range of arts, among which especial publicity is being now deservedly given to the quilts made by the wi–es and daughters of Welsh miners. The craftsman spirit runs strong in our country places in spite of modern hurry. The loveliest stuffs I know are woven in a village near Salisbury, and the most thorough- going artistic temperament I ever met is immared in the brawny chest of a Hertfordshire blacksmith. These village craftsmen have anticipated Rusldn's ideal of a community in which only good work shall be recognized. The English countryman in general hates bad work, and I must believe, in spite of contrary assertions from some of our social, philosophers, that the factories, however efficient, will leave niche for craftsman's work, W. BEACH TLIOMAS.
Previous page
