THE IDEAL HOME EXHIBITION [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sin,— I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition being a seeker after ideals. But the Home evades me, it is always just beyond my reach, so I had to turn away from houses, and look at the lesser " ideals " that go towards the whole. In this mind I wandered through the exhibition, and in so doing came across " The Living Picture Gallery." At once I realised how widely " ideals " vary, but surely those who lead in the forming of ideals should beware lest they lead astray ?
I felt very much astray as I walked down that thin corridor of " living pictures " ; for what purpose next will man use little sensitive living creatures, born for freedom and the open skies ?
- These " living pictures " are small glazed compartments, most of them about two feet long by nine inches wide, with fronts resembling picture frames. The backs and sides of the Compartments are painted to represent natural scenery or art interiors, and in each small cramped space live birds and little animals. The people who were gazing at them whilst I was there were not, I think, impressed by the cleverness of the represented suggestion; for the chief remarks I heard were, " poor little things," and " they don't look happy do they?"' No. indeed they don't ! The whole thing is the wrong ideal for a British exhibition. Are we to have these pictures in our (Fellow of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).
6 Observatory Gardens, Campden Hill, W. 8.
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