OUR VILLAGE COMMITTEE OF RECREATION.
TWOgardeners, a builder, a stonemason, the bookstall clerk, the Vicar, and two or three " residents "—these were our Committee, and our object was to promote 'metal recreation in the Village (a hamlet of about forty houses), for the winter, by means of the villagers' own efforts.
One of the gardeners, L—, was extremely keen about the project, and usually acted as spokesman for the " Village." " It ought to have been done before," he said ; " there has never been anything for the lads to do in the evenings in the winter." We felt rebuked, but plucked up heart at the thought that at last we were attempting to do our duty In the matter. " What would the Village like best " we asked. The answer came swiftly and un- hesitatingly—" Singing." That certainly seemed a fairly simple matter to arrange, and we were fortunate in finding a musical friend who kindly consented to act as " Conductor." " But tell us, L—," we said, anxious to have our feet set on the right road, " how is it that one hears so often of things being started in villages and then dying out very soon from lack of support 1" " Well," said L—, (he was a black-eyed, serious-visaged man full of bottled-up en- thusiasm, called a " good Liberal " by those who considered that term the highest praise, and a " Radical fellow " by those who did not), "the lads say that they are never asked to do anything them- selves." Lo ! the talisman was put into our hands, and the lesson contained in these words of wisdom should be engraved on the walls of every Village Institute and in the minds of every social worker, for it goes to the root of the matter. We noted the lesson and carefully acted upon it, drawing upon the more educated members of the Committee and community merely for help and advice, without which it would have been impossible even for our enthusiastic folk to accomplish anything.
So the first enterprise we took in hand was the formation of the " Singing Club " under the leadership of a Conductor whose musical standard would be content with nothing short of what he called " simple glees." Accordingly we assembled forty strong on Monday evening in the little Infant Schoolroom kindly lent us for the mime. and boldly demanded " Who will o'er the Downs so free / " But, alas ! most of the members were quite ignorant of musical notation, though they kept their eyes rigorously fixed upon the music the whole time, and the " seconds " had a pretty way of straying off into the air; so our poor Conductor, who must have suffered acutely though unflinchingly, had no light task in
hand. After our second practice, the faithful L— came to the Secretary with a more serious air than ever. " We can't manage with only one evening a week," he said. " Can't we have a second ? " Such zeal deserved encouragement, so a second evening was added, and as the Conductor was unable to attend, the Secretary, albeit of but moderate musical attainment, undertook to conduct a practice for the Monday's glees, with the addition of Folk-Songs and " Chanties " by way of relaxation.
The result of this happy thought was extraordinarily successful ; the Folk-Songs sung in unison proved most popular, and the Village, grew familiar with " The Jolly Waggoners," " The Keeper," and similar ditties known to its forefathers whistled and sung as the lads and men went to and from their work. We took them seriously too, practising steadily both these and the glees ; with the help of two or three members who could read music and were able to lead and keep the others in tune. The numbers kept up well, and it was pleasant to see the men coming in with their soap-shiny faces and glistening hair, their clean collars and " Sunday " clothes, and the girls with their bright eyes and shy looks, all earnestly striving to master their difficulties.
. We were not, however, going to stop there, so a weekly class in a private house was started for the elder boys, aged between fourteen and eighteen, for the reading of plays and poetry with a view to taking part in an Entertainment "'at the end of the " Season." Another weekly gathering was formed for Folk-Dancing, which was extremely popular; but owing to the sad fact, which we found very hampering all through, that we had no Institute or Hall of our own in the Village, the numbers had to be very limited.
The Play Readings went smoothly, about half-a-dozen boys attending regularly and laboriously struggling to learn expression and use of speech. One of them touchingly remarked ; " You see, it's eddication we want." It was a difficult matter to find suitable material. Probably a time will come when, in answer to the demand, plays will be actually written for country folk. At present they are almost all in style, allusion, and plot quite aloof from the experience and surroundings of the countryman ; and for the most part, although the spirit of some of Shakespeare's rustic scenes might appeal to him, the vocabulary is beyond him. However, it was sometimes a surprise to find that a really good poem could hit the mark. One evening the poem happened to be " How they Brought the Good News," and chancing to look up, the reader was astonished to see the roughest of the audience gazing fixedly with a rapt expression, his whole face alight, he himself evidently quite carried away by the story and the lilt of the galloping rhythm, and later by the beautiful way in which a boy of sixteen recited " 0 Mary, go and call the cattle home."
So passed a busy happy winter. There was no time to be dull, for there was the Entertainment at Easter to be prepared for, and the honour of the Village was at stake. The Crgat Occasion came. Tickets were sold in such numbers that we had to arrange for two successive evenings' performance ; the bookcase and desks were pushed aside to make room for the platform at one end of the schoolroom, chairs were borrowed from the neighbouring houses, curtains were hung at the back and bides as well as in front of the stage, one of the gardeners (he was our best tenor and a first-rate whistler) made splendid footlights out of old cocoa-tins and a couple of boards protected by rabbit-wire, a standard lamp with an immense shade lighted up the side of the stage, and all was ready. The programme included, besides our best glee and the Folk-Songs, some of the old traditional songs such as " John Peel " and " Past Three o'Clook," some really good whistling by two of the men and a mandoline solo, all by the villagers, with two songs, a violin solo by one or two of the " gentry," an Irish jig by a little girl, and a short play by the " Reading Class," with the addition of a couple of village girls in the dramatis personae. It all went with a swing, and it would be hard to say who enjoyed it more, the performers or the crowded audiences.
Two dicta were afterwards heard which warmed the hearts of the Committee. One was a commentary upon a performance given by some professional " London Entertainefs " who had been kindly brought down by a friend " to amuse the village " shortly before our local effort—" Well, this beats them London Entertainel's ' holler"; and the other—" We've never had such a nice winter in the Village before; everybody was so friendly-like, and there was so much doing all the time."
The experiment was repeated the following winter with a like success, and then, alas ! was stopped by the war; but it has been a
rich and valuable experience, and it is earnestly to be hoped that in the interests of our country people other villages will " please
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