THE MAGISTRATES OF SWINDON, Who have jointly held the title
of Ass of the Century since they solemnly declared The Decameron obscene and ordered it to be burnt, must yield up the title and the trophy to Mr. W. S. Wigglesworth, Chancellor of the Diocese of York, who has refused to allow the vicar of Selby Abbey to accept from Sir Jacob Epstein the gift of his master- piece Ecce Homo. 'I am satisfied,' said Mr. Wigglesworth, 'there is a substantial body of opinion against the introduction of this statue.' No doubt; it is always possible to find 'a substantial body of opinion' against anything, including acceptance of the view that the earth is round; it is the job of people like Mr. Wigglesworth, responsible, under the curious Church law, for deciding matters of this kind, to point out that the bumpkins and the yokels do not constitute the best opinion available, and that even the Church of England deserves something better in the way of decoration than Victorian stained glass and a marble font with twiddly-bits. Sir Jacob—who has had, in his long, great day, to put up with many insults from those who know nothing about art but know what they don't like— will no doubt take this one as philoso- phically as all the other's; it is Mr. Wiggles- worth, after all, who looks ridiculous, not Sir Jacob. But it is a pity that the generosity of our greatest sculptor and the vision of a vicar with the courage to raise his eyes from the Thirty-nine Articles should have been thus treated.
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