COLOUR IN OUR STREETS.
[To THE EDITOR or THS " SPECTATOR."] Sja,—As an artist who has spent his life in the study of colour, I should like to add my voice in support of Lady Cave's plea for colour in our streets (Spectator, January 1st), and I hope that it will meet with a ready response and lead to the forma- tion of a central committee, to which sub-committees in the different boroughs or parishes could apply for advice and, specifically, for the names of artists best qualified to carry out the work on its artistic side, such as the invention of designs and the arrangement of colour-harmonies. A logical extension of the idea of introducing colour into our streets would be to make the parishes or boroughs recognizable at a glance by attributing to each a distinctive colouring. What particu- larly recommends Lady Cave's suggestion to serious attention is that it comprises all the elements that every practical scheme, big or little, aiming at progressive development, should have : simplicity; beauty combined with utility; slow and sure growth of a silent and pervasive influence working unconsciously on the individual.
And "what spoils nothing," as the French say—an important consideration in these hard times—is that its realization would not involve any additional expense worthy of mention. It is a matter of public concern that the idea should not be allowed to drop. The cultivation of a sense of beauty is more important in the develonment of character than athletics or boxing. It has been too much neglected hitherto. No better way can be conceived of beginning the nation's education in this respect than by spreading the love of colour. Colour, in the gospel according to Ruskin, is the holiest thing in the world. Carlyle might have said that it is also the " beauti-
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