RURAL INDUSTRIES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—As one who is keenly interested in the possibility of a twentieth-century revival of rural industries, may I support in your columns the point of view so well stated by Lord Shaftesbury in your issue of April 25th? I feel sure that many crafts producing articles of high quality and also some simple things can be carried on successfully in the country, with great advantage to the workers. With mass production articles the position is different, because machinery is the dominating factor.
During the past three or four years I have been actually doing this work, and the experience my firm has gained would be very willingly placed at the disposal of anyone who con- templates the starting of similar work. Basing our organiza- tion on a very beautiful old inn, which makes it possible for visitors to find accommodation, we have started the crafts of furniture, making and metal working, and now employ nearly thirty in these two shops. We also have our own building staff of about twenty-five, and in the cottages We are now building all the joinery, casements, hinges, latches were made in our shops and stone quarried in our own quarry. Of course, many of the large estates used to do such work, often at a loss. Our work has to be an economic proposition or it would inevitably end.
. Much might be done if provincial museums held exhibitions of local work, such as the one which opens on May 22nd at Cheltenham for the third successive year. To instil a spirit of pride in local productions, old and new, would, I think, be a very great achievement. —I am, Sir, &c.,
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