City and Suburban
BY JOHN BETJEMAN S this is Advpnt there are certain signs of hope worth considering. One of them is the Ministry of Works, whose present able Minister, Mr. Nigel Birch, is a man of taste, energy and tact. No longer need we associate the Ministry wholly with barrow boys (to use current slang for archeologists), with mown lawns round ruins, litter baskets, turnstiles, horn-rimmed antiquarians lecturing on what look like unfinished drainage schemes with all the pedantry of the late nineteenth-century antiquarian. The Ministry, by a recent Act of Parliament, is now empowered to make grants towards the cost of repairing building's of outstanding historic or architectural merit which are not in the Ministry's charge. One would think from the exhibition of the very interesting and sensitive ways of preserving old buildings which the Ministry is now holding at the RIBA, that it was still wholly concerned with ruins. But this is not so. The Ministry is climbing back into the place of honour it held when it was known as the Office of Works and had such men as Wren. Hawksmoor, William Kent, Sir John Vanbrugh, Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and James Wyatt in its employ: when its artists were Thornhill, Hogarth and James Stuart; its sculptors such men as Grinling Gibbons; when it was associ- ated with life rather than death.
• How TO ACCEPT GIFTS GRACEFULLY It is not my habit to publish correspondence which comes to me from this column, but I have had letters about the proposed demolition of the attractive cross in the middle of the town at Glastonbury which are of more than local interest. I deplored the attitude of an FSA on the council who wanted the cross destroyed because it was 'not a genuine antique.' By this sort of argument we ought to take down St. Paul's Cathedral because it is not genuinely Roman. As a result, I had a letter from Miss Joan Evans, Director of the Society of Antiquaries itself, offering as a personal present to the Glastonbury Town Council the £80 needed for the immediate repairs to the top of the cross, and quoting the late Sir Arthur Clapham's remark, `Archeology begins where human memory ends.'
I told the Town Clerk by letter of this offer and now take the opportunity of showing you how the paid servants of local government acknowledge the generosity of a distin- guished member of the public : Thank you for your letter of the 28th ult. and I note what you say. I must point out that before stating that it was my Council's intention to pull down the Glastonbury Cross, it would have been desirable to check as to whether this was a correct statement. In fact the statement is quite incorrect at the present time and so far the Council has merely had a report from its Surveyor that the structure of the Cross was not satisfactory and that there might be danger if considerable work were not carried out. Since then they have been making inquiries from the Lady of the Manor as to whether there was any claim by her as to ownership and if so whether she would repair it or, failing that, whether if it were dangerous she would raise no objection to removal if this was thought necessary.
So far no decision of any kind has been taken by the Council, and the Committee which deals with this is waiting for further information and the result of the meeting which the Borough Surveyor is having with certain bodies on the whole matter. I should be interested to know on what evidence the statement was made that the Council intended to pull it down. I will pass the information as to Miss Evans to the Committee when it meets and in the meanwhile I am sending a copy of this letter to Miss Evans.
Yours faithfully, (illegible signature). Town Clerk.
Readers should note the phrase. 'at the present time' and lest they think I was incorrect in my statement, I add my reply : I thank you for your letter of the 1st December. My first source of information is The Central Somerset Gazette for Friday, October 28th, the centre of the front page. I would also refer you to your own Council's agenda for October 25th, 1955, Highway Committee. The whole (natter was discussed in open council which the public is entitled to attend. May I say in conclusion that your way of accepting or not accept- ing the free gift of money to your Council is hardly polite. I would be grateful if you would refer this reply of mine to your Council. It was certainly not my intention to arouse antagonism, but to help to keep something which I am not alone in admiring.
Yours faithfully.
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