TOWN CHILDREN IN THE COUNTRY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—May I contribute to the correspondence growing out of Miss Loane's letter to you on " Children's Country Holidays" an account of a work which has been carried on now for thirty years on lines similar to her suggestion of an alter- native to boarding-out in cottages in " a centre where there would be proper housing, food, and superintendence, and where they would be helped to amuse themselves in a health- ful and rational way." Thirty years ago,, when holiday camps
and holiday funds were still unthought of, we had requests to find temporary accommodation in this seaside neighbour-
hood for occasional parties of London children, and, seeing the difficulty of getting suitable arrangements and hearing just then of a plan first carried out by the late Countess Batthyany in Hampshire, it occurred to us that it might be a good thing to put up a permanent build- ing in a field we had, which seemed suitable for the purpose. This was done, and ever since 1881 we have had parties of
school children down from May to the end of September to stay for a fortnight or three weeks, accompanied by their teachers, who devote their whole time to superintending the children's occupations and amusements, and usually seem to enjoy the holiday fully as much as the children themselves: During the season about 1,000 children thus obtain a holiday : the buildings accommodate 100 at a time, ex-
clusive of teachers. During the last few years the London County Council have made use of this building for their Day Industrial (truant) Schools, their stay being counted as school attendance, and I cannot do better than copy some of the reports on the buildings of one of their medical inspectors after an official visit. He says:—
"The home, on high rising ground, is self-contained . . . and contains two large dormitories, partly in brick, partly in iron, with raised wooden floors lined with felt and wood in the interior. One of these dormitories plays the double debt of being a dormitory slung with hammocks at night and a refectory and playroom by day. Here the older boys sleep. The other is pro- vided with iron beds, and is only used for sleeping purposes ; overlooking each of them is a cubicle, where one of the masters sleeps ; an outhouse provided with cooking apparatus serves as a kitchen ; two sets of zinc-lined troughs under cover provide suit- able washing accommodation . . . sanitary arrangements are ample and satisfactory."
The catering is done for each school by itself, and they make their own arrangements. The hours are (usually) laid down as when at school, and a certain number of older boys told
off daily in rotation to help in the kitchen, &c. The children devote most of their time to bathing and cricket The arrangements are only really intended for boys, but in the case of the London County Council schools a limited number of girls are lodged in the village close by and share the boys' meals and have the run of the field with them under the superintendence of their own teachers. In all the many years these buildings have been in use there have been very few troubles of any kind. The fact that the children are under constant supervision and at the same time kept continually amused probably accounts for this, and if people would only realize how very little trouble is entailed and how smoothly the machinery works more of these centres would surely be started by people possessing suitable sites and willing to incur the initial cost of putting up the buildings.—I am, Sir, &c.,
ROSE S. M. WEIGALL.
Southwood, St. Lawrence, Ramsgate.
P.S.—During this season we have had the following schools here :—Church Farm, Barnet ; Waifs and Strays, Copenhagen Street, Islington ; L.C.C. Day Industrial School, Drury Lane ; L.C.C. Industrial School, Mayford; East London Industrial School, Lewisham ; Field Lane Industrial School; three Working Boys' Homes.
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