"COMMEMORATING THE HEROIC DEEDS OF THE POOR."
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.']
SIR, —In the Spectator of September 4th, 1887, you were good enough to insert a letter headed "A Suggestion for the Kyrle Society." In it I quoted a letter written by Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., to the Times suggesting the idea that it would be well to commemorate in some lasting form the deeds of heroism which are constantly being enacted by the poor ; for in so doing we should keep alive in the minds of the present and future generations actions which exhibit some of the noblest of our national characteristics. The Kyrle Society is now prepared to undertake and carry out a scheme for decorating public halls and rooms with mural painting from designs by Mr. Walter Crane, the subjects .chosen being illustrative of deeds of heroism. Mr. Crane has most kindly and generously entered into the scheme, and will give it his invaluable help. It is needless to impress on the public what such help means. All who know Mr. Crane's art— and who does not know it in England, or, indeed, in Europe, in the shape of his children's picture-books P—will realise that no artist in our.own, or in any other age, perhaps, was ever so well fitted to tell a story in painting, and at the same time to pro- duce a beautiful decorative design. Those who were fortunate enough to see the frieze painted by Mr. Crane of the story of "The Skeleton in Armour," and sent to America a few years ago, can realise how singularly well suited are his special gifts for work of the kind. He is now waiting for accounts of heroic deeds before beginning to design the mural decoration of the hall attached to the recreation grounds rescued by Miss Octavia Hill from the densely crowded, built-up regions in Southwark, for the use of the five hundred families living in Stanhope Buildings, who have otherwise no chance of seeing a blade of grass or a green tree.
If any among your readers should know any story of a deed of heroism such as that of Alice Ayres, described by Mr. Watts in his letter to the Times, and quoted in your number of September 24th, and would kindly send an account of it addressed to Mrs. Russell Barrington, 4 Melbury Road, Kensington, W., it would materially help in the carrying out of the above scheme.
It is hoped that by the time the decoration of the hall in Southwark is completed, there will be walls in the People's Palace available for more of the same kind of decorations from designs by Mr. W. Crane.—I am, Sir, &c.,
EMILIE ISABEL BARRINGTON.
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