The first meeting of the Kyrle Society took place at
the Town Hall, Kensington, on Thursday afternoon. The society was founded in 1877 ; its object is to bring " beauty home to the people." Prince Leopold is its president, and took the
chair. The society proposes to "decorate, by mural paintings, pictures, gifts of flowers, &c., workmen's clubs, schools, and mission-rooms, used for social or religious gatherings, without distinction of creed ;" to lay out gardens and encourage the cultivation of plants ; to organise a voluntary choir of singers, to give oratorios and concerts to the poor ; to co-operate with the National Health Society in securing open-air spaces in poor neighbourhoods to be laid out as public gardens. Mr. William Morris, who read a paper to the society, said that he, for one, could not be otherwise than discontented, while the aspect of London was so squalid. Nor can we be otherwise than discontented while it is so. Perhaps the right way would be to encourage every spontaneous effort of native talent in decorat- ing the public rooms of the poor, and to import from outsiders only work which would be a standard of merit in its own line.
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