Nesting Boxes for Birds by Joseph King

There is reasonably freely available writing on the Peasant Arts movement by Godfrey Blount, Ethel Blount, Greville McDonald and Maude Egerton King.  There is little by Joseph King.  The only Peasant Arts Society published pamphlet by Joseph King is Nesting Boxes for Birds, a surprising subject for a politician.

Nesting Boxes for Birds, Joseph King,
The Gallery of Handicraft

The book was published by The Peasant Arts Society, from their 8 Queen's Road, London address and The Gallery of Handicraft, Kings Road, Haslemere.  I do not think I have come across the name 'The Gallery of Handicraft' before, another company of the Peasant Arts movement.  It is clear that Joseph King was a bird lover.  The illustrations of the book differ in style from Godfrey Blount's drawings, I wonder whether Joseph King illustrated his own book?

The Peasant Arts Society, 8 Queens Road, London and
The Gallery of Handicrafts, Kings Road, Haslemere

extract from Nesting Boxes for Birds,
Joseph King

King seems keen to link the subject of nesting boxes to legislation, beginning the book by saying "All men love the wild birds.  To hear their chirp or listen to their song, and to watch their manners or their habits make up a distinct joy in life.  Even Parliament has recognised this, and has passed laws that the wild birds may be protected and preserved.  It has been made punishable to take the eggs or the young, or to kill the old birds within certain periods, which are generally the breeding seasons.  County Councils and other authorities spend a great deal of trouble to enforce these laws.  But why are such efforts made to preserve and protect the wild birds?"

illustration from
Nesting Boxes for Birds, Joseph King

King illustrates numerous nesting boxes and suggests they are used for:

"A  A hollowed-out trunk, to be bound firmly under the branch of an oak or other large tree with horizontal branches.  ....

B A box with large aperture for flycatchers.  ....

C  Redstart box (German type).....

D  Flycatcher shelf, to be placed in recess of a window or in a corner under a low eave, to be hung on nails....

E  Basket-work nesting place, hung against wall close under eaves....for pigeons, or less smaller birds.  (In use in the Perigord district of France.)

F  Tubular entrance for a tit's box...."

Presumably redstarts and flycatchers were common in Haslemere at the time of writing this book.  It is likely that nesting boxes were made and hung in Foundry Meadow.

King concludes the book with an interesting suggestion:

"A Possible New Industry

A rural industry might well be started and maintained in these useful and pretty bird boxes.  Though there are in Germany regular manufacturers who turn out hundreds of nesting boxes every season, at reasonable prices, and in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials, yet in England, so far as is known, there is no maker of nesting boxes to whom any one can apply for what could, with advantage and profit, become a recognised saleable article.  Here is an opening for an enterprising worker!

Where to Buy Nesting Boxes

At the Peasant Arts Society, 8 Queen's Road, Bayswater, W., and at the Handicraft Gallery, Foundry Road, Haslemere, Surrey, nesting boxes for tits or starlings, price 2s. each may be obtained.  But there is no regular English maker (so far as the writer knows) who produces a regular supply of various models, such as are produced by not a few makers in Germany.

Literature on the Subject

...A leaflet on the subject (2d. per dozen; 1s. 3d. per 100), written by the writer of this pamphlet, may be obtained from the Society for the Protection of Birds, 3, Hanover Square, London, W."

illustration from
Nesting Boxes for Birds,
Joseph King

In 1906 Joseph King is quoted in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Birds notes and news (29 September, 1906) in relation to the front page article on nesting boxes which begins "The popularity of nesting boxes for wild birds - long in favour in Germany and Switzerland - has so greatly increased in our country in the last year or two, and the difficulty in obtaining suitable boxes appears to be felt by so many persons who would like to encourage birds to nest in their woods and gardens, that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has established a central depot in London, near Tower Bridge, where boxes of various patterns will be stocked".  King is referred to in the advice that "They should be kept out of the reach of cats, and Mr Joseph King recommends a bit of thorny branch tied near the entrance to keep off intruders."

Bird Notes and News,
March 1906-December 1907
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Haslemere Independent Labour Party, Kings Road, 1908

As I have written before, Arthur Romney Green was one of the founding members of Haslemere's Independent Labour Party.  He established this group with his friend Harold Murray.

Susan Elkin writes "Harold Murray, a dentist, and his wife Bertha were socialists who had arrived at Haslemere with their two children not long after the Green's move there.  Green, wanting to be active to their cause, was instantly drawn to them...

"Green and Murray started an Independent Labour Party (ILP) group which met in the showroom above Green's workshop.  Sometimes as many as 40 or 50 people attended the meetings: a mixture of small tradesmen, artisans, the men who worked for Green and, sometimes, a sprinkling of local bigwigs.  Speakers came down from London, including Henry Golding who became a close and dear friend to Green.  They even organised a debate in Haslemere Town Hall between Ramsay MacDonald and John St Loe Strachey, editor of The Spectator.  This, they believed, was the first important debate on socialism to be hold outside London." (Life to the Lees, Natula Publications, 1998).

Debate on Socialism, 1908,
Ramsay MacDonald and John St Loe Strachey,
Haslemere Branch of the Independent Labour Party

The booklet recording the debate says that it was held in the School Hall, not Haslemere Hall as Elkin states.  It is interesting to see the booklet is published "by the Haslemere Branch of the Independent Labour Party, King's Road, Haslemere", so the recorded address for the branch would have been Arthur Romney Green's workshop on Kings Road.

The debate was "arranged under the joint auspices of the Haslemere branches of the Independent Labour Party and the Church of England Men's Society" which seems like an interesting combination of societies.  Presided over by the Lord Bishop of Dorking, MacDonald and Strachey were accompanied on the platform by "Mr Harold Murray (chairman of the Haslemere branch of the Independent Labour Party), the Rector of Haslemere (the Rev. G. H. Aitken)" and others.  The Rev. Aitken was the vicar of St Christopher's Church described as "the guiding spirit behind its creation".  This working relationship between the Independent Labour Party and the Church of England, placing Green's friend and the vicar of St Christopher's together is the closest link I have found between the Peasant Arts movement and St Christopher's Church.  Arthur Romney Green is likely to have been on the platform also, as it is noted that there were other representatives of the Independent Labour there, but he is not separately named.

Whilst I have read of this debate being held in 1908, I had not seen the subject of the debate before:

"That the only way to arrive at a just economic basis of Society, is by the application of the principle of collective ownership and control of land and capital" 

Ramsay's first speech of the evening sets out a main theme "I am therefore going to consider to-night the question of distribution, the social distribution of wealth, the economic basis of society judged from its results in the distribution of wealth.  Now my proposition in connection with that is that existing distribution is absolutely unjust, and by unjust I mean that it is not in any way the expression of the service given by the owners of property to society; that you have got men and women owning property to-day who have given no service to society for the property they own, and that as they have become possessed of that property owing to the present constitution of society, it becomes our duty to re-constitute society so that the distribution of wealth proceeds upon lines or economic and social merit. 

"...So by the present system of unregulated capitalism you have every successful business in the country tending to become over capitalised.  The charge of the capitalist is becoming heavier and heavier and the power of the worker to demand a fair share of the result of his effective labour is becoming less effective from an economic and social point of view."

Strachey responds at one point relaying a story of a woman who had been neglectful of her children saying ““Look here, so long as the Salvation Army’ll feed my children and look after them I won’t, - so there!”  That is the way in which a half and half Socialism is eating into the fabric of the family and injuring it.”

Harold Murray speaks at the end of the debate, adding “There is no doubt at all in my mind that some of the points that have been made against us to-night by Mr Strachey have been made simply because he knows too few Socialists to be able to appreciate the fact that they cannot have a bad effect upon Society but only a good one.  All the Socialist I have ever known – and I am a Socialist of twenty-five years standing – have been exceptionally good men, and I have not found a bad one amongst them (laughter and applause).”

Rev. G. H. Aitken seconds the motion and is the last speech of the night recorded.  “…I believe that at this particular moment there is nothing we need more in England to-day than that we should understand one another.  I believe, perhaps that I am voicing the feeling of many when I say that my whole heart goes with Mr. Ramsay MacDonald.  We want, I believe, everything he wants.  We desire that just economic basis for Society.  We desire that our people should more and more share in the good things given to us in this beautiful world of ours, and we are ready, not merely to give money which is the least – I was going to say the worst – way of effecting it, but we are ready to give our time, our thought and our life in order that we may, put the best at the disposal of all.  But while we feel that, we are not yet convinced in our heads that this principle of the collective ownership and control of land and capital is, at present at any rate, the practical way of doing what we desire.  There may be, in some future age, the possibility of its being realised but of that I know nothing.    

"But to-night what I seem to see here is the spirit of the age standing up and calling the banns of marriage between Knowledge and Love.  When Knowledge and Love are united in holy wedlock in this land of ours – I do not profess to be a prophet, and I do not say what the off-spring will be, but I am perfectly certain that the off-spring will be what it ought to be, for the good of the whole of this nation.  And until Knowledge and Love are so united, we cannot have that ideal State for which we all long and which we are all trying, I hope, in our little ways, to work for."

Hungarian folk art & the peasant influence

On a recent short trip to Budapest I was struck by the prominence of folk art in the tourist spots, contrasting with the absence of handmade textiles back in Haslemere, Surrey.  The Hungarian tradition of handmade crafts has stood the test of time much better than the small Haslemere movement which did not manage to engage much of the Haslemere population for very long, let alone span the country.

It is clear that the Kings and Blounts were influenced by the peasant art of central Europe and in some of the latter day handicrafts of Hungary, this influence is still evident.  The textile colours reminded me of the bright blue vegetable dyed fabrics from the Peasant Arts movement.  The simple decoration of the mezeskalacs (gingerbread biscuits) design showing a symmetry of two doves reminded me of some of Godfrey Blount's compositions.  It was lovely to chance across various pieces of folk art whilst casually walking around the city.

Hollo Muhely,
Vitkovics Mihaly u.12
Budapest

Folk Flowers,
Hercegprimas,
Budapest

Memories of Hungary shop,
Bazilika, Budapest

Adopt a piece of Haslemere's Peasant Art collection

The Haslemere Educational Museum holds many works by the Peasant Arts movement, and also the peasant artifacts collected by them from across Europe that formed the Peasant Arts Museum.  The staff at the museum could not have been more helpful in assisting me in researching Haslemere's Peasant Arts movement.  The museum now have a scheme called 'Adopt an Object' which looks like a really fun idea to help support the museum which is responsible for raising all of its own funds.

Dutch Footwarmer c.1700
Haslemere Educational Museum

On the list of objects you can adopt is this Dutch Footwarmer c.1700, part of the original Peasant Arts Collection, up for adoption for £50.  The promotional material says that you can contact the museum to discuss supporting an object that is not on their list.

Not Peasant Arts related I am afraid, but my favourite object on their list is Arthur the bear.

Arthur the bear,
Haslemere Educational Museum

New Charles Spooner book by Alec Hamilton

Alec Hamilton joined us on one of the Peasant Arts walks in Haslemere earlier this year.  He is an expert on the architect Charles Spooner, who designed St Christopher's Church in Haslemere, but he also is very well read on the Arts and Crafts movement as a whole.  Alec has provided me with some interesting insights into the Haslemere movement for which I am very grateful.

cover of forthcoming book: Charles Spooner, Arts and Crafts Architect
from Shaun Tyas publishers

Alec's book on Charles Spooner is due to be published in November and should be a fascinating read.   The promotional material reads:

"Charles Spooner was one of the four great names most identified with the Arts and Crafts by no less an observer than C. R. Ashbee: the other three were Sidney Barnsley, Ernest Gimson and W. R. Lethaby. Yet, while they are still revered, Spooner has effectively disappeared. In this new, large-format architectural biography, Alec Hamilton brings Spooner’s work and life back into the light: his churches and church fittings; his houses; his furniture design; his writings and ideas; his friendships and partnerships. And reveals why this shy, diffident, saintly architect, unjustly neglected now, was so loved and admired in his lifetime. Foreword by Alan Crawford 

"Charles Sydney Spooner (1862-1938) taught furniture design at Central School for more than thirty years. He was a member of SPAB’s committee for nearly as long. He was a friend of William Morris, Emery Walker, Christopher Whall, Walter Crane, Heywood Sumner – yet he figures hardly at all in any of their records, archives, memoirs or letters. 

He made a rather dazzling start: elected to the Art Workers Guild in January 1887 while still a student. (He played Jerrybuiltus in Beauty’s Awakening, the Guild’s 1899 pageant - left). He was elected to the Arts & Crafts Exhibition Society in 1890: he exhibited with them at every exhibition until 1928. 

He built seven churches – a modest tally compared to the High Victorians, but, among ‘Arts and Crafts architects’, almost a high number. For he was a religious man: “On most Sundays he was in his place at the 10 o’clock Mass.” He was related to two Archbishops of Canterbury – and Warden ‘Spoonerisms’ Spooner was his cousin. Yet Spooner was also a Modern: his church of St Paul, East Ham, which he thought his best, looks forward with optimism. And he was a lively designer of small country houses (below). In his church furnishings his skills and ability shine most – the muscular altarpiece at St Leonard, Bridgnorth; the checker-board baptistery at St Bartholomew, Ipswich; and the emotionally charged rood screen at St Anselm, Hatch End (above). 

This, the first ever study of Spooner, considers all of his work - churches, church furnishings, houses, furniture - and his partnerships, in particular with a yet more shadowy figure, his wife, Minnie Dibdin Spooner, whose illustrations, paintings and glass design are also now considered here for the first time."

Copies of the forthcoming book can be obtained direct from the publisher (just like in olden times!) Shaun Tyas.  

details of Charles Spooner, Arts and Crafts Architect
(Hamilton, Alec, Shaun Tyas, 2012)

James Archibald Campbell - the connection, case closed

With some excellent research by duncmacg I feel confident that the James Archibald Campbell has been identified as much as possible without access to a time machine.

As I had guessed in my previous post, James Archibald Campbell and Godfrey Blount were at Cambridge University together.  They both attended Pembroke College.  The Cambridge University alumni has James Archibald Campbell as entering Pembroke College in 1874, and being awarded a Bachelor of Arts in 1880.  At six years, this seems to be a longer than an average degree, I wonder why?  The alumni entry gives Campbell the title of "7th of Achandiun and 5th of Barbreck" and also "J.P." presumably standing for Justice of the Peace.  The entry also says "died unmarried Feb. 5, 1926".  Godfrey Blount is at Pembroke College in the 1881 census.

The puzzle of "who was" James Archibald Campbell was emphasized recently when I acquired a copy of George MacDonald and His Wife (MacDonald, Greville, Unwin Brothers, London, 1924) which has the inscription "James A. Campbell with love & gratitude from the writer".

I wonder whether Greville knew Campbell before Campbell met Godfrey Blount?  Either MacDonald and Campbell were old friends through MacDonald's Scottish connections, or MacDonald and Campbell met through Blount.  Whilst the other four main members of the Peasant Arts movement were related (Maude Egerton King and Ethel Blount being sisters, and Greville MacDonald and Joseph King being cousins), Godfrey Blount was the 'outsider' so it is interesting to consider whether it was James A. Campbell's connections with Greville MacDonald that may have brought the most prominent artist of the movement into the fold.  In his book, Greville refers to Campbell's thoughts on his father, George MacDonald, which suggests that Campbell was a family friend, and therefore probably of longer standing than Blount and MacDonald's relationship.

dedication inside a copy of George MacDonald and His Wife
(MacDonald, Greville, Unwin Brothers, London, 1924)

Greville makes a number of references to James Archibald Campbell in this book, although these do not shed much light on Campbell's activities, but they do demonstrate that Greville admired Campbell's explanations of human nature:

"Retribution, according to my friend James A. Campbell of Barbreck, was rather a law of Nature than called for by any instinct of hatred; and he illustrates it by an incident occurring in his family at the beginning of the seventeenth century.  The perpetrator of an accidental death was sought by a rival sept of Campbells to extort the inevitable penalty.  His foster brother, Donald MacCallum, donned his clothes while the fugitive slept and got himself shot in his stead.  The avenging sept showed every honour to the hero and settled a croft upon his family for all time." (p. 40, ibid)

MacDonald writes that "My father might have found an old tartan coat at home and worn it partly for economy, and yet because he liked it", and then expands upon this point "My friend, James A. Campbell of Barbreck, a first authority on such points, writes me that "the tartan coat was often worn in old days, but driven out by tourists and strangers." (p.75, ibid)

Later MacDonald in a chapter upon John Ruskin writes that "Ruskin, like my father, had discarded all Calvinistic doctrine, though the latter was in Ruskin's eyes still orthodox.  My father's unqualified optimism kept strong within him the faith that, when all is revealed, the ignominies of man's industrial progress may yet prove to be comprehended within the creative Will: that man may yet become a greater being than if the forbidden fruit had never been tasted."  MacDonald notes this observation with "A propos of this, James A. Campbell of Barbreck writes thus: "Is this so ?  Does not George MacDonald rather feel that 'Industrialism' may be valuable because, like other oppressions, it may lead to repetance?  And does he believe there is any 'Progress' for the soul through 'Evolution' or indeed in any way, except through repentance?"  I believe my friend is right and that his questions are not in disagreement with the observation expressed above, yet their implicit answers express better what my father would wish to be said.  "Everything," my friend again asks, "assuredly for your father was safe in God's hands; but did he consider that man could grow and go forward at all until he 'came to the Father'?" (p.330, ibid)

Campbell's final appearance in MacDonald's book places Campbell in Italy "In the winter of 1896-7 an incident occurred that stirred the best and deepest feelings of the English colony at Bordighera.  Dr John A. Goodchild, the family's medical adviser and much beloved by my father as a man of unusual poetical gift and strange mystical mind, was infamously attacked in an Italian court of law on the false charge of libelling a practitioner of other nationality, who was scarcely a rival.  One after another of my people were subpoenaed, one as witness for the prosecution.  My father was deeply moved, and spoke in court with such fiery indignation in defence of his friend that his evidence probably had much to do with the withdrawal of the case.  James A. Campbell of Barbreck, also beloved of my father , was watching it with keen interest.  He writes of it to myself: " Endowed with a keenly sensitive temperament, pitiful of all sorrow, he did not perhaps recognize the Fire of Charity in his own soul when it flamed forth in defence of others.  On the occasion when he was summoned as a witness before the court, he spoke in chivalrous and strong defence of his friend.  But afterwards he was much troubled that he should have spoken "inadvisedly"; while to those who heard him it seemed that he has only obeyed the orders of his Master, in reference to such occurrences, by taking no anxious thought, and saying what was given him to say." (p.557, ibid)

Trying to understand the James Archibald Campbell connection

I have wanted to learn more about James Archibald Campbell, so I have collected some information together.

I am not clear exactly who James Archibald Campbell was, but I do know that he played an important role in Godfrey Blount's life.  Blount dedicated his book Arbor Vitae to James Archibald Campbell, his dedication is quite touching "To all lovers of handicraft, and especially to my friend James Archibald Campbell of Barbreck, who first taught me to feel the wider life of art, I dedicate this book".

extract from Arbor Vitae (Blount, Fifield, 1910)

In The Heraldry of the Campbells (G. Harvey Johnston, 1921) there is no reference to the Campbells of Barbreck.  However online I can see some Campbells of Barbreck, including what is referred to as the crest and motto of the Campbells of Barbreck, "I bear in mind".

Motto and crest of the Campbells of Barbreck,
from Leopard Antiques

I have found in an ebook "JAMES ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL of Barbreck, Esquire, J. P. for CO. Argyll; B.A. [Cantab.). Born 1854, being the second son of Admiral Colin Yorke Campbell of
Barbreck, by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of James Hyde of Aplcy, near Ryde."

Using these details I then found James Archibald Campbell's father, in the Edinburgh Gazette (23 March 1869) where Colin Yorke Campbell is noted with a few other names as a Retired Captain "to be Retired Rear-Admirals, under the provisions of Her Majesty's Orders in Council 1st August, 1860, 9th July 1864, and 24th March 1866."  The Family Search website has details of the family on it that have enabled me to find their entries on some censuses.  This has Colin Yorke Campbell and his younger son, James Archibald Campbell, both described as Laird of Achanduin.  James is said to have "died unmarried" on 5 February 1926.  The History of the Campbells (Lee, R. L. Polk and Company, New York, 1920) reports that "the Campbells of Achanduin are a branch of the family of Lochnell.  Archibald Campbell, first of Achanduin, was third son of Colin Campbell, fifth of Lochnell...James Archibald Campbell is now the representative of the branches of Achanduin and Barbreck.  He was born in 1854.  Family seat, Barbreck House, Lochgilphead, Argyll."

Barbreck House, Argyll
from geograph.org

Elsewhere I have found a write up on the house which suggests that the house is still in the Archibald Campbell family "Barbreck House, the most prominent mansion house in this part of Argyll, was built by Major General John Campbell of Barbreck and completed in 1789. Some 20 years before building his new house General Campbell, or Colonel Campbell as he then was, raised a regiment known as the Barbreck Highlanders to fight in North America. The Campbells of Barbreck were the custodians of Barbreck’s Bone, a plate of ivory reputed to be a cure for madness. The house is a private residence. "

In the 1861 census Colin Yorke Campbell is living in 117 George Street, Midlothian, Edinburgh with his wife Elizabeth Campbell (nee Hyde) born in Belize, Honduras, about 1821, and children:

• Donald C. D. Campbell born about 1849 in Edinburgh
• James A. Campbell born about 1855 on Ryde, Isle of Wight
• Susan H. Campbell born 1856 on Ryde, Isle of Wight

with also:

• a visitor, Donald Campbell, nephew born 1851in India
• a tutor Edward Luckman 
• mother-in-law, Susan Hyde
• sister-in-law, Helen G Hyde
• two nurses, Jane McKenzie and Louise Marstiller
• a house maid, Sarah Mc Karty
• a lable? maid, Sarah Brook
• a cook, Anne J Martin

In 1871 Colin Yorke Campbell, Rear Admiral is living in Barbreck House, Craignish, Argyll.  There is only Colin Yorke Campbell living at that address on the transcribed census, but I wonder whether there were other people, living there such as his wife, children and servants but that they have not been transcribed (yet), Barbreck House appears to be too large to live in by yourself.   I then found James Archibald Campbell, then 16, at school in Brenchley, Kent.  The school appears to be St Andrews Parsonage, run by the vicar of Paddock Wood.  Around that time, up to 8,000 people would arrive every season to work on the hop farms around Paddock Wood (Wikipedia).

In 1881 James Archibald Campbell is living with his parents, sister and a visitor Robert J. Handcock at 12 Norfolk Square, Paddington, London.  James' profession is stated as "B.A. Cambridge" and the visitor as an undergraduate at Cambridge.  I cannot find James Archibald Campbell on any subsequent censuses.  However the 1881 census reveals that Blount was at Cambridge at the same time as Campbell.  Blount was recorded in Pembroke College, Cambridge in the 1881 census.  

I wonder what James Archibald Campbell did after 1881?

I think that he may be the James A Campbell which has a book in the British Library titled 'Easter Day Church-Going' (verses) published 1895?, details online here.