Wise Men and Simple Men by Ethel Blount

Noel by Arthur Hughes,
The Vineyard, December 1910

The Wise Men and the Simple Men

Were bound to run a race:

The Simple Men were first to come 

Within the holy place.

The Wise Men three full valiantly

Pushed on the farther way,

And found, though late, the Manger Bed

In which their Saviour lay.

By this we see Simplicity

Will reach its goal full fast;

And Science too, by harder way,

Will find its own at last.

(from The Vineyard, December 1910, p.262; from the section 'For the Children')

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!

The Lost Star by Maude Egerton King

From The Vineyard December 1910 (p.182).

Noel by Arthur Hughes
from The Vineyard, December 1910

"I was a shepherd, one of the three

Who first had news of the joy to be,

When all the silent night was riven

With glory out of the inmost heaven.

I too beheld the angelic choir

Leap forth like flames of altar fire:

I saw the vision, heard the song,

And vowed I'd follow the star along.

But homeward first I turned me back

To fill with meat and clothes my sack;

And when again I sought the star

It and my fellows both were afar.

I met another following late-

An old man, lagging 'neath the weight

Of learning won from every age,

And heavy wealth - half king, half sage.

Wisdom was frozen in his breath,

It turned my heart as cold as death:

It crowned with cares my simple head

And turned my flying feet to lead.

The Bright Midnight by Arthur Hughes
from The Vineyard, December 1910

Thro' all the hours I went with him

Our guiding stars looked far and dim,

Till, dull and faithless as a stone,

I bade him keep his path along.

The little wineshop, bright and loud,

Cried welcome as I wandered by.

I warmed my cold heart 'mid its crowd

And lost my pilot in the sky.

Once, thro' a window foul as sin

The Saviour-Star looked searching in;

I cried, "One moment's pleasure yet!"

And when I left my star had set.

And now, alas! in every street

Great praising, feasts crowds I meet;

They praise the Child, the simple Herds,

And e'en the King of the cold, wise word;

They tell me that my simple friends

Came first, there where the long road ends

In the World's Desire-ere one of all

Those wise crowned heads majestical!

They praise the Peace for which I pray,

And yet they cannot point the way-

O for some star in me or them

To guide me to my Bethlehem!"

The Vineyard,
December 1910

Carol Pictures & Nativity, Haslemere 1913. Part 2

The Times continues to report on the Carol Pictures and Nativity evening on Thursday 18th December 1913.  A number of the carols they reference are no longer common, with "The Furry Carol" seeming to be quite rare.  Although I have found "The Furry Carol" along with "The Carol of the Cherry Tree", "Lullay, Lullay" and various "Wassail's" on a compilation of British Christmas music from before the 1700s.

It is interesting that the singing was not accompanied by stringed instruments, given the relationship between the Dolmetsches and the Peasant Arts movement.  I wonder if they did raise enough money to buy an organ for the Hall of St. George?

Haslemere Peasant Industries Christmas Card
designed by Godfrey Blount
reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

"Amongst the Carols in last night’s programme were “As I sat on a sunny bank,” “There came three Kings,” “The Golden Carol,” “Bethlehem,” “Lullay, Lullay,” “The Carol of the Cherry Tree,” “In the bleak midwinter,” “The Furry Carol,” and the “Wassail.”  One set of pictures illustrated different episodes in the career of St. Nicholas and the curious metamorphosis of the French “petit Saint Nicholasl” or the Russian “Nikolai” into the “Santa Claus” of Germany, and the English “Father Christmas.” Very beautifully told, too, in picture and in words, is Mr. Blount’s version of the old French folktale of Madelon, the shepherd girl, and the origin of the first Christmas, or “snow” roses.  The choir brings evident enthusiasm to its task, and has some of the most characteristic examples of our traditional Christmas tunes to deal with; but the singing of the carols can hardly be said to have as yet quite reached the level of exceptional excellence to be found in the Pictures themselves.  

Haslemere Peasant Industries Christmas Card
designed by Godfrey Blount
reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

Whoever has had experience in training the raw material of South-country ears and voices can appreciate the difficulty of any attempt at a couple of hours’ unaccompanied part-singing.  Mrs. Blount is therefore probably wise in making no such demand upon her singers.  But the effectiveness of the musical part of these Christmas Pictures might be greatly enhanced and the original harmonization of the melodies be more strictly adhered to with an accompaniment of one or two stringed instruments, in place of the American organ, or the obvious anachronism of a pianoforte. 

The proceeds of this year’s performances will be divided between the spinning and weaving school and a fund for providing the Hall of St. George with an organ."

Haslemere Peasant Industries Christmas Card
designed by Godfrey Blount
reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

Carol Pictures & Nativity, Haslemere 1913, Part 1

The Times reported on Thurs 18 December, 1913 (p.6) about the Carol Pictures and Nativity Legend Scenes performed in the Hall of St George on Kings Road.

Haslemere Peasant Industries Christmas Card,
designed by Godfrey Blount
Reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

"Carol Pictures

Village Players at Haslemere (from a correspondent)

The first of four nightly performances of the annual series of Carol Pictures and Nativity Legend Scenes, given each December at Haslemere, took place last evening.  Since the idea of these Christmas Pictures was first inaugurated some six years ago by Mr. and Mrs. Godfrey Blount, the founders of the Haslemere Peasants’ Industries, the scheme of the programmes has developed considerably, but the simplicity which constitutes the charm and the value of these village plays is happily still most carefully preserved; and the atmosphere of the whole performance continues to be delightfully spontaneous and unsophisticated.  The performers are chiefly drawn from the children of Haslemere, and the adult workers in the local hand-spinning and weaving schools, where the textiles and stuffs used for the costumes are also for the most part obtained.  All theatrical artifice is avoided.  The blending of the colours in the Pictures leaves a general impression of the deep blues and purples and sombre greens and browns beloved by Mr. W.B. Yeats.

This year the Pictures are being produced in the little Hall of St. George, adjoining the “Country Church” in Foundry Meadow.  No scenery is employed, the only background for the whole series of scenes being a thick arras curtain, of a rich blue shade.  In the grouping and seating of the figures many of the quaint, realistic anomalies of medieval art have been resorted to and revived in modern guise.  For instance, in the pictures illustrated by the Carols “Children, come hither” and “Come to the Manger,” the children, led by the Nativity angel, are in ordinary everyday 20^th century clothes, and carry cheap little modern playthings; and although this feature may be quite an unconscious one in Mr. Blount’s designs, it certainly helps his figures, and especially his children, to fall into perfectly natural poses.  When the story of each legend is not related by a prolocutor the connecting elucidatory Carols are sung by a small choir of women’s voices..."

Haslemere Peasant Industries Christmas Card,
designed by Godfrey Blount,
Reproduced courtesy of Haslemere Educational Museum

Godfrey Blount on Freedom of Expression in 1891

On December 29^th, 1891 The Pall Mall Gazette published a letter from Godfrey Blount, under the heading ‘Culture and the Salvation Army’.  He would have been 32 years old at the time.  He was commenting on the Salvation Army riots that had occurred earlier in the year in Eastbourne, otherwise known as the ‘Eastbourne riots’.   

Godfrey Blount
(with peasant tapestry & wood carving)
picture courtesy of the Dartford Warbler

The riots were discussed in the House of Commons on 24^th July 1891 “I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware of the serious disturbances in Eastbourne on Sunday last caused by the Salvationists there acting in defiance of the local Act, which prohibits processions with bands on Sundays; whether he is aware that a considerable number of persons are reported to have been sent from London for the express purpose of assisting them in their determined and wilful violation of the law aforesaid; whether he is aware that nine Salvationists have since Sunday been committed for trial on a charge of "unlawful assembly and conspiracy to infringe the local Act;" whether he has been informed that further serious disturbances are expected on Sunday next, owing to the indignation of the inhabitants of all classes at the serious injury caused to the town, and its interests as a seaside resort, by this unseemly disregard of law; and whether he will so far assist the Local 

from Marching to Music, 
Riot Film Group docudrama, 2011
based on the Eastborne riots

Authorities in maintaining the peace of the town of Eastbourne, comprising over 34,000 inhabitants, as to allow a certain number of detectives from the Metropolitan Police Force to be sent there, with a view to identifying certain prominent parties expected from London—prizefighters and others—in order the more readily to indict them on a charge of "conspiracy to break the law;" and, finally, will he advise generally as to the best course to be pursued by the Mayor and the Magistrates generally in maintaining law and order, whether by the swearing in of special constables or otherwise?”  (Hansard)

On the 2nd December 1891, the Old Bailey found a number of Salvationists to be “guilty of unlawful assembly in a public street”, they were defended by Mr. H. H. Asquith, later to become Prime Minister.  The judge, Mr. Justice Hawkins, refused to accept the verdict, stating that walking carrying musical instruments could in no way be considered unlawful. December 4th saw a proclamation posted in Eastbourne signed by the mayor and town clerk in another attempt to quell the Army's activities. It was withdrawn when local Methodists announced that they too would contest the contents of the proclamation to the bitter end (wikipedia).

 

“Culture and the Salvation Army

To the Editor of the Pall Mall Gazette

Sir – Have you space for a few words on the subject of Culture and the Salvation Army?  While we are still waiting to see the conclusion of the Eastbourne incident in the history of the Salvation Army, and without attempting to discuss the legal or dogmatic aspects of the Army’s methods, will you allow me to criticise the verdict in which even its defenders acquiesce, that those methods are vulgar and out of taste?  

Invariable as this complaint is, I look in vain for any accompanying definition of “good taste” by which we might in this particular condemn or at any rate attempt to improve them.  I have myself no dogmatic proclivities in the matter of religion, but – as an artist, to whom the visible must be the unfailing index of the invisible, who has no surer guide than his impressions, purified as far as possible from prejudice – I protest against this popular supposition that it is vulgar to give any but the most restrained expression to our emotions.  

It may be that the British Philistine has very little power of emotion left to give expression to, or that his emotions are such that he prefers they should remain unadvertised; but, however consistent his own course of action may be, we cannot accept his view of the case as necessarily the final one.  For an action is in good taste, not as it fulfils certain preconceived laws, but in proportion as it is a genuine expression of a genuine feeling, that this expression may seem unusual, extravagant, even uncouth, is no necessary proof of its vulgarity, but only of the degree of its force.  That we call it vulgar is no necessary proof of its being so, unless we can prove its its insincere as well.  If we cannot do this, we only prove ourselves incapable of sympathy with a strong wave of feeling violently affecting a vast number of our fellow-creatures, and show ourselves deficient in artistic culture in not recognizing that this movement is producing phenomena analogous to what great art has always loved to reproduce in works which we pretend to appreciate.  

“The poor require culture as much as the rich,” says Matthew Arnold, meaning thereby that neither possess it.  But now the poor are taking this matter into their own hands, and in affairs religious as well as economic are showing themselves independent o the teaching and conventions of those who are socially above them.  Success to the Salvation Army!  They have many souls to save.  To take us out of ourselves, to teach us that we do possess emotions, and can, nay, may, express them even in our own way, is anoble mission, and, as it seems to me, a first lesson in all art and culture that none of us can afford to despise.

Faithfully yours

Godfrey Blount"

Godfrey Blount
from a magic lantern slide
courtesy of the Dartford Warbler

The Autumn Wind, Arthur Romney Green, 1901

From the collection Poems (Astolat Press, Guildford, 1901):

Poems,
Arthur Romney Green,
Astolat Press, Guildford, 1901

The sad, the wild, the Autumn Wind,

   All vanished sweet things

From the dark heaven I call to mind;

   The deathly odour clings

Of summers that are left behind

    On my tempestuous wings.

Awhile from leafy bough to bough

   I led the summer on;

And many a lover’s whispered vow

   Bore to the joyful sun;

But all the sweets of summer now

   The sweets of love are gone.

And now, to speak their general grief

   In one severer strain,

From places of the withered leaf

   I mourn the life, how vain,

The loves, the joys of men, how brief,

   Through all the night complain;

Their spring, how desperately sweet

   With promise – only given

The summer of a short conceit-

   Their leaf-like souls, how driven,

When earth is dead beneath their feet,

   On all the winds of heaven!

from Arbor Vitae,
Godfrey Blount, Fifield, 1910, 3rd edition

Joseph King's first Parliamentary speech 23 Feb 1910

Joseph King was elected Liberal MP for North Somerset in the early 1910 general election which ran from 15 January to 10 February.  The election produced a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party  led by Arthur Balfour and their Liberal Unionist allies receiving the largest number of votes, but the Liberals led by H. H. Asquith winning the largest number of seats, returning two more MPs than the Conservatives. Asquith formed a government with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond.  A second election was soon held in December. (wikipedia)

Joseph King, MP
from Haslemere Educational Museum

On the 23rd February 1910 Hansard records Joseph King speaking in the House of Commons for the first time on a debate following the King Edward VII's speech (referred to in Hansard as 'His Majesty's gracious speech') at the opening of Parliament two days earlier on the 21st February.  MPs were debating free trade and tariff reform.

The Only Hope is Tariff Reform c.1906 poster,
People's History Museum, Manchester

I think that Joseph King's first words to Parliament reveal his strength of character, and his alignment with the 'peasant'(!).  By questioning the view of the average population about the Parliamentary debate, King tries to ground the debate to address the interests of the everyday person.

Hansard records the proceedings as thus:

Mr Joseph King
“I have only sat in this House for two or three days, but I have already become conscious that the light in which Members regard the burning questions of the day is somewhat different from that in which they are regarded outside.  I cannot, for instance, imagine so much excitement being created in an ordinary assembly of either Liberals or of politicians of various kinds by the question which excited this House on the two previous days, and which has caused so much comment and discussion in the Lobbies…Surely if there was one question in connection with Tariff Reform which was universally discussed at the recent elections, except possibly in those industrial districts like Sheffield, where the subject was judiciously kept in the background, it was the effect of the proposed taxes on food upon the cost of the living of the people.  The hon. Gentleman who has just sat down, when challenged upon this subject, gave us the very interesting information that he for one was against all taxation on foreign wheat or flour, and he warned the House that there were many others beside himself who shared that opinion.

The Glutton,
The Budget League, (supported by the Liberals) poster,
1910 UK general election,
People's History Museum, Manchester

Mr H. W. Forster
My hon. Friend was referring not to foreign corn, but to Colonial corn.

§

Mr King
That only strengthens my argument. These Gentlemen from the manufacturing districts want Tariff Reform for the benefit of their manufactures, but they will not have it at any price when it is at all beneficial to the landed interest. I venture to express the opinion which I frequently expressed on public platforms during the course of the General Election, that the Tariff Reform policy is one of intellectual poverty and moral perversion. 

290It is an intellectually poor policy, because it cannot yet convince the representatives of the working classes that it is going to do them any benefit whatsoever. I am sure if any speech profoundly held this House to-night it must have been the masterly speech we had from the hon. Member for Leicester. I had been acquainted beforehand with the lines on which the Labour Members treated the Fiscal Question, but I must confess I was surprised, delighted, I might even say inspired by the eloquent treatment the hon. Member meted out to this Question from the point of view of the Labour party.

I desire to call attention to what seems to be a very significant omission in the language of this Amendment, which, I suppose, has been borrowed from the Amendment to the Address proposed last year by the same right hon. Gentleman. Why should he choose again to put forward exactly the same words on this occasion? Circumstances have altered a good deal, as he himself has admitted, but in one respect, surely, the Tariff Reform policy has advanced. It is now absolutely pledged by the words and promises of the Leaders at any rate of the party, to a tax upon food. But the probable and promised effects of such a tax find no place whatever in the language of this Amendment. I venture to suggest that that is a very remarkable and very serious omission. It is remarkable for this reason, that the right hon. Gentleman who comes down to this House and proposes the Amendment says nothing in the Amendment about the important problem which, I venture to say, has exercised the thoughts and attention of more members of the electorate than any other single aspect of this Fiscal Question during the recent election. We must remember that during the election the Leader of the Opposition issued a letter to very many Conservative and Unionist candidates, and, although this letter was couched in personal and almost intimate terms to the individual candidate, it was circulated throughout the length and breadth of the land, and it was, in fact, a stereotyped document distributed broadcast over the country. I would venture to call the attention of the House to the words which the Leader of the Opposition used in encouraging and helping his supporters by this circular letter.

Tariff Reform poster,
UK general election,
January 1910,
LSE library

 They were:— I am not surprised that your Radical opponent is attempting to raise the old and often contradicted misrepresentation as to the effect of Tariff Reform on the cost of living of the working classes. I have frequently and explicitly stated that no increase will take place. 

291It seems to me that that is rather audacious language even for the very agile, and I think I may say versatile politician who leads the Tariff Reform party. I ask the House to notice especially the form in which this pledge and promise is made, for it is both one and the other—nay, more, it is a pledge, a promise, and a prophecy that, under Tariff Reform, there will be no increase in the cost of living. It is not that there will be no increase, relatively, in the cost of food. I take it the cost of living covers not only the cost of meat and drink consumed, but also that of clothing, furniture and all the other necessaries of life. I assert that the pledge, promise and prophecy of the Leader of the Opposition is that Tariff Reform is going to make no increase in the cost of such living, and I repeat that that is very audacious and extravagant language. Indeed I am not surprised that in the few remarks which the proposer of this Amendment offered on the subject of food taxes he avoided anything like a recurrence of the pledge or promise made by the Leader of the Opposition. It is apparent to anyone who takes a broad view of the course of events, not only in this country but throughout the world, that the cost of food has risen, is rising, and is likely to me still further. And it is likely to rise still further independently of tariffs, for certain well-recognised reasons. There is, for instance, a great disinclination on the part of people all over the world to live in the country so long as they can live in the town. There is a disinclination on the part of capitalists to embark upon large methods and schemes of agricultural production so long as they can get outlets for their capital and energies in industrial, manufacturing, and commercial occupations. Then there is this great fact, the significance of which is only just beginning to be recognised. Ten years ago we were almost being fed by the United States of America. At the present time we are receiving from the United States practically no wheat at all, and in a few years we shall probably see the United States not only ceasing to export food stuffs of any kind, but themselves becoming importers of food stuffs from other countries. That is a remarkable and significant fact and it is one which leads to this conclusion, that, at this time, for us to embark upon a policy which means restricting the markets in which we may buy the food of our people is a bad and foolish policy. I say that any wise and far-sighted statesman looking out upon the facts and 292looking out upon the general tendency of trade and commerce and the development of agriculture all over the world, would naturally be led to the conclusion which is the conclusion of Free Traders, at any rate, that we must preserve the right to buy food for our people in any market the world offers us.

Liberal advert,
UK election campaign
January 1910

I venture to call the attention of the House to two further facts of great importance and significance in this connection. One is this, that the great progress and development of the Eastern nations of the world, especially Japan and China, means that those countries are living at a higher standard and taking on the ways of living and the higher living, such as we have hitherto associated only with European countries or their colonies. For instance, China and Japan are now ceasing to sustain their working classes purely upon rice, and are adding meat and cereals—wheat and other food, in a way which, it is agreed, was quite unknown to them two or three years ago. That is another significant fact, and all these facts tend to the conclusion that the price of food will rise not only in our country but all over the world. It makes me wonder still more at the audacity—I will say the reckless audacity—of the Tariff Reform party who not only in the rank and file of the irresponsible members of that party, but by the leaders of that party have given the pledge which they have done, that Tariff Reform will cause no increase in the cost of living of the working classes.

Labour, January 1910
UK general election poster,
LSE library
Taunton, neighbouring constituency to North Somerset

In view of the reckless, illogical and unwarrantable nature of those promises I am not surprised that much which we have seen upon the hoardings and in the literature during the recent election has been entirely dropped in this Debate by Members on the other side of the House. I had the honour of fighting and holding by a substantial majority a seat which runs into the great city of Bristol. I am glad to say that in Bristol and the surrounding constituencies we held our own with somewhat reduced majorities, and the representation of that great industrial area is the same in this Parliament as it was in the last. We can number five Liberal and Free Trade Members against one Conservative and Tariff Reformer, but in every case in every fight in that district we had to contend with placards, posters, statements, leaflets and speeches asseverating that it was due to the Liberal policy that the price of bread had increased, a statement which the right hon. Gentleman 293who proposed this Amendment was very careful to go out of his way entirely to deny. Such is the difference between Tariff Reform in the constituencies and Tariff Reform on the floor of the House of Commons. It is just the same, of course, with their naval scare. Their naval scare shows Tariff Reform Unionists or Conservatives, or whatever other alias they may call themselves by, in just the same light. We were actually warned that, it might be before Parliament met, an invasion would appear, and I was expecting, when I came down to this House on the first day, that there was, at any rate, one subject, at all events, upon which I should hear some enlightened opinions and some valuable suggestions. I anticipated that there would be, at any rate, a demonstration in force from Members opposite to secure if possible that before one or two days had passed at least a dozen "Dreadnoughts" should be laid down.

§

Liberal 1910
UK general election poster
People's History Museum, Manchester

Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER (Mr. Emmott) 

 I am afraid I must remind the hon. Member that we are now on an Amendment and the question of the Navy does not arise on that Amendment.

§Mr King 

I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Deputy-Speaker, for your timely warning, and that is a subject which we may be able to refer to on another occasion. I will not detain the House much longer, but I should like just to quote some significant words which would seem to me to apply with extraordinary appropriateness at the present time—words which came from an authority the bona fides of which no one in this House will deny—I mean the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Bordesley (Mr. Jesse Collings). Writing now some eighteen years ago, he used these words: There are signs that the advocates of Protection will be to the fore with elaborate arguments to prove that a duty on corn would benefit the farmer, the labourer, and the nation; in other words, to show that a country can, in some mysterious way, be benefited by raising the price of food. Discussions of this nature will be a sheer waste of time, inasmuch as it may be taken as an absolute and settled fact that the people of this country will not submit to any tax whatever on foodstuffs imported into this country. I commend those words to the House, because I believe they sum up in singularly forcible language the present position.

Tariff reform poster,
LSE library

 Spoken though they were eighteen years ago, they ought to be borne in mind, and they convey a warning, and a serious warning, too, to those who come forward at the present time and tell us that a tax on food 

294will increase the prosperity of this country and reduce its cost of living. We have seen during the last two days in this House how a Minister with one clear, definite object in view before him, can be pestered, or at any rate perplexed, by a variety of councillors, admittedly his friends and supporters, yet declaring that success in the great object in which he and they are united can only be obtained by one definite or particular line of action. If that is the case with regard to the policy which this House is going to pursue in reference to the one object to which this Session is to be devoted, what will be the state of things if in an evil day—an evil day which I do not anticipate—the right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition crosses over with a variegated party behind him, yet united upon one subject—that, they want Tariff Reform in one form or another? How is he going to square the interests which are represented by the speech we have just listened to with the interests which will be voiced by the Member for that very agricultural constituency Wimbledon? Their point of view with regard to Tariff Reform is entirely different. It cannot be squared, and, as a warning and as a very cogent argument against this Amendment, I cite this fact, that the Tariff Reform party are not united in their policy, they cannot be united in their policy, and they will, if ever they get into power, be still less united in their policy than they are at present. It is with this firm conviction that Tariff Reform is not only a futile, but an impossible, a reckless, and an unwise policy, that I have great pleasure in opposing this Amendment.

January 1910,
UK general election,
LSE library