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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13203 ***
+
+[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have been
+retained in this etext.]
+
+
+
+ORIGINAL LETTERS
+
+AND
+
+BIOGRAPHIC EPITOMES
+
+
+BY
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER
+
+PREMIUM HOLDER IN DESIGN, AND SILVER MEDALLIST
+OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON,
+
+SHARPE PRIZEMAN OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF
+BRITISH ARCHITECTS, LONDON,
+
+CERTIFICATED STUDENT OF THE SLADE SCHOOL OF
+FINE ARTS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.
+
+
+
+LONDON:
+
+SPRAGUE & CO., LIMITED, 4 & 5 EAST HARDING STREET, E.C.
+
+
+
+
+_PAINTING._
+
+_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 20th_, 1901.
+
+AN IMPRESSION OF "ECCE HOMO."
+
+_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_.
+
+
+Sir,--First impressions forced upon me by an inspection of the
+picture, "Ecce Homo," by Mons. de Munkacsy, would be succinctly
+expressed in few words. It is haply, although not highly, inspired. It
+constitutes a work of laborious but of average ability, and descends
+to a lower technical state of imaginative eclecticism and expression
+than I had indeed expected to encounter in so lavishly-applauded a
+work. Let it be granted in the first instance that the theme is an
+onerous one; the problem afforded by the venture should have been
+met in a manner skilful in art, commensurate with its righteous
+obligations and its lofty demands by the artist. The one fine
+attribute conspicuously lacking in the work is its illumination,
+generally too yellow; the fine quality of light, naturally directing
+the hearts with the intelligences of the beholder to the central fact
+of the subject theme, "I am the Light of the World." The broad use and
+disposition of whitish pigment; I mean whitish, snowy light flecked,
+pimpled, dimpled with tints of orange and purple, like snow about to
+thaw, here and there, honeycombed or stippled to mark the intensity of
+its native regard for its own divine, suffering, martyred Lord, would
+have attracted the attention and won the curiosity, the sympathy, of
+many finer sensibilities. A dramatic and subtle sense of distance,
+such a powerful agent of spiritual injection in the hands of real
+artists is in this work absent; never skilfully employed either for
+negative or positive reflections of emotion. Linear perspective there
+is, and employed to much scenic advantage; but aerial perspective,
+utilised towards expressing overlapping figures, there is not, save
+in meagre degree. The canvas is too crowded, the sense of vision
+and admiration is nowhere at all lulled by repose. We may point
+to successful juxtaposition of individual figures, to masses of
+harmonious tones, but not to masterly composition. The mind of the
+artist is intent upon the bitterness of turmoil; it does not reach us
+directly by imperishably revealing or extolling the divine nature of
+"The Man," "Homo;" and is throughout the field of interest usually
+recognised in overstrained partiality for attitude and outline.
+Hence the title of the picture is almost sought for, expected in the
+multitude on the left, which should have been isolated. "Ecce Homo,"
+briefly and emphatically, is not so suitable a title as I would
+suggest, with the utmost regard for reverence, might be described, as
+the interval between the two cries: "Away with Him," "Crucify Him,"
+such intensely dramatic particles of time finding expression and vent
+throughout the work in coarse silhouetting.
+
+The crowding of the lawless throng against the front of the tribune,
+on which the chief characters of the scene are portrayed, though not
+in a material sense wrong, must be open to much æsthetic dispute;
+must mar the success and the action of reflex thought, the spiritual
+contest waging and recoiling between the Divine, meek victim and the
+surging rabble. At all events, it is sad to trace no direct or secret
+hint at new or transcendental methods conspicuous or even dimly
+apparent in the painter's art. Little there is in the effort to draw
+our finer instincts to spiritual truths. The utmost mechanical skill
+of the diligent artist is discernible, labouring incessantly without
+extraordinary or transcendental light to the appointed end, the goal
+accomplished. It should be understood that as spiritual Art of its own
+property and nature is beset, environed on all impinging sides with a
+multifold range, a series of difficult corners around which the
+sense cannot immediately travel, but would for the fructification or
+sustentation's sake of its etherealism, a process of counter argument
+may deduce this aphorism, that in works of art in which the eye
+travels quickly round all the corners of thought, motive, and
+expression, the priceless, highest crown of spirituality cannot be
+awarded to it. The painter, honestly striving with his subject, and
+on lines of intimate understanding, has none of his physical reasons
+thrown into shade, either be it for the nobility of his art, or for
+urgency's sake, or for the softer assuaging of sensitiveness in the
+breasts of his academic audience, having no inclination to be stung
+when in the precincts, the hands of Art; for to whom else is the
+pictorial homily directed? The group of figures upon the raised
+tribune is classically adjusted to its position of prominence. The
+spare figure of Christ, "The Man of Sorrows," is well conceived; the
+face is wan, haggard, the attitude tastefully depicted. A palpable and
+perilous digression is made by the artist in ignoring the text of
+Holy Writ, "Wearing the purple robe," electing to substitute for the
+purpose of his science a scarlet "toga." But the "torso"! This is
+essentially lacking in consummate understanding, skilful address.
+In all that assists most to mature a native work of this immense
+importance it is sound sense, equivalent to the gravest optimism, to
+express this opinion, that the highest powers of science ought humbly,
+intelligently to co-operate towards achieving a grand and triumphant
+finale, perfect, harmonious in all its parts, and responsible to the
+academic dictates of its sacred title. Such a figure Raphael, Leonardo
+da Vinci, Titian, or Rubens would have painted and blessed our reasons
+with, for a certainty: bountifully inspiring us at once and for
+time with their divine interpretation of the great, the majestic
+omnipotence.
+
+Any failure in Art cannot rouse us to this pitch; our sensitive,
+appreciative spirits would assuredly flag unless some keynote of
+resonant power were sounded.
+
+The figure of Pontius Pilate is realistically depicted; it has not the
+aristocratic air of a Roman Governor, yet the face, not caring to
+meet the gaze of the people, is a work exhibiting some power. It
+sardonically, satirically suggests the thought, "I find in Him no
+fault at all," possessing a semblance of three meanings. The people,
+deputy officers, and supernumeraries assembled upon this elevation
+are somewhat stiffly grouped, and the architectonic embellishments--no
+unimportant feature--well conceived, as they form the framework of the
+drama, and must be considered well painted. Let it be observed that
+the basket capital of the arch is out of perspective; a like error is
+to be observed in the roof of certain of the houses on the left;
+the blue of the distance, although luminous and atmospheric, is too
+opaque. The arches forming the left-hand middle distance are finely
+depicted; correct as far as local traditional art will inform us,
+and of considerable value in such a work as ballast, substance, in
+steadying the erratic fancies or emotions of the painter. Criticism
+must justly deal with the figures of the Jewish rabble. The attitudes
+are telling, but over angular and rather vulgar. The populace, I
+may remark, are too excited; such sustained, extravagant attitudes,
+whether in a picture of large or small scale, but particularly in the
+former, are upon canvas rarely satisfactory; they mock with littleness
+at a Providence that made Art, and become puppets in the hands of
+artists. The heads of not a few of the spectators are too large,
+coarse, and expressionless. Here and there, in the distance for
+instance, amongst the living panorama, there appears a figure hinting
+at a better type of gesture, with a human heart, suggesting an
+acquaintance with refinement, but the breadth of awe, the girdle
+of salvatory redemption, even in coarse brutality is not even here
+apparent. The work is a mute exposition of gesture. The higher, the
+acute, the really more intense connection of poetry is absent.
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER
+
+4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol.
+
+
+
+
+_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 25th, 1901_
+
+"ECCE HOMO."
+
+_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press._
+
+
+Sir,--A correspondent whose letter is to-day published, calling
+attention to my remarks upon the celebrated picture "Ecce Homo," of
+February 20th, cannot, I suppose have understood that the motive which
+impelled me in my previous letter was that the enlightenment of the
+public having the interest of art might follow; next to whom, as
+derivees of fresher, newer light, the spectators of the painting
+"Ecce Homo," impersonally and politely apostrophised as "his academic
+audience," may now be mentioned. Neither fault nor question was found
+with any of such for so being; your correspondent introduced this side
+view, I believe, irrelevantly--but with the picture alone.
+
+The mission of art royal should, I hold, be understood to elevate,
+to raise the public taste, to cultivate or correct a wrong line of
+popular impression; that of pictures of the like of "Ecce Homo," being
+to enlighten the current interest for whose delight moreover art,
+from a social point of view, is justified in its mission, having a yet
+higher motive, the kindling of rapture in the heart of the creative
+artist.
+
+Pictures since earlier times have been vehicles as well as ventilators
+of popular belief. It is for this cause, and in instances where it is
+proven, painful to touch or shake the constitutive elements of other
+people's faith; an acute sense of this compunction on the whole
+restraining the weight of my recent remarks. But, conjecturally
+speaking, in a world wherein all things are so public, it must be
+conceded that strong light should at stated times fuse the impinging
+points of understanding, that truth and common sense may scrutinise
+their sound bearings; moreover, also, that academic science may
+arraign itself with dignity.
+
+Your correspondent's remarks with reference to the colour of the
+robe are, upon the whole, useful, purple and scarlet being synonymous
+terms; preponderance of mention, rests though with the former.
+
+Pictures cannot be considered too much as books; such truth, Art, by
+the concurrence of testimony, has manifested in its destiny from time
+immemorial, confirming afresh benefits on man. Open discussion will
+not only add to, magnify, or deduct from their lustre, but cause their
+aims, in short, to redound to the public weal. Such being so, it is
+rational to expect an expression of opinion thereupon. They are not,
+universally, to be regarded as graven tablets, to be gazed at, nor to
+be received as infallible oracles of law. They are--at the same time,
+barometers, charts, and weather-glasses--chronicles towards the fine
+ends of justice, peace and mercy.
+
+Your correspondent has stated that my remarks are ambiguous. They may
+have been technical and recondite, but, as such, are excusable, and,
+in their sphere, just.
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER.
+
+4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol.
+
+
+
+
+_SOCIAL SCIENCE._
+
+_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Aug. 1st_, 1901.
+
+LOCOMOTIVE STEAM WHISTLES.
+
+_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_.
+
+
+Sir,--It is essential, and, according to my instincts of decorum,
+necessary, to call the attention of those charged with authority in
+such matters, and the public generally, to the growing misuse, in the
+hands of engineers, of the locomotive steam whistle, the employment
+thereof having especially in town districts, grown to be out of all
+dimensions of private service, injurious to those whether officially
+called, or who, pending the pleasure of mercantile circumstance, are
+publicly obliged to pursue abstruse mental occupation, necessitating
+labour and much concentration of though[t]. A reasonable use of this
+means, or instrument, of signal and alarm, must be conceded to
+those in whose hands resides its use, but at the same time a firm
+directorship or jurisdiction ought to repress its extravagant or
+wanton employment.
+
+To warn passengers of the starting and of the approach of trains
+only a moderate application of the whistle is needed, whilst for the
+diplomatic the discreet purpose of practical manoeuvre, namely, to
+draw the attention of signalmen to the passing of points by trains,
+extra power is requisite; but the gruesome display, I maintain, of
+vocative sounds tuned to an intellectual point of mood is needless.
+
+Those daily engaged upon manual work only are not in a like manner
+affected, though for all reasons of civil and common honour the
+supercilious cry referred to should be deprecated. Rather tune and
+sound the whistle to two simultaneous notes in sharp, brief accent
+than that the chambers of the minds of the hearers of those sounds
+should be so continuously, remorselessly entered. Anything lengthy
+aggravates the auditory crisis. The stream of daily occupation with
+the set purpose of sedentary exploit is competent to regulate itself
+without an articulate "voice" from the railway companies.
+
+I am, Sir, faithfully yours,
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER
+
+4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol,
+
+_July 29th_, 1901.
+
+
+
+
+_SCULPTURE_.
+
+_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Nov. 16th_, 1901.
+
+ALFRED STEVENS, SCULPTOR.
+
+ADDRESS BY MR. J. ATWOOD.SLATER.
+
+
+Sir,--I send you with the thought that you may wish to publish them
+the precise substance of my remarks verbally delivered at the meeting
+of the Bristol Society of Architects, November 11th, on which occasion
+a refreshing paper upon the works of Alfred Stevens was delivered, a
+man of high artistic repute, whose fame in this district is but dimly
+recognised, being of another parent soil.
+
+Yours faithfully,
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER.
+
+4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol,
+
+_Nov. 12th_, 1901.
+
+
+Mr. Slater spoke as follows:--The importance of the moment bids me
+hasten with all seriousness to support the special retribution of
+plausible justice, amounting to adulation, which has been lavished
+on the labours of the distinguished English sculptor. Had it been
+necessary I should have travelled a greater distance to have paid with
+my testimony homage to the words of this evening's lecturer. It is not
+saying more than the truth will allow me, or admitting more than my
+own poignant feelings may to such expression give justification,
+when I confirm with my lips the belief that I have for much time
+dispassionately held that Alfred Stevens, with Turner, were the first
+artists that England produced from the middle of the eighteenth to
+that of the nineteenth centuries; and that, compared with the great
+oracles of the past, he reasonably approaches Michael Angelo, who he
+unquestionably touches and sometimes surpasses. To state my views,
+having received elementary drawing instructions from a friend of
+Stevens, I think that there is evidence, in carefully examining
+the figures upon the Wellington Monument and the Dorchester House
+chimney-piece a finer knowledge of line in Stevens's work. Michael
+Angelo's Medici figures, and indeed, his other famous works, are not
+so unequivocably good; the effigies superimposing the sarcophagi are,
+for brief instance, "pillowy," though they may be more anatomic. The
+suavity of nature's hypo-refined grace is not traceable in their easy
+posture. The fact is, that they pose for something; generally their
+own animal idiosyncrasy, if not respectable vanity. Stevens's figures,
+on the contrary, always for their own decency, which throws into the
+core, the heart of the monument such an expression of beauty, giving
+rise to the word innate, quenching the sense of frivolity, which
+unrestrained, disordered state of things oozes out somewhere, or is at
+any rate felt "in the air" in Michael Angelo's works. Stevens's head
+was wonderfully poised on his own "torso" to know and feel this with
+such thrilling, vital, consistent certainty. You catch awhile his
+lovely idea in the strong fragrant symmetry permeating his work. The
+iron soul of the man implants his lines of strength far inside
+the actual bounds of the visible crust, and the mind of the idea,
+naturally expanding is caught at the salient "processes" in curves
+and features, betokening nothing--that touches--but grace. I should
+mention that there is one fact which describes minutely my veneration
+for Stevens's work at its best, perhaps the fullest; whereby I mean
+that inspection of his intellectual labour has always restored to me
+the time so wisely occupied in regarding it, proving that there is
+goodness, virtue, essence in it, past all fellowship with ephemeral
+things. There is a true, not a laconic, logical, and prophetic
+inference in it that is apropriately styled, "time"; the finest
+embodiment of musical equipoise; felt to a "tick"; no faltering,
+barbaric, or false quantities, but a sustained and equable, uniform
+tone of chromatic measure, meted out as by a mind imbued by but
+sacrificing the scale of colour to its own actual, achieved end. One
+misses the heated passion of Watts's best pictures, which flow through
+the ordered channel of recognisable expression and make one adore
+them as poetry. But there, of a truth, invidious comparison ends,
+and reticence shall ever guard the space that intervenes betwixt the
+grounds sacred to the exposition of the embodiment of these master
+lights.
+
+
+
+
+_MUSIC._
+
+_From the_ BATH CHRONICLE, _January 30th,_ 1902.
+
+MEDITATION ON BERTHOLD TOURS' EVENING SERVICE IN "D."
+
+_To the Editor of the Bath Chronicle._
+
+
+Sir,--Personally it occurs to me that in a public sense it may not
+appear to be out of due place nor uninstructive to the readers of the
+pages of the "Bath Chronicle," if they were allowed to pursue quietly
+the "meditation" which I have thought fit, with, some amount of
+feasible excuse, to set in fair order, concerning the apotheosis of
+an evening service in musical form, from the versatile pen of Mr.
+Berthold Tours, in the key of D, which, with no inconsiderable _éclat_
+was in the sequence of events, produced at St. Raphael's Church,
+Bristol, on Sunday, the 12th inst. A companion to the graceful evening
+service or setting of the appointed Canticles in F major, which be
+it observed, is the most popular, and from a purely suitable point of
+view, most successful of modern evening services, it marks a phase
+of expression, at once ethereal and predilectious. Produced at a
+more mature period, and under certainly different circumstances, it
+confirms, honours indeed, the fecundity of the age of its inception,
+namely, the era of British Æstheticism.
+
+Commenting upon its attributes discursively, it was at the period of
+its original initiation in London my privilege to be present; nor
+must I omit to graphically allude to my belief, not choosing to be
+otherwise than candid with my first impressions, that I had never
+listened to anything which so rapturously illustrated the spirit of
+those soul-elevating times; even to experiencing a passing pang, since
+the perplexing principles or established secrets of decorative or
+Æsthetic art, as understood by me, had so curiously been cajoled or
+interwoven into the very sanctuary of Classic Music. Every phrase
+appeared eloquently to illustrate and tell aloud the great burst
+of passionate fervour, felt to be with serious activity glistening,
+sparkling around, in painting and in decorative device. It was, as
+it were the unition, the brazing together of these serious impinging
+forces, and re-fusing them with fresher melody, newer vital ecstasy.
+(Sir) Edward Burne Jones, Oscar Wilde and W.S. Gilbert had all not
+dubiously striven nor for shallow effect. They had, though labouring
+incessantly apart, built up a ghost which was in no fear of glimmering
+or dissolution; and now Berthold Tours, spright of another element of
+sentimental, I should say continental mythical music, upon the scene
+springs with his amazing apparatus of staves and octaves, aiding the
+_chef-de-musique_ and his trained voices to make sound within the
+very presence chamber of Divine Worship this phantasmagoria of Teuton
+intellectualism!
+
+Be it understood that this Classic exercise is not to be ceremoniously
+regarded, nor classified, nor by me upheld as an example of Creative
+Art, but as the brightest pledge of homage æsthetically offered to a
+vital movement, essentially fundamental and wise; furthermore, must
+be allowed to occupy a position subsidiary to the works of the artists
+enumerated who evidently inspired it; unique and decidedly without an
+exact parallel in the inspired annals of modern phonetic literature;
+prefering at a more intimate examination to classify with it Professor
+C. Villiers Stanford's setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate in
+B flat--works, easily gracing the "Summus Mons" of co-spiritual
+achievement; that impulse which selects, confirms, and then unites all
+the fair fibres of Art.
+
+Berthold Tours personally possessed the evident characteristics of a
+musician. No doubt could be entertained whatsoever, by any who once
+saw him or his large meditative form, that music was his calling. The
+duties inherent to the post of "music taster" to the house of Novello,
+Ewer, & Co., he hopefully acquitted for many years, succeeding to
+that office on the retirement of my once, in a choral sense, esteemed
+conductor, Sir Joseph Barnby. The pianoforte accompaniment to many
+of the classical works of continental composers he transcribed and
+carefully arranged for his employers, whose confidence he completely
+enjoyed, whether in addressing them on matters relative to prospective
+treaties with contemporary composers, or in regard to works tendered
+to them for publication, or on recommending them upon the pianoforte
+arrangement of orchestral scores. Personally, I participated in the
+satisfaction of frequently dining in his company. Amongst the
+personal memories which I might in passing allude to, being my
+entire deferential attitude towards him of reverence, ere ever being
+acquainted with his patronymics, although already largely conversant
+with, and a sincere admirer of his music. To have been spoken amiably
+to by this distinguished "virtuoso" is a not unnoteworthy reminiscence
+to be recorded. He evinced much concern in the early rehearsals of
+his choral works; being individually present at the moment of their
+preparation; but it not infrequently appeared to me ambiguous, that
+unless accounted for by the responsibility of vast calls, he with
+frequency turned his back upon the musical conservatories wherein
+his choral works were performed; a custom due evidently to his innate
+modesty, and perhaps to his susceptibilities as a foreigner. Berthold
+Tours was a famous violinist of the first class, besides being a
+recognised composer of music, and edited with Natalia Macfarren a
+superb edition of the Italian, the German, and the French Operas.
+
+JOHN ATWOOD.SLATER,
+
+4, Hill Side, Cotham, Bristol.
+
+
+
+
+_ARCHITECTURE._
+
+_From the_ BRISTOL TIMES AND MIRROR,
+
+_April 18th_, 1902.
+
+BRISTOL SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS.
+
+
+The Annual General Meeting of this society was held in the Fine
+Arts Academy, Queen's Road, Clifton, on Monday, Mr. Frank W. Wills
+(President) in the chair. After the confirmation of the minutes of the
+last Annual General Meeting, the annual report of the council was then
+read by the Hon. Secretary, and the audited accounts presented, and,
+upon the motion of the PRESIDENT, were adopted.
+
+A highly interesting lecture devoted to architectural research was
+delivered by Mr. J. ATWOOD SLATER, first silver medallist and premium
+holder in design in the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Sharpe
+Prizeman of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London,
+describing an architectural tour undertaken in 1880, and detailing
+picturesquely the architecture and incidents of personal concern
+dependent on travel met with in the departments of Seine Inférieure,
+Seine and Oise, and Seine, penetrating into the heart of France as far
+as Auxerre. The course of the Seine, with its diverse monuments, was
+topographically followed from Harfleur to Paris, and subsequently
+in its considerable ramification the stately River Yonne, Melun,
+Fountainebleau, Sens, and finally the rich town of Auxerre coming
+under consideration. The lecturer also drew special attention to the
+advantage derived from travelling alone for the purpose of observing
+better the archæological wealth, and the customs of the French, having
+a distinct and definite line of study and object lesson ever in view;
+to his wide sympathy with the French people, to their sumptuous care
+for their ancient monuments, their courtesy and reverential manner of
+hospitality towards English speaking students; and also in particular
+to the unsuspicious, deferential manner in which they are entertained
+and regarded by the Ministerial authorities: detailing in precise
+biographical manner his experience with bourgeoisie and peasant,
+ecclesiastic and soldier. He recorded also minutely the incidents and
+popular events associated with travel, as study and the tide of time
+goaded him onward, the wave of diurnal events lying upon the open page
+of history, here dishevelled, here streaked with adverse episode,
+and here becalmed. The hour being late, a hearty vote of thanks was
+accorded the lecturer, and the hearing of the conclusion of a most
+interesting tour was adjourned to another meeting.
+
+
+
+
+_AQUATICS._
+
+_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _August 2nd_, 1902.
+
+SWIM AROUND ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT.
+
+
+On Wednesday, a visitor to Marazion, Mr. J. ATWOOD.SLATER, from
+Bristol, in a sea for tranquility suited for the saline venture, swam
+completely round St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Accompanied by a local
+boatman the swimmer rowed out from the mainland, quitting his boat,
+and entering ten fathoms in depth of water at two o'clock. A mean
+distance of a hundred yards from the coast was, whilst the circuit was
+made, preserved. No inconvenience of any sort--excepting, towards
+the conclusion,--the chilliness of the water, was encountered; the
+distance of one mile and a half being accomplished in the space and
+record time of three-quarters of an hour. The swimmer at the finish
+expressed himself entirely satisfied with the nerve and capacity of
+his boatman (Ivey) and accorded a tribute to the romantic style in
+which the Mount and Castle proper are kept. The view from the watery
+verge being replete with quaint interest and delightsome variety. The
+previous occasion to this feat being performed was three summers ago,
+when Lady Agnes Townshend, and six years since, when Colonel Townshend
+swam the same distance; but no other authentic instance is credited,
+or preserved on record. The swimmer on this latest occasion is a
+Royal Academy exhibitor, and the designer of the subject panels in the
+reredos in the neighbouring Cathedral of Truro; having moreover aided
+the architect, now deceased, of the Cathedral of Cornwall in other
+departments of Architectural service.
+
+
+
+
+_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _September 4th,_ 1902.
+
+LONG DISTANCE SWIMS.
+
+IN A CORNER OF MOUNT'S BAY.
+
+(BY THE SWIMMER).
+
+
+On Thursday, August 14th, Mr. J. Atwood Slater, then staying at
+Marazion, who, as recorded in a recent issue, swam completely round
+St. Michael's Mount, made an attempt to swim from St. Michael's Mount
+to Newlyn. With his boatman (Ivey), he started from Marazion, entering
+the water at S.W. corner of the Mount.
+
+Whilst engaged in the preliminaries of the start a moment of suspense
+was passed, the distance appearing sufficient (when out of water) to
+unnerve all but the most intrepid of swimmers. Striking out in the
+direction of Newlyn, and using the breast stroke, the shore and
+beetling Mount were gradually left behind, but when a full distance of
+a mile and a half was covered, a swell got up from the S.W. and blew
+a quantity of water into the face of the swimmer. At each impulse
+progress becoming extremely difficult; nevertheless a yet further
+interval of half a mile was placed to the swimmer's credit; when,
+deeming it impracticable to continue further, and having covered
+relatively more than half the distance, in a mood of chagrin, he
+re-entered his boat.
+
+Then seizing the oars, and murmuring an ejaculatory note to the ocean
+which had sent him not a few malign caresses, he pulled, boatman,
+craft and all to Marazion; the time exactly occupied in the exploit,
+of two miles and an eighth, being forty-five minutes.
+
+On Saturday, August 23rd, Mr. Slater again, taking with him E. John,
+swam in deep water, from close to the pier head St. Michael's Mount
+to a point contiguous to Longrock; a distance of a mile and an eighth.
+Progress was without hap or hindrance, though in a grey misty light.
+At length, whilst the disappearing sun sank to rest behind a belt of
+clouds, parted asunder over Penzance, the boatman was called upon to
+draw in his boat, the swimmer thereupon going on board.
+
+Experience gained upon these occasions teaches that it emphatically
+requires greater nerve to swim in the open sea, always going straight
+in deep water, than is called for when propelling oneself round the
+Mount.
+
+Again, on Tuesday, at ten minutes to two, the swimmer, to confirm his
+past exploits and as a climax to his stay in Mount's Bay, swam from
+Venton cove to St. Michael's Mount, rather in excess of a mile,
+in thirty-one minutes, Ivey, his boatman merely steering his boat
+alongside.
+
+It is the swimmer's opinion, that the timing of mid, or half stroke,
+is the most elegant, most difficult, and to conceal, yet fully make
+use of this "break," constitutes the criterion as to whether the
+swimmer, be he amateur or professional, is first-class or not.
+
+
+
+
+_From the_ EXMOUTH JOURNAL, _Sept. 6th_, 1902
+
+A NOTEWORTHY SWIM.
+
+
+A long swim from Exmouth to half-a-mile beyond the pier of Starcross,
+was on Thursday evening undertaken and accomplished by Mr. J.
+ATWOOD.SLATER, an Exmouth visitor. Starting from opposite the pier
+head, the swimmer, piloted by Mr. H. Tupman, in the _Ernest_, swam
+round the Bight on the west side of the Warren, passing the ships
+anchored therein, and hugging the west shore of the Exe, paused
+finally under the lodge at the further end of Starcross at 5.45 p.m.,
+having, in logic swum the distance of two-and-a-quarter miles in
+twenty-three minutes. The aid the swimmer derived from choosing the
+flood tide he admitted was considerable, and served him for nearly
+half the distance; when out of the influence of this, the water
+suddenly became very choppy, the waves being too small for the swimmer
+to time, yet with annoying frequency throwing their crests above the
+surface of the water. Subsequently a great stillness was encountered,
+until Starcross was neared and passed; the boat, swimmer and pilot
+lying finally becalmed at the point aforesaid.--J.A.S.
+
+
+
+
+_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Sept. 15th_, 1903.
+
+A SWIM ROUND MONT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY.
+
+
+Sir,--On August 22nd, at 5 p.m., on August 28th, at 9 a.m., and on
+August 29th, at 10 a.m., I achieved in a more successful measure than
+had hitherto been accomplished the problem of swimming round Mont
+St. Michael, Normandy, at high water. Previously acquainted with the
+certainty that an adverse current would at one point or another be
+met, I pre-arranged, and made three bold attempts, and by going in a
+certain direction, met with the greatest success at the first essay.
+The tides that rise and flow against the base of the mount are more
+insidious and taxing to strike against than those which encircle the
+Mount of St. Michael, in Cornwall; but then the quality of the sea
+must be more pure and far more buoyant off the Cornish coast, and
+freshens to a greater extent the elastic movements of the swimmer. The
+sea, speaking from experience, does not harass one, swimming in the
+bay of St. Michael, Normandy, until the "retirage" is met; when all
+the force that can be exerted is necessarily called forth to prevent
+being seaward swept.
+
+Yours faithfully,
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER
+
+Albi, Tarn, France,
+
+_September 7th_, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+_ARCHITECTURE._
+
+_From the_ PATRIOTE ALBIGEOIS, _Sept. 29th,_ 1903.
+
+
+Albigeois, vous qui passez fréquemment dans les rues adjacentes à
+votre cathédrale, n'avez-vous pas remarqué la figure d'un artiste
+récemment installé, avec son chevalet, auprès du gigantesque monument
+et mettant toute la science technique de son art à le reproduire
+exactement.
+
+C'est M. John ATWOOD.SLATER qui avait visité notre cité, il y a
+quelques années, il avait alors dessiné une belle perspective de
+Sainte-Cécile qu'il a exposée à l'Académie Royale de Londres. Il a
+admiré la plupart des cathédrales gothiques de notre pays et, en fin
+connaisseur, il nous informe que nous possédons un des plus recherchés
+specimens d'architecture qui existent en France. Quelques-unes de ces
+cathédrales sont à peine plus merveilleuses, mais il n'en est guère
+qui se prêtent favorablement comme elle à l'esprit tranquille de
+dévotion.
+
+Maintenant pour le profit de ceux a qui cela pourrait faire plaisir
+M. John ATWOOD.SLATER, cet artist nous communique bénévolement ce
+renseignegnement très spécial: Il est encore fort nageur! C'est
+lui qui aux dates de 22, 28 et 29 août a été signalé par la Normandie
+pour avoir fait à la nage le tour du Mont St. Michel: ce que personne
+jusqu'ici n'avait osé prétendre faire à cause des marées qui sont
+toujours très contraires.--J.A.S.
+
+
+
+
+UNPUBLISHED LETTERS.
+
+_MUSIC._
+
+_To the Editor of The Times, London._
+
+
+Sir,--Whilst admitting the all-importance and the austere role of
+circumstance weighted with interest, and fused to an all-volatile
+point sufficient to write to you concerning, and always entering,
+freed from _schism_, the moot point, I beg leave to advance the
+suggestion that (with correct apposition of sentiment, already said)
+the moment has arrived for an improvement to be effected in the
+Hymnal, in the public offices of St. Paul's Cathedral employed.
+
+For the furtherance of this important item of diocesan and divine
+service, "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," be it well known, has stood
+the crucial test of a number of years; while its mechanical
+characteristics have been demonstrated all the way along the metronome
+number of decades it has served to mollify and assuage the griefs
+and passions, and inspire the consciences of congregations using it
+habitually as a _vade mecum_.
+
+While believing in the sedate grandeur of its stereotyped orthodoxy,
+I powerfully plead, and in a tone of restraint, this prerogative: that
+the edition of hymns known as "The Hymnary," should upon examination
+be found to contain more agreeable, versatile value and fecundity
+of literary nutrition: honourably and scholastically capable of
+out-classing the rival for whose displacement I plead; and competent
+at once to put yet better light with wholesomer sustenance and rarer
+spiritual food into the minds of its privileged students.
+
+The ideas and principles conceived by the once editors and publishers
+of the volume whose richly bestraught merits I champion, and whose
+solemn rights I plead, (in the year 1871), was to place in society
+at once, all electrified, au prémier coup canonized (armed at
+all points), a work which should at a moment be complete in law;
+self-contained and academically referable to the stringent junctures
+of an ecclesiastical, a national, and a polyphonetic tribunal: a
+work which should loyally attract the acclaim of co-existing literary
+hymnals, and ever would, it was reverently hoped--a sentiment which I,
+for one, favourably concur in--remain, the key-symbol of the Reformed,
+Anglican faith, with its near, true, and ever new ally--a note as
+high, silvery and jurisprudential; purified domestic co-partnership!
+
+To further substantiate and enhance my devoutly expressed remarks, I
+confidently state that the compilation of "Hymns Ancient and Modern"
+was not originally in fact the outcome of an individual movement, or
+yet of a moment. At periods diverse, and at stages various, it matured
+its conditional purpose by repeated acts of regeneration and reform,
+by keeping generally within the radius of a stereotyped policy of
+pruning and paring; which consolidated by degrees and swept it on to
+the confines and the platform of its national respectability.
+
+Be it even tacitly acknowledged, in surveying the genesis of Hymnology
+that the function of revision has once been, a fact, applied to the
+"Hymns Ancient and Modern" since the appearance of "The Hymnary,"
+in my estimation under a less searching eye than that which all
+impartially discriminated and directed, at one and at one time only,
+the laying together and the consolidating of the "particles predelix"
+of this frankincense offering of the National Church; a work of
+classic intent and æsthetic outcome. Personal labour designed it
+_purposely_ for the hearts of men, but not for their _faces_; a
+character which, Christian-like, it inseparably wears, like French
+martial music.
+
+Herein exemplified to noble British hearts is a bulwark that at once
+completely puts to rout no inconsiderable amount of the mildew mould
+of "Hymns Ancient and Modern," while never so much as tarnishing or
+jeopardizing the aroma of its native asceticism.
+
+Interested bibliophiles may peruse pleasantly the trenchant remarks
+launched by the editors, (of the work upheld) literary and musical;
+and examine for their predilection by turning its pages the analytical
+merit of its composer's names; all serious-minded men; capable
+lamp-bearers in the wide arcana of classic music.
+
+Stoical people do not know the wealth of chaste language stored up
+within the covers of "The Hymnary." A rare musician-poet is needed
+to resolve its pulpy flavour and discipline to the polemics of common
+life; whilst one, a connoisseur, would readily congratulate the
+sanguine, sensible, and all-seeing management, as regards to authors
+of words, indices of composers, indices of metres, metronome marks,
+which heralds and places it, in respect of completeness, ahead of all
+contemporaneous editions.
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER,
+
+_Medallist & Premium Holder of the Royal Academy of Arts, London._
+
+4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol,
+
+_Epiphany, 1903._
+
+
+
+
+_LITERATURE._
+
+_To the Editor of_ THE BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE.
+
+_March_, 1903.
+
+
+Sir,--Touched by a virtuous sense that a noble writer has passed from
+the central and celestial sphere of his vocation, and discharging the
+offices of respect voluntarily admitted as a literary admirer, with
+sympathy in a bruised state of liquefaction, I maintain that the
+season for uttering a few words is clearly at hand, and should be
+turned to the advantage of retrospect.
+
+Being bred of a generation which has read, with a spirit attuned
+to the pleasant influences of an Academic and a Saracenic art, the
+writings of John Henry Shorthouse, and ever discovering them to
+contain philosophic importance and pyschologic expression decidedly
+above the astuteness and ability of average writers; and having
+usually in them remarked wisdom, council and knowledge reminiscent
+of the inspired logicial writers and divines of the law-given
+Testaments; in point of enquiry, I am summarily induced to champion
+the belief that the psychologic, emphatic style adopted by the writer,
+with the success in high quarters attendant the disposal of his
+works, has not, convincingness being the indicator, been reached, nor
+surpassed. The Warwickshire alchemist invariably throws across his
+scenes and to the centre, a glare, a strong ray, which burns to the
+water-line the barque of Agnosticism. This is tacitly recognised,
+concurrently and alternately traced in the selection of the phrases,
+and in the subtle or dramatic sense of the scene photographed; the
+second inspiration springing into immediate co-operation, linking to
+the first the thought by a magnetised hyphen, causes his symbolistic
+pictures to thrive gloriously, rapturously; the first touch of
+sensitized matter at times appearing grotesque, dimly lit, although
+never flimsy. This pedantic, pictorial, even scholarly system by our
+revered writer adopted, is bent, applied to meet extreme passes of
+imaginative perfection and delicacy. The picture is naïvely introduced
+and obscurely, somewhat trenchantly elaborated, allows itself to be
+apologetically understood; whilst in succession the lower taste
+for animal sentiment is sorcerized by vivid flashes of captivating
+contrast, forked, as lightning, and left, as embers smouldering to
+glow in the crucible of memory's recesses. Specious instances of irony
+playing the manliest part: flashes of meteoric, mesmeric eloquence,
+fitfully flecking the embossed page, as one tier or set of ideas,
+in rhetoric orchestration, symphonizes with or eclipses another.
+Connection, an element of robust mesmeric cohesion with this prized
+author being the adamantine hyphen, the articulating link, which
+compacts the roll. John Henry Shorthouse, the templar, the confessor
+of music, was, and concurrently, the apologist of philosophic light.
+Engaged to a powerful mechanism of romantic dogma, the nett article of
+its creed; the neochromatic acoustic regalia of stage eloquence,
+the key, or longest recurrent note; the van or middle the next, the
+sinuous lever of stage discipline. After all, concurrently may it
+not, be said that this colour instinct aspect of cosmically conceived
+romanticism is never wilfully vulgarized. For its incomparable,
+iconographical purpose it exists, and is as intrinsically useful and
+serviceable to the scheme as the figures which admirably illustrate
+the pictures of Hogarth and Holman Hunt. When introduced, music is
+rarely intended to edge itself into the important place of "first
+study." This in alchemy or personification being occupied by the
+circumstantial cruxes of life, philosophic morality, vested usually
+in courtly attire; I would not say abstract attire, for the clean-cut
+character it bears is too strictly defined (for the sake of that
+Artist's art) for such an impression to be born, or even to lurk by
+sentiment, there beneath.
+
+The mould employed at all times is minutely fashioned, as a sculptor
+would, by investing his model with a code of spirituality, inspired
+with fire, which epicureanly endows fleeting emotion with a voice, and
+vitality lends also to distant-reaching invisible ends: hinting that
+the picturesque alchemy of music is potential too in reaching and
+touching the lower chords of animal passion, where movement is rapid
+and light redundant. The breast of the thoughtful writer heaved ever
+to animal instincts without measure in extolling the complex phases
+of court, ecclesiastic, and domestic oligarchy. Statesmanship and
+subjunction rise and peacefully sink together, and in his magnetic
+touch, are made to harmoniously coalesce in the political balance.
+Shorthouse the author, a believer in, a champion was of two-fold or
+dual cosmos: his colour sense being susceptible to and wrought upon in
+singular consular consistence with the effulgent dogmas of its
+creed, and in alliance with the spirit of the _cinque cento_ Italian
+Renaissance Schools of Painting and Architecture. Practically
+speaking, he conceived a train of adept ideas, at times fanciful, and
+at times morbid, transforming them adroitly by adept excursions of
+cross-lit introspection, accentuation, and by dint of manual caress,
+as the first of players upon stringed instruments.
+
+Music, I would apologetically infer, being the middle, the rallying
+feature, of Mr. J.H. Shorthouse's verbose apology. If fictionizing in
+prose, he writes with brief orange-hued flashes of liquid ether; each
+of short, all but, brief span. Characteristically, he belongs to the
+same school and unapproachable law as the French organist-composer,
+C.M. Widor: stringent, petulant observance of free uncurbed metronome
+time, allied to picturesque handling; punctuality of tidal consort
+rigidly regarding, when each, the one to the other, linked; less a
+care, by virtuous intuition displaying for lyric measure. The writings
+of Nathaniel Hawthorne more forcibly and piquantly evince cylindrical
+flow, and strike at the object lesson with less artificial, _cadavre_,
+fastidious touch; but Mr. Shorthouse, speaking strictly, as to temper
+and _tempo_ is a trifle more rugged; and never a shadow of suspense
+suffered he to stir a hand's breadth, that is, rest 'twixt poetic
+certainty and doubt, lest the ultimate end should all-attainable be
+or not. For freedom from this, and other literary ambiguity, yet never
+manifesting anxiety of freeing himself in prose from its insidious and
+arbitrary restraint, I attribute his tragical, subtle, gentle power of
+"connection," _liaison_; feeling for time; planetary time, be it lunar
+time, sometimes unmistakably, solar time; disallowing, by potency of
+sentimental touch, a sense of rupture, to linger. A noble stream by
+mute comparison, pursuing its course unwavering; interrupted but now
+and again, to the vast expansive ocean of shapeliness, of unity.
+
+J. ATWOOD.SLATER,
+
+_Premium Holder & Medallist
+of the Royal Academy of Arts,
+London._
+
+Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Letters and Biographic
+Epitomes, by J. Atwood.Slater
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13203 ***