TASTE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 April 1929, Page 3

TASTE

(lly Lady Oxford.) Whenever anything is complained of to-day—whether a dearth of good servants, good plays, good taste, morals or manners, I am told it is the consequences of the War ;• that a spirit of restlessness has overcome the world and that the heavy taxation has made money pass into the wrong hands. If may he so; but I can never remember a time when some people did not have bad .servants bad taste, shady morals, and indifferent manners; nor is it given to many—whatever their fortune maybe- to look upon, life with serenity. 'With the excepUoii ol a few persons, I have seldom seen money that was in the right hands; and when it is, thy heirs to these fortunes as often as not are unworthy of their inheritance. Wince the days of Christ,, for some unknown reason, tin* rich have been out of favour. This is not duo to envy or discontent, lor it is a matter ol ceaseless surprise to observe how much more content there is among men of moderate fortune than there is among the rich ; and the very poor.- unless driven to extremes are orderly, acquiscent and without envy. 1 read oil a tombstone: “Life is a city full of streets; Death is the mart where all man meets. If life were a thing that money could buy. The poor could not live, the rich would not die.’ There are a great many things of value that the rich cannot liny. Perhaps the most (-auspicious among these is Taste. You may be born with taste, or you may acquire it, but while money enables you to collect objects of value, d it will not give you taste to select or arrange them. Neither good furniture, nor good pictures, nor good tapestry will make your house beautiful, and it is nut lie- j cause the War has made men poor l that their houses are- ugly. When | you see the prices that tiiy 'Sargent and Holford collections brought at Christie’s and the 'fabulous sum uaid for “Pinkie” and “Alice in Wonderland” and read of Raphael Madonna being bought for £1,175,(A/0, 1 am convinced that there is no lack of money in tho world. If money cannot huv Taste it should at least be ably to buy comfort; yet in matters of heating, telephones, and hygiene we are lamentably behind tile times. There is a great deal of line weather in this country, but one can never be sure in which month one will find it, and the English upper classes do not feel the cold. Houses without central heating and the hideous fashion of replacing open grates by grottoes of cold and staring light have made dining out in London winters a problem to all but Arctic explorers. Nor will you find much tha’ is cosy in the week-ends you spend m the country. The average I'.iiglishiiiau takes so much exercise that Iso can keep himself warm, but personally I have sullered from draughty bedrooms, stuffy dining-rooms and Arctic corridors in most of the country houses it lias been my pleasure to stay >n.

English people are properly praised for an unrivalled standard of comfort in their country houses, and they take a pride in knowing how to leave their guests to themselves when entertaining them in the country ; but I have seldom slept in a bed where l could reach a bell which would bring, anyone to my assistance if l were -n: danger from lire, murder, or sudden death. One of the curious things to be ob served* to-dav is that at a time when private persons are competing with one another to make their houses beautiful the standard of public ta-to is lower than ft has ever been. I feel too, deeply— is there space in an article of this length—to write upon the filling-in stations, tlm cruel creepers, the vulgar advertisements, and the hideous War memorials that are disfiguring every part ol our countrywide; hut the point I wish to make i K ‘that Taste is not only independent of money, hut it i» thanks to the impecimiosity of our landed gentry tlm! wo arc able to enjoy the beauty ol most of the parks and country houses that we see.

| am not sufficiently instructed n> know by whoso authority London is being pulled about to-day, but I think either a lack of elasticity on the part of tho bankers, or love of mom y among the rich and power!ul is largely to blame. Firms, or individuals, who can buy Devonshire House, Clnwvonor House, and the Foundling Hospital cAunot he lacking in money, n::d I should he sorry to increase my fortune by stealing the air, the light. and the lawns of the community. In one generation wo have seen streets of great beauty, like Nash’s Regent-street, swept away; th c houses in Park-lane reduced to bungalows by the flats that have replaced Ur>svonor House; and I am told wo are threatened with a loity hotel to replace the most distinguished stone building that has been erected in nil lifetime. Deep in his heart every Englishman is inclined to think himself superior to any American, but you have only got to pay one visit to the United {States to see that this could not happen in America. Money can buy everything in a (own except gardens, trees, and open spaces; and when the lovely convents in t'nveiidish-sc|Uare are pulled down, the grey Horse (iuarcls with their adjacent buildings replaced by .structures to match the red Admiralty, and ilm statue of Charles I. is removed to Chicago, wo shall wake up to find when it is too late—that wo have lost London!