These notes were written over twenty years ago when I was endeavouring to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Mackmurdo with a small exhibition at Forty Hall Museum, Enfield, & now urgently need revision.
To the Editor of "Meyer's Observer."
SIR, - There are few forces more powerful in kindling the highest social sympathies, no agencies better able to excite the best ambition - that one's own people may excel - than those that are generated in the home soil, those that emanate from, and are maintained by, local feeling. And if to those interests that men enjoy - the best cherishing best - these interests that touch the life of those living and working around our own houses, there are added those sentiments that centre round and vitalize each art, we get indeed a force that should be so strong in its appeal as it is wide in its range of activity. An exhibition of local art of the kind I propose to hold at Enfield, by such help as I get from those interested in its formation, is an agency that cannot but widely awaken these interests and sympathies, and on this account will doubtless receive that hearty support which in parishes and towns less large than Enfield has been given to exhibitions of especial local interest. Within the last year I have been pleased to find that there is a great deal of work done in Enfield of an artistic character, unknown to even those who are close neighbours of the artists and artisans. The work goes to London, goes to the West End, and "my lady," as she drives down Bond Street, is arrested by the sight of something in the window. "Perhaps it come from Italy; perhaps from that delightful studio we visited at Kensington last week." She buys it, brings it home to Enfield, and will one day learn it was the work of Tom Jones, in Baker-street. There is quite enough work done of one kind or another by artists and amateurs in Enfield to make a very creditable exhibition. Yet by way of adding further local interest to the exhibition, I would propose it be enriched by loans from local art collections. There will be but this one condition imposed regarding local works, which it is advisable to mention here. Each exhibit must be either the design or the work of a person resident in the parish; one or other it must be, though for obvious reasons not necessarily both. As, however, it is an aim to be kept in view, that the exhibition give an incentive to all those who are attempting to do any kind of artistic work in their own homes, the committee selecting the exhibits will reject nothing which embodies true artistic quality in however small degree, nor turn away anything which ,marks an effort on the part of the worker to do some one thing beautifully. And things will be accepted as much for their
promise as for their performance; but skill or pains there must be, and that which shows neither cunning of hand nor care of heart will meet with the fate which it deserves, and have neither place nor mention in the exhibition. That all may have opportunity of seeing the exhibition, it will remain open for about a month, during which time, at frequent intervals, arrangements will be made with artists and others to give lectures and addresses, that by illustration and treatment of subjects, shall be calculated to equal in interest their practical service to a large public, such as will probably attend them. Music is of course to receive a prominent place, and though I hope many residents may come forward to assist on the concerts, one may in the case of this art be forgiven for trespassing outside the precincts of the parish in search for musicians, since music, which is the most social of the arts, is least local in character, and it would be absurd to impose the same conditions here as in the case of the artistic productions. Hence a composition by an old master, or a seventeenth-century ballad, may be allowed admittance as honoured guests for an evening's entertainment. That an exhibition of this kind may be made the means of initiating some movements to provide recreation for the mass of the people in our increasingly large parish should certainly be aimed at, for at present the town is poorly provided with means of popular recreation - recreation, i.e., in the full and complete sense of the word; not the tickling to hideous laughter by sensational excitement, not yet the moralising into pious melancholy by false presentment of life's realities, but a something that shall appeal alike, and in an unhesitating way, to the sense, the heart, and the intellect, is what we want. As I am anxious to receive co-operation in this from every quarter, and personally desirous of knowing all actively interested in the object of this exhibition, I shall be glad to receive communications or calls from any wishing to assist by exhibiting work or otherwise. Mr. Rowan has kindly granted the use of the Athenæum for the exhibition, which will he held some time in the early spring.
Yours, &c. - ARTHUR S.[sic] MACKMURDO,
Halcyon-house, Bush-hill-park, Enfield.
Source
"Proposed Local Art Exhibition in Enfield." Meyer's Observer and Local and General Advertiser, edition of November 10th, 1883, p3 (col.6)
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