238 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



most of the girls are drawn from the working 

 classes, opportunity is given to the gentle- 

 woman who wishes to learn a trade which she 

 can work at in her own cottage. Yet handi- 

 craft at Haslemere is not limited to that 

 particularly associated with feminine fingers, for 

 wood-cutting, iron work, and pottery are also 

 encouraged, and indeed any rough attempt on 

 the part of the peasant to grope his way to 

 God with his own hand, as, I think, Mr. 

 Blount would say, has a chance of being 

 exhibited in the charming shop that gives 

 distinction to the Haslemere High Street. 



Though the work at Haslemere is executed 

 by fingers less gifted, it makes a greater 

 sensuous appeal to the eye than the work at 

 Campden. Handicraft amounts to a religion 

 at Haslemere, where in the little green barn of 

 the country church, prayers are uttered every 

 morning in the breakfast hour by work girls 

 and craftsmen, who ask God to "deliver us 

 from the Egyptian bondage of profitless work, 

 and to lead us safely through the Deserts of 

 Infidelity and Aimlessness and Ignorance to 

 the Promised Land of Aspiration and joyful 

 effort." The Haslemere ideal was well ex- 

 pressed by Mr. Blount to me when he said 



