242 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



so easily filled up, and the homes, even of the 

 working classes, will be more simply, yet more 

 splendidly furnished, as taste as well as condi- 

 tions of labour improve. 



Would that we could abolish from builders' 

 plans, for the sake of the housewife, that 

 useless room with all its heathen gods dedi- 

 cated to the memory, as Mr. John Burns has 

 said, "of the rent collector, the insurance 

 agent, and the undertaker." 



I even came across this fetish of cottage- 

 building on Mr. Fels's estate by the lonely 

 shores of the Blackwater. I was told by his 

 manager that this room was still worshipped 

 by the labourer's wife. I very much doubt it, 

 though, and it is very evident that she would 

 be much more comfortable with a larger living- 

 room in these otherwise remarkably good 

 cottages erected at so low a price. 



At Compton, near Guildford, where the 

 Potters' Art Guild owes its formation to Mrs. 

 G. F. Watts, a co-operative, self- paying, in- 

 dustry has grown up out of making pots and 

 garden statues from the Surrey clay. Many 

 of these are exported to South Africa packed 

 in the large wicker baskets that are made in 

 this same neighbourhood. 



