22 IDLEHURST : 



case of our own youngsters ; for the refection of 

 the youth of Rats' Rents, our little Jockeys and 

 Jennies are to be denied their chance of innocence 

 the arts and sciences of the slums are to be brought 

 to them at first hand. 



The matter has a side to it which may fairly be 

 called diabolical : the use of " modern advantages " 

 to throw out into the wilderness very subtle seed 

 of all the vileness which centripetally gathers round 

 St. Paul's. And it is a blunder. London, for its 

 own sake, must leave us fairly clean and undistracted, 

 the result of our own heaven and earth. It produces 

 no raw material, but only manufactures from imports 

 imports of sound country bodies and minds year 

 by year, which enable it to live made into its 

 policemen, porters, and navvies, its wholesome maids, 

 even its clerks and shopmen. It must leave some 

 corners and breadths unvexed by railway whistles 

 and steam hooters, clear of tall chimneys and forges ; 

 it must suppress the busy folk who are always 

 boring for coal in Kent ; it must keep watch on the 

 steady process of de-naturalisation going on in all parts 

 of the land ; this and more it must do if it will keep 

 for itself a place of refreshing and a breeding-ground 

 of healthy frames for its necessary consumption. 

 At present, the golden goose is being slaughtered 



