XVII 

 CHURCH DECORATION 



THE subject of Church Decoration is one which 

 perhaps claims the attention of amateur florists 

 more closely than any other, as the arrangement of 

 church flowers invariably falls to the lot of lady 

 amateurs, and I regret very much having to be 

 somewhat hard in my remarks about the majority 

 of them. 



Being engaged as I am almost daily in work 

 of some kind at one or other of the London 

 churches, I see a great deal of their work, and I 

 cannot help being struck by the very severe and 

 formal way in which most of it is done, espe- 

 cially the decoration of the altar, which invariably 

 consists of a very amateurish cross in the middle, 

 and a kind of shield of flowers on either side. 

 These shields are usually quite round, and have 

 troughs in them to hold water, but I find that they 

 never hold enough water to be of any real service 



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