312 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN 



difSculties, which are made so great. The modern girl 

 who works in a studio now spends months, even years, 

 drawing rough charcoal studies of the nude. This, of 

 course, is essential for a genius who is seriously going in 

 for figure-painting. But to the ordinary amateur it brings 

 about the desired results no more than the knowledge of 

 the alphabet would give the mental development to be 

 derived from literature. The upshot of all this serious 

 study is that, as the girl's life gets fuller, her drawing can 

 no longer be the accompaniment to her life, and she gives 

 it up in despair. 



It may be thought weU that these half-hearted workers 

 should be turned back at the outset. This would be right, 

 if the drawing of amateurs were to be measured only by 

 its results. But the least of its many advantages to them 

 is the production of a mere drawing, especially as this is 

 always so inferior to what they hoped to produce. The 

 really important ends in view are the influence on 

 character, the employment of time, and the attainment 

 of innocent happiness, which are all of much greater 

 importance than mere technical skill. I do not deny the 

 usefulness of schools, nor the impetus they may have 

 given to our national art. But their system has its 

 faults, even as regards the training of professionals or of 

 those amateurs whose great talent may carry them quickly 

 through the drudgery these schools impose. It seems to 

 me that there is room now for well-qualified teachers of 

 water-colour sketching, without any revival of the old- 

 fashioned and very superficial system of years gone by. 

 A teacher should himself have been grounded in freehand, 

 design, and perspective. He should be able to guide the 

 pupil through these early stages into the happier plains 

 of still-life or landscape painting from Nature more 

 quickly and with less tedium than could be done in the 

 school or the studio. I know that with patient work a 



