20 
LAND & WATER 
September 6, 1917 
was prompted by despair at an England beyond liis rule. 
So little did Blake depend upon the England about him 
that Ik' was much happier in South Moulton Street than at 
Felphani in Sussex. It is no exaggeration to say that if 
wc could establish tin; England that forms the mental back- 
ground ot Blake's writings and drawings, with the laws and 
policies that belong to it, we should have all the material 
wo need lor what is called " the work of reconstruction."' 
When the Englishman, in that sense, becomes articulate 
in language or line the results are not only absorbingly in- 
teresting in tiiemseK'cs but extremely valual)le as propaganda. 
The England of the future will owe much more to certain 
writings of Kudyard Kipling, G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire 
Helloc than to Acts of Parliament. Nor is the value of these 
writings ^n the historical information, but in the sense of 
England that they convey. They are the still, small voice-- 
if anything connected with Mr. Chesterton could be described 
as small or still — of the Englishman in the cosmopolitan 
hubbub, with a prevailing Easle.-n accent, that fills the land. 
In the pictorial arts the sense of England is rarer, partly 
because painters as a class arc tiresomely concerned about 
what they see with their bodily eyes ; which is very seldom 
ICngland in any sense that matters, any more than it is neces- 
sarily the subject matter of painting. 
But every now and th<;nyou get an English artist who, like 
William Blake, draws from his heart. Such an artist is Mr. 
¥. L. Griggs, some of whose etchings we are allowed to re- 
produce here. His con- 
nection with Blake is 
real rather than obvious. 
Blake had a friend call- 
ed Samuel P:ilmer, who 
spent his life painting 
and etching, with more 
regard for weak 
i m a g i n a t i o ns, the 
luigland that he shared 
with Blake. Both of 
them were proud to 
claim how much of this 
England they owed to 
Milton ; and I believe 
that Mr. Griggs would 
be equally proud to be 
called a successor to 
Samuel Palmer. The 
influence is not very 
marked in these par- 
ticular etchings becausi! 
the subjects are archi- 
tectural ; but to any- 
l>ody who has had the 
privilege of seeing Mr. 
Griggs's work in pun 
landscape the sympath\ 
with Palmer is obvious. 
, Equally obvious is it Xhe Quay 
that this architecture 
belongs to that land- 
scape, and that both are not merely "bits " that survive, 
but related parts of a consistent wfiole that exists some- 
where if only in the imagination of the artist. 
At a glance you_would say that " The Ford," "The 
Pool " and " The Quay " must have been drawn from 
actual buildings, if not in the same arrangement. As a matter 
of fact, they are all " inventions," though based on a know- 
ledge of architecture so intimate that it has become uncon- 
scious. Personally, I do not like the word " inventions " 
I)ecause it suggests something done out of the head, and thjse 
etchings come from a deeper source. 
Much might be said about their pictorial and technical 
merits ; their effective arrangement in light and shade, 
and their hrmness and economy of workmanship ; but l 
prefer, now, to dwell on their extraordinary reality and what 
It implies. For no man could conceive a city like this who 
had not in his heart some sure and definite conception of life. 
It is impossible even to look at these etchings without bt gin- 
ginning to speculate about the life that went on in the city of 
which they show parts, and to form conclusions about its 
character. Wise governm.ent, bold policy, honest trade, 
sound craftsmanship, and a dignified domesticity are all 
implied in the look of the buildings. Insensibly, too, the 
iniagmation passes Iseyond the city walls and explores the 
suiTounding country ; and, indeed, in other plates, in " Maur's 
Farm," " Stepping Stones," and " Priory Farm," Mr. 
Gnggs has given us hints of pastoral and agricultural life as 
firm and flourishing as the civic life expressed in " The Qua v." 
These etchings are memorials of an England that was" once 
and might be again. 
One remarkaole thing about these etchings is the practical 
knowledge they suggest. With aU their romantic feeling, as 
of the scene of groat events, they are entirely free from 
W'ardour Street jHcturesqueness and the atmosphere of decay. 
The buildings could be lived in. Looking at them one is 
persuaded that Jlr. Griggs is as sound upon the plan as he is 
inventive in the elevation ; tliat he could if necessary build 
the city that he has drawn. It would be a city like Durham or 
Toledo, on a rocky hill in the loop of a river ; and, guided liy 
the etchings, one confidently explores the parts of the city 
that are not shown. Its general topography is already familiar. 
And, in spite of the resemblance to Toledo in situation, 
nobody looking at " The Ford " or " The Pool," could mis- 
take it for anything but an English city. Not only that, but 
there is even a local flavour, and I could name more than 
one village in Gloucestershire that might have suggested tlie 
street in " The Ford." 
This combination of imagination, practical knowledge, 
a feeling for tradition, and a s'ense of locality, is extremely 
rare in artists — and even in architects. The impression 
given is that Mr. Griggs would be a useful man to consult 
in any scheme of restoration or reconstruction. He would 
build or restore not only practically and beautifully, but 
with a due sense of the continuity' of history. Unless all 
the signs'are misleading, we shall presently be feeling back 
in history for guidance even in our practical affairs. The. 
return to the land is a fact accomplished, and unless we are 
to be content with labour camps, we must have houses. 
One effect of the return, particularly if, as is probable, we 
develop the co-operative 
system of agriculture, 
should be the revival of 
the country town. 
Living in London we 
are apt to forget Eng- 
land and how much of 
it still survives in coun- 
try towns in a form that 
could easily be brought 
up to modern require- 
ments. On the whole, 
it is better to join 
hands with the past 
than to jump into the 
future. Life is, aftei 
all, an old business. 
The " audacity " re- 
commended by Mr. 
Lloyd George is nothing 
more than a bold bid 
for reality ; the reality 
of England that under- 
lies the unreal world 
created by modern ad- 
vertisement. 
Architecture must 
come out of life, but 
it is equally true that 
architecture reflects up- 
on life, and to live in 
a decent house is more 
By F. L. Griggi 
than half way towards living decently. It is not only 
the pig that responds to a clean stv. " Extend the house 
to the street and the architectural influence extends corres- 
pondingly from private to public life, and along broad 
highways and over firm bridges from town to country. Nor 
IS there any need to extemporise an architecture, with all the 
risks of faddism and the German virtue of " deliberateness," 
for the purpose. As Mr. Griggs has shown in other plate's 
there are enough survivals, from the cathedral to the barn! 
to teach us the principles of good building in everv department 
of life ; that is to say, building in response to" the practical 
needs and conditions and the ideals, aspirations and beliefs 
of the community. There is no need to copy the sur\'ivals • 
the better way is to study them and what' they meant in 
life. To base our scheme of society on that of Gothic England 
would be sOly, because the conditions are different ; but irom 
the survivals ot Gothic England in architecture, and care- 
ful consideration of their moaning in life, most of us could 
learn something that would help us to organise our Ii\-es 
private and public, upon a saner and firmer basis. 
Thinking and feeling precede action, and the individual 
affects the mass; and as a prelude to reconstruction it 
would not be a bad thing if, instead of girding against the 
present and trying to invent reforms out of nothing each of 
us retired into his England of the heart and imagined the 
lite that should proceed spontaneously from that Visions 
are more practical and fruitful than "theories, and in their 
vision, clearer, firmer and more consistent than most of us 
can form, of a better England the etchings of Mr Griggs 
will prove a powerful aid to reality. Being works of art and 
not arguments, they share with [Hood's "I remember' 
the magical property of universal and particular application. 
