A menagerie was on view at Evesham, to the great joy of many juveniles as well as older people, for such exhibitions were not very common in the town.  Very early next morning, a farmer, living about two miles from Aldington, was awakened by a shower of small stones on his bedroom window.  Looking out he saw his shepherd in much excitement and alarm.  “Oh master, master, there’s a beast with two tails, one in front and one behind, a-pullin’ up the mangolds, and a-eatin’ of ’em!” The farmer hurried to the spot and saw an African elephant which had escaped during the night; he was wondering how to proceed when two keepers appeared and the strange beast was led quietly back to the town.

As chairman of our School Board I early recognized among the members discoverers of mare’s-nests, who lost no opportunity of exhibiting their own importance by intruding such matters into the already overflowing agenda, and my method of dealing with them was so successful, though I believe not original, that it may be found useful by those called upon to preside over any of the multitudinous councils now in existence.  Whenever the member produced his cherished discovery—­generally very shadowy as to detail—­I proposed the appointment of a subcommittee, consisting of him and his sympathizers, to inquire into the matter, and report at the next Board meeting.  In this way I shunted the bother of the investigation of usually some trifle or unsubstantiated opinion on to his own shoulders, so that, when he realized the time and trouble involved, he became much less interested, and we heard very little more of the subject.

I suppose that everybody living in a country parish, who can look back over the period of fifty years of compulsory education, would agree that the results are insignificant in comparison with the effort, and one cannot help wondering whether, after all, they justify the gigantic cost.  We appear to have tried to build too quickly on an insecure foundation.  Nature produces no permanent work in a hurry, and Art is a blind leader unless she submits to Nature’s laws.  The pace has been too great, and the fabric which we have reared is already showing the defects in its construction.

How otherwise can we account for the littleness of the men representing “the people,” who have been rushed into the big positions, and for the vulgarity of the present age?  Vulgarity in public worship; vulgarity in the manners, the speeches, and the ideals of the House of Commons; vulgarity in “literature,” on the stage, in music, in the studio, and in a section of the Press; vulgarity in building and the desecration of beautiful places; vulgarity in form and colour of dress and decoration.  We are far behind the design and construction of the domestic furniture of 150 years ago, and we have never equalled the architecture of the earliest periods, for stability and stateliness.