Since above we made passing mention of Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman, this his photograph may interest Members; he was as is at once therefrom evident a virile Englishman of the finest type, and indeed a Wimbledon man and M.P.
His "
Condition of England" expresses fears - well-founded of course - for a nation acquiring
social improvements without spiritual renewal. He cites Carlyle's passage likening great cities in their erection to
works of music:
"Swept into aggregations by the demand of the newest industries, the clay and stone has been hastily fashioned into place for human habitation. And now these stand today, made by, and yet making, the temper and characteristic of the people. Here the normal standard is a
four-roomed cottage; there "back to back" houses ravage the health of their inhabitants; here again huge piles of tenements encompass the bewildered occupants in a kind of
human ant-heap; there the ancient dwellings of the wealthy or comfortable classes have been "swarmed out" by the busy people. Carlyle pictured mankind flowing, as it were, through the visible arena of material things.
A wave of humanity beats through these solid constructions; it vanishes, another succeeds. 'Orpheus built the walls of Thebes by the mere sound of his lyre. Who built these walls of Weissnichtwo, summoning out all the sandstone rocks to dance and shape themselves into Doric and Ionic Pillars, squared ashlar houses, and noble streets?' All cities are thus
built 'to music.' What
discordant melody today is responsible for the creation of Jarrow, or Salford, or Canning Town?"
