Harry Jones (Rector 1873-82)
Harry Jones & Bryan King compared
part of an article from the Sydney
Morning Herald, 11 January 1876
In
the wake of the Ritualism Riots St George-in-the-East, it seems, was
still being
watched worldwide. Here is part of an article comparing Harry Jones
with Bryan King, from the Australian press (where
King's son was working as a convict chaplain). It depends heavily on The Times'
partisan
view of King. Describing Jones as a
clergyman of some literary pretensions and subdued Ritualistic
proclivities, it claims that his services were little
different from those
of King, but that they were acceptable because of his pastoral
acumen. This may be unfair, as it ignores a generation of religious
cultural change (see, for instance, King's comments in 1879 about the new east end mosaics); but Harry Jones was certainly media-savvy.
...Another
question, closely connected with religious ceremonial, is that
connected with the adoption of Ritualistic practices in churches where
the congregations have been accustomed to simpler forms of worship. The
Ritualistic clergy seem to have gained wisdom from experience. They no
longer commence by forcing their doctrines and practices upon unwilling
churchmen. They begin by making themselves popular as earnest workers
in the cause of moral and social improvement, and thus prepare the way
for inserting the thin end of the wedge. Hence the comparatively rapid
progress made by them during the last few years. Moreover, their work
is indirectly aided by many of the Evangelical clergy. who have adopted
a modified form of Ritualism, as if half ashamed of the primitive
simplicity of services to which many have been so long accustomed. This will serve to explain the marked subsidence of popular feeling against the Ritualists, especially in the metropolitan parish of St. George's-in-the-East, formerly the great battle-ground on which the Ritualists and their opponents met in angry combat. The Rev. Harry Jones, a clergyman of some literary pretensions and subdued Ritualistic proclivities, seems to have become as popular with the residents of the district, as his predecessor, the Rev. Bryan King, was the reverse. Only those who dwelt in the parish some fifteen or twenty years ago can properly appreciate the altered conditions of ecclesiastical affairs therein. As The Times informs its readers:-
[The article goes on to describe the St George's Gardens project - see here for this part of the article - before continuing....] The Times does not, however, mention what, after all, forms the most curious feature of the whole affair, namely that the forms of ceremonial adopted by Mr. Jones in connection with the religious services held in the parish church differ very little from those which excited such disfavour when conducted by the Rev. Bryan King. But then although we may drive a horse to the water, we cannot make him drink. So with English church-goers. The Rev. Harry Jones does not force his service upon the congregation. He says he is their minister, that he is a man of peace, and that there must be mutual concessions on both sides. This forms the secret of the whole matter. [The article returns to the issue of the Gardens for its final comments.] |
William Walsham How, whose story as Bishop of Bedford is told here,
was a good friend of Harry Jones, and it seems that their friendship
was not marred by events in 1882 when How was nominated as a member of
Convocation (the church's 'parliament' - now General Synod) but the
'Broad Church constituency' also put up Harry Jones. How felt it would
be 'unseemly' for there to be a contested election between a bishop and
one of his clergy (and was mindful of comments made, in letters to The Times
and elsewhere, about a bishop pulling rank), so stood down. [Nowadays
there is a separate constituency for suffragan bishops.] See below for their shared enthusiasm for providing English churches in Switzerland. How wrote a number of sonnets about local clergy, and this one picks up Harry Jones' commitment to the East End despite his having a country home, his love of travel, and his cheerful manner: The previous sonnet in this series was about Charles Lowder, Rector of St Peter London Dock. |
The genial friend, the ever-welcome guest,
Of keenly flashing wit and strenuous mien, With home ancestral in the woodlands green Courting to rural joys and leisured rest; Yet this the dwelling-place he chose as best, Where all the wild sea-life of many a coast Flings on our river-marge its motley host To swell the surge of sin and strife unblest. What though from land to land he loves to roam Keen-eyed and eager-hearted as a boy, Yet evermore his heart is in his home; And there he rules with strong but gracious sway, And sad men catch the infection of his joy As cheery-voiced he greets them on their way. |
In
1912 Mary Steer, who ran the non-denominational Bridge of Hope
'rescue' mission in Betts Street, wrote of him, in Opals from Sand
(p41)
He was a
broad-minded, generous man, big and strong, and of imposing appearance,
and he was also a man of peace. I shall never forget his
kindness to me
and the welcome he gave me into his parish; indeed, throughout his
Rectorship I experienced nothing but extreme kindness
and consideration
from him..... Whether he was at home or not, I was always
welcome to get
what books I wanted from his valuable and miscellaneous library, and
scarcely any one of interest ever visited the parish but there came a
note inviting me to meet them at lunch. When he left I felt I had lost
a father. There is a legend in St. George's which is so characteristic of Mr. Harry Jones that it must be true. One day he was discovered gazing intently at a blank brick wall which divided the churchyard from the burying-ground of the Wesleyan Methodists. The result of the Rector's cogitation was, that the wall speedily came down and there arose the pretty recreation-ground of St. George's, a bright spot in the midst of dreary surroundings. Mr. Jones was evidently haunted by a vision of things to come. For many years he always presided at our Council meetings; and even after he left chiefly on account of Mrs. Jones' ill-health...frequently came up to London to attend them. One little bit of work in St. George's which he said he could not give up was the chairmanship of the Bridge of Hope Council.... Wherever he went he always sent me the Easter offering from his church. |
I had daily service at St George's, but when I began it at St Philip's
(where I now am) not a soul attended, and once my colleague was stopped
by a stranger who came in for private meditation and said it
interrupted him. In this work he also expressed his aversion to parochial missions (while at St George-in-the-East, he had protested against the major diocesan mission of 1874 - see this report of some of its activities); he could not explain exactly why, and recognised that they could do good, but they were not his way: he was chary of insistent domestic visitation.... importunate religious pressure... exceptional strain.... whipping up attendances. |
[His article] intended to suggest two or three escapes from a total eclipse of the Bible in Board schools.
To obviate the difficulty arising out of entrusting the religious
education to agnostic or unbelieving masters, he suggests the adoption
of an 'in-and-out' arrangement, whereby such teachers might be relieved
by accredited persons who should be ready to take their places when the
hour for religious instruction arrived, and would take the position of
a visiting master in a Secondary school. Another plan suggested is to
drop the religious lesson altogether where a teacher has a
conscientious objection to giving it in a way satisfactory to the
managers. A third course would be to exempt all Board teachers from the
giving of any religious instruction, and to supply it through the
ministers of the religious bodies to which the scholars belonged.
Prebendary Harry Jones does not commit himself to the advocacy of any
one of these courses on the ground of its excellence over the
arrangement hitherto prevailing, with which he appears well satisfied.
The least objectionable of his alternative courses is that which is
identical with the Bishop of Salisbury's proposal—namely, the giving
permission to the ministers of religion to give definite teaching to
those children in a Board school who belong to their own community. The
difficulty of providing teachers Prebendary Harry Jones would meet by
employing assistant curates and by the revival or extension of 'minor
orders'. It would not be easy, however, to find laymen who would be
able to spare from their ordinary duties one of the most valuable hours
of the forenoon. If we are to have a training order like the Christian
Brothers, provision would have to be made for utilizing the whole of
their time in educational or other practical work. |
Harry Jones
was a keen traveller, and published Holiday
Papers (1864), The
Regular Swiss Round - in Three Trips
(1865) - in a brisk and
pointed style, said one reviewer. In a rather
contemporary touch, he expresses concern
over the ignorant behaviour of other British tourists and advises on
the correct way to visit the Alps so as not to be confused with idlers and the gamblers, who
travel for luxurious pleasure or evil gain. In
the Engadine valley, he stayed at the Kulm Hotel in St Moritz, and was
active in setting up the committee that built St John's Church there,
on land given by the hotel's owners. He also stayed at the Krone [now
Kronenhof] in Pontresina - now owned by the same family as the Kulm - where in 1882 Holy Trinity Church was consecrated by his friend Bishop Walsham How.
There
followed Letters from America (1870, for private circulation), To San Francisco and Back by a London Parson (SPCK 1871) and Past
and Present in the East (1880),
which offers both theological and practical insights on visiting the
Holy Land. (Here
he describes how the draft of R.H. Hadden's history of St
George-in-the-East accompanied him on that journey.) In 1888 he
contributed 'A Look at Norway' to William Barnes In the Leisure Hour.
In
the summer of 1884 (his wife had presumably recovered sufficiently for
him to leave her at home) he joined a group from the British Association for
the Advancement of Science as guests of the Canadian Pacific Railway,
to travel westward to the end of the newly-built track, at their
expense, to view the potential of the land. There was no set timetable,
so the party could stop when and where it wished for a closer
inspection of the country: as one of them said, even when the train stops to take on
water, all our botanists jump out to reap,
and our entomologists to whisk after small prey with green gauze nets.
A special train with three Pullman cars
was placed at the disposal of the 70 members of the party; he was
somewhat surprised to find three young ladies in the next berth, one of
them a liberated scientist
from Aberdeen.....This is
all very delightful at present, but promises
to be embarrassing as there is no specially select ladies’ compartment.
Theological writings
In addition to his popular journalism (eg East & West London in 1875) Harry Jones was a prolific writer and preacher. Here are five examples from various periods of his life.
(1) A collection of lectures (from St Luke, Berwick Street) on The
Perfect Man; or, Jesus as an Example of Godly Life (1869) - and see here for a sermon collection from this period.
(2) Remarks that could describe present-day 'pick and mix' spirituality, from The Clergyman's Magazine in February 1882:
Now every eye is becoming an ear, the printed page has been erected into a popular pulpit, and the whole communty forms an enormous congregation. The notion that spiritual influences flow only through ecclesiastical pipes is not to be held. People help themselves in the formation of their opinions, the conduct of their lives, and in the getting of comfort to their souls, out of the manifold streams and rivulets of truth... The age of comfortable unquestioning religious acquiescence is passed, if it ever existed. The spirit of inquiry, free trade in speculation, easy access to the writing of sceptics, has led many, in many instances too hurriedly, to discard what they conceive to have been accepted only because of the supposed darkness of the past.... Yet we must remember that Christ, in his parables, struck the highest notes of truth, needing the largest and quickest powers of receptivity in those whom he addressed. He spoke to universal sense, to universal human experience, and wants... Christ recognized no classes in his sermon on the mount, but set before the people great truths.... |
(3)
But here is a traditionalist, and somewhat arch, line on women (as with
his Canadian trip above, and also his naïveté over the local name
'Tiger Bay') in Plain
Words on Courtship
and Marriage
(James
Nisbet 1890): women, he argues, can
find
in the Bible those stories of romance which they so desire for
themselves, such as that of Abraham and Sarah. But the true position
of woman, the best estimate of matrimony, may have been unperceived
and undeveloped by the writers of the Old Testament. In
keeping with his belief that a single
woman's ultimate role is that of a wife, he advises them not succumb
to the mysteriously blind influence of love, and
seek to
marry a handsome man who may not be a desirable spouse. Men,
on the other hand, should seek a woman of good
temper and
homely thrift. Here, and in various other
publications, he argued strongly for temperance, rather than total
abstinence, as the ideal
economy in the home.
(4) A sermon on Barabbas, on which The Tablet of 19 July 1890 commented
...It has occurred to Prebendary Harry Jones to devote a sermon to explaining that all through the ages the world has been doing a great injustice to Barabbas. The large leisure of an Anglican dignitary has enabled the Prebendary to consider Barabbas in quite a new light. He recalls to his congregation that it is recorded of Barabbas that: For a certain sedition made by him in the City, and for murder, he had been cast into prison. But then that is just what might be expected to happen to a pure-minded and high-souled patriot. Murder and sedition, whether at first or second hand, have always been recognised as part of the stock-in-trade of a patriot, and Prebendary Harry Jones finds it very natural that the eager jews should have hailed Barabbas as a popular hero; and even that, when contrasting a man who had dared to draw the sword with One who must have seemed a dreamer, they should have shouted their loud preference for the courageous and public-spirited Barabbas. We observe that the Guardian speaks of this novel view of Barabbas as interesting. For ourselves we should be more impressed if we could forget one very simple sentence in the account of Barabbas in the sacred narrative which the studies of the Prebendary seem to have led him to overlook. We read: Now Barabbas was a robber. It must sadly be admitted that there have been patriots who have had souls for thieving, but then not even the Rev. Harry Jones shall persuade us that such a patriot can rightly be described as public spirited. |
(5) A sermon on Christian Charity, from a course on 'social subjects' organised by the
London Branch of the Christian Social Union and preached on weekdays,
'mainly to businessmen', in the churches of St Edmund, Lombard Street
and St Mary-le-Strand during Lent 1895, and published as A Lent in
London (Longmans, Green & Co 1895). Henry Scott
Holland (Canon
Precentor of St Paul's, whose words Death is nothing at all... are today given the exact opposite meaning of what he intended) was the Chairman, and the liturgist Percy Dearmer (then
living at Duke Street, Manchester Square) the Secretary.
The
Union consisted of Members of the Church of England who had the
following objects at heart : 1. To claim for the Christian Law the ultimate authority to rule social practice. 2. To study in common how to apply the moral truths and principles of Christianity to the social and economic difficulties of the present time. 3. To present Christ in practical life as the living Master and King, the Enemy of wrong and selfishness, the Power of righteousness and love. Members were expected to pray for
the
well-being of the Union at Holy Communion, more particularly on or
about the following days
The Feast of the Epiphany : The Feast of the Ascension : The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels |
Though
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor....and have not charity, it
profiteth me nothing. I Cor. xiii. 3 There are many words which bear a double sense. Two are attached to 'charity'. St. Paul, in my text, speaks of one which prevailed in his own time, and has survived to ours, often to the exclusion of any other, viz. the bestowal of alms, in the shape of money, food, or clothing. This is the popular meaning given to the word now. It appears in such terms as 'charitable institution', 'charity school', 'charity blankets' and 'charity sermon', which is an appeal for money to help the 'poor'. Indeed, so widely is this sense of the word accepted, that we have a 'Charity Organization Society' (an excellent one, by the way) formed for the purpose of enabling generous people to relieve such as are in real distress. The Bible has much to say about this kind of charity. Some of it appears in sentences read from the Old Testament before a collection of the offertory in church, and we hear of it plainly from the lips of our Lord Himself. No one denies the value of material donations to the needy, nor the duty of making them, especially by those who (as people say) are 'blessed' with the good things of this world. But St. Paul, in an exhaustive definition of charity, takes an extreme case, and puts the popular meaning of this word on one side, as imperfect. He gives another sense to it. The bountiful donor, imagined by him, who lacked charity, would hardly be welcomed by the Judge in the day of Doom. The Apostle, indeed, be it remarked, does not decry a bodily helping of the poor. He himself laboured with his own hands that he might minister, not merely to his own necessities, but to those of such as were with him. But he looks at the motive of the giver; and surely this must involve a perception of the best way in which we may benefit the receiver. Thus we may come to apprehend the nature of 'Christian charity'. The love of God is not shared by the donor unless his help be given 'cheerfully', without grudging complaint at being asked to give, or protest against the exacting troublesomeness of the poor as being to blame for their poverty. He must help with some exercise of His spirit Who knows what things we have need of before we ask Him. Now in inquiring how we should give, several thoughts suggest themselves. Let me dispose of at least one. All allow that sometimes help has unavoidably to be given openly, or on a large scale, when contributions are invited towards the support of some good work which ignorance of details, or want of personal opportunities, prevents a man from helping in private. In this case, moreover, he may receive praise of men, without forfeiting his right to be acting with true charity. This was recognized when distribution was made to the needy at Jerusalem, and givers laid their money at the Apostles' feet. The donation, e.g., of Joses, a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus (they called him, indeed, the 'son of consolation'), was openly made, and specially acknowledged by the Church. Nevertheless, in most cases, the rule of Jesus must be remembered, and how He said, “When thou doest an alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.” This secrecy has a double use. It bars an appetite for praise in the donor, and spares the self-respect of the recipient, who is led to look on the gift as the act of a friend, not that of a patron. Moreover, it is advisable, as checking greedy clamour for alms, and thwarting a concourse of beggars. But, in the face of permanent destitution, very little good seems to be done by the most generous of donations, whether made in public or private. This is a stale admission. Some people, however, have gone on filling the sieve of beggary, in the kindliest spirit, to find it empty again. Others have used discriminating schemes of distribution, and relied on the practical discernment of the Charity Organization Society. Thus, indeed, they may feel to be protected from encouraging imposture, and that certain of the 'deserving poor' are helped by their gifts. This is well, so far. Many of the most needy are thus aided. But (as my old friend Hansard used to say) you cannot organize the Holy Ghost. When all is said and done towards saving the most hopeful sufferers from the slough of pauperism, close above its surface there is a film of poverty which the implement of the direct money-giver is unable to skim off. How does Christian charity, even if joined with the bestowal of all a man's goods to feed the poor, suffice to remove or dissipate this layer of industrial privation, and the mass of penury beneath it? Does the example of St. Martin, who divided his cloak with the beggar, help us? Or are we sufficiently warned by the fate of Dives, who allowed a pauper to live on the crumbs from his table, till the angels intervened? It was not unkind of him to let a menial-fed dependent lie at his gate. We may be sure that another Lazarus filled the coveted vacancy before Dives was buried. And an army of St. Martins would have been needed to gratify the swarm which must have envied the good fortune of their comrade. Can Christian charity such as that of this one saint solve the problem before Christians now? Without finding in its impossibility an excuse for shutting the purse and buttoning the pocket, must we not perceive that charity means far more than a giving to the poor of that which satisfies bodily hunger? Was Jesus pleased when the multitude sought Him because they ate of the loaves and were filled? He fed them, indeed, and we may thus learn of Him in times of extremity ; but He looked for a better appetite in them than that which He had quenched. In this, too, He surely teaches us, still more. Should we not think of what the poor ought to desire for themselves? Should we not do all we can to encourage a wish in them for something beyond 'loaves and fishes'? Have not these very words, indeed, been used, in contempt, by the best among the necessitous, as when they sneer at such as profess religion for what they can get in the shape of tickets and doles? Some philanthropists have come to see the truth of this, and sought to promote 'thrift', and a more refined appreciation of human enjoyment than comes through the bodily senses. They have looked beyond the beneficence of hospitals, which train the rich man's doctor while they unquestionably heal the sick poor, and they have promoted 'provident dispensaries'. They have also set up Polytechnics and the like. They have encouraged the spread of elevating literature, technical education, and hailed the arrival of parish councils. All this, especially the last, indicates a wholesome growing perception that the real wants of the 'masses' are not met by a permanent distribution of alms, however generous and devoutly given, or by gifts of food, fire, and clothing specially needed at times of acute general distress. The unemployed cry for work, not bread without employment. Moreover, beyond a limited appreciation of such philanthropical instructive institutions as I have referred to, even these are felt, somehow, by many, to be outside the deeper needs of those whom they are designed to benefit. They are excellent in their way, and deserve liberal support, especially as they tend to encourage more self-reliance among the careless. There is, however, a growing desire among the best of those roughly designated as the 'poor' for something which has no flavour of 'charity', as commonly understood. It is a feeling after such relief or elevation as arises from within themselves, and does not approach them from without, however kind the motives of those who would bring and bestow it. Something like the sap of creation, which lifts the tree whose seed is in itself, and rises, so to speak, with automatic growth. The most intelligently aspiring members of the 'working class' crave for that action to be encouraged which shall recognize more fully their claim as citizens to better the laws under which, unhappily, the present evil condition of so many among the 'industrial population' has come about. There are, indeed, not a few who can work, but are not ashamed to beg. And there are some who subject themselves to capricious restrictions when they might fairly earn their bread. But the most self-respecting among those I am thinking of would almost rather starve than be suppliants for alms. They resent sheer donative charity with profound repugnance, and ask for remedial measures, constitutionally inaugurated, some of which startle political economists. I do not here examine, or indeed plead for, any of the special proposals which are thus made, but (merely as an illustration of the fact that they aim at superseding so-called popular charity, and without any decrying of material generosity, personally shown by friends) I might point to a sign of the times seen in the popularity of a work lately published, and, with severe significance, called 'Merrie England'. It faces the 'problem of life'. The book contains more than two hundred pages, is written in a vivid scholarly style, and divided into chapters headed with quotations from Ruskin, Browning, Matthew Arnold, Mill, Adam Smith, and, repeatedly, the Prophet Isaiah. Well, this aggressive but scholarly volume costs only a penny, and already, it is announced, several hundred thousand copies of it have been bought, mainly by 'working men'. This is more than a 'straw' in the wind that has brought the social revolution through which we are passing. And I now refer to it in so far as it involves an utterance pointedly discarding the interpretation long given to the word 'charity'. And without committing himself to an approval of what this book recommends, for it is in the profoundest degree revolutionary, I would ask every Christian to consider well whether St. Paul's plea for that which hopeth, beareth, and believeth all things, should not lead him to look, with a tolerant eye, at any repudiation by the 'poor' of the patronizing sense which has been given to the word 'charity', even though their resentment of it be accompanied by statements and proposals referring to matters outside the region of almsgiving. Meanwhile, without attempting to forecast the eventual result of any effort by the working classes to benefit the needy through some legislative action (not by any means necessarily subversive of existing order), we cannot selfishly abstain from giving direct help to such as are in obvious distress. But "he that is spiritual judgeth all things", and it is not for the true Christian to turn with final contemptuous distaste from any genuine movement among the masses to elevate themselves; however crude it may be, and however little he may esteem the nature of the requirements they put forth. When we see symptoms of a desire among the 'needy' for something better than 'doles', or even usefully instructive philanthropical institutions, we ought to hail it as a sign of social health. There is such a thing as 'righteous discontent' which breeds wholesome self-reliance in a nation, though its growth may be mistaken by, and repugnant to, some who look for immediate thanks whenever they do a kindness after their own choosing. He who exercises far-seeing Christian charity, though (as things are) he will gladly give to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and warm the cold, must, indeed, be prepared often to have his vital motives misunderstood by the poor with whom he is brought into contact, and to have pleas for their ultimate good ungraciously heard by many who rely upon the virtue of almsgiving. Nevertheless, he will not hide his head in the sand, shrinking from a sight of the fact that thousands of those who form the social stratum above pauperism are being deeply moved with a desire to raise themselves by some legislative remedy, out of that state which causes so many of them to look for relief through external charity. This mostly lowers the recipient, instead of raising him, however sincerely and unselfishly it may be applied. The far-seeing friend of man will realize all this in a true Christian spirit. He will do what he can to give unformulated and exaggerated hopes a right direction, and be fair all round, remembering that Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Christ as well as Peter the fisherman of Galilee. Above all, when he has read St. Paul's definition of charity, he will remember that 'love' is a name of God, and be enabled to recognize a true flavour of faith and hope in some of His children whom others think to be too self-asserting, and too ignorant to discern what they really need, but are his brethren in Christ; and, so far as in him lies, to be brought into touch with that Spirit which He promised to guide us into all truth. |
PART
I: OUR MOTHER A National Church - The Archbishop of Canterbury Social Union and Church Unity - Rev Edmund McClure The Political Office of the Church - Rev T. Hancock The Church and the People - Rev R.R. Dolling |
PART
II - OUR BROTHER MEN Party Politics - Revd Wilfrid Richmond Christian Patriotism - Rev H. Russell Wakefield Peace and War - Rev J. Llewelyn Davies The Colonies - Rev Bernard Wilson Country Life - Rev J. Charles Cox Clerk-Life - Rev H.C. Shuttleworth Civic Duties - Rev Canon Barnett What the Church might do for London - Rev Stewart Headlam Christian Charity - Rev Prebendary Harry Jones Over-Population - Rev G. Sarson Art and Life - Rev Percy Dearmer |
PART
III - OUR SELVES A Social Consicence - Rev Canon Henry Scott Holland Character - Rev E.F. Russell The Social Aspect of Sin - Rev W.C.G. Lang Personality - Rev A. Chandler Losing their Soul to save it - Rev Prebendary Eyton Christ the Social Reconciler - Rev T.C. Fry Democracy and Government - Rev A. L. Lilley The Christian Sense of Beauty - - Rev W.C. Gordon Lang Dogma a Social Force - Rev Canon Henry Scott Holland |
Children's books
Finally, Harry Jones also wrote children's
books! Prince
Boohoo and Little Smuts (Gardner Darton
1896, with illustrations by Gordon Browne - right) was described by The
Spectator as really
good nonsense, not at all copied from Mr Lewis Carroll; admirably
fresh, and inspired by a quite delightful insousiance. The World said it will
charm the more qualified critical reader by its mingled gravity and
whimsicality. It is not all sugar plums; there are nice little bits of
satire in which the Rev. Harry Jones is easily recognisable. The Prince was the only son of King Starzungarturs and Queen Kizzimforwotteveredid.....
More overtly moralistic in tone was Field and Street, or Boys with a Difference
(SPCK 1893), which tells of a city lad whose life went astray but who
made good in the country, as a result of memories of a childhood
holiday. Harry Jones was a supporter of the Children's Country Holidays
Fund, set up in 1884 to provide fresh air for ailing London children
by arranging boarding with local 'cottagers' within a 50-mile radius of
London for not less than two weeks, funded by the society with a small
parental contribution. It is still in existence.
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