STUDY AND STUDIO.
Miss Vardon (India).—Do not be disappointed when we tell you that we think it is better to wait for a correspondent until the plague, of which you speak, has ceased raging. You have been inoculated, your house is free, and doubtless there is no danger whatever, but your correspondent or her elder friends might feel a little uneasy. Besides, we have received so many letters offering correspondence with the lady in question that we fear yours would be too late.
Sissie Redmond.—1. Write about your farthing to the authorities of the British Museum or of South Kensington Numismatic Department. We thank you for your letter. As you grow older you will not mind “having your hair up” and so forth, but the feelings you express are natural enough for your age.—2. If we had “easier puzzles,” we should have so many solutions that the Puzzle Editor would be wholly buried alive under manuscripts, instead of only half buried, as he is at present.
A Lover of the “G.O.P.”—1. The whole sonnet by Archbishop Trench is as follows. We commend its advice to you with much sympathy:—
“Thou cam’st not to thy place by accident;
It is the very place God meant for thee;
And shouldst thou there small scope for action see,
Do not for this give room to discontent;
Nor let the time thou owest to God be spent
In idly dreaming how thou mightest be,
In what concerns thy spiritual life, more free
From outward hindrance or impediment.
For presently this hindrance thou shalt find
That without which all goodness were a task
So slight, that virtue never could grow strong:
And wouldst thou do one duty to His mind,
The Imposer’s—over-burdened thou shalt ask,
And own thy need of grace to help, ere long.”
Archbishop Trench’s Poems are published by Macmillan.—2. We do not think your writing is, as you say, “very bad.” The tails of your g’s and y’s are not bold enough for the rest of it. The only way to improve is daily to copy some model you admire, and never to let yourself write carelessly.
C. G.—1. Many thanks for your pleasant letter. We have no knowledge of the word “crofts,” in the sense in which it is quoted, and should think it must be a misprint for “cups” or “crockery”; but if it is a local expression, you would gain information by writing direct to the author of the article in question.—2. If you cannot read an English play with your party of thirty German girls—and we see your difficulty—could you spend the time in working and reading some very interesting English story aloud in turn? If that would not do, the only alternative seems to be, to play English games. Of these there are a great variety. “Subject and Object” is a good game. Two go out of the room, and return personating a character in history or fiction, and some thing or animal well known in connection with the character, such as King John and Magna Charta; Una and the Lion. The others, by questioning them, have to guess who and what they are. Any English handbook of games, or The Girls’ Indoor Book (56, Paternoster Row) would be useful. Two questions are our limit, but we could not in any case help you about the translations.
Pansy.—If you had told us in what part of England you live, we could have helped you more definitely. There are numbers of schools and classes all over the kingdom where girls can be trained as teachers in any branch of technical instruction, and we can only advise you to write for exact information to the Secretary, Board of Technical Education, St. Martin’s Lane, London, W.C. You may also refer to Mrs. Watson’s articles in The Girl’s Own Paper, for 1897, on “What the County Councils are doing for Girls.”
F. L. J.—Your verses are very immature. For instance, you say “is come” and “has come” in close connection; your lines are of irregular length, and verses ii. and iii. dispense with rhymes, excepting in the chorus. Your metaphors are mixed—sea, blast, battle, &c., are all applied to life, in a confusing manner. We do not wish to be severe, but it is necessary to observe the laws of composition and of versification in attempting poetry.
Ancient.—It is impossible to value old Bibles without seeing them. Yours is probably a reprint of the Geneva version and not valuable. If, however, you would like to forward it to J. Arnold Green, Esq., 56, Paternoster Row, London, E.C., he will be happy to give you advice respecting it. Or you might apply to a firm of booksellers—Messrs. Sotheran & Co., 140, Strand.