Members of Parliament have returned to a much brighter and more comfortable House than they left The Chamber itself has been equipped with concealed lighting which has driven out the former black shadows and enables the magnificent panelled ceiling to be properly seen The Central Hall too, which is a lovely piece of architecture, has been given better lighting. Vast numbers of dusty dim old books have been cleared away—the extent to which these had accumulated in the passages was paralyzing. Best of all. perhaps, is the redecoration and improvement of the dining rooms.
I had the ^onour of attending the dinners to which the China Committee entertained Dr. H. H. Kung and Mr. T. V. Soong and it really seemed extraordinary that we should have to dine in narrow basement rooms, dungeon-like in their heavy moulding and with windows from which, when one was seated, only the sky could be seen. I hope this does not to convey my feeling to the public."
Mrs. Epstein wisely said "I have a bad cold, so I can't say what I think."
Mr. Osbert Sitwell, speaking for the "refaned" circles of Bloomsbury and Hampstead "I think it is perfectly magnificent. But of course some people do not understand Epstein."
Charles Allom, head of a big firm of architectural contractors says Epstein is a great artist, but he is simply throwing away his mighty gifts for this filthy modern stuff. It is equalled only by some of the work of a few savages in more or less distant times."
That is perhaps the feeling of many ordinary people neither Philistines nor. highbrows. Epstein's genius is unmistakeable; everything he does is alive: but it does seem to one to be rather a horrible form of life.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.