News from Nowhere | Page 9

force and
directness which I had never noticed in modern work before. The
subjects I recognised at once, and indeed was very particularly familiar
with them.
However, all this I took in in a minute; for we were presently within
doors, and standing in a hall with a floor of marble mosaic and an open
timber roof. There were no windows on the side opposite to the river,
but arches below leading into chambers, one of which showed a
glimpse of a garden beyond, and above them a long space of wall gaily
painted (in fresco, I thought) with similar subjects to those of the frieze
outside; everything about the place was handsome and generously solid
as to material; and though it was not very large (somewhat smaller than
Crosby Hall perhaps), one felt in it that exhilarating sense of space and
freedom which satisfactory architecture always gives to an unanxious
man who is in the habit of using his eyes.
In this pleasant place, which of course I knew to be the hall of the
Guest House, three young women were flitting to and fro. As they were
the first of the sex I had seen on this eventful morning, I naturally
looked at them very attentively, and found them at least as good as the
gardens, the architecture, and the male men. As to their dress, which of

course I took note of, I should say that they were decently veiled with
drapery, and not bundled up with millinery; that they were clothed like
women, not upholstered like armchairs, as most women of our time are.
In short, their dress was somewhat between that of the ancient classical
costume and the simpler forms of the fourteenth century garments,
though it was clearly not an imitation of either: the materials were light
and gay to suit the season. As to the women themselves, it was pleasant
indeed to see them, they were so kind and happy-looking in expression
of face, so shapely and well-knit of body, and thoroughly
healthy-looking and strong. All were at least comely, and one of them
very handsome and regular of feature. They came up to us at once
merrily and without the least affectation of shyness, and all three shook
hands with me as if I were a friend newly come back from a long
journey: though I could not help noticing that they looked askance at
my garments; for I had on my clothes of last night, and at the best was
never a dressy person.
A word or two from Robert the weaver, and they bustled about on our
behoof, and presently came and took us by the hands and led us to a
table in the pleasantest corner of the hall, where our breakfast was
spread for us; and, as we sat down, one of them hurried out by the
chambers aforesaid, and came back again in a little while with a great
bunch of roses, very different in size and quality to what Hammersmith
had been wont to grow, but very like the produce of an old country
garden. She hurried back thence into the buttery, and came back once
more with a delicately made glass, into which she put the flowers and
set them down in the midst of our table. One of the others, who had run
off also, then came back with a big cabbage-leaf filled with
strawberries, some of them barely ripe, and said as she set them on the
table, "There, now; I thought of that before I got up this morning; but
looking at the stranger here getting into your boat, Dick, put it out of
my head; so that I was not before ALL the blackbirds: however, there
are a few about as good as you will get them anywhere in
Hammersmith this morning."
Robert patted her on the head in a friendly manner; and we fell to on
our breakfast, which was simple enough, but most delicately cooked,
and set on the table with much daintiness. The bread was particularly
good, and was of several different kinds, from the big, rather close,

dark-coloured, sweet-tasting farmhouse loaf, which was most to my
liking, to the thin pipe-stems of wheaten crust, such as I have eaten in
Turin.
As I was putting the first mouthfuls into my mouth my eye caught a
carved and gilded inscription on the panelling, behind what we should
have called the High Table in an Oxford college hall, and a familiar
name in it forced me to read it through. Thus it ran:
"Guests and neighbours, on the site of this Guest-hall once stood the
lecture-room of the Hammersmith Socialists. Drink a glass to the
memory! May 1962."
It is difficult to tell you how I felt as I read these