public really
interested. Our commercial system and system of house tenure are against
it. Our only chance is in public buildings, which indeed have always
been its best field. Yet we neglect, I think, a most important
educational influence. The painted churches and public halls of the
Middle Ages filled in a great measure the place of public libraries. A
painted history, a portrait, a dramatic or romantic incident told in the
vivid language of line, form, and colour, is stamped upon the memory
never to be forgotten. It would be possible, I think, to impart a
tolerably exact knowledge of the sequence of history, of the conditions
of life at different epochs, of great men and their work, from a
well-imagined series of mural paintings, without the aid of books; and
in this direction, perhaps, our school walls would present an
appropriate field.

Modern opportunities of mural decoration are chiefly domestic. The
country mansion, or the modest home of the suburban citizen, affords the
principal field in our time for the exercise of the taste or ingenuity
of the wall-decorator. In this comparatively restricted field, taste is
perhaps of more consequence than any other quality. A sense of
appropriateness, a harmonizing faculty, a power of arrangement of simple
materials--these are invaluable, for, more than any others, they go to
the making of a livable interior.

[Mural Spacing and Pattern Plans]

On first thought it would almost seem as if the designer was less
technically restricted in this direction of mural work than any other;
yet he will soon feel that he cannot produce an artistic and thoughtful
scheme without taking many things into consideration which really belong
to the conditions or natural limitations of his work.

There is, firstly, the idea of the wall itself--part of the
house-structure--a shelter and protection or boundary. It is no part of
a designer's business to put anything upon the wall in the way of
decoration which will induce anyone to forget that it is a wall--nothing
to disturb the flatness and repose.

The four walls of a room inclose a space to dwell in, in comfort and
security. The windows show us outward real life and nature. The walls
should not compete with the windows. Nature must be translated into the
terms of line and form and colour, and invention and fancy may be
pleasantly suggestive in the harmonious metre and rhythm of pattern.

A wall