PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 182, 2 August 1900, Page 12

PERSONAL NOTES FROM LONDON.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, June 30. For the position of lecturer on music at the Auckland University, and conductor of the Auckland Choral Society, there were no less than seventeen applications, all from good men, and they included Mr Perrin, organist for Canterbury Cathedral. The number was reduced to two, and finally the gentlemen entrusted with the selection appointed Mr Thomas, Mus. Doc, Oxford, who is a married man, highly qualified for the position, and described as sound, sensible and agreeable.

I am this week enabled to send you some particulars about Mi: Arnesby Brown, whose picture, "After Heat of Day," -has been purchased for the Mackelvie Gallery. He was born in 1860, and is the son of Mr J. H. Brown, of Kirkby Old Hall, Alpeton, Derbyshire, and grand - nephew of Philip J. Bailey, the celebrated author of "Festus." After leaving his at Nottingham he worked under Mr A. MacCallum, the painter of forest and trees, and then after a year went, 10 study under Professor Herkomer at the well-known school at Bushey, where he spent a happy and hardworking three years and a-half, during which time he exhibited for the first time in the Royal Academy, 1891. Since then he has been a regular contributor. His first important work —"The Drinking Pool"—was bought by the City of Manchester, whose example was followed by the City of Preston, which purchased "Homeward" in 1896, and by the City of Worcester, which acquired in 1898 "Herald of Night," described as "the best landscape in the whole exhibition; tender, atmospheric, idyllic in feeling, and beautifully harmonious in tone." "After Heat of Day" is therefore the 4th example of Mr Brown's work to be hung in public galleries. He has' also contributed to the New Gallery for some years. Mr Brown does not confine his work to cattle subjects only. On the contrary, lie is an extraordinarily versatile painter, and has executed a large number of portraits, as well as painted a large number of different scenes, of the variety of which the following titles will give some idea: "A Northerly Breeze" (a Cornish seascape), "The Daffodil Harvest" (Cornish flower industry), "The Hayfield," "A Water Frolic" (white ducks splashing in a pool), "The End of the Harvest" (New Gallery, 1900), "The Crest of the Hill" (sky effect with sheep and cliff, and this year in the Academy), "The Rainbow" (a fine effect of rainbow and cloud). For some years most of his outdoor work has been done in East Anglia, the studies for "After Heat of Day,'* "Labourers," "Herald of Night," "The Marsh Farm" and many others being done there. Previously Cornwall had claimed his attention, chiefly in the winter'months. Now he makes his studies in Norfolk in the summer and goes down to Cornwall for several months in the winter to work them out. At present his head-quarters are at Frittpn Cottage, Ludham, near Great Yarmouth, the centre for the Norfolk Broads.

Mr Arnesby Brown's landscapes have been described as "the outcome of a passionate and poetic conception of nature," and as "calculated to lift the English school from the dead level ofg merely literal and prosaic transcription to which it had fallen a few years ago and -to place it by degrees in the position of pre-eminence which it occupied in the earlier years of the century." New Zealand artists should look out for the forthcoming number of the '.'Studio," which is to contain an article on Mr. Arnesby Brown and his work.

Stanley Eowley put in an appearance at the West of Scotland Harriers' annual sports, held at Hampden Park, Glasgow on June 12th, and in the 100-yards handicap gave a taste of his quality by winning his heat from scratch very easily in 10 l-ssecs., and after a magnificent race won his heat in the semi-final round in even time. In the,final round Wood, of the Kelburne Football Club, who had also done "evens" from the 7-yards mark, in the semi-final just managed to beat the Australian crack by six inches in lOsecs. dead after a desperate race. The handicap was judged by Mr Baird's machine, which worked very satisfactorily.

Among the visitors to your London office this week was Mr Allan Tracy, erstwhile of Auckland. Mr Tracy, who left New Zealand some seven or "eight years ago, is now managing director of a brickmaking concern out Eetford way, and has just got over an attempt at a strike among his men. Some fifty; of them taking advantage of the plenitude of work in rural districts —haytime is in full swing and harvest follows —sent a "Bound Eobin" demanding an immediate advance in wages and sundry other "graceful concessions." Mr Tracy took the 'bull by the horns. He sacked the four ringleaders, and sent the "Kobin" back, with a polite intimation that he did not propose to take any notice of "demands" couched in that style .His action had the desired effect, for the remaining men stuck to their work and made no trouble when new hands came to replace the men sacked. Mr Tracey thinks of going out to New Zealand again. He likes England for business purposes, but our weather, he remarked, "is off."

Mr and Mrs Thomas "Mac Gibbon (oil Mataura) were delighted with then' voyage in the "Kumara," and are htgh in praise of her senworthiness and excellent accommodation. This is Mr Mac Gibbons' third visit to the Old Country, so he feels himself quite at home in the Metropolis, where he ha?? been spending the last three weeks. He makes next for the Midland towns, and then on to Glasgow, his native town, whose municipal ways he can study with a view to introducing the latest ideas into Mataura. He will probably meander as far North as the Granite City, and also through Ireland, have a peep at the Paris Exhibition, and return via America at the end of his four months stay.