CHAPTER X
EDINBURGH ART CONGRESS AND AFTER
THE Art Congress held in Edinburgh in 1889 proved a somewhat memorable occasion for the Socialist movement in Scotland. The Art Congress was founded in London by a number of artists and craftsmen, with the object of 'advancing the interests of Art and Industry' by widening public knowledge of the work of present-day artists and designers. The first general gathering of the Congress was held in Liverpool the year previous to the Edinburgh meeting, and was attended by the President of the Royal Academy and a host of prominent artists and craftsmen, including Morris and Walter Crane, who read papers at the sectional meetings. Its proceedings were widely noticed in the press, the members were feasted at public banquets and entertained in the houses of wealthy citizens, and the gathering was reckoned a great success.
The Edinburgh meeting promised to be no less successful. With a view to enhancing the lustre of the gathering the promoters had secured the patronage of the Marquis of Bute as president for the occasion. Great attention was bestowed on the assembly by the Scottish press, and the fashionable portion of the Edinburgh citizens vied with one another in showing hospitality to the visitors.
But a blight fell upon the repute of the meeting almost at the outset, in quite an unexpected and absurdly inconsequent way. Again, as at the Liverpool gathering, Morris and Crane, together with Cobden-Sanderson and Emery
84
