Page:Life of Octavia Hill as told in her letters.djvu/243

 v OPENING OF THE PLAYGROUND the more they would have. I told them what sum I set apart for repairs ; and that they were freely welcome to the whole, and might have safes and washing-stools and copper-lids, if the money would buy them since which time not one thing has been broken in any house. May 19th, 1866. To Miss BAUMGARTNER. My work grows daily more interesting. Ruskin has bought six more houses, and in a densely populated neighbourhood. Some houses in the court were reported unfit for human habitation, and have been converted into warehouses ; the rest are inhabited by a desperate and forlorn set of people, wild, dirty, violent, ignorant as ever I have seen. Here, pulling down a few stables, we have cleared a bit of ground, fenced it and gravelled it ; and on Tuesday last, opened it as a playground for quite poor girls. I worked on quite alone about it, pre- ferring power and responsibility and work, to com- mittees and their slow, dull movements ; and when nearly ready I mentioned the undertaking, and was quite amazed at the interest and sympathy that it met with. Mr. Maurice and Mr. L. Davies came to the meeting ; and numbers of ladies and gentlemen ; and the whole plan seems to meet with such approval that subscrip- tions are offered, and I hope to make the place really very efficient. My girls are of course very help- ful. . . . My dear old houses contribute the aristocracy to all our entertainments. We took twenty of the children from them, to make a leaven among the wilder ones on Tuesday ; and I hope much from them here- after.