But if, on the one side, we were somewhat overwhelmed with offers of loans of doubtful description, on the other we were not unfrequently surprised at the unwillingness of art owners to lend their treasures. Vain were promises of safety and insurance. ‘I don’t fear for the pictures, but I don’t like to have my walls bare,’ was the too common answer; and the argument, ‘Not for a fortnight, to enable thousands of people to see them?’ rarely penetrated the coat of selfishness which incases such owners. By no means had the hanging committee a monopoly of work. The decorative committee made it its duty to provide hangings, flags, bunting; to hide the usual schoolroom suggestions, and to make the place attractive to the passing crowd. The advertising committee undertook the difficult and expensive work of making the undertaking known, always difficult, but especially so when many of the people among whom the information has to be spread can neither read nor write. The finance committee did the dull but necessary work connected with money. At the first Exhibition 3_d._ was charged for admission during seven days, and free admittance granted for two days. On the threepenny days 4,000 people paid or were paid for; on the free days, including Sunday, 5,000 came to see the show. The box for donations contained on the seven paying days 4_l._ 16_s._ 1_d._; on the two free days 6_l._ 2_s._ 3_d._ The second Exhibition was opened free. In the thirteen days 26,492 people came to see it. The boxes contained 21_l._ 8_s._ 9_d._, and 4,600 catalogues were sold at 1_d._,[2] realising 20_l._ 17_s._ 1_d._, the cost of printing of which was 17_l._ 16_s._ [2] First edition was sold at 3_d._; and some on the first day at 6_d._, while a few were given away. Not the least weighted with responsibility was the watch committee, whose work was the safeguarding of the loans, both by night and day. Policemen, firemen, and caretakers had to be engaged, not to mention the organisation required to arrange for the eighteen or twenty gentlemen who came down daily to ‘take a watch’ of four hours in the rooms; where their presence not only served to prevent unseemly conduct, but their descriptions of pictures and homely chats with the people made often all the difference between an intelligent visit and a listless ten minutes’ stare. The work of borrowing was everybody’s work; and, on the whole, the response met with has been generous, particularly from the artists and those owners whose possessions were few. The first Exhibition included--besides pictures--pottery, needlework, and curiosities; but, interesting as these were, the expense of getting them together, providing cases for them, and showing them thoroughly under glass, was so great that in the second Exhibition it was determined to exhibit only pictures and such works of art and curiosities as the Kensington Museum would lend us, the latter already in cases, and with their own special caretaker to boot.