The Great Godmother

The enterprising drawing master of Northampton, England hit upon the idea while watching a local horse fair. William Shipley could see that the horse fair had a workable system: its prizes encouraged men to breed better horses, which in turn led to better fairs and back again to better breeding. With that picture in mind. Master Shipley set off for London one day in 1754. His mission: to persuade a group of influential men to apply the horse-fair technique to the encouragement of art and industry.

This week, at a banquet in London's Tallow Chandlers' Hall, a group of white-tied notables gathered to pay tribute to Shipley's crusade. Just 200 years had passed since he organized his famous meeting of "Noblemen, Clergy, Gentlemen & Merchants" to set up what has subsequently become the Royal Society of Arts. Since then, the society has inspired, rewarded and publicized thousands of different projects, has been as effective a catalyst to Britain's wealth and might as any the nation has had. In 200 years, it has also earned itself a title: "England's Fairy Godmother."

Cobalt & Madder. The society's earliest projects were on the modest side. Its first decision was to set up a series of prizes I) "for the best quantity (not less than 20 Ibs.) of cobalt produced in this country, 2) for raising and curing not less than 20 Ibs. of madder,* 3) for the best drawing by a child under 14 years of age, and 4) for the best drawing by a child between 14 and 17." But before long, the society was attacking such problems as sheep diseases, the making of rosin, the growing of potatoes. Meanwhile, its list of contributors began to read like an 18th century Who's Who--Sam Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Edward Gibbon, Horace Walpole, Oliver Goldsmith.

Through its awards and medals, it taught farmers from Scotland to Wales about new plowing methods. It waged a campaign in favor of the scythe versus the sickle, awarded a silver medal to a nine-year-old artist prodigy named John Millais. By publicizing methods of preserving fish, it was largely responsible for establishing the British salted fish industry; by offering rewards for the invention of an effective chimney brush, it ended the necessity for chimney sweeps.

Harpoon & Lavatory. In 1771, the society brought about the invention of a gun harpoon for whalers, became a clearinghouse for information on every improvement of the microscope and telescope. To provide the Royal Navy with, timber, it put up prizes for the planting of trees, was eventually credited with having inspired the planting of 50 million. It was the guiding spirit behind Captain Bligh's famous trip on the Bounty, gave him a gold medal for his report on the care of breadfruit trees. It inspired a horseless carriage (its fuel: gunpowder) the design of the first really practical lifeboat. Under the presidency of Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria, it set up London's first two public lavatories ("Public Waiting-Rooms"), established the Royal College of Music. Through its encouragement of the tinning industry, it helped make tinned meat a part of the British diet; through its public lectures, it introduced the nation to such modern wonders as the Edison phonograph.

Today, still housed in its pillared mansion just off the Strand, the society is run by a council of 40 scholars and celebrities under the presidency of the Duke of Edinburgh and the chairmanship of

Forestry Commissioner Lord Radnor. It still distributes prizes, still holds public lectures and exhibitions, but one of its chief functions is to give examinations in commercial subjects to some 140,000 unschooled men and women each year who want the society's prized certificate of proficiency. After two centuries of activity, the R.S.A. remains what it has always been--Britain's great godmother perpetually on the lookout for any "design for the publick Good."

* A Eurasian herb and the 18th century's principal source of red dye.

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