10
THE HONGKONG
TELEGRAPH. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26,
1937,
Is The VILLAGE
"T would pay a village to-day to revive an ancient custom, sport, or coremony-or to persuade the oldest inhabi- tant to remember one.
Because the games of Olde.. England (and Scotland) of yesterday are the money-mak- ing events of to-day, and where It is true that “ tradition will be observed," it is also true that "money will be made.”
The countryman is cushing in en the superstitions and religious traditions of his forefathers, and games which were once the recrea- tion of the hard-working rustic are to-day something to be organ- ised on a business footing.
Not that anyone suffers because this old game of kicking a kettle down the village street is adver- tised, and showmen take advantage of the gathering to Introduce one or two modern mechanical dolights, Not at all.
But the happy custom of five hundred years ago may now bring hundreds of pounds into a village. It is not much use the amithy- garage installing one of these new petrol pump things If there is not an "old custom" once or twice a year to bring people in Trom the Bearest towns.
O
NE must vlow with some suspicion the frequent modern "revivals " of
ild customs.
It
Delightful though to remember something which happened in Robin Hood's day-how much more delightful It must be for the village inn- keeper to see an excursion arrive with hundreds of country- conscious town people.
train
You want an old custon, we will give it you." is the answer to the slightly sentimental and romantic towusannu, travelling by car or cycle. or merely using the public transport which makes the country" an annexe to the factory.
It is this modern development which maintains these ancient #ports. 3
Aspleed bun and ale feast.” "the quaint custom of throwing appica at the Mayor." "ancient bonfire dance," "va hundred a side football "all this nort of thing brings out people
money.
with
The truth is there is something of the countryman in all of us, and not many generations have rinosed since city dwellers left the land. Rural scenes, sports and crafts have their subtlo appeal, and it 18 How easy for the over-civilised to get back to them.
Sheep dog trinis, Iginland games,
bound trails," ditch trials (in) many places openly “started") 'floral dances," what you will of country tradition, are to-day the mecca of the tourist.
Their part in real country He is less real than when a necessary part of tocai iife, and the events have taken on a new tradition. Catorcis amusement providers,
GREEN?
NOT NOW,
says R. W. Foster
transport companies, shopkeepers. all have their interest.
The bank clerk, the factory hand, mingles to-day among shep- herds, farmers and country folk.
It 19 rood thing. In many cases these ancient rituals would adually die out, for lack of any purpose or real meaning, were 11 not for the modern publicity value,
In many cases these events have their roots in ancient religion and superstition, but the roots have spread to-day to a firmer hold on
business. Nearly
50,000 people attended Preston's age old egg-rolling fes- and picturesque Mussel- tival" burgh was crammed with visitors yesterday for the Riding of the Marshes celebrations" are the sort of descriptions you read to-day of old sports.
A. G. Macdonnell, in his new book, "My Scotland," has summed up the situation as applied to Highland Games, and it is equnily true of the smaller events.
"The Highlands of Scotland also have their games, although probably they wete a. relaxation of the warrior rather than the ferty worship of the agricul- tabiat (the motive in many English salons). Nevertheless #prang from the people.
"T
they
HE new age has changed all that. The games on the
model now
are simply an adjune of the rail- way posters, hold prospectuses and the lure of the mountains."
And that is true of almost every ancient custom and sport.
Why, they are even going to bring the Highland Oames to Lon- don, with 200 competitors coming by train.
91x years ago they held the In- 111 ternational Sheep-Dog Trials Hyde Park. And who could corn- plain if town people were able to see this battle of wits between bleep and the shepherd and his dog?
These trials" are founded, not on a recreation buton labour. Once a year, at the International, it is open to all to sep this routine work of Scottish moors. English downs and Welstr mountain sides. The cleverest ##s in three. countries matching wit against wit the handling of the world's
THE WAYS OF
CROWS
PERILAPS of all the aspects of uns who had been "kept in" at
bird life the crow is the most school
for being backward with interesting to both children, and their lessons or who had been mis- grown men. Now that we are ad behaving. There was at any rate a
vanced in years how pleastry; it is decided fellow feeling between the
to look back on our early clays as children going home from school childres, especially if wo were and the crows. brought up in the country, and on
long columns of black objects ever so high in, it seemed, ret could never-ending formalion.
on
Fully half a century ago, when no; yet be seen
the pulliical horizon, and the two distinct the These long lines were formed by parlica were the Teries and
Liberals, it wis Insinunted that the the crows Dying home happily aller their day's toll in the open country crows belonged to the Tory party, seemed as they always bull their homes in was completed. We never
Lo
see their outward journey, but the tall trees in proximity
the return flight always occurred
BS
to the
obcestral castles cr mansions of our scailing, and wristocratic forefathers.
the children, also wending their way In the Midlothian village from
the village school wa
home, gladdened to be
from
om which I am taking observations, the for have remained
free
their irksome tasks, with faces
"Probably ... a relaxation
of the warrior"
G
mat witless animal, the sheep. The motor conch visitor, and there will be thousands at this year's trials at Cardiff, will see hurdles set apart from the "gates** through which the sheep have to be driven,
To the office worker it may be enough to see the dogs cleverly moving the sheep down the course. hastening laggards, stopping
strays. But the judges are watch- ing other details. The sheep must not come too fast and not at a gallop, nor must they dawdle and wender.
LL this is something bred right in the country. and is one of hundreds
of events that have taken on a new meaning.
Elsewhere ancient ceremonies an being revived.'
Perhaps, as happens. In many places, it is a "centuries old cus- tom of dancing in the main street.” The custom is maintained, but with houses illuminated
and
fooditt" and motorists stopping to join in the revcls. And possibly the-local-wireless-denter-takes-ad-- vantage of the affair to remind people how easy it is to "now go home and dance with
a super Super Henrall."
I
you cannot persuade the Alm prople to corne down to your "old custom," then probably it can be
broadcast. Village customs are coming into their own again. No modern carnival is considered complete without its "ancient ox-
roasting festival."
Actually, no village is too small to take advantage of these new- found opportunities to "cash in " on tradition.
"Hundreds of visllors," we read, **will flock to the picturesque Kentish village of Blidenden to wilness the ancient Easter Monday ritual in commemoration of the Bildenden Malds."
That is just one event which, oncò a sort of little private village
Recently the King
and
Queen TC-
turned to the busp
multifariqua
citation of State after, spending a needed holl- day ai Balmoral,
In this article the
writer slows the
national value of
Royal holidays,
jollification, is now the targot for a day's outing.
Probably the parish counell of your village will meet one day and complain that "the people in the next village have been making a real good thing out of their old custom of throwing the sexton into the village pond."
An old member of the council will promptly remember a story told, when he was a boy, of how they used to have an "old custom" "something to do with shaking eggs in a sieve until all the eggs are broken."
STRAIN OF KINGSHIP
THANKS to newspapers and news- Atms, people nowadays realise that a king is one of the hardest worked men in the world.
When a year DI two ago, Lord Harewood, brother-in-law of King George VI, declared in a speech that the public made too many demands on the Royal Familly cousidering the Imitations of human endurance, L gave the British much needed food for thought....
-
Its now known that had the late King George V followed the advice of his doctors and taken longer and more frequent hollduys, his life, would, in all probability, have been prolonged. Thic strain of daily duties and ceremonial which modern kingship
entails taxes the
How
atoutest and strongest heart, and for thic reason, if for no other, the nation will rejoice that the King and Queen are having a real holiday this autumn.
If one looks back on the present eign since last December, one can- not fall to be impressed by the nxiety and hard work which it has rown on the King. Queen Victoria and King Edward VII would have rebelled strongly against auch a trenuous -time without even one
Sreak.
Even in pineld Victorian days the ld Queen used to complain bitterly of the unremitting work which fell to her lot, and she cut down her publle appearances to the minimum.
Yet she spent most at her year esiding in quiet retreals like Bal- moral and Osborne, which may Explain her long life. Ministers had grent difficulty in getting her to give undivided attention to State affaire when she felt she was having a change or a holiday.
When "C.-B." Resigned
During his nine years' reign, King Edward VII spent about five years. abroad, chiefly at watering-places tur France and Germany. When the Premler, Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman, resigned in April 1088, King Edward was at Cannes, whence he summoned Mr. Asquith to form new Ministry, a proceeding which did not at all please constitutional pundits.
a
After the postponed Coronation in 1902, Kind Edward and Queen Alexandra enjoyed refreshing holiday cruise along the West Coast from Wales to Scotland, during which they landed at various places, including the Isle of Man.
King Edward VII was a great rapegoer, and visits to various race- courses I regarded
as health- giving. Week-ends al the country mouses of his intimate friends and shooting parties were other favourite relaxations. fie was always insis- lent on his right to have free and for as possible unfettered holi-
ون
days.
His son and successor, George V. had a stern sense of duty. Stays at From that recollection will de- Sandringham and Balmoral were his velop a revival of an "ancient favourite means of obtaining rest custom" and a bit more money and change, and he resolutely de- for the village shops,
to go to Continental apas or
For an old sailor, cruising. -Probably-the-local-confectioner..
surprisingly little appeal to will devise some form of sweet-ch meat associated with aforesaid, and during his 25 years relgu custom.
clined to Sorts,
e made in al only about three holiday cruises. Sailing his yacht Britannia at Cowen, however, was something which never failed to in-
Dislike of Unfamiliar Placca
Of course." tradition must be observed," but all the better if the said observance brings a lot ofvigorate him. visitors with money to spend.
The truth is that 'ancient cus— toms
have nothing to do with modern fe, in a cold matter of
Shooting over the Yorkshire and fact sense. but if they can be moro Highland neors also delighted him, than maintained for the sake of but settled holidays at strange or un- selling a few oak leaves at a penny amillar places attracted him out at a time in aid of the local hospital.ali Even his stuys at Bognor and well, then, up with "Ye Olde Eastbourne in the latter year of his England."
reign, doctora order, were not truly satisfying. When an intimate friend once told him that George 111 Used to go regularly to Weymouth a holiday. George V replied irily, "We all know how he finished up.'
To-day's Thought_ THE paths to the house I sach
to make.
But leave to those to come the
house itself,
-WALT WHITMAN,
turned upwards to the black Dapping loyal to these trudilons of any When Women Make Us Smile
Woodhall
columns, would cry at the pitch of by sustaining the colony close to
so that the the seventeenth century their mirthful voices, crows might not tall to hear them, mansion Df Sir John Foulis. of TF humour diese never-to-be-forgotten lines: Account Book Immortality.
"Craw, craw, yer mither's awa'. O'er the hill an an' four awa',
Craw, craw, yo'r mither's wa","
Fae get a gun an' shoot ye n'i
The Laggards
At the
,
were
A New Colony
for
on
During his reign of ten months, ex-King Edward VIII gave Indica- Lions that he had inherited the holiday tustes of his grandfather. His famous Nahlin cruise off the Dalmatian const in the summer of 1936 was in the old Royal tradition. It is the opinion of a great many well-informed people. including
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OUR BRITISH CROSSWORDS
議
ACROSS
13
14
201
100
1 The great big world which
keeps turning..
5 Critic becomes sour.
8 Is he Corn's afflally?
Go about two and make good. 10 I must expinini (two rallier
Irrliating words, 3, 3),
11 Found in Morocco and Scot-
land.
12 Grating that is little more than
cook provided, 14 Nearer the sky.
16 Wanting in plumpness. 17 Normally like one man out of
elaven (two words, 3, 3).
18 On the cards,
10 Dear Pa makes a display in the
promenade. 23 Gold has served to stop teeth
and these also.
27 If their tees resemble them, they probably won't make song about them.
a
20 Waders turned inside out. 20 It's hard cheugh to set the Thames on fire, but a Cockney might think it easy to get this burnt,
is the spice of life, best organ in the neighbourhood. 1: Queen Mary herself, that if the women provide the occasion for has nearly a hundred stops." "Is former Monarch had taken a pro- a enalderable portion of that spice, that so, sir?" said John. "The best longed hollday Immediately after There is the sentimental
War instead woman, organ I know in the neighbourhood the
of undertaking Illustrated in the young woman who is my old woman's tongue, and that arduous Empire tours, it would have As the children no doubt would begged her sweetheart to listen hasn't got any stops at all.”
been a much wiser 'course the have observed, this neriai colony on while she asked him a very import- A man sald to his friend that his long run. the cast side of the Water of Leith and question. He was all alert, and laundrywoman reminded him of a King George VI closely resembles 20 Nearing (anagram). end of the miles-long was at times rather noisy, as if some intent upon, giving a helpful answer, great preacher. "And why?" "Be his father in his devotion to duty column were always a number of political row was ant and evictions And this was her question. "George, cause she is always bringing home and his dislike of any suspicion of "slacking." For this reason alone it stower or atraggling crows, flying were about to be carried into execu-if you had never met me, would you to me things I never saw before.""" heavily in singles and with consider- tion. Sul, for centuries there has have loved me just the same?"
Naturally, many of the tales about 1-Imperative at the nation should able space between them.
And there is the simple soul, like women are about the marriago re- make it clear that it regards it as These, been no break in the continuity of the children remarked,
the historic Woodinlt crow colony one who told her felend that her latlun. A woman read to her hus-natural and essential that he, the the e
Coronation year brought the change, husband was an influential iman in band from the evening paper that a Queen, and their family should have POST JEE CREATE*****, however, when at least half-a-dozen pollies. "Dear me, I didn't know of couple were going to be married holidays like most other people in the
couples deserted their ancestral that." Yes, my husband has voted after a courtship of forty years.
land abode, and crossed the rlver into lie
Indeed, it might be possible to In Ive general elections, and each suppose," was the husband's sarcastic adjoining village. In the centre of time it has gone the way he voted." comment, "that the old chop was pass an Act of Parliament making which they built their new homes.
provision for a sxed annual leave of There is the truculent woman who too feeble to hold out any longer.” These couples seemed very peaceful never meets a difference with meek- A Glasgow young couple had met two months for the Sovereign, during and happy in the tall trees round neu. A clergyman left his parish for same time at the lunch hours in which period his duties would be our houses..
rld and was aware of dope Street. The girl, hoping to performed by a Regent and other Philosophers tell us that birds the serious illness of a certain man. simulate her rather tardy admirer, members of the Royal Family. and animals are glted with instinct On his return he met the man's wife suggested, "What about meeting in plaze of Publicity or knowledge which have always dressed in deep mourning, upon Union Street after this." puzzled the brain of man-and are likely to do so for all time.
KING'S
COMING SHORTLY I
FÖRSÅKING ALL LOVE
ÍTO CONQUER ALL. BEENI
GOD'S COUNTRY
AND THE WOMAN:
GEORGE BRENT
„BEVERLY ROBERTS.
LAPTE ALTAREA DUTERTERA QUAL
-stak mall a brajkovitu – M. Bratisl
+
What is blackwinged "Torles" leaving
for a short period
which he drew the natural de
and expressed his condolence. sha
very
A boy was naked why the Turks made such doring fighters. "Because
one."
In the old, leisured days before the meaning of these sald, "if you mean Jim, he's the man who has two wives is far railways, cameras, and cheap new-
much alive, and is, at work This
Jim more ready to die than a man will papers, a King could relire to a re- the minute. But the fact a
Ja,
treat without comment or
publicity. changed. A secluded home of their aristocratic agravated me so much yesterday An American countryman entered Nowadays all this is
obtain that only ancestors and seeking a closer can that I went into mourning again for the Women's Exchange in the big Sovereign can nection with communal democracy in my first husband." One would like down, and called out to the woman privacy and relaxation which he so the open? Cun theso natural to hear Jim's version of that story, clerk, "Is this the Women's Ex- badly needs at times by courtesy of creatures of the air foresee forth- Another vicar reminded a change?" "Yes," "And be you the his subjects. A firm and popular coming danger from their mechanical parishioner that he had not been to woman?" "Yes," "Then I'il not Monarch is more than ever essential actial rivals in the shape of man-church to hear the new organ, **is trouble you any further. I'll just for the Brilish Empire, and to ensure
It well worth hearing?" asked the keep Mary!".
thian Bt and healthy occupant of A Nature Observer min. "Oh yes, Jolm, it is quite the
the Throne is imperativo. No mo
mado war?
F. J. B.
30 Much the same as '14 Across, 31 Asking for more. 32. Not scored off the bat. 33 French watering place. 34 Find out!
DOWN
1 Pericet example of encouraging one of the household to keep on playing the giddy goat.
2 Fix. 3 Agony of men in the wrong.
74
26
The heart of this monster is a child's plaything. Pelore?
Make up your mind to get out the puzzle once more,
7 Ok, definitely!
13 Does it explain why you can get washing properly done for
a change in Arundel?
15 U.3.A. State.
10 Were Inces sa repaired a hun-`
dred and flty years ago?
20 Selentist whose namɑ to-day is
replaced by X.
21 If so guaranteed, it's certada. In
the end.
22 Where there's, a will, there's
usually this.
23 Admires (anagrama). 24 A future croaker, 25 More than enough.
Yesterday's Soluilom MAGNESIUMDID S
{ITALIUS JAUKAS
SHIP FIRST 80 UM QUINTECH TO PHOI FLYBOOK YEAST RED
1EFOUND GA INI SE GUINEVEE ASTONES BATROUPELLO ASK E
T HIM BROHIMYOPHT FUNNELB BIAMESE
LATER TABULATED
dern Sovereign can be this unless lie A heavy programme of Empire obtains at more or less regular tours faces King George VI in the intervals a period of complete rest! next year or two, and the holiday and change.
he has just had this year will in all probability be his last for some time It is not much to ask for a man to come. It is to be hoped that who never spares himself-and who everyong, from the Prime Minister- has the hardest and most responsible to the feast of his subjects, will see Ear! that he enjoys the rest and privacy post in the world, one as Baldwin to truly says, from which which he has so well earned..
Frank Bardon
there is no rolenso bui death..
11