1953-07-21 — Page 4

Page

THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1953..

BRITISH MUSEUM

YEARS OLD

THE

IS 200

HE British

Museum,

priceless treasure

house of the nation,

doctor

and

wig

By Peter Lovegrove

used

#

10 detect, radioactivity. Thanks to this complex in- strument, the Museum, will be able to gauge with even greater authority the age of archaeolo gical manduct of the Museum's

materials. affairs is in the hands of

of 20, Standing Commiten headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancel- lor and the Speaker of the

nual budget is currently run.. House of Commons, and its an- ning Museum has increased so

at about £300,000,

rapidly that it has spread from Bloomsbury. The natural history exhibits were moved to South

and at Colindate is the world's collection of newspapers, and periodicals—a copy of every single one pub- lished

in Britain finds its way taken from the Parthenon by THERE, 400, is Shakespeare' there. Also, by Act of Parlia

signature 10 Blackfriars ment and parallel legislation in Lord Elgin, busts of Roman em-

agreement perors, Etruscan pottery, Cretan morigage, Milton's gold and silver, ancient Egyptian with the publishers of "Paradise the self-governing Dominions, a mummies, the Rosetta Stone,, Lost," geiling the copyright for Babylonian and Assyrian

£20, a letter in relics.

Dryden

a parliamentary grant of £00,- best for the honour of our which has just been cele ond and a £50,000 donation from country. Goodbye."

The original deed of purchase brating its 200th anniver the Pilgrim Trusi). sary, owes its origin to an Today the Museum has be- from native chiefs for blankets, a come one of the world's great tomahawks, knives, scissors, and Irish physician

storehouses, unmatched QJ a looking glasses, of the land on public lottery.

show.place, and its library of which the city of Melbourne now

Captain

Scott's The

Sir over six million books ranks stands. And

in the Antarctic, with Hane Sloare,..a hionable second only to the National diary

that dramatic last entry London physbian in the early Library of France.

ick March 29, 1912: We shall stick part of the 10th century, who

In that splendid building, with it out to the end, but we are spent the fortune he had mado from rich patients in acquiring the massive lonte portico, can feeling weaker of course, and

found When be

the incomparable the end connot be far. It seems rare books and plants.

Portland Vaso-smashed" by E he died, his huge collections, Por

a pity, but I do not think I can 24 write more. R. Scott. For which include some 40,000 books, madman with an umbrella

32,000 184

1845 and mended by Josiah God's soke look after our Kensington some 70 years ago, 3,500 manuscripts and

Wedgwood-beautiful

goldsmith coins, and were then valued at

from the Anglo-Saxon people."

work

in

£50,000, were offered to the burlol ship at Sulton Hoo, ex- Crown for £20,000.

quisitely carved Lothar crystal, and the famous marble friezes

To gruse this sum, and find cuitable budding to house Sloane's collection and others

acquired, previously Parliament ranctioned a publie lottery, which was rigged. making disreputable agent

"ornt" of the take's and promptly reising the of a profit of four shillings per ticket up and down the country,

Money Found

Not Insured

from

the Black Obellak of Shalmane rppealing for payment of arrears ser, gold ornaments and mosales on his pension a Poet Laureate

of the draft of Pope's Illad; original from the royal grave of Ur the Chaldees,

tablets funerary

by Swift, Scott, Defoe, Jane from Carthage and Phoenician manuscripts

Austen, Kents,

Trol- whalever the memorials, implements from the Ceorge Eliot, Thackeray, HOWEVER,

bronze and iron was stone, money

and documents from Erasmus, found and the Museum war es Buddhist statues, Afghan knives, lope and Thomas Hardy; Ietters Colvin, Galileo, Rubens; Inblished in Bloomsbury. Since Japanese swords, jode ornaments

reandal,

the

asures

and

arrd Very valuable collections, not least from the Sovereigns of England, Five regularly enriched it.

Magna Carta

יר

ما

concourse

then, books and antiquities of all from New Zealand, at East Voltaire, Roussem, Racine, Hugo,

Indian wooden Biures. Coin

Kent, Gorths a vast kinds have poured in Im a ceramics and glassware, carly

The world ceram unceasing strearn...

astrolabes of painters, actors, theologians

and poets. was scoured on the Mucur's watches and clocks,

and compassos, postage stamps No official will commit himself behalf for curicalfies.

many (including the renowned Penny, as to the overall value of these treasures, which are not insured. Black), early maps and charts,

Fire is centered be tho greatest dangers, and the Museum private telephone autograph letters unfold the line. During World War Two, ill number of trade, and story of the British nation. There part of the library was destroyed

oMelul George IV the remainder of his are

documenta from by Bre-bombs,” and 150,000 time of William father's fine collection after it the

books were lost and many others had leaked out that he intended the Conqueror,

scorched. belling it to the Russian Czar. the four known copies of Magna

Today the Museum has three Notes on In 1772 the Museum acquired

four de- the large number of classical Death, which removed more library departments, antiquities Sir William Hamil than

George II presented 65,000

backs collected by the kings of THE manuscripts, charters and is connected with Soho Fire

England since Hery VII, George

ton

Carta.

50

had got

while together

Ainbassador in Naples;

the

Two of

Station by

large ots

copy of evory book which_ap-| pears in the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and Empire is sent to the Library, the total number grows, by some 60,000 every year.

so that

How to gamble -and WIN

CHARLES GRAVES recalls the sayings

one three of

who did

Blackc of the partments of antiquities, percent

or sections containing ancient and the in

ΟΣ reign and population and in Edward III, and the Peasants modern coins and medals, prints

Zographos,

and drawings, the famous Read- NICHOLAS

the tiny sun-burned

1803 were added the Egyptian Revol which Richard 11 put ing Room, and a research inbora-

34 by Napo- down yours later. Letters antiquities obtained leon's agents and ceded at the from Henry VIII and Lady Jane tory. capitulation of Alexandria.

IN

Storehouse

cx-

to

his

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JACKPOT RATTIGAN

A

PART from Noel Coward, Terence Rat- tigan has made more money out of writing plays than any other Eng- lishman alive. Being a com- pulsive gambler, he is also capable of losing more.

"French

When the

run of Without Tears" ended in 1939, he went on holiday to France, and in three rousing weeks at casinos lost the accumu- the

of three years, lated earnings amounting to nearly £25,000. This was about his only early

struggle. 500 Readers

Greek who recently died in his early sixties at Lausanne, was not only one of the richest and most brilliant.

but also gamblers philosopher.

a

Grey.

Intelligence of the Armada's calling from Spain. Journal, Raleigh's

recording Gulana which THE Reading Room originally his expedition to have led

aten. had one table and twenty executon. more recent times

the chairs: now it is a huge circular come the discoveries of ex- Marlborough reporting

of Viatory

Malplaquet. room with a big dome and it peditions made at public

Here are some of the com- unfinished letter can accommodate 500 readers

ments he made to me:— pense to Mesopotamia, Rhodes, Nelson's Iraq, Asia Minor and Central 10

Lady Hamilton, two at tables arranged like the

To be a gambler you have to British days

There are 47 Afrien. In 1934,

wheel. before

Trafalgar. spokes of

have very strong heart. miles of shelves. obtained Government

the Wellington's despatches during

literally. It is all u question of Gorton' The research laboratory, famous Codex Sinalticus, a 4th the Pensular War, century

Manuscript last letter Greek

from Kharium In where remarkable work of re-your heart.

If you get excited you either Bible, from the Russians for December 1854, starting: "If the storation and repair, cleaning show by Bushing, which £100,000. Since the war, the Expeditionary Force, and I ask and preserving is accomplished, Museum has acquired a collec- for no more than 200 men, does is to bring into use this autumn tion of Greek coins, and also the not come in ten days, the town a "gas counter," which is re- Gelger counter Hirsch Music Library (through may fall and I have done my, lated to the

the

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your heart is in a means that bad way; or you go pale, which means that your stomach is quensy.

That also affects your brain and consequently, your gard

sense.

After all, I have played against the whole world and I know. That is why 1, myself, gave up playing cards at baccarats for over a year because I found that it was beginning lat affect my stomach.

Dangerous

If I am winning the others are losing, so it 15 tactless to

look happy. Also, it is bad policy to look sad it ono is

losing.

There is as big a difference between a good baccarat player and a poor one ав there is between a scratch golfer and a mian with an 18 handicap.

But do you know which are the me dangernus orest The

most ones who take drugs.

ugs. They are full of

ore

O COMIC, and when they

up,

they double Most players double when

At 42, he is handsome, tel- fully urbane, and transparent-

Harrovian; Jy

might you imagine him to be an iminese- ly fashionable psychiatrist.

He plays golf, regularly at Sunningdale, where his handi- cap, after repeated protests from the other members,

has

He is the only dramatist to pro- duce two plays

which ran for

more than 1000 performances.

GROBAR27|||| HUMBER THREE IN THE "EW SUMIES |||||28|||

THE QUEEN'S PLAYERS

by.

Kenneth Tynan

just been reduced from 12 to has twice achieved a run of and taking a beating. He chose

1,000 performances — with the beating. "French Without Tears" (1030)

nine.

Deceptive ease

Sat right down and then

begar apain;

Tireless Terry Rattigani

He begat another flop and en, in 1942, "Flare Path," at felt the opening of which he

the conûdent enough to nudge

director and whisper, think we've brought it off." But evon

he nudged, the curtain, re- peating its earlier triumph, be- gan to descend, with two pages of dialogue still to be spoken. It stopped halfway and then, to re- sounding applause, rose again. Miraculously, the play survived.

Success continued to dog him. In 1944, when the Lunts op="

"Love in peared in

Which

was running usly with

ously

"While the Sun Shines" grave economie mis-

calculation, since in a good week Rattigan would earn £280, from the former and, when tax had been deducted, only. £10 from the latter.

For Gielgud

and "While the Sun Shines" At Harrow he continued to (1154). Film scripts, from act and, while resting between Ho then embarked on a "The Way to the Stars" to "The parts, played cricket. "I used period of devotion to John Final Test," have multiplied to stonewall at one end,"

Gielgud, for whom the parts of explains, "while the other chap the KC in The Winslow Boy,"

Tho:

his income.

It was

ho

in

and tha

Wend

In the upshot, Gielgud played

to blisteringly

mado His Rattigan.

He belongs to the Bachelors'

lashed out,"

the schoolmaster Club and the Garrick: what is

His background is as solid more (much more), he lives in

He performa much the same Browning Version," Eaton Square and bos his as his achievement. wallpaper specially designed at first assumed by his family function in the theatre today. actor in "Harlequinade"

Other dramatfats score their all written, that he would follow kla for him

half-centuries with flashing father.

once British Minister

the critics, but at the box- Ho-Is-impeallently prosto Rumania, into the Diplo omice Rattigan usually carries perous, so much so that the

matic

but at served his hand by

prop. his bat. deceptive case of his

success school he

From has put many of his critics on accepting a role in a one-act

went to strolling through Central Park when Gielgud suddenly together the defensive. "Good theatre," play. During rehearsals ho they concede, "but..."

let work slip, and the head- Oxford, and quickly had a one broke a long silence. "I've dond act play rejected by the In spite of buts, he is the master effered him a choice o.U.D.S. It was his

the part dramatic effort; the first com only dramatist in history who between, abandoning.

INDIA HAVING A NEW LOOK

By John Ashwin

they are losing und decrease WE always look upon India their stakes when they are winning. That is wrong..

I really only learned the difference between sheep and wolves when I started to play baccarat and that was too tale. There is no such thing as good luck or bad luck. If you think you know of any par- ilcularly lucky card-holder you just bring him along to the baccarat and you will see..

What people call luck is merely an established fact seen through the spectacles of after events.

է

Pretty girls

It was the inteligent girla rather than the pretty ones who were the most successful in the boom days in the casinos before the war..

rich If a girl marries a

the is not lucky, she is husband Intelligent: because if she had

Harrow he

posed when he was 10, been

second

had

to

a tremendous historical

pageant about the Borgias,

clear

to

The two men were

so much first-rate stuff,” he said, spheres away in meditation:

"How will my public stomach the eccond-rate?"

With Erie Portman

lead, "The FN

which he had to "Harleqsh

WO5

Ppe": there were

03

In the Very

the curr

pende Nos Cow

double bil that delaying from lines for Gladys Cooper, "and tal Which came down threa two for Marie Tempest, who fult utes before the end.

opquestionably

wadhy

mutedly have Nage of the pic noticed,

Then

in

was

Calamity

Last year Ratilgan hit his ful stage quib. "The Deep

Bile S which for wo nets

(third leka Lesolution is aasterpiece of pure theatre.

It is the sort of town of which as a country that is hide- mothers must have often dream. ed a town where children bound and riddled with

have parks everywhere ancient customs-many of which to play, and roads on While still Oxford, bo Impatient at faße humility, walk without collaborated , a full-denen he bolieves that on his day Ha them such as child marriage which they can and the burning of widows, fear of being killed by a pass-comfy, "First Episode," which is the equal of apt playwright to this hazament, site except Anouilh; and here, which are barbaric and ing car.

for Condom producson. It ran rethought, he made his Chandigarh will have seven three months, dong naugh pont. Yet still from some deplorable.

avo the quarters, the old dry weat up; different kinds of roads, include without Both customs,

degrep pod Theatre, but po... 10 ing roads for children where no university legislation, are dying out, but trame is allowed, roads for and set up shop as rofesion

hopes it may for cyclists only,al playwright. examples of both still occur in adults, roads

find remote places.

rouds cut deep into the

Religan's mission to take the In 3svading thr. Ward curse off that side, dismissive round, below ground level, for

els Brothers at heavy traffic.

weit, he, plirate, it smacks of condescen offered his employer die flat

thanks

Nevertheless, India today

is very conscious of the fact that she is to progress, she must have a "now look." Thus, in the Government and among

India is the rat nation

to

bo

rights of play called "the de sloff of giving a hack his due;

thes

Atis chocon medium is some= month how not qulle respectable,

Vivr

Front doors of houses will be turnede décht Swartlimb and it implies that for a play to

Master builder

many of her "bright young abolished, so there will be no later th Crite lin Theatre Tell men there is a desire to push danger of the little ones coche de Vivre was put in as a slop unexpectedly vacant, and "Jole puce which goss ing progress at

out into the roud to be ahead oven of the rest of the killed. At the back houses will gap production with a scratch world.

on to

pedestrian-only company including Rex Har open

rison, Trevor Howard and roads and gardens.

Kay Hammond, tackle the problem of "popula It will be hot In Chandigarh not married him someone else |tion control seriously. Backed in summer, but the inhabitants

The would have done so.

AND a final quote away from! by the World Health Organis will be sheltered by "sunshade of lis un-English title, wern "good

tion she is aiming at plang shaped" roots which will keep delighted with Rattigan's alter- Coleridge sald) however decora the gaming tables

which will eventually pez back off the fierce glare of the sun native suggestion "French With tive a palace maybe it must Winston Churchill onco

the fastest growing and allow cool air to circulate out Tears. He was stunned; no Rattigan is a muster bulider.

first of all be a house. And naked me what I thought about what is

population in the world. N between the "shade roots" and the French, British, and Italian

the roots of buildings.

armiest

I replied that some men have Courage and no 'physique; some have physique and no courage, Some have both courage and physique. That is the British Army; and I told him that in my opinion it would never bo beaten.

monugement»: dubious

Nobody denies that the best plays, the

of the Dalaces dromo, are more than fust

theatre." But

only by his Buccoss, but by the safety curtain, which struck him

No matter what happens in when his new The "sunshade roofs are in-smartly on the head as he step- Her plans for now town verted so that in winter, when ped forward to make a first- September,

comody "The Sleeping Prince" make H. G. Wells seem old, the rains are heavy, they catch night speech.

a is unvelled, one distinction Is fashioned. India's town plan all the rainwater and conserve His next play was a still-born unlikely to be wrested from mine le futuristic if nothing it for storage.

a It without saying else. It is revolutionary.

And the town will have a song was need malicious real that he is modest, nothing

of was recently soen, at a Knights "No. 1, Now Town of India unique badge to greet visitors, circles, set to will be

bridge party, frowning at him- Chandigarh, with a. This will · consist of a glant, Michael Finnigan:

self in a mirror. "If you'ro, not population of 160,000 - a town, outstretched hand of welcome, which will be the most up-to-suspended on a high pillar as n date the world has ever seen, prominent landmark Just out- hand as neer wine posable fece attuated within eight of the aide the town. In India the open

Himalayas...

palm is the sign of friendstils),

Card game at which you can never \dresö more than three corda and 'in which you attempt to get 'I'

·Dunde - counting, mothala “counting`one,

the lung

• There was a young man called very careful, Terry Ratigan

Terri Rattigang

ho was murmuring, you

Had one hit and then fell flab won't be the prettiest plays

weight in London, 1.