THE
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER
26, 1937.
Is The VILLAGE
T would pay a village to-day to revive all ancient custom, sport, or ceremony-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
编曲
money
will be made.'
"The countryman is cashing in
on 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 10 be organ- ised on a business footing.
Not that anyone suffers because the old game of kicking a kettle down the village street is adver tisod, and showmen take advantage of the gathering to Introduce one or two modern mechanical delights. 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 smithy- garage installing one of those new petrol pump things if there is not an "old custom" once or twice's year to bring people in from the nearest towns.
#.
:
NE must vlow with some suspicion the frequent modern "revivnis" of old customs. Delightful though It is to remember something which happened in Roblu Hood's day-how much, more delightfal it must be for the village inn- keeper to see an excursion tram arrive with hundreds, of
country- conscious town people. -
"You want an old custom, we will give it you," is the answer to the
and slightly sentimental romantic tewisman, travelling by car or cycle, or merely using the public transport which makis the country: an annexe to the factory.
clent
It is this modern development .which maintains these
aports. 3
#
the
Aspiced bun and ale feast." quaint custom of throwing apples at the Mayor." "anelent bonfire dance." "five hundred a side football"-all this Sort Al thing brings out people with money.
The truth is there is something of the countryman lo all of us, i not many generations have pissed since elty dwellers left the land, Rural scenes, aporta and crufts have their subtle appeal, and it is now easy for the over-civilised to KCL back them.
Sheep dog triata, II!ghland games, hound trails." Mitch trials (in many places openly" started") "forat dances," what you will of country tradition, are to-tiny the mecca of the tourist.
Their part in real country e is less real than when a necessary part of local life, and the events have-Laken on a new tradition. Caterers, amusement providers,
-
GREEN?
NOT NOW.
says R. W. Foster
transport companies, shopkeepers, all have their interest.
The bank clerk, the factory hand, ingles to-day among shep- herds, farmers and country folk,
It is a good thing. In many eases these ancient rituals would gradually dle out, for lack of
any purpose or real meaning, were it modem publicity value. not for the
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-. tival" and pleturesque Mussel- burgh was crammed with visitors yesterday for the Riding of the Marshes celebrations "are the sort of descriptions you read to-day of ald sports.
new A. G. Macdonnell, in his book, My Scotland." has summed up the situatioi as applied to Highland Games, and it is equally true of the smaller events.
"The
Scotland Highlands of also have their games, although probably they were a relaxation of the warrior rather than the fertility worship of the agricul turist (the motive in many English custuma). Nevertheless they sprang from the people.
"T
((HE new age has changed all that. The games Ol the new model are simply an adjunct of the rail- way
posters, hulel prospectuses and the lure of the mountains,"
And that is true of almost every
anelent custom and sport,
静
Why they are even going to bring the Highland Games to Lon- don, with 200, competitors coming by train.
Six years ago they held the In- ternational Sheep-Dog Trials in Hyde Park. And who could com- piala f town people were able to see this battle of wits between sheep and the shepherd and his dog?
These trials" are founded, not on a recreation but on labour. Once a year, at the International, it is open to all to see this routine work of Scottish moors, English downs and Welsh mountain sides.
dogs
three clevetest
in The countries matching wit against whi in the handling of the world's"
THE WAYS OF CROWS
DERUAPS of sil the aspects of ones who had been
PER
"kept in" al bird life the crow is the most school for being backward will 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 pleasing it is devided felly feeling between the to look back on our early days as children going home from sol children, especially we were and the crows, brought up in the country, and on these long columns of black objcets flying ever so high in, it seemed, red never-ending formation.
be scen
Fully half a century ago, when not
could yo
un the political horizon, and the two distinct parties were the Tories and the
These long lines were formed by Liberals, it was insinuated that the the crows flying home happily after their day's toil in the open country crows belonged to the Tory party, was completed. We never cemet they always built their homes f
in proximity to the see their outward Journey, but the tall trees
ancestral custles or mansions of our the return fight always occurred the village school was acalling, and aristrocratie forefathers.
to
In
the children, also wending their way
the Midlothian village from home, gladdened to be free from which I am taking observations, the
irksome
with crows have remained
"Probably.
a relaxation
of the warrior"
च
most witless animal, the sheep. The motor, coach 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 latgards, Atopping strays. But the judges are watch- ing other detalls,. The sheep must not come too fast and not at a callop, nor must they dawdle and wander,
A
LL this 15 Something -bred right in the country. and is one of hundreds of events that have taken on u new meaning.
Elsewhere ancient ceremonies are being revived.
Recently the King
and Queen ፓርማ turned to the busy and multifarious
dutica uf State after spending a much needed holl- dau at Balmoral. In this article the writer, alows the national value, of Royal halldans.
Jollification, is now the target for a
day's outing
Probably the patial council 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 Cas
pond. the village
An old member of the council will promptly remember a story told, when he was a boy, of how they used to have on" old custom" something to do with shaking eggs in a sleve until all the eggs
broken." From that recollection will de
"ancient revival of an velop a and
custom" and a bit more money for the village shops.
Perhaps, na 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
floodlit " and motorists stopping to join in the revels. And possibly the local wireless dealer takes ad- vantage of the affair to remind people how easy it is to "now go home and dance with + super Huper Heart."
If you cannot persuade the film people to come down to your "old custom," then probably it can be broadcast. Village customs are coming into their own again. No considered modern carnival Is 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 visitors." we read, "will flock to the picturesque Kentish village of Biddenden to witness the ancient Easter Monday
ritual in commemoration of the Biddenden Maids."
That is just one event which, once a sort of little private village
arc
Probably the local confectioner will devise some form of sweet- meat associated with aforesaid custom.
STRAIN OF KINGSHIP
THANKS to newspapers and news-
films, people nowadaya realise that a king is one of the hardest worked men in the world,
When n
year or two ngo, Lord Kplewood, brother-in-law of King George VI, declared in a speech that the public made too many demands en the Royal Family considering the Imitations at human endurance, it gave the British much needed food for thought.
It is now known that had the late King George V followed the advice of his doctors and taken longer, and Inore frequent holidays, his' ille would, in all probability, have been prolonged. The strain of dally duties and ceremonial which modern kingship now entails taxca the stoutest and strongest heart, and for this
the reason, if for no other, 1ation will rejoice that the King and Queen are having a real holiday this zutumn.
If one looks back on the present el cince last December, one can- the not fail to be impressed by
axlety and hard work which it has hrown on the King. Queen Victorin and King Edward VII would have
cbelled strongly against such trenuous time without even sreak.
a
one
Even in placid Victorian days the ild Queen used to complain bitterly of the unremitting work which fell
o her lot, and
she cut doy
down
her
ublic appearances to the minimum. Yet she spent most of her year esiding in quiet retreats like Bal- noral and Osborne, which
may xplain her long te. Ministers bail treat difficulty in getting her to give undivided attention to State affairs when she felt she was having change or a holiday.
When "C.-B." Resigned
#
During his nine years' relen, King Edward VII spent about five years abroad, chiefly at watering-places in the France and Germany. When Premier, Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman, resigned in April 1908. King Edward was of Cannes, whence he summoned Mr. Asquith lo form a new Ministry, a procceding which did not at all please constitutional pundits.
After the postponed Coronation in 1902, Kind Edward and Queen Alexandra enjoyed 11 refreshing! holiday cruise along the West Coast from
courses
Wales to Scotland, during
which they landed at various places. including the Isle of Man.
King Edward VII was a great recegoer, and visits to various race-
28 he regarded
health- giving. Week-ends at the country ouses of his intimate friends and meeting parties were other favourite relaxations. He was always Inais- eat on his right to have free and us for as possible unfettered holl- days.
psorts.
His son and successor, George V. and a stern sense of duty. Stays at Sandringham and Balmoral were his rest favourite means of obtaining
and change, and he resolutely de- lined to go to Continental
Spas or For an old sullor, cruising to sade surprisingly little appeal im, and during his 25 years reign e made in all only about Britannia at Cowes, however, was Holiday cruises. Salling his yacht omething which never falled to in- igorate film.
Of course,
"tradition must be observed," but all the better if the suld observance brings a lot of visitors with money to spend.
The truth is that "ancient cus-Dislike of Unfamiliar Places toms" have nothing to do with modern life, in a cold matter of fact sense, but it they can be more than maintained for the sake of selling a few oak leaves at a penny a time in afd of the local hospital.
well, then, up with "Ye Olde England."
To-day's Thought
Wirec
Shooting over the Yorkshire and Highland moors also delighted him, but settled hoildays at strange or un- amiliar places attracted him out at
Even his stays at Bognor and Eastbourne in the latter years of hin eign, on ductors' orders, were not truly satisfying. When an intimate friend once told isim that George 11 sed to go regularly to Weymouth n holiday. George V replied arily.
THE paths to the house I seok\ 105. Ne oil know how he finished
to make,
But leave to thote to come the
house itself.
-WALT WHITMAN,
turned upwards to the black stopping 10w to these traditions of partiality When Women Make Us Smile
columns, would ery at the pitch of by sustaining tisir colony close to their mirthful Voice,
Woodhall so at the the seventeenth century
[up."
During his reign of ten months,
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www
機
ACROSS great big world which keeps turning.
1 The
3 Critte becomes sour.,
8 Is he Cora's affinity?
Go about two and make good.
ex-King Edward VIII gave indien-10 I must explain! (two rather tions that he had inherited the
holiday
Irritating words, 3, 3). tastes of his grandfather. Found in Morocco and Scot-
land. His famous Nahlin. cruise off the
12 Grating that is little more than Dalmation coast in the summer of
1936 was in the old Royal tradition, cu provided
crows might not fall to hear them, mansion of Sir Jolin Foulis, of IF humour is the spice of life, best organ in the neighbourhood. It Queen Mary herself, that it
these never-to-be-forgotten lines: Account Book immortality.
Craw, craw, ye'r mither's awa'. O'er the lill an an' faur awa', Tae get a gun an' shoot 'ye "'; Craw, crow, ye'r mithers awa***
The Laggards
At
the
KING'S.
A New Colong
their
women provide the occasion for has nearly a
o
land.
敦
1
116
$11
25
4 The heart of this monster in a
child's plaything. 5 Paince?
Make up your mind to get out the puzzle once more.
7 Oh, definitely)
13 Does it explain why you can
get washing properly done for
a change in Arundel?
15 U.S.A. State.
10 Were fares so repaired a
dred and fifty years ago?
hun-
20 Selentist whose name to-day is
replaced by X.
21
so guaranteed, it's certain in the end.
22 Where there's a will, there's
usually this.
23 Admires (anagram).
24 A future croaker,
25 More than enough.
Yesterday's Solution MAGNESIUM DID A RAVENNAMUB Bİ ITALY QB JACK A LAVALULALAKO
8 HTP FIRST 8 GUM MUTATIOCHIRPROB FLYBOUKYE AB T
It is the opinion of a great many
any! well-informed
including people,
16 Wanting in plumpness. the 17 Normally like cne man out of "former Fundred stops."
Monatch had taken a pro- eleven (two words, 3, 3). hollday Immediately ätter 18 On the cards A considerable portion of that spice, that so, sir?" said John. "The best longed
Wor instead of undertaling 19 Dear Pa makes,a display in the There is the sentimental woman, organ I know in the neighbourhood the
promenade. illustrated in the young woman who is my old woman's tongue, and that arduous Empire tours, It would have
been a much wiser course in the 23 Gold has served to stop teeth to listen hasn't got any stops at all,"
and these niso. As the children no doubt would begged her sweetheart have observed, this aerial colony on while she asked him, a very import- A man said to his friend that his long run.
King George VI closely resembles 20 Nearing (anagrom). the east side of the Water of Leith ant question. He was all alert, and laundrywoman reminded of his father in his devotion to duty 17 if their fees resemble the
"And why?"
they probably won't make, o the end of the mile-long was at times rather noisy, as it como intent upon, giving a helpful answer, great preacher.
song about them. 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 t number of political row was on and column were always
the Is Imperative that the nailon should 23 Waders turned inside out: Naturally, many of the tales about slower or straggling crows, flying were about to be carried into execu- if you had never met me, would you to me things I never saw before."
Thames on fire, but a Cockney heavily in singles and with consider tlun. Still, for centuries there baal have loved me just the same?"
And there is the simple soul, like women are about the marriage remake it clear that it regates it as 29 It's hard enough to get been no break in the continuity off able space, butween
might think it easy to get this that her latten, A woman read to her hus-natural and essential that he, the them, Thee the historic Woodhall crow colony one who told her friend
burnt. children remarked, were the
Coronation year brought the change, husband was on Influential man in band from the evening paper that a queen, and their family should have
"Dear me, I didn't know of couple were going to be married holidays like most other people in the 30 Much the same as 14 Acrost. however, when at least half-a-dozen politics. couples deserted
ancestral that," Yes, my husband has voted after a courtship of forty years. "
Indeed, it might be possible to 31 Asking for more, abode, and crossed the river into the in two 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 chap ng pass an Art of Parliament making 32 Not scured off the bat. provision for a fixed annual leave of 33 French watering place.
34 Find out! which they built their new homes, There is the truculent woman who too feeble to hold out any longer.
DOWN A Glasgow young couple had met two months for the Sovereign, during These couple seemed very peaceful und happy in the tall trees round never meets a difference with meek-
CBS. A clergyman left his parish for some time at the lunch hours. in which period his dulles would be The girl, hoping to performed by a Regent and other our houses.
for a short period and was aware of Hope Street. Philosophers tell that birds the serious illness of a certain man, stimulate her rather tardy admirer, members of the Royal Family. and animals are gifted with instinct On his return he met the man's wife suggested, "What about meeting in Blaze of Publicity
dressed in
in deep mourning upon Union Street after this." or knowledge which have always which he drew the natural deduction A boy was asked why the Turks
"Because In the old, leisured days before puzzled the brain of man--and are.
and expressed his condolence. "Oh," made such daring fighters. likely to do so for all time.
A heavy programme of Empire said. "If you mean Jim, he's the
has two wives is far 'rallways, camera, and cheap news-
less regular tours faces King George VI in the treat without comment or publicity. obtains at more or What is the meaning of these very much allve, and is at work this more ready to die than a man with papers. n King could retire to a re-dern Sovereign can be this unless ho
fact Ir, Jim only one.”
he has just had this year will in o blackwinged Tories" leaving the minute. But the
An American countryman entered Nowadays all this is changed. Aintervals a period of complete rest next year or two, and the holiday
obtain that and change.
be his last for some time secluded home of their aristocratic nggravated me so much yesterday.
probability ngain for the Women's Exchange in the big Sovereign can only mourning ancestors and seeking à closer con- that I went into Ong would like town, and called out to the wamon; privacy and relaxation which he 0
It is not much to ask for a man to come. It is to be, hoped that Minister Women's Ex- badly needs at times by courtesy of nection with communal democracy in my Best his version of that story. clerk, "Is this the
these natural to bear Jim's the
open? Can
Vicar
a change?" "Yes." "And be you the his subjects. A firm and popular who never spares himself and who everyone, from the Prime reminded
"Then I not Monarch is more than ever essential has the hardest and most responsible to the least of his subjects, wil co crentures of lite air foresee forth
I'll just for the British Empire, and to ensuro post in the world, one, as Eari What he enjoys the rest and privacy coming danger from their mechanical parishioner that he had not been to woman?" "Yes."
any further.
this in fit and healthy occupant of Baldwin so truly says, from which which he has so well earned. of man-church to hear the new organ, "Is trouble you
Frank Bardou aerini "rivals the shape
It well worth hearing?" asked the keep Mary!"
No mo- there is no release but death. F. J.-B. the Throne is imperativa. made war?
A Nature Observer Iman, "Oh yes, John, It is quite the
COMING SHORTLY!
FORSANING "ALL LOVE
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Another
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1 Perfect example of encouraging one of the household to keep on playing the giddy goat," 2 Fix
3 Agony of men in the wrong.
HOUND GARNBE
BATROPELLA SKE TURBON LEWE PET FUNNELS SIAMESE UMEBAKI MAI AR COB LATER TABULATED
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