FAMOUS RELICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 137, 22 March 1930, Page 6

FAMOUS RELICS.

“SOUL OF ENGLAND.” There is a building in the Borough of Kensington which lias been called the “Soul of England.” It is the museum of the Royal Geographical Society, housing a collection of articles whose monetary value is negligible, yet whose price is too high to be named, and whose appeal to the hearts and the imaginations of the English peoples is deathless. In one simple glass case, writes the London corresxiondent of the Sydney “Morning Herald,” is'a little soiled bag of provisions and, a few pages of manuscript diary. The bag contains three other small bags of calico. In one there is tea, in another cocoa, in the other curry powder. The manuscript diary is dated January-October, 1911, and is in the handwriting of Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Not far away is the camel saddle on which General Gordon rode into Khartoum in his final entry into that city where he met his death. There are a few leaves taken from the tree under whiclj the heart of Dr. Livingstone was buried in Central Africa, and a section of the tree itself. More personal and pathetic are Livingstone’s c.ap, shabby and soiled, and a collar used by him. There is the sledge used by Admiral McClintock during the Arctic expedition of 185759; a rusted knife and fork and a decrepit pannikan that are relics of I.eigh-Smith’s expedition to Franz. Joseph Land, and a Burberry helmet worn by Shacldeton. A silk flag hoisted by Sir Edward Parry in latitude 82.45 N., in 1827, lies not far away from the Union Jack carried by Sir Hubert Wilkins on his flight from Point Barrow to Spitsbergen, 101 years later. One of tbe most curious exhibits is a ship’s biscuit, intact, and in a perfect state of preservation. It was loft at Port Leopold by Sir James Ross in 1819, and found there and brought homo by Admiral Sir Albert Markham, in 1873. On a high shelf overlooking the other exhibits is a sleeping bag and sledge equipment, with the half-sledge which Sir Douglas Mawson dragged for 31 miles after the death of his companions. There is not, in fact, an object here which docs not illustrate the splendid achievements of intrepid men in many countries.