DISRAELI & BYRON DAY

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 129, 1 June 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

DISRAELI & BYRON DAY

PRIMROSES AND HOSES

Primrose Day, the 19th, was hardlymarked by so large a display of the little yellow flower as in previous years. Perhaps we have somewhat overdone the wearing of badges and buttons in the excitement engendered by the war. Certainly the wearing of the blue before Boat Race Day was much less general than, heretofore. But Dizzy's statue was as elaborately decorated as ever, and there was no stint of beautiful wreaths from the Primrose League and kindred organisations. Palms and primroses nnd a Union Jack in red and white ger-

aniums, and violets in the front panel of the pedestal, were there as usual, and a, constant, crowd as usual passed under the statue.

Primrose Day was originally engineered, us all movements must bo to be completely successful, no mat- ; tcr what amount of enthusiasm lies behind them. Sir George P.irdvvood, of the India Office, an admirer of Dizzy's foreign policy, wrote, to the "Times" to suggest an annual wearing- of primroses on the anniversary of the statesman's death. Then he arranged with a number of his friends to ask for large quantities of primroses from the florists in the West End. Tho largo orders were much talked about, and the spontaneous popular enthusiasm much commented on, and Sir George clinched the matter by announcing in the "Times" the successful way in which the idea had caught on. That it' would never have succeeded, no matter how clever the engineering, if the idea had not really appealed to the people, is clear from the way in which all proposals similarly to honour Gladstone's memory by roses on St. George's Day have fallen "flat as pancakes." At ITughenden, it was noticed by the pilgrims fb the grave, that for the first time since Dizzy's death, a Royal wreath lay thereon. Very appropriate is the explanation in a character sketch of Queen Victoria, which, appears in the '-Quarterly Review," of Disraeli's ascendency over the Queen. "Xo one, it is certain, ever amused her so much as he did." She permitted to him what she permitted to no one else, a "reckless disregard of Court etiquette." He was never in the least shy; he did not trouble to insinuate; he said what he meant in terms the most surprising-, the most unconventional ; and the Qiieen thought that she had never in her life seen so amusing a person. He gratified her by his bold assumptions of her knowledge; she excused his florid adulation on the ground that it was "original," and she was pleased with the audacious way in which he broke through the ice that surrounded her. She loved the East, with all its pageantry, and all its trappings, and she accepted Disraeli as a picturesque' image of itPrimrose Day is also Byron Day, anil thong-h the g-eneral public pay no outward tribute to the poet's memory, at his statue behind Apsley House several members of the Greek colony in London saluted his memory by uncovering. In the morning a few adnfirers decorated the gloomy monument with flowers, one magnificent wreath of lilies and roses bearing a card, on which was inscribed the lines from the "Adonais," beginning: He has outscared the shadow of our night, Envy and calumny, and hate, and pain. This wreath is an annual institution, as is also the following "In Memoriam" in the "Times": "George Gordon Noel, Lord Byron, died nobly for Greece at Missolonghi, April 19th, 1824." "When love, who senf, forgot to save The young-, the beautiful the brave." "The Bride of Abydos." Sir Walter Scott, speaking of his death, said: "It i 3 as if the sun had g*one out." The explanation is that a lady some years ago bequeathed a sum of money to place a wreath of roses on this day at the foot of Byron's statue, and for an "In Memoriam" advertisement in the papers, till such time as his name is inscribed in Westminster Abbey.