LOOKING BACK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 14

LOOKING BACK.

TALE OF AMY ROBSART

DEAD AT FOOT-OF STAIRCASE.

THE HISTORY OF MALTA.

(By MAX WHATMAN.) One of. the greatest tragedies of English history i 6 the istory of Amy Robsart, wife "of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Her husband, on the pretext that, she was suffering from an incurable disease, <tyd not allow her to accompany him' to court, aiid, when Queen Elizstheth became.infatuated with him, it was obvious that he regarded her as an impediment to his fortunes. One Booming the fair Amy ws*s found dead at the foot of a staircase at Cumnor Hall, near Oxford. There was 110 evidence as.'to how she came to fall, but it was considered that her husband had engineered a murder, for he was aiming high,and could afford to have no obstacle "or hif path. After Amy's death it was firmly believed. that the Queen hud promised to marry Dudley, and there was a fever of jealousy among Elizabeth's courtiers. Then Elizabeth became difficult, and suggested a match between her favourite and Mary, Queen of Scots. This did not appeal to Dudley, who, it is said, contemplated poisoning his proposed bride. Mary refused to have Dudley as a husband, and he was free to pursue Elizabeth once more. Hefailed to win her, and at length gave it up as hopeless. He then married again, after, it is suspected, removing a husband who stood in the way. After a number of military failures, Dudley died suddenly 011 September 4, 1588, of poison, which, rumour liaS it, he had himself intended for his wife. Malta Becomes British. Malta is 9] I square milen in area, and lies mid-way between Gibraltar and Egypt. In 1530 the island was granted by. the Emperor Charles V. to the Knights of St. John, who had been driven by the Turks from their former home at Rhodes. They strongly fortified their new home as a* bulwark of Christendom, but in the eighteenth century the power of the knights so far declined that Napoleon had 110 difficulty in securing possession of their forties's while on his way to Egypt in 1798. Blockaded by Lord Nelson after the Battle of the Nile. Malta was surrendered to Great Britain in 1800. The Treaty of Amiens (1802) provided that it should be restored to the Knights of St. John as a neutral State, under tlio protection of the Czar of Russia, but the British Government refused to hand 1 it over until France had evacuated Holland. In September, 1814, Great Britain was confirmed in possession of the island. For many years Malta enjoyed <x measure of responsible government but in 193t», owing to the persistent' abuse of Parliamentary liberties—traceable partly to Italian propaganda—the island was reconstituted a Crown Colony. (

Taken From the Danes. Recent reports by foreign correspondents in Berlin have indicated that Heligoland, a small island in the North •>ea, is again being heavily fortified with a Mew to its use as a submarine and aeroplane base. The island has had an Rwtuf? 5 -u? to 7' bein S Danish Butish by right of conquest, and German by international bargaining. Heligoland, which i 8 less than a square mile 111 area, was taken by Great Britain 011 September 1, 1807, from the Danes, who were using it as a centre tor smuggling goods into Europe during the struggle against Napoleon. It was formaUy ceded to the British Crown in lonrt • Was ce<^ef l to Germany in July, ; „ . in . returtl for concessions made to Britain in East Africa. In 189*' it was incorporated in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, and subsequently made as a strong defensive position. At the outbreak of the Great War t.erman cruisers and destroyers were based at Heligoland, and it was as a twi , thc * c . tion fought between these and a British force that the German Government decided to adopt, in the mam, a defensive naval policy Lnder the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the fortifications of Heligoland were dismantled, but Germany made a start on their restoration two years ago. Batcher's Boy Composer. Known throughout the world by his many beautiful compositions, and particularly the "Stabat Mater," Anton Dvorak was in his youth a butcher's boy. Born on September 8, 1841 in a Bohemian village, Dvorak spent his youth in assisting his father, who was the village butcher and innkeeper. His first experience as a practical musician was in joining the fiddlers, who scraped out the airs for national dances on the village green. It was not long before it became quite evident that Dvorak's future would not remain in the butcher's shop, and in 1857 ihe entered an organ-school at Prague. Then he was thrown on his ° w » and earned a precarious livelihood by joining a small private orchestra and playing the violin in inns and cafes.- Later came an appointment as organist in the Church of St. Adalbert, and with, the fees from a few pupils, he was able to .exist while working on his compositions. Dvorak made his first bid for popularity by a patriotic hymn which was warmly received. So successful were his first works that he was given an honorarium by the Austrian Government and this freed him from pecuniary care. In 1877 came a commission for a series of Slavic dances which took the public by storm. In 1892, after having frequently visited England, Dvorak became head of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. There he remained until 1895 when he returned to Prague and died in 1904. Lite of a Bruiser. The bare-knuckled prize fighters of last century were rugged individuals whose fights were gory affairs extending over five or six times the length of anv professional boxing match to-day. Take for example, the career of Benjamin taunt, who was one of the few men to retire from the prize ring undisputed champion of England. Caunt's bout with Brassev. the. "Yorkshire Tyke" went 100 rounds. It was fought in 1840, Brassev being the challenger for the championship. This tout with Brassey was an extraordinary affair. Wrestling holds were used and neither man hesitated to use his feet when his opponent was down. The ground was churned into a quagmire in which the fighters slithered about, falling repeatedly. Another remarkable bout in which Caunt distinguished himself was against William Thompson, of Nottingham, who fought under the name of "Bendigo." Ckunt won on a fonl in the 75th round. Caunt, then 46 years old, died of con- ' sumption on September-10, 1861.