The First Sight Of England!

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 208, 3 September 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

The First Sight Of England!

THE excitement of seeing the white cliffs of Dover for the first time sent;a thrill like m. mild electric current through my mind. Here they were at last, beacons for Englishmen from the ends of the earth I And it was the same thrill that explorers experienced hundreds of years ago also.

By-

Marnie J. Sparrow

After Dover, the country lay almost flat in pastel greens, with an old castle showing through the trees, and a quiet windmill. We lost the land again for a while, but presently struck the muddy water* of the Thames, and we were in the estuary. Big ships elbowed their way out to sea, tankers, fishing smacks, merchantmen and lighthouse boats passed on our bow. Now the river began to narrow. On either side were clusters of houses, then smooth fields

, with great clumps of elms spreading over grazing cattle. A haze grew in the distance, tall smoke stacks stood out on the horizon and trains crawled along like black caterpillars. On one side gleamed the equat, round cylinders of huge bulk petrol stores, like silver marshmallows. In between the gradually increasing industrialism were acres of unbelievable billiard-table grass and trees, shooting their spring green. Back on the river, slow flat cement barges sloughed by, laden almost to the water line, their red brown sails just taking the breeze.

Gravesend, with' its old four-storeyed buildings right to the river's edge, got scant attention as everyone was busy looking at a naval training ship, an old vessel of the Victory type, very Rip Van Winkleish amongst puffing tugs and official launches. The way these launches came alongside was masterly. The first one ran alongside, swung her rudder hard over, which dug her bow at 15 degrees into our port side. Then the second tug, with the doctor, drew alongside in the same manner, and we travelled up the Thames with two important bunting tugs nuzzling' our side. It was amusing to see the complete collapse of

correct official demeanour, when it cam to climbing the 15 feet up the swayin; rope ladder to our deck. Amongst a' this red tape formality here was some thing which could not be accounted foi There was a long bamboo pole lying o the deck of this most efficient tug. 1 looked very conspicuous and quite irr< levant. However, to everyone's amazi ment, this pole was the official metho of transferring papers from the ship t the launch below. Trie pole had a sma cleft at one end. This was raised alol to someone on the ship who deftly pi the paper in the cleft, the pole wt lowered, the papers taken out and placc safely somewhere and the pole returne to the deck. Simple and quite effective "A Ticket to London" Soon, but not too soon, we came 1 Tilbury with green fronted floatii wharf, the hurly burly of Customs ar land under our feet, at last. The o turbines had stopped; the heart-be; which had drummed relentlessly f< weeks. But the most exciting moment < landing was asking in a. still, sma voice, "A ticket to London, please," f< the first time in one's life. It soundc so fantastic, after five weeks' journe; to be actually saying it and getting scrubby, little ticket which woul eventually perform that miracle. At tli station tea or coffee were served in th carriage from the platform. We stoke up for the long, slow, journey to Lot don, which was at first rather countrifie< with low fields, May hedges and cattl Then a huddle of factories, cement worli noticeably, their tall smokestacks an buildings all powdery white, outline against a pearly, grey sky. Long, sti trails of smoke-breath were moored t the tops of the chimneys. There wa scarcely a movement in the flat air. . delicate Whistler nocturne in oyster an seagull grey, pricked with early light Outside the factory gates, acres of lan were cut up into small garden plots, eac with its own tool shed of sorte for tli workmen who wished to grow their ow vegetables and flowers. It seemed « silly to huddle people into long streel of brick kennels with a few feet of bacl yard and then have acres of spare lan just around the corner. But some yar<] made a brave show, with a clump o purple irises or a small company c tulips at attention. One brave perso persuaded a climbing rose over the bac porch; another had a stripling oak < elm, lucky ones contrived a lilac. Oi vista of pitiful little backyards had a unbroken succession. of large tin bat! tubs hanging on the same spot in eat successive house as far as the eye cou' see doWn the street. No bathrooms her my dear Watson. Daring gardene pushed their gardens even on to tl railway track, and had beds of rhubai and green peas growing away gallant) almost within our reach. Now the train crossed meadows aga where, in the dusk, girls and boys wa dered hand in hand, and a ragged groi of youngsters got a few last kicks oi of an old football. Then we clanked ov< reservoirs, looking innocently like arl fieial lakes, but their filtration beds ga 1 them away. After this, houses again ai factories, more and more, and as tl dark came down still more and mo: until at last we slid under the big ove arch of St. Pancras and here was Loi don at my doer. Comic looking tax

surged round m a welter of traffic an swirls of strange faces passed by. Bt the first dominant thought above a the newness was "These are n< strangers at all. Why, they are just lil New Zealanders. These are my kin men. I belong to 'this happy breed < men, this little world—set in a silvi sea,' who have made through all the strivings a commonwealth of nations c the earth." For a moment the lighte blurred i a choky pride gripped me, then tht cleared and I began to hear the muffh roar which was "London Calling."