LONDON GOSSIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 71, 25 March 1938, Page 13

LONDON GOSSIP

THE PRIME MINISTER

RESOLUTE ATTITUDE

POETRY IN PUBLIC HOUSES

(From "The Post's" Representative.) ■ ■ LONDON, March 5. Mr. Chamberlain's severest opponents have been forced to reluctant admiration by the resolute way in which he has set about his Herculean tasks during the Cabinet crisis. After six continuous and gruelling years In office, he now finds himself half a Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister at a time when either job is said to be crushing, and when, indeed, the' Premiership has all but crushed two men in recent years. Moreover, Mr. Chamberlain is a slight man physically, compared with either Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald or Lord Baldwin, and in age he is only a year, or two younger than either of them when they were at No. 10.' . - ,' When Mr. Churchill asked him if Sir Thomas ■ Inskip would ■ open next week's defence debate, Mr. Chamberlain answered quietly, "No, 1 shall open the debate." His friends and !■ enemies alike are now beginning to wonder whether he will also introduce the Budget again and make a really full-time job of it. POPULAR AMERICAN AMBASSADOR. Ruddy complexion, dark horn-rim-med glases, and a slangy, breezy-man-ner make Mr. Joseph P. Kennedy, new U.S.A. Ambassador to London, a typical, example of ; the successful American business man. Young in spirit as well as in years, he has the quick wit of the Irish,. combined with the energy and vitality of the- New World. ~..■': :'.: ' \ His 'new ■>,appointment gives, him added pleasure because it will permit him to spend more time with his family. His., extremely active^ life has involved"being: away frbni'.liis'.home on many occasions. Now, .at . last, when the rest of the Kennedys arrive, he will have all his nine ..children around him again. . . . A staunch patriot, Mr. Kennedy is especially proud of. the fact that American democracy has required only two . generations to make the transition from poor Irish immigrant to Ambassador. v • : THE GREAT SEAL OF THE REALM. There was a picturesque ceremony at the Privy Council meeting this week after the King had handed to Viscount Hailsham, the Lord Chancel-. lor, the new Great Seal of the Realm, which has been designed by Mr.. M. G. Kruger Gray. ■■'.-. Taking up a metal hammer, his Majesty "demasked" the old Great Seal, giving it a .blow, sufficient ■to render it void. He then handed it, in accordance with traditional usage, to Lord Hailsham to retain as a family heirloom,' • . • . . . ■ i ■ ■ The Great Seal of the Realm is the subject of many 'a romantic tale. Lord Chancellor Eldon, in the reign of George 111, used to sleep with it under his'pillow. One day his house caught fire and he buried it in the garden for safety. Next day he could not remember where he had hidden it. Lord Eldon's family joined in. a frantic search at dawn, and it. was found in a flower bed. James 11, when he fled, threw the Great Seal into the Thames. But, by an extraordinary chance, fishermen drew it up in their nets near Lambeth and it was brought to the Prince of Orange, who by, that time had been proclaimed King of England. In Richard I's reign the Seal was lost when his Chancellor, who was wearing it round his neck, fell into the sea • and. was drowned. During the long reign of Queen Victoria the Great Seal had to be replaced four times owing to its ornamentation having become worn. LONGEST ENGLISH WORDS. What is the longest word in the English language? Antidisestablishmentarianism, contratransubstantiationalists, and anti-interdenomina-tionalistically, are three that may spring to mind at once, but what of photospectroheliographically, anthropomorphologically, rhombicosidodecahedronally, floccinaucinihilipilification, and syncategorematicableness? There are a few the inter-Univer-sity spelling bee teams are hoping they will not be asked next week. Poetry has not, . after all, . been laughed out of the pub. A speedy and dismal end to the experiment was prophesied ' last October,, when ■ the first verse-reading was given in a London inn, and there were some who shouted as though the rights of • man were being destroyed. Since October, however, there has been notable expansion of the movement. Readings, short performances of plays, puppet shows, and the like have become increasingly popular with patrons, and innkeepers encourage them for this reason if for no other. During this month, for example. "The Dumb Wife of Cheapside" will be given at The Church Elm, a Byron reading at The Half Moon, Irish folk songs and Cockney sketches at The Red Lion, dramatic studies at The Star, poetry with harpsichord at The Plough, and drinking songs, at The Steamship—an imposing list of means of making beer taste better still! A comparative novelty in the exhibition of modern rolling stock which the London and North-Eeastern Railway has staged at Manchester is the camping coach,, which is divided into two sleeping compartments, a livingroom, and a kitchen, and equipped with crockery, cutlery, linen, and cooking requisites. It is an attempt to make .a gipsy life possible on the railway for holiday parties.