LONDON’S “VILLAGE QUEEN”

Evening Star, Issue 17793, 15 October 1921, Page 2

LONDON’S “VILLAGE QUEEN”

EPITOME OF ENGLISH LIFE. Hydo Park, more familiar to more people than any oilier London park, is an epitome of English life. It holds an appeal for everyone. You go there for guaco and fresh, air. or simply to enjoy tiio birds and flowers and trees and gfaws; for riding, driving, meets of the l'our-in-Hand Club, reviews; for boating, bathing, swimming, and, rarely, skating; for an individual 11 talkingshop," or for mass meetings as on this last May Hay, when all Labor was there, resplendent with scarlet pageantry of banners and favors; for church parade on fine Sundays to see the smartest of fashions, or to bo seen; to listen to the band as yon sit, ami f]\mz your neighbors. Arid the lovers and philanderers for which (he park is the setting ! All this by day. By night the park has Us sinister side as .its special police oould toll yon. It has a lino ioahonsc, kiosks where you may buy papers nnd light lile.raiuro and cigarettes, and it has thousands of green-painted iron chairs for which

Londoners who all their lives have paid the almighty penny must now—l-hougb *■ grouscfully ” —pay twopence. Tire park is controllid by the Office of Works, and is supported cut of Imperial funds. The. chairs Hvo a monopoly. There arc a- number of free benches, but many wore are wanted. Long -ago Leigh Hunt alluded to a prophecy (hat Hampstead would one day bo in the middle of London. It is pinto possible; London is capable of'everything. You have only to recall tho fact that the beginning of Hyde Park «t Knightabridg© was once "the end of London," that when Apsloy House was built for tire Duke of Wellington ft was popularly known os KuigMsbridge, by the way., lias no connection with_ knights.' Tho fiamo is corrupted from ““Jw.ate’3 Bridge,” because at this point the roadway was camel over the Neste, a parrow, dirty little stream, fed from the springe at Bayswater. It. was, however, with tho help of the Ncate and a collection of marshy ponds (hat Caroline, Consort of Georg© 11., formed the Serpentine—for which may she h© blessed. The, woody islet is a happy home for tho marsh birds. No matter that tiiis lovely stretch of water is not “ serpentine ”; it is not dully straight, thanks to the charming bead 1 at tho Kensington end, where it becomes the Long Water. Just there, by the Powder Magazine, is Itennie’s beautiful bridge, from which you got such exquisite views.

You can bathe in tho Serpentine ail the year round (within prescribed limits of time and place) if you have the energy and hardihood. it is a very joyous sight to see the children bathing and splashing, and hear them shrieking with delight, on summer evenings. How they do love it! The park, of course (with Kensington Gardens), is the picnic centre and favorite holiday resort of crowds of London'3 poor children. Them they revel in August, and many a child lias seen her that peacock ou the banks of the Long Water. You can him a skiff from tho Serpentine boathouse, and greatly daring youths learn to scull there on Sunday?, unabashed by critics on the marge. The Serpentine has had its drowning tragedies—among them that of Harriot Westbrook—sensational because sbo happened to he Shelley’s first wife.—E. M, Evoes, in the ‘ King's Highway.’,