A GHOSTLY PAGEANT

Evening Star, Issue 20256, 17 August 1929, Page 19

A GHOSTLY PAGEANT

THE SEARCHLIGHT TATTOO Three things make the Aldershot military' searchlight tattoo the unique spectacle that it is. They are Aidershot, the searchlights, and the tattoo. Aldershot supplies the Rushmoor Arena —that enormous green 'amphitheatre fringed with the darker green of trees, and, above them, the pale blue sky which slowly fades to star-sown darkness. The searchlights give the glamour, the astonishing glitter that turns every red coat into a ruby, every bayonet into a diamond. They “ black out,” 'and there is a dark void. They flash on, and ■ ipstantly a gorgeous pageant is born. They turn blue, and it is all a ghostly dream. They pick out a lieutent in a cocked hat, and he is the Iron Duke, or a man with one hand thrust into the breast of his coat—and it is Napoleon. The tattoo is music, drill, drama, fireworks, spectacle—all in one. It was on a more elaborate scale than ever this year. And the . most elaborate and perhaps the most effective episode was the one entitled “ 1815.” Here was a wonderfully detailed picture of Waterloo, including the famous Brussells ball. Under a great chandelier a company of officers and ladies dance quadrilles; half a dozen coaches drive up to the gate and guests step out. Suddenly two officers gallop across to the scene of the revelry; they bring news of the French advance. The ball continues, but with diminished ardour; officers'' make their way to their units; troops march by, their_ shadow's flung effectively across the lighted windows of the ballroom. The Duke of Wellington comes out, mounts his charger, and rides off—to Waterloo. Also, on a humorous scale, far bigger than last year, was the episode of the return of the Crusaders. It included a jousting in which the Unknown Knight very literally overthrew four combatants, while the King and Queen watched from beneath a great scarlet canopy. Neither at Wembley, nor at Olympia, nor ever before at Aldershot has there been anything more perfect than the Historical Drill, dated 1800, by the 3rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards. Its beautiful slow exactitude was emphasised by the absence of music; it made its own masterful rhythm. The fina 1 torchlight evolutions, the torches forming four writhing serpents, each with a pair of baleful green eyes, culminated in the massed parade of 5,000 of the troops taking part in the tattoo,; ■ , *