Repairing St. James's Palace

Evening Star, Issue 25895, 12 September 1946, Page 10

Repairing St. James's Palace

London Topics:

THE BRICKS WERE LAID 11 WHEN HENRY VIII. WAS STILL WIVING"

(From Our Correspondent.) (By Air Mail.) LONDON, August 28. Repairs are now being.carried out in Ambassador’s Court at St. James’s Palace to sixteenth century buildings damaged during the German air raids. Bricks falling away from some of the' .walls are the originals laid there by masons who wielded trowels when stout King Henry VIII. was still wiving. Some houses, occupied by court digni- ; taries, were believed, to , have escaped, damage at the time, but are now, as the result of concussion, in urgent need of restoration. In the centre of Colours Court is the flagstaff holder, ereosoted to enable it still longer to defy the corroding effects of time and weather, which-dates back to 1553. It would have been a tragedy had old St. James’s Palace been demolished more seriously. It was qt the gateway here that Raleigh, that great captain and coloniser, paused on his way to the • scaffold to drink a cun of wine. “ A good driilk,” he commented, “ if a man might tarry by it!” Rustic London. Just now are London’s blitzpd ruins, particularly those in the city’s devastated area, ga.v with purple and gold and green. Willow herb, coltsfoot, and tansy, with dozens of other ornate weeds, are blooming serenely, and, if "one may - quote Shelley, covering the gaping cellars and tangled masonry of city desolation with rural beauty as peaceful 1 as “ an infant’s smile.” Amateur photographers are taking snapshots, within a biscuit toss of St. Paul’s overshadowing dome, , which might well be mistaken for glimpses of some delightful rustic common. Even ferns are growing to-day where Goering’s Luftwaffe gloried and bombed deep. How this rural invasion came

about, whether by seeds carried by winds, birds, or motor tyres, is a mystery, but somehow Nature has camouflaged with a carpet of rare loveliness the unsightliness of gigantic ruination. One might gather a bouquet of wild beauty off Cheapside. Good News for Midge Fans. Scientific research into the activities of the malaria-carrying mosquito has bad some comforting side-show results. Some people, especially women in these stockingless days, are martyrs to midge bites. Now a new anti-insect preparation has been composed, known as dimethyl phthatate, which is claimed as a reliable specific against midge attacks. It can be used either as a liquid or a cream, and, anointed with this new preparation, one can defy the whole insect creation. It remains effective for five or six hours* which should be long enough for all normal purposes. It is not disclosed whether it actually destroys adventurous insects, or whether it is merely so allergic to the midge creation that the latter buzz off on scentnig it. Listening to the Band. Owing to what proved an alarmist

weather report my week-end footpath companion and 1 confined our exercise on Saturday to a sedate stroll in Hyde Park. Those once trim demesnes still look unkempt and war-worn despite some flower beds of breath-taking loveliness. We took within the bandstand enclosure the same seats that about two years ago we sat in, listening to the band on a Saturday afternoon. Only 10 days before a VI had fallen nearby, felling tall trees and killing some ducks and pigeons. There was a much smaller audience then, but, to their credit, the band gallantly, continued playing ‘ Scenes That ‘Are Brightest,’ though twice in quick succession the music was punctuated overhead by the then familiar rush of a doodle-bug. Happily these missiles burst about half a mile away. But it was a weird- experience—listening under the Hyde Park trees to the ' 3

band whilst being bombarded from the Pas de Calais. Yet we agreed that, in retrospect, it had its bracing spice of excitement. “ The Bullet.” M. Molotov, who is to-day a household word, with or without expletives, in many countries, was scarcely known outside Russia before 1937. He is the son of a clerk, nephew of the composer, Scriabin, and joined the Bolshevik movement when he was 16, and studying law. During exile in Siberia, be met Stalin, and, though he took no personal part in the October revolution which placed Lenin in the saddle, Stalin’s influence gave him political advancement. Stalin described him as “ the best filing clerk in the Soviet Union.” Until he came into the limelight as the negotiator of the RussoGerman Pact, however, Molotov was generally known as the commissar with the beautiful wife. Madame Molotov, whose name is Paulina, has held two Government posts, one as Commissar of Cosmetics and Soap, and the other as Commissar for Fishing. In Russia Molotov was formerly nicknamed “ The Bullet.” His assumed name of Molotov ipeans “ Hammer.” Old Remembered Things. Historically this is a memorable week. Two thousand years ago a centurian of Cmsar’s elite Tenth Legion headed the first Roman landing on the shores of Britain. Actually this operation was more or less a military reconnaissance. and the main invasion came later. Six hundred years ago, in 1346, the Black Prince won his spurs, and our reigning family an illustrious motto, at the Battle of Crecy. No doubt it. was the latter anniversary that inspired the compiler of , the ‘ Times ’ crossword to .make one clue “ suitable w or ds for a German tennis player,” the rather obvious answer being, of course, “ Ich Dien ”! How far Crecy- had any lasting effect on ''European history would be hard to estimate, but the Roman invasion, besides giving us the longest period of comparative tranquillity this island lias enjoyed, left an indelible stamp on our institutions, our roads, our lives, and our ideas. The tragedy of European history is that Rome never invaded and civilised the Germans.