ON TOUR

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 5 March 1935, Page 8

ON TOUR

Rayner Sisters

Writing tu their mother, Mrs F. Rayner, from Benrig, Scotland, Misses Joan andi Betty Rayner, the two Auckland jgirls, 'wolf-known iii Haweru, who present travelling shows in their caravan, describe the beauties of the countryside. They are staying with their cousin, Mrs Jean Pringle, They had left ( tkeir caravan and for the time being were staying indoors while preparing a new programme. Describing the landscape, Miss Betty ltayner writes that “the willow branches are a faint, crimson glow against the river’s surface und on the other side of the Tweed, the. beech hedges and the oak loaves are shaded from deep brown almost to red. Every, how and then a gust of wind sends the leaves whirling down from the trees, giving a tousled effect.” Before going to Benrig, the girls decided to spend a few days “somewhere in Scotland.” They misunderstood' a direction given them and went in a wrong gate. It was an impossible place to turn their caravan, which they call “Carry,” and they asked a young man to give them some assistance in pushing “her” back to the road.

“Just before we left him,” the letter continues, “he suggested that we go to a Mr Jamieson’s place to camp, and although he had no idea that we were interested in folk songs, or what our job was, he added that Mr Jamieson was an authority on folk songs and dances.”

Encountering a- fishmonger, who went ahead and guided the van with his wheel tracks through devious lanes the girls finally came to a “wee grey stone house set upon a hill in the middle of a field, by the side of the ruins of an old Homan keep.” “Mrs Jamieson,” the letter .runs, “recognised us by our photos' in the paper and she and her husband were pleased that we had happened upon them. We stayed three days and one night Mr Jamieson got his folk-danc-ing team to come and show us Scottish dances. He had converted an old army lnit. into a 'hall, and persuaded the * people living in the district io revive the old. dances. The girls dressed up in bondagers’ costumes. These were worn when people were sold with the estates almost like slaves and were called bondagers.

Among the dancers were a shepherd, a- plough boy', a roadmaker. and several maids from the wee village. Such sweet, unspoiled people you can’t iriiagine! “They are to go up to the Albert Hall to demonstrate tit the big Folk Dance Bail next month, and they are thrilled beyond measure, as none of them has ever been into the wide, wide world.”

The Misses Rayner, who established the Theatre of Youth in Sydney, will "visit Australia in Juno of this year.