HAMPTON COURT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 198, 23 July 1931, Page 7

HAMPTON COURT.

300,000 VISITORS AND NOT A FLOWER PLUCKED. Londoners have rediscovered the unfading glories of Hampton Court (says "tfie Daily Mail). All sorts and conditions of London men and women made a new pilgrimage in May and Juno to this former home of the Kings and Queens -of England, and the most famous gardens in the world. On. Whit Monday more than 300.000 people visited Hampton Court. They strolled along the stately paths marvelling afresh at the flowered carpets and the blazing borders. When all the popular show places of London, with the added rivalry of Whipsnade Zoo, were competing for favours, Hampton Court beat all records. And on May 26. when the sun returned with added brilliance, tjie ■attendants marvelled when they found that in these gardens of more than 100 acres, not a single flower had been plucked, and it took one man only an hour to collect the litter. “It was the biggest crowd I haye seen durine: mv service here,” said Mr W. J. Marlow, tlie superintendent, who will retire at the end of the year, after 33 years’ service. 60,000 TULIPS. “People poured through the gates all day long. The type of visitor was different from the usual Whit Monday crowd. Most of them were City men with their families. They studiously observed the flower beds and plants.” The crowds came to see the,blazing beds of spring flowers—they include 60 000 tulips—which shortly will give place to the delicate-tinted battalions of old English annuals.