REMARKABLE PAGEANT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 280, 27 October 1931, Page 2

REMARKABLE PAGEANT.

BRIDGING THE CENTURIES. SCOTLAND AND FRANCE. The tiny town of Aubigny, not far from Bruges, in the heart of France, once more on August 15 became a part of Scotland set in a foreign land. It was the occasion of a festival and pageant commemorating the close alliance between France and Scotland down the centuries before the Union of 1603. And in what more appropriate town could this commemoration take place than Aubigny. which until 1840, when it was purchased by the Marquis de Vogue, remained in the domain of Scottish families (asks an exchange). It was in 1423 that Sir Charles Stuart, of Darnley, who fought in the service of Charles VII. of France, was given the territory of Aubigny by a grateful monarch. Five years later he was killed at the siege of Orleans, but his family and descendants continned to live on the estate for vears. A castle was built in the fifteenth century by a Stuart who was Marshal of France. Eventually the property passed to the Duchess of Portsmouth, a gilt from Charles II of England, and from her to the Dukes of Richmond and Gordon, who, indeed, bear the title ot Duke of Aubigny to the present day, although they no longer own the property. So the little town, its streets and houses smothered in flowers and gay bunting, rendered honour two months ago to Scotland —for the local traditions still reamin deeply imprinted on the hearts of the now Republican inhabitants. The streets were black with people who had come to see a pageant in which appeared Robert Stuart, the old-time Marshal of France, the great French warrior Bayard, and a troop of old Scottish Guards in their picturesque medieval red, white and green uniforms. Not the least attraction was the band of bagpipes from the Caledonian School in London, with their pipes skirling, their kilts swirling and their drum-major performing amazing feats with his staff. These drew cries of admiration from the crowd. Salvos of artillery had welcomed the ladies-in-waiting of “Ajine Stuart,” the trains of their brocaded gowns held from the ground by dozens of 6mall pages. Then came the state entry of “Robert Stuart,” grand and brave, with.liis gaily-caparisoned warhorse, in blue, embroidered with fleur-de-lys, his bright armour twinkling in the sunshine. For a few hours Aubigny had forgot, ten the intervening centuries. It was a grand sight to rejoice the hearts of the Scots present, who included descendants of the Stuart family in the persons of Mr and Mrs Ruthven Stuart. Toward the end of the banquet held in the middle of the day the toast of the King was proposed by the Mayor of Aubigny. Suddenly 400 French men and women leapt to their feet, holding their glasses high, and cried out enthusiastically, “King George V.!” The ceremony was presided over by the present Marquis de Vogue, who now possesses this domain and in whose possession is the original standard ot Robert Stuart.