LOVE FINDS A WAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20306, 13 July 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

LOVE FINDS A WAY.

BRIDE IN BAKER'S BASKET* PRINCE CHARMING'S RUSE, The Marquess of Northampton can boast many nobis ancestor!) of long descent; but, high in his family-tree, there figures a London apprentice-lad to whose industry his house owes much of its gilding, and, no doubt, some of its fine qualities. This was none other than Sir John Spencer, who, from the bottom of the commercial ladder, says the News of th« World, rose to be one of the most opulent of London merchants in the 16th century, and to be known throughout England as " Rich Spencer." Sir John was proud of his wealth, but prouder still of his only daughter and heiress, Mistress Elizabeth Spencer. She was one of the prettiest and also one of the most wilful maidens in all London town. When beauty is linked with gold, lovers are plentiful. Many a wooer, therefore, -cast languishing eyes at the fair Elizabeth, who only " tossed her head and said to them nay." But at last her Prince Charming came to her knees in the form of the handsome and gallant Lord Compton, and before she knew it the young lordling had stolen her heart away. Alas for Jove's young dream! " Old Spencer" frowned and fumed. Lord Cornpton was a rake, and no man of such notorious character, noble though he was, should over have his daughter and- her moneybags. Cupid, however, has a hundred artifices to outwit obdurate parents. Thus is happened that one day Lord Compton called at Sir John's suburban seat, Canonbury House, disguised as a baker. From there he carried off his lady-love snugly tucked away inside his flap-topped basket, and under ' the vel 7 nose of her father, to whom the " baker, as ho passed on his way wished a respectful " good morning." When the merchant discovered how impudently he had been robbed of his treasure his rage knew no bounds. It was only when Queen Elizabeth interceded on behalf of' the runaway lovers that he consented to let bygones be bygones and to take his daughter and her husband into favour again. Elizabeth) who seems to have developed into a shrew and a spendthrift, died a countess. Through her, thanks to the baker's basket, John Spencer quondam apprentice, became the ancestor of the Most Honourable the Marquesses of Northampton and many another present-day wearer of a coronet.