RUPERT BROOKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20560, 10 May 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

RUPERT BROOKE.

PROPOSED MEMORIAL.

Great interest is being taken by several European countries in tho' proposal to erect a memorial to Rupert Brooko, the poet, on the Island of Scyros, where he died, but complaint is • made that his memory is neglected by his admirers in England. A recent visitor to Grantchestcr, the little village outside Cambridge where he spent somo of tho happiest hours of his life, first at The Orchard and afterward at tho Old Vicarage, points out that there is no tablet or other kindly memorial to him in tho church, though his namo does appear on tho memorial to villagers who lost their lives in tho war.

" Tho mill, burned down somo while sinco, remains a horrid, black mass of ruins, and Tho Orchard is a tea-garden," adds tho visitor, who suggests that the committee of the memorial fund should sot apart somo small sum for a Grantchestcr tablet.

_Mr. Edward Marsh, Brooke's friend and biographer, who is prominently associated with tho memorial appeal, expressed warm sympathy with the proposal for a Grantchestcr tablet, but thought that it should bo deferred until the Scyros memorial is completed. Ho was surprised, ho said, at the statement that all memory of Brooko seems lo havo faded from Grantchestcr, and particularly that tho mill is a ruin and The Orchard a tea-garden. " So far as tho Old Vicarage is con cerned," said Mr. Marsh, " this was taken some years ago by his great friend, Mr. Dudley Ward, who, I understood, was keeping it up very much in Brooke's memory, and I havo hoard of no chango in this respect. I know nothing at all about the fato of The Orchard."

Asked if the linpcrt Brooke tradition in this country was maintained, Mr. Marsh replied: "I should think so, indeed. There is s_l ill a quite fabulous sale for his poems, licitli hero and abroad. In no year sinco ho died have sales over the counter fallen below £4OOO, and they have been as high as £SOOO. To me it is simply astonishing, but wo constantly get indications of tho voguo which his work still enjoys."