KING ON TOUR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22457, 29 June 1936, Page 6

KING ON TOUR

DUCHY OF CORNWALL TALKS WITH OLD FRIENDS CREAM AND JAM FOR TEA [from oxtr own correspondent] LONDON, June 10 The King paid "a hurried trip to Cornwall last Wednesday, and, after visiting tenants of the western estate of the Duchy, starting at Bradninch, in East Devon, he ended at his home farm at Stoke Climsland, Cornwall. With him were Admiral Sir Lionel Halsey and other officers of the Duchy. They travelled by night train. Near the Bradninch Guildhall members of the British Legion, with a group of children and the Duchy tenants, awaited the King. The King chatted with many of those he met and took a white carnation offered him by the little daughter of a farm worker and put it in the buttonhole of his black overcoat. Thousands Line Route Although the tour was a private one, thousands turned out to welcome His Majesty. They lined his three-mile route through' Exeter seven or eight deep, waving in pouring rain as he passed through at a speed of four miles an hour. They crowded the narrow streets of tiny Devon villages and clustered with waving ilags at the cross-roads, along which special constables enrolled for the day were on duty diverting other traffic. Banners and Ilags, garlands of flowers, and green leaf arches greeted bim in every town and village. During the round the King chatted with old tenants whom he had known when ho was the Prince of Wales and joked with ex-servicemen; At Bradninch he tthook hands with 100 of the Duchy farmers and tenants of Bradninch, headed by Mr. John Berry, aged 80 years. Sword Presented and Returned Through the lanes the King drove to the Exeter boundary, where the Mayor presented to him the sword of state given to the city by Henry tho Seventh in 1497. The King got but of his car in the pouring rain and touched the hilt of the sword before handing it back to the Mayor, indicating that he was satislied that the city was iii loyal keeping. The King had the sword drawn from its sheath and examined the cap of maintenance given to the city with the sword. Out of the city among the beautiful hills the climb was made to Dartmoor. As the royal procession passed Dartmoor Prison the warders were lined up outside the main gates to greet the King, who acknowledged them by raising his hat and smiling. Tea at Home Farm The last call was at the home farm at Stoke Climsland, where he was so interested in the prize stock and the work of the farm that he stayed for an hour and a-half and took tea with the manager, Mr. David Annand. He had Cornish cream and jam for his tea. At Stoke Climsland, Mr. George Monro, of Coveut Garden, and Mrs. Monro were presented to the King. Mr. Monro frows flowers and strawberries as a ►uchy tenant. Later, His Majesty drove to Boborough airport, where his private aeroplane was waiting to take him to Fort Belvedere.