Cricket—and a Visit to Iceland

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22670, 6 March 1937, Page 8 (Supplement)

Cricket—and a Visit to Iceland

DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS, — I ATELY, cricket has been foremost in the minds of almost everyone in Australia and New Zealand, and, I expect, in England, too, the wireless was just as eagerly tuned in and people awaited the relaying of the test matches. It is the great game of Englishmen and has been so for centuries. Wherever the English have settled they have made a cricket field and pitch. Soldiers carried the game to India and Africa and colonists introduced it to our own country. Vincent Square ground, Westminster, London, annually witnesses the oldest cricket match in England. It is played between the King s Scholars and Town Boys (boarders and day boys) of the famous Westminster School, and no year has been missed since the game originated in 1801, 130 years ago. Last week I overheard one small boy saying to another: " Gee, 1 m so hot, I wish I were in Iceland I" But did you know that the icinesn of this little country of the far north depends entirely on the season? Just as the Black Sea is not black nor the Red Sea red, neither is Iceland the land of continual ice and snow that most of us imagine it. It is a very cold place in winter, of course, and there is much longer than it is here, but their spring is a delightful season, with green grass everywhere and heaps of wild flowers. Most of the people make their living by farming, and a typical Icelandic homestead is a most fascinating place; the home consists of several small houses —rooms, really—each one storey high, rather long and narrow and "n nect « d to the other "houses" by a little passage. These, are lined with wood[ but the outsides are made of stone and turf. The roofs of the httle individual houses are all pointed, and the gable part, front and back, is of wood, painted white. Where possible, the row of rooms that makes up the homestead is built on the side of a hill, and then, when it is seen in springtime, is looks just like a continuation of the hill itself, for the grass grows all over the turf and the walls and roofs are studded with flowers. The people are very neighbourly, always ready to help others, and there have been no wars for hundreds of years. I will tell you more about Iceland next week, for I think it sounds a rather / /Q 'delightful place in which to live, don t Love from