ROYAL HENLEY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5679, 29 August 1905, Page 2

ROYAL HENLEY.

(From Our Special Correspondent) LONDON. July 8. For three golden days each year th«. quaint little town of Henley finds itself on tho topmost crest of the social wave Then the wave passes and Henley sink* back into slumber and oblivion: but that “crowded hour of glorious life” ha* spread the fame of the little town throughout the world. This year the lif* of Henley and its regatta was prolonged an extra day, and the weather alt through was so delightful that perspiring Londoners were readier than ever to leave the noise and humid heat of the metro polls far behind them, and spend the day afieat. One’s conscience salved itself satisfactorily. TFts flight to Henley, it argued, was not a case of “duty” being “oast upon the dust neap" as Bishop Julius would say, Eather was it a simple transference of duty from, the pun liens of Fleet street to the placid roaches of tho Upper Tharnes. But a visit to Henley regatta reouires no palliation.'- It is one of the prettiest sights in the world, and one of the (post agreeable, As a» aquatic carnival it is unique. The visitor from the Antipodes who fails to see Henley at the zenith pf its glory Has missed not duly a wonderful picture, but a typical and distinctive feature of English life. It is one of tho sights which he can see without any sense of disillusionment. Given, indeed, a fine day and a large; attendance, and the scene will probably surpass in colour, beauty, life and general brilliancy all tho mental pictures he may have formed from books,, and photographs and travellers’ tales. Just such a ■ day was. Wednesday, th« second day of the regatta. It was a perfect summer's day, and picturesque Hen ley with its green, well-ordered lawna its spreading trees, its. thousands ol rowing-skiifs and punts massed on eithei side of the course, its gaily decorated house-boats, . its music, its brilliant throng Henley was At its best To the colonial eye at any rats, there is a striking aiv of luxurious ease about the famous river pageant. The well-to-do ' English know how to taks their pleasure comfortably. These arm. chairs on the lawn at tho watch's edge these, lavishly-appointed launches, and house-boats, these elegant punts and skiffs, wifh their comfortable - cushions are all designed to reduce physical exor. tipn to a minimum. For the strenuous there is the racing, but the racers are few and tho on-lookers many, as usual nowadays. For the ; energetic but unskilled. there is the : whole river below or above the mass of boats along the course. But why do that? You might as well go boating on the Serpentine, or tho lake in Regent's Park. The crush is everything at Heiiley—that, and the wonderful colour of the scene, and th* delicious sense-it brings of dreamy idle, ness. The regatta;owes much of its picturesqueness to the fair sex. Of all the dolours of the rainbow are their costumes and their sunshades but the colouring is delicate and grateful to the eye, aimtho creations in pale pink and bine, green, heliotrope and so forth blend- in perfect harmony. The. "masked : minstrels” are another feature of tho, scone. Afloat in a gondola, or a punt bedecked for the occasion with a canopy of flowers, they paddle up and down amongst tho pleasure-seekers, and, tune their merry lay to the spirit of the hour. Some of tho voices in these "incognito" troupes, are of unusually good quality. At the close of the long twilight, behold Hen, ley in tho soft glow of countless fairy lights and Chinese lanterns, picturesque to the last.

Such is Royal Henley, and the memory one brings away is of a. delightful interlude in the daily spectacle of workaday life.