HISTORICAL PAGEANT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8559, 23 October 1913, Page 10

HISTORICAL PAGEANT

ANOTHER FINE GROUP. The Misses V. and H. Chapman have arranged a very fine tableau group for the coming Pageant, representing the meeting of St. Augustine and King Ethelbert. The 'date is May, 597 A.D., and the scene the Isle of Thanet. St. Augustine and his monks landed on tho Isle of Thanet and sent to ask 'an audience of King Ethelbert. The King agreed to meet him on condition that the meeting shourd take place in the open, as he feared witchcraft if shut up in a building. So he received St. Augustine seated under an oak tree which was believed by the Saxons to have great protective power. . St. Augustine came with his company of monks, carrying a silver cross and chanting a litany, and exhorted tho King to become a Christian, which in duo time, urged by the Queen Bertha (who was a Christian already) and by her Bishop Lindbard, he did. The dramatis personae is as follows : Saint Augustine—Mr G. Gow. His Interpreter (a Gaul)—Mr A. Quick. . His Company of Monks—Mesdames T. Young, C. Statham, A. Ewen. E. Baldwin; Misses U. Tnesley, E. D’oyley, L. White, E. Maclean, Mackintosh, Davis, Chapman, and Mr A. Ewen. King Ethelbert (Saxon) —Mr Turton. Queen Bertha (French) —Mrs P. Nathan. Lindhard (French Bishop attached to Queen) —Mr E. S. Baldwin. The King’s Guard—Messrs Courtenay, T. Neave, L. Moore, Thompson, Burry. Company of Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, Pages, etc.—Mrs Stanton Haroourt, Misses M. Molynenx, F. D’oyley, L. Ewart, C. Morrison and Chapman; Messrs E. Coleridge, S. Fearn, D’oyley, H. Cook, Dr E. Merchant.