"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2745, 24 October 1906, Page 65

"ALIEN'S" LETTER FROM ENGLAND.

(Specially written for the Witness Ladies' Page.)

WEATHER PERMITTING.

I was compelled^ to bring my last lette to an abrupt conciu.-. 11, overpowered b; th& heat, which exceeued the heat of mid •ttrmmer, and coming, as it <fed, at th «nd of" August, found everybody unpre pared. Ninety-five and 97 in the shade continuing, day after day, with hot night intervening, is unbearable in England "where the" atmosphere is heavy. Man] cases 4>f heat-illness and death, were th< result, all the hospitals having many cases and London alone 400 inquests on infant: of th© poor districts, caused through th< terrible neat and the wrong feeding* o: their children by their ignorant, mothers Asked by a- coroner on what the two-year old child had been fed, the mother re plied: "Tatere- and. fish for dinner, breat and jam fe>r tea, and apple toffee foi cupper." .No wonder the child -died ! £hi potatoes the chip potatoes proenrec at ». fried-fish, drop.- The apple toffee U spade of apples dipped in . melted sugar , which is allowed to dry on, then, hawkec about on the end of a stieE. This is c delicacy only procurable in the slums, ace goodness knows what refuse th< apple ' and sugar is that goes t< tne making, or in what filth j room it is stored/. The heat in London was terrific. Ai breakfast time on the Saturday of Sep teifeber 1 the metropolis was toe hottest place- in Europe. JL flood* of «inahin<E poured down T and spread through the country for hundreds of miles without a speck of cloud in the sky. Many men fox several -days- went into the city in flannels, and the streets were a furnace from which people hurried to get shelter as they would from rain. Cabmen fell from their seats in eeveral instances, and why the city police didn't all die must be due to their splendid -hysique, but many of them suffered terribly^ The tropical weather sent thousands away for th© week-end who were sot already away on their holidays, and those who were in town flocked to the river, the Sunday being a second Ascot Sunday. Not a boat from Mosely to Goring was left unhired, and even the Thames boatmen admitted that the season hod not been bad. But wasps and mosquitos have been a perfect plague in the country, and on the river, and in dome parts of Surrey, where the' nuisance has been almost as great ay in tropical climates. At Hampton s Court on the" Sunday, where thousands of people went for the shade of the trees and die coolness of the river, the plague of wasps was- so great that the nest was sonsrht for and promptly smoked out. The churcfe*- were- very thinly attended dnrirwc the Sunday. People simple couldn't don the regulation "store clothes" — considered the ri<rht and prooer attire in ■which io worship. The magistrates for several days bad dispensed Justice in their shirt-sleeves, but it- is not permissible to fill church pews with coatless m<>n and hatless women, vet during the week numbers turned in from tb'e elaring streets to sit in the nave of St. Paul's, wbjrb was discovered to be one of the coolest places in London. The effect of the heat on the restaurants' was very marked. Iced drinks and ealads were in great demand, and an army of pale-faced waiiers and waitresses throughout the city doubtless wished that people -would not eat at all. Business in the dranery departments was almost at a standstill, for women simpl y couldn't bear the fatigue of going into town to shop. London is very empty. For the first time, the other day I crossed Bond street at leisure, and had a saunter among the shops, where the assistants, many of them looking sun-burnt fcv fcb-eir rcceni sojevura: at the sea. had time to chat about- their holiday. This seemed a more inrewstirig; subiect than the new fashions, a point on wT""h tfcere sft°™»rd a good deal of uncertainty, as stock-taking was in progress, and the new goods not vet opened, with the exception of haft*, and those T saw were in felts of rose and blue and brown, and ▼cry rwh larger than fcb<v=e of the summer. Bright colours are evidently to continue, . judging by the hats. The autumn foliage and' fruits were in abundance in ■ihs millinery departments, and the autumn foliage abedd in golds and reds and browns of Dame Nature hecself, which is only now touching with russet the early fading "trees, although forest and field have lost their glory ;for the year. Among holiday letters the following may interest you, givine a description of Liverpool to date: — '"Liverpool has much improved in the years since last I saw it. They have erected some handsome buildings. The new Dock Board offices are magnificent in design. There is a very creditable art gallery, which has been considerably added to since I saw it last. I nave renewed acquaintance with 'Faithful Unto Death' — the soldier standing at his poet immovable during the destruction of Pompeii. There is a otatue in the city newly unveiled of Queen Victoria, which stands under a very handsome classic canopy. This monument to the Liverpool Reciment embracing a record of a century, including the last war, is far more beautiful in conception than -anything of the sort in London. They have certainly had some men. of taste in office to- have selected such /designs. As a, Londoner I feel quite en- j -vious of the use they have made of their .opportunities. The space (a steep slope) «t th> back of St. George's Hall, which is one of the finest buildings in England, iras formerly a sort of waste. It is now laid out in a manner which knocka Trafalgar, fiouare into a. cocked hab~ If you .can. imagine this noble hall, where the National. GaJJtery stands, .in Trafalgar square, with a slope of. terraced gardens in front, with a collection of statues of Liverpool's great townsmen, including Gladstone,, who was born here, and, this artistic military memorial in the jentre, you can have some idea of the spot. It 18 flanked on; one side of the space by a.

r group of classic buildings quite as large y as tne Houses of fariiament, m which is [. thu Art Gallery and Museum."' c The King is still at Marienbad. It is reported that Dr Ott has satisfactory repcrts, and has been enabled to somewhat •' relax the rigours of the "cure," and at a his Majesty's dinner parties, at least, he , is permitted his usual champagne. His f Majesty has entertained a good deal -this b season, and been entertained, and has had , some partridge shooting over the pre3 serves of the Monastery of Tepl. But 9 the gaiety of Marienbad was overcast by f tho sudden death of Lady CampbellBannerman, who was paying her yearly - visit for the "cure." ' The King showed - the utmost sympathy for the bereavement 1 of his Prime Minister, who, as a man, is r his friend, apart from the ties of office, * and for the first time in his reign the * King attended the funeral of a subject, 5 entering the church as a private gentle- » man, and remaining to the funeral ser1 vice. At the close of the service a footI man brought a wreath to his Majesty, * which he placed upon the coffin, then * shaking hands with the. Prime Minister 1 and bowing to friends, left the church. It was one of those graceful and sympa- , thetic human actions by which our Royal ' House make a greater appeal to the ' nation than by all the State pomp and J t magnificence. The "touch of human ! nature which makes the whole world kin" * . was; in this act of one gentleman past , the prime of life, expressing sympathy with the bereavement of his friend. And ' the Wow is a crushing one to Sir Henry, for he and** Lady Campbell-Bannerman j were close companions — be took to his . wife many, an important subject for dis- , mission. Her relations with her husband . during, the whole of their married life were , of the tenderest character, and from the. ! , first there was the most beautiful comradeship between them, and although she was ', by temperament shy and averse to pub- , licifcy, she identified herself with her . husband's political career. She was , beloved by all who knew her, noted for her. acts of charity and kind friendship; ■ but for some years before she died she was a great sufferer, and the shadow of her Suffering could be traced upon the Premier's face. "T. P. O." says that it was a singular and pathetic coincidence that her death should take place at Marienbad, as she was one of the first people to discover the town, and probably it is to her and her husband that it owes more than to any others its wide popularity to-day. At this season of the year one learns more of strange lands and the beauty spots of this land than at any other time, for everybody is writing from somewhere else than London. Frank Richardson, in a description, refers to the setting of "The Garden of Allah." "Here, at a short distance from Daimes-Camiers, a station on the main line from Boulougne tD Paris, a superb hotel, costing £16,000, was erected in 1898. But beyond the hotel nothing. A chalet or two ; that was all. A few years ago Robert Hichens, the novelist, and I bicycled over there in the height of the summer season. He was in* search of an absolutely quiet place to write a book. I recommended Saint Gabriel. When we got there we found an excellent building, an admirable chef, 40 bedrooms, troops of servants, and an English clergyman ajid his family. The English clergyman, in spite of bis family, was dying of boredom. No hotel can live simply on an English clerttyman — and his family. Uiebens thought the place too d'lll, and went off to the Sahara to write 'The Garden of Allah.' The book read as thougJi it had been written on the spot — the descriptions were too real not to be true. I met a young lady the other day who had just returned from the Sahara, and bad all the Dhotoeranhs of the places Hitchens made famous — the church where the hero and heroine were married, the garden in ,the oasis round wh«*h so mufh of the story is written, and all the other spots of interest in the . book."