OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16806, 20 November 1928, Page 10

OLD COUNTRY GOSSIP

PUTTING LINKS GROW POPULAR

IN OLD COUNTRY

GAME HAS MYRIADS OF FOLLOWERS IX LONDON DISTRICT

THREEPENCE PER POUND IS FEE -RECORD RECEIPTS OF 2190 DOLLARS.

Our of the most interesting developments in outdoor life in the Old Country is the. rapidly growing popularity of golf [jutting courses. Latest statistics of the Loudon County Council, who control seventy-one o.i these courses, show that 35,003 rounds were played in the week ending July lj, and 52.024 lounds in Mio following week. The lee is tluoeciiee a runnel for each plaver, so that the receipts in these two weeks amounted to I'iOO and 2COO dollars respectively. It was only lour years ago (hat the movement began with the provision of three courses.

In addition to the greens maintained by the L.C.C. there are many hundreds ill the outer districts of Loudon and the provinces provided by local councils or private enterprise. * All classes of the community have

caught the infection of golf putting. So popular has it become among the working women of Bothnal Green that the L.C'.C. has allocated one course in the. I'.cthnal Oreen Hardens for the sole use of women.

In London, the most crowded centre of putting is Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C. —that sylvanfretreat in the midst, of a maze of lawyers' chandlers, shops, and

small and large businesses of every kind.

On the three courses there, 19,000 rounds have been played during Hie past three, months. The record for one day is 591 rounds, and for one week, 2694.

The players hail from every walk in life. There arc heads of offices arid their junior clerks, shopkeepers and their* assistants, solicitors and factory hands.. Tournaments are- held by many offices, but are not promoted by the L.C.C. The luncheon interval is (tie. favorite period for play. From 12.50 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. ihr courses are usually packed. Putting is golf in its meekest form. Nevertheless, it i., evidently exerting an astonishing fascination bve'r people who have little opportunity of pursuing the game in the fullness of the countryside or on the links by the sea. It. is the one department of golf iu ; which the Americans excel. Surely this stupendous concentration on il may produce a genius gifted to find the key to success at it. ABISTOCKATIC LABOR PARTY Our Labor party, among whom nve many Socialists',' is becoming a distinctly aristocratic body. The latest title to bloom beside the Red Flag is that of Oswald Mosley; son and heir of' the just-dead Sir Oswald" Mosley, Bart.; who Was .famous in another way, famous as the personification of John Bull, and as a. staunch Diehard Tory. The new Labor baronet married Lady Cynthia Curzon, and both are extremely wealthy. Their change over to Labor perplexed all Loudon society a year or two ago. But all fears were unfounded, lor the handsome young couple had no intention of allowing socialistic views to change'their opulent manner ,of living—they occupy two largish liouses thrown into one. hard by the House of Commons, and their entertainments are anything but Spartan. When Ramsay MncDonahl became Prime Minister 'several Socialists moo made peers by dim. The late Lord Haldane, a'lreadv a peer, became lord chancellor; .Sir Sidney Olivier became Lord ditto. Ihigadier-Oorie'ral Thomson became Lord 'of that ilk, and there followed a goodly sprinkling of Labor knights, and at. leas! two Labor baronets.'

In ii. year or two, should ttVe pendulum swing, as i( has a way of doing, tlio front bench of t.lip ue'il Socialist government will lie formed mostly of gentlemen with bandies to their names. But. somehow or other Comrade Sir Pfewald sounds wrong,

KING TO BE SHIFTED FROM SHIP

TO HORSE

I Great Britain is to have a now Great Seal, on which the effigy of the. King I will be removed from the quarter-deck . of a dreadnought to the back of a charger. King George was the first British monarch to have England's naval power emphasised' on the. Great Seal. • The, Protectorate Parliament showed the navy in full sail down the "Channel, tins forming part of a most original do- ' one side a map of England ! ynd Ireland powdered with names and 'guarded by the. fleet, and on the'; other 'the House'of Commons in session. ! ■ The 'Commonwealth's first seal was 1 produced in a hurry. On January f>h, \ 1649, it- was decided that ' "Thomas : Sv'm'on be hereby authorised to engrave, a'Seal ■ - ■'" Twelve days later the old seal was broken up in the House of Commons by a smith, and the commissioners Received the piece's as their perquisite. When', will) a pointed hammer, the King remove's all virtue from the present seal, t,he lord chancellor will become its possessor. WILL HARD WORK. BlttNG A RIPE OLD AGE? Lord Pesart, who was director of public prosecutions from 1894 In 1908, discussed recently the reason for the fact that there are fifty-four peers of 8,0 or more. He said : "I Jim not 80 till next month, and 1 should not like to express tiny decided opinion as to'the reasons for "longevity. I think, however, that- Lord Sydenham is right when he says that hard work is; conducive to long life. The whole question is difficult. Heredjty may or may not have something to do'with it." Lord Muir-Mac.kenzie, who is 83, is an example of a peer who has combined work with athletic exercise. He was-cap-tain of Charterhouse at cricket and football, has been a. k'eeh racquets and golf; player, and for thirty-live years was nev- j manenf princiml secretary to the lord' chancellor and clerk of the crown in chancery. FOOTBALL TRANSFERS. There appears Lb he a, limit to the operation of that transfer system in which Bishop Wolldon finds one of the undesirable features of professional football. A northern club is said to have, refused an offer of £IO,OOO for a cerium plaver on the ground that its own public would condemn the deal. The intensity of local partisanship in League football contrasts curiously with the lack ot sentiment over individual players.. Even

in tho exceptional case noted it is not too clear whether the directors feared a protest of hero-worship or a criticism of their commercial acumen.

BRITISH "ENDEAVOR TO RETAIN BEAUTY OF LAKE DISTRICT

LOCAL AUTHORITIES MEET TO TRY TO GAIN CONTROL OF NEW BUILDINGS

LONDON. —This summer an organised attempt is being made to try fo prevent the Lake District, one of the must beautiful parts of England, from being spoiled. The quiet .solitudes where Wordsworth and his companions found a refuge are in danger, and beauty spots, famed in poetry and art, arc being threatened by tho erection of,mansions for. merchant princes, or bungalows for poorer men seeking a home on retirement.

The roads along which only a few country carts used to trundle 20 years ago, are now busy every morning and evening with mammoth chars a-baiics, bringing thousands of trippers from "Britain's most democratic seaside resorts, Blackpool and Moi-ei-aniVie.

Paced with .dangers from many sides, the local authorities of the Lake istrict have at last decided to combine with a view to concerted action. For years past lovers of the lakes have been warning local residents that the beauty of nature is the principal financial asset of the district, and that, it must be preserved. Men like Canon Rawnsley and Arthur Severn, a kinsman of John Raskin, have been doing their utmost to warn their neighbors of the necessity to lake action before it is too late. 'this .summer a number of local authorities have assembled together at Ooekermoufh, and. will co-operate with the. joint town planning committer that was established two years ago at, Kendal for the protection of the southern part of the district. Although these bodies will have no statutory power to compel action, experience elsewhere has shown that much can be clone by making plans ahead.

It is possible too, to prevent new houses being built in the wrong places, and of materials that do not blend with their surroundings. The Windermere Urban District Council has wisely- taken powers to control new buildings. It is expected that they and other local councils will endeavor to prevent badly-designed bungalows being constructed on sites wheer they will be prominent as eyesores.

Further, no doubt, the eommifte*! will endeavor to "zone' the Lake District. The extensive coalfields on the north-west frontier might 'well Tie confined, within definite limits. Similarly the reserves of lead, copper, and zinc,, the slate quarries at Buttermere and Coni.stou, and the granite quarries at Waberthwaite and Eskdalo, can be controlled.

GHOST HAUNTS ENGLISH VICARAGE

WEIRD OCCURRENCES VOUCHED FOR BY PASTOR OF OLD COUNTRY PARISH

LONDON, Oct, 13,

The discovery of what appears to be a human bone under one of the bedrooms at tin; vicarage at South Minions has given color to the reputation which the bedroom has had, for many years, of being haunted.

The seventeenth century house .is now being rebuilt, and the ineu working on it found the upper part of ■what had all the appearance of being sin old human shin bone in the ground immediately under the room where the vicar's 'wife, according to the local tradition, was murdered in Cromwell's day.

The vicar, Rev. Allen Hay, was interested in the discovery because he had been convicted for some years that the room was haunted. He handed the bone io Mr. Gower, a medical student of the village, who took it n'p to, a London hospital. The general impression is that the hone is human, hut' this is not vet definitely established. .

At any rate, the vicar is quite clear that when ho slept in the room he was conscious of a "presence" for which he was. unable to account.

"It was a queer experience," he says. "Each time 1 slept there I was 'awakened punctually at .throe; in the. morning and felt'that I was not alone. I didn't actually see a ghost, but. I was conscious of some mysterious presence. Other people who have slept in the room have had the same experience." The tradition is that a vicar of Cromwell's time had a wife with an unpleasant temper, who drove him into so desperate a state of mind that lie attacked her one night in the bedroom with a poker and battered her head in.

"There is no suggestion as far as 1 know," said the vicar, "that the murder was committted at three o'clock. 1 am quite unable io account for my Sleeplessness in the room.'.' Other people in the village declare that they have seen apparitions, though no one claims to have seen the ghost of 'the woman murdered at the vicarage. QUEER HOTEL CLOSED. The queerest hotel in Britain is now closed. It was in a vitkrge near Bury St. Edmunds, and though it was fully licensed no traveller 'could quench his thirst there. Nor cnuld lie get food or any kind of iioeommodalmn. The. owner was a strong teetotaller who adopted this method of asserting his principles. In the end the justices refused to renew the license. They came to the conclusion that the public had no need of ah inn which liever opened its doors.

■ At. a smaftl Devonshire inn the food and accommodation nre good, but the landlord refuses to allow his clients more than three drinks a day. He declares that three drinks are enough for anyone, and his plan seems tb work very well.

SCOTS DARED TO STAY IN ISLE

OF MAN

"All Scots entering the Isle of Man do so at their peril, arid must leave. illo island by ihe next boat that goeth to Scotland on paiu of forfeiture of their goods and their bodies to prison'." This is one of Hie curious old laws still in force in the Isle of Man. 'lt has never been,repealed and is an interesting survival of the old days of antagonism between the islanders and file Scots; * ,' '