CHANGES IN ENGLAND

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18205, 28 September 1933, Page 10

CHANGES IN ENGLAND

IN WAKE OF THE MOTOR OKOWTII OF COUNTRY CLUES LONDON, August 10. The charge is often levelled against. English men that they are too cunt-or vali vo and orthodox in the mat ter ul dirss. hut during this brilliant summer, which has just provided us x\ rll l the hottest: August hank holiday on record, the conventions have been broken through, and men ’s wear has accommodated itself mure than over before to the state of the thermometer. The Palm Beach suit and the Panama hat. to say nothing of flannel hags and boaters, have come into their own. Pity men have not hesitated to remove their jackets in iirst-cltiss railway cuiriages, and some have actually “gone native'” —discarding braces (which it is apparently indelicate to expose to view I for leather belts.'

The change is even more marked at week-ends in the country. During the hank holiday week-end, when the mercury was sizzling in the nineties, opennecked shirts were the recognised wear for motorists. At the big sporting engagements, and notably at the Oval (where Hobbs was gathering his 190th century off the Notts ‘‘bodyline” stuff),* the short-sleeved sports shirt iu all varieties of color was to be seen. Indeed, the probability is that even more of' them would be worn wore it not for the fact that production of this cool, comfortable pattern, which has sprung as suddenly into popularity as did the woollen jumper of a year or so ago, has failed to keep pace with demand. On the golt links the plus-four suit has gone, and so, too, has the scarlet jacket. The Prince of Wales himself knocked the bottom u<u of the strict St. Andrew’s tradition by playing iu his shirt sleeves, and tropical outlits even to the topee are to be seen in scores at Sunningdalo and Hangar Hill.

HAITI! IN WEATHER. FORECAST It is something now for Englishmen to be able to put implicit faith in weather forecasts that promise a continuance of fine, settled weather, and they have rapidly accommodated their habits to the Meteorological Office bulletins. During the bank holiday weekend picnic parties set off in ear, coach, train, or cycle, or afoot, with complete confidence that rai'n would not overtake them before the. day was over. The weather hits restored the river to something of its old-time popularity, and has made fortunes for the swim-ming-pool proprietors. The Thames boatmen have had no such summer for years. Even Henley passed off without the downpours with which it has sb often been associated, and the quiet, shady backwaters of the river and its tributaries have been rediscovered. It is perhaps open to doubt if the river ever will be what it was. . Modern factors are deiiniteJy making for the disturbance of its termer peace and (raiiquiUity. There is, for example, the motor boat. Reaches where once the punt and the canoe and the skiff ruled supreme are now invaded by scores of chugging, cvilsmclling motor launches. And there is the motor car. On the very banks of the Thames there are vast motor car parks where a few years ago only a handful of picnickers were to be found.

Eunnyniede, where Magna Carta was signed, has been converted into a great fair ground. The motor car park there is capable of accommodating hundreds of cars, and often enough it is crowded, while scores of others are drawn up on the smooth turf which skirts the road, and follows the windings of tho Thames beneath tho line old trees of Windsor Great Park. Again, however, it is largely a matter of changing habits of dress and the repudiation of the old conventional river manners that is most noticeable. Ten years ago, when white flannels were do riguour, a venturesome male who poled his punt in a bathing costume provoked a good deal of mild criticism, but. in these sun-bathing days the normal river wear appears to be a swimming suit which is modest, at least, in Us dimensions.

i THE BATHING id 11AZE I The manufacturers of swimming cosf tunics are reaping a rich harvest. In Iformer times most ot us had no opportunity for bathing except ,on our annual outings to the sea, but to-day there is every inducement to swim at any hour of the day or night. The opening of the Serpentine in Hyde Park for bathing a few years ago gave an immense impetus to the craze, and it was quickly followed by the setting aside of suitable sites on the Thames for water sports. A moro significant development, however, has been the building of open-air swimming pools up and down the country. There are now many scores of these within 20 miles ot London. They are a popular j feature of the leading road houses j which have sprung up on the new toy- j pass roads. I The swimming pools in the big Country clubs are naturally more J select." Along the Thames there nro< several of these luxurious clubs which 1 are almost 100 sophisticated in the facilities they offer for the entertainment of their members and friends. Perhaps the supreme example of tho luxurious country club is near Epsom, where the Koval Automobile Club has spout something like £IOO,OOO on the old mansion of Woodeoto Park. It is set in charming surroundings just, below the Downs, over which the Derby is run. Some idea of its extent may be gained from the fact that in the grounds there are two IS-holc golf courses, several grass and hard tennis courts, bowling greens, croquet lawns, miniature golf courses, and s,o forth.; Its opeu-air swimming pool Inis just,, been added at a cost ol £2OOO, and, j needless to say, it is the very latest t in design and equipment. K.A.O. members are inclined to take their pleasures w ithout zest, just as j they accept their good fortune without j thanksgiving, and their losses without, resignation. They are drawn from* the comfortable class, and comfort is* the keynote of the club’s swimming J pool. Close-cropped grass lawns on which blithers and their friends lounge on wicker chairs surround the pool, whose waters are constantly filtered and; purilied on the latest seientilic lines. Iho! dressing-rooms are admirably arranged on a motiml a lew yards away, and are approached by smooth concrete steps.

A lift AN 0 K Ml 3 N TS FOK V ll AN (11 N( i The arrangements lor changing are on linen whirl) are now generally adopted at up-to-date swimming pools. Instead of hiring a cubicle by the hour the bather presents his ticket to an attendant, who gives him a large wire basket containing a good-sized bath towel and

a small rubber band. These lie takes to any of a dozen or so cubicles, and as by removes his clothes he places them in the basket, which in due course is handed over to the custody of the attendant.. The basket bears a number which corresponds with that on tile rubber band. He wears the band un his wrist while bathing, and presents it later to the attendant, who restores lo him the basket containing his belongings, and he dresses in any vacant cubicle. The arrangement, new to England until recently. is rapidly being adopted at all the new swimming pools, and has many and obvious advantages, but chief among llmm are that the safety of the bather’s clothes is assured, and the necessity of providing scores of bathing boxes is obviated. One can swim or sun bathe indefinitely without robbing others of dressing accommodation, and there are no waiting queues. Sooner or later this system will be in use. not only at artificial swimming pools, but for sea bathing at all the seaside resorts. For sea bathing lias not gone out of fashion with the arrival of the swimming pool. On the contrary, there never has been so much of it as during the past week end. The trek to the sea for the August bank holiday week end surpassed all previous records. On the Great West Road out of London no fewer than -1000 motor vehicles passed the box of one Automobile Association scout in ail hour at the height of the rush. The Brighton. Eastbourne, Bournemouth and Southend roads were even more crowded. For two or three weeks before the holiday the A.A. was mapping out routes for its members at, the rate of 10.1 XX) a day. The vast majority of these were simple main mad routes, but more research was required to serve the tastes of those who demanded that the roads they travelled should lie well off the beaten track, and should lead “somewhere where supper may be had.’’ RAILWAY “COME-BACK” Road travel by coach and car represented a very high percentage of the August bank holiday total, but the bulk of ilio travelling public still use the rad-

ways. which, as they say in ringside* circles, have registered a “come-back” this summer. It is estimated that during the big holiday week end 10,000,000 passengers were carried over the four main line systems. Two, hundred miles of locomotives and coaches were in rsa on the London and North-Eastern railway. On the London Midland and Scottish 500 extra trains were run in three days, and 3000 sleeping berths and 12,000 train seats were reserved on the long-distance trains of that system, which 35.000 meals were served durinft the week-end. The reservations were even heavier on the Great Western line, which serves South Wales. Devonshire and Cornwall. As for the Southern railway systems, the trains on the shorter journeys to Brigtou, Margate, Folkestone and the Isle of Wight ran into and out of London in an almost constant stream.

Increased travel facilities by road and rail combined with the brilliant weather appear to have made people more carA free. With more and later trains and coaches day trippers can take greater risks than formerly in regard to return journeys, and those who are embarking on a longer holiday seem more inclined to take, chances about finding accommodation on their arrival at the seaside. If as sometimes happens they miss tho last train or charabanc or are unable to find suitable accommodation, a night in the open, with the temperature high in 1 lie seventies, is not likely to cause much harm. Several hundreds of trippers who were voluntarily “stranded” spent a night last week-end under the -piers at Southend. Brighton. Margate and other coastal resorts, and, a trifle sleepy, arrived bv early trains to resume their work on Tuesday morning. The seaside resorts naturally do not welcome these visitors. They prefer the steady-going visitors, who year after year take their holiday en famille in quiet boarding houses or apartments, where for olio week or perhaps a fortnight in August, they have resen%r accommodation mouths iu advance. 'Lower middle-class English people cling tenaciously to this form of holiday: and represent a very high uroportion of the travellers to the sea during the past few days.—Melbourne Ago.