THE TOWER COMES TO LIFE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18756, 12 July 1935, Page 3

THE TOWER COMES TO LIFE

ITS FIRST TATTOO ... SCENE OF; PAGEANTRY 4 LONDON, May 24. Tho light faded; towers and turrets, grey with age, steeped in history, and stained with the blood of kings and queens, were etched against the sky. Came the stirring sound of martial music. The flood-lit forms of the band of the Scots Guards, splendid in scarlet and gold, their piper wearing their lartan, passed playing to slow time. the curtain went up last- night on the dress rehearsal of the Tower* Pageant and Tattoo, played on the most perfect stage ever devised for any pageant, the Tower of London itself. The jnoat made a natural amphitheatre,. seating thousands ; the bottom of the moat a. great and splendid stage ; 'ansi the wall of the moat, with the ■Tower. buildings rising high above it, such a back drop curtain as stage impresarios dream about. “ A TRIUMPH- • Buildings have been superimposed on the wall to give-the effect of Tower-hill in medieval times. ...The whole "'as a triumph in scenery.’ This is the first pageant ever held in the precincts of the Royal fortress, and the special permission of the King had to be obtained. . .. It gives in a series of colorful episodes scenes t-hat. have taken piace in the Tower and its neighborhood; history, in fact, made visual. Throughout the dress rehearsal a solitary sentinel of our own days patrolled the moat wall, high above the arena, khaki-clad, liis rifle on his shoulder. The pageant opens to the public bn morrow and continues until June 8.