DUST OF THE PAST

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1934, Page 13 (Supplement)

DUST OF THE PAST

FREED FROM TOLL

“Historicus.”)

(By ‘

Waterloo Bridge was free from toll on October 5, 1878. It was the purchase of the bridge by the London Metropolitan Board of Works that enabled the unpopular toll to be abolished. Both the public and the shareholders benefitted by this alteration, as the bridge had been a most unprofitable speculation from the very beginning, the company never receiving more than £21,000 (gross takings) by way of dividend On an outlay of over a million sterling. The toll demanded had been one half-penny and twopence for pedestrians and vehicles respectively. The abolition of the charge was welcomed by the public as the removal of an irritation that was as annoying as it was bad business. The turnpike system had always been unpopular, and was never much of a success in.either England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales. The first authorisation of the toll is recorded in 1346, when a commission was granted by Edward 111. to lay a toll on carriages passing from St. Giles to Temple Bar, the roads in this part having become impassable through neglect. The maintenance of roads and bridges was, of course, a problem that grew with the evolution of wheels. At one time Scottish highways were kept in repair by what was called “statute labour,” a system under which the labouring population could be called upon to give six days’ work yearly upon the roads in their parishes. The earliest Scottish Turnpike Act was passed in 1750. In Wales the turnpike system gave occasion for the celebrated Rebecca Riots, when a systematic demolition of toll gates and houses was carried on for over a year. When one considers that there was usually a gate to every six or eight miles it certainly was an irritating way of collecting the cost of the road.

A Strange Mystic Man. On October 4, 1226, there died one of the most remarkable men in all history —Francis Of Assisi, the founder, of the Order of Franciscans. A strange mystic man, he threw up wealth, home, parents, comfort, everything, even his clothes, with the exception of a rough hempen girdled tunic, and went forth preaching his gospel of poverty. No work was too menial; no charity too exacting to serve. From the viewpoint of these enlightened times it is somewhat difficult to appreciate his motive for such unparalleled self-abnegation. But the times were mediaeval; beliefs possessed all the fire of primal passion and superstitious idolatory. The instincts of his age accorded well with the primitive ferocity of his self-denial. He believed the Church needed reform; that there should be more imitation of Christ among its members. Francis went forth to fulfil literally the teachings of the gospel as he defined them. He soon gathered converts. At first only two; then there were eleven, and the famous Order was founded. By degrees his enthusiasm excited emulation, and in 1219 the brotherhood held its first meeting where assembled 5000 members. He was a mystic. His hands and feet were said to bear the marks of the nails which held Christ On the Cross, and his • side the.. spear wound.. Mtay Italian painters have pictured Saint Francis receiving the stigmata. He was canonised by ■ Pope Gregory' and'• is commemorated on October 4. First Military Leader.

; Miles Standish, died, on October 3, 1656. It is a change occasionally to leave the great ones of the past and drift to simpler? stories of history. For the doings of Miles Standish we have to journey with the Pilgrim Fathers to America, and peer for a moment or so into the lives of the simple folk who travelled in the “Mayflower.” For those intrepid, if gentle, spirits in seach of a world free from the evils of religious persecution, the accomplishment of the voyage across the stormy Atlantic was but the beginning of their great adventure. In the woods imagination pictures, a world of peace and romantic solitude. The band of pilgrims soon discovered that the woods of. America hid harder facts of life 'than those from which they had flown. Existence held other enemies besides hard work and hunger. Indians were not always friendly, and so Miles Standish became the first military leader of the Puritan Settlers in New England. If he had done nothing more than join the Pilgrim Fathers and lead them against the Indians he would still remain a romantic figure of American history, but there is also an interest apart from these exploits that has, with the help of Longfellow, done equally „ as much to perpetuate his fame. In his poem, “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” Longfellow has recorded that Standish, apparently, was not as good at courtship as h e was Indian fighting. He fell in love with Priscilla Mullins, but would appear to have been diffident about declaring his passion, so he sent his friend John Alden to propose for him. Faint heart never won fair lady, however. “Speak for yourself, John,” said Priscilla, who possibly understood both of them better than they did themselves. John did, and Standish was invited to the wedding!

“Cleopatra’s Needle.” On September 12, 1878, the obelisk, improperly known as Cleopatra’s Needle, was erected on the Thames Embankment, not far from Rennie’s masterpiece. Waterloo Bridge. Most relics of Egypt’s antiquity have enveloped themselves in a mantle of superstitious mystery. Death and disaster is the legendary accompaniment to the desecration of its sacred symbols. But it is difficult to believe in these prosaic times, that anything other than coincidence has been the moving factor in certain calamities that have occurred ir. connection with their removal. The carrying of the Needle to England gave plenty of opportunity for the imagination of credulous people. The vessel, “Cleopatra,” which carried it, sailed with the “Olga” on September 21, 1877. During the voyage a violent gale sprang up and separated the two vessels. The Cleopatra, which was abandoned, was afterwards found and towed to Ferrol, from where it was towed to London. But the undertaking had cost six lives! Religion has been the creative instinct of most architecture of the world, and the obelisks were the Egyptian symbol of the supreme god. “Cleopatra’s Needle” was erected by Thothmes 111. at On (Heliopolis) about 1600 8.C., rentoved to Alexandria by Augustus about 23 B.C. and finally acquired for Great Britain by Sir Ralph Abercromby in 1801.. Now it stands on the Embankment, along with very proper gentlemen, with baggy trousers of the Victorian era. A symbol of the mysterious east, ages ago the veneration of an antique people, office boys now sit on its ancient stones and eat their lunch!