LONDON AT ITS BEST.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143550, 15 July 1911, Page 4

LONDON AT ITS BEST.

(By “An Ordinary Londoner,” from the Daily Mail.) An old Londoner, I return to town a(ter<an absence of ten days, and rub my eyes and ask myself, “Can this be .London?” It is a strangely .new aspect that London wears alter the briefest absence just now. Not that in a week or so the place has actually changed very much, although with the preparation for the season’s festivities bursting like blossom in an apple orchard every day makes a difference. But after a few days spent elsewhere one comes back able to recognise gradual changes that have been proceeding unnoticed from clay, to day during months and years. 1 realise that London has become a gayer town than .it ever was before, with a brighter, lighter, more cheerful atmosphere and . outlook upon life. There is more going on, more to see and to do, greater bustle and movement. A GENERAL' QUICKENING UR. The Coronation brings a general quickening up. It revives the cheerful, sanguine spirit in which we used to look at things Ib the prosperous Jubilee years of the eighteen hundreds before the South African troubles came and Consols and mines and Americans “slumped,” and the sense of Impending national peril embittered our politics with the mutual suspicions and recriminations of parties and classes. We arc,done with elections for a time. We are glad of an occasion to forget our rancours and got together in neighbour--, liness. The jealousies and ill-tcelingsi ‘ of tho constitutional agitation, the object of which was to' hurt somebody, have given way to the kindly, benevolent spirit of the National Insurance scheme, whoso purpose is to join hands all round and do good to everybody. Yon can see this more cheerful spirit in a thousand aspects as you -walk through the town. Here is a little circumstance that has its meaning. ’ I wonder whether any old Londoner can j remember such a year for house-pain l - i ing and decorating as.this is. Wher- i ever yon go through the residential I parts of London you find that -people , have hacf or are having their houses ■ freshly and brightly swept and' gai 4 - I nished this year. ' The ladders and signboards of the house beautifiers are everywhere. People, 1 am told, are having brighter, better, more artistic schemes of decoration carried out than ever before. It is,the hopeful, outlook of the Coronation year, the delight and,... content of tho occasion, the happier thought of the times that seek expression. The suburban gardens express thosnmo. glad spirit.Took, too, at the florists’ shops. Was there -ever such profusion- of flora] beauty? Why, when you'come to think a moirlent, you realise that new florists’, . shops by the dozen, have ’sprung’ up in ; all the residential districts. There_aro three quite, recently opened in Kensington High Street. All these’ things are not, without and their meaning. People do not suddenly begin to decorate their houses and to . adorn them,.with beautiful flowers owing to a caprice of fashion". It is happiness that expresses' itself in beauty. INCREASING NUMBER OF / AMUSEMENTS.

Take ’ another little matter. The cinematograph shows, whose multiplication’ is one of tho most remarkable of recent developments, the skating rinks, the new theatres and amusement palaces, the Sunday. concerts, the three great exhibitions now opening —all these. things' are’ not accidents. They represent an enormous and extraordinarily rapid increase in the demand for ahd the capacity of enjoyment of the population. For it, is not true that people seek amusement ns solace for their miseries. -It is', the happy who are ready to enjoy entertainments.. Yes, wo are, undoubtedly brightening up. In every aspect London, which focuses and reflects tho spirit of-the nation, shows it. The merchandise in the shop windows tells the same story. The , shopping streets are museums of beautiful, exquisitely coloured gaieties. And I may bo wrong, for I do not pretend to authority on such matters,, hut to my casual eye it seems that this year the Englishwoman is. more tastefully and becomingly dressed than at any time in my memory. The fashions in gowns and millinery of this season are , happy fashions. How charmingly, for example. these turban-shaped straw hats sot oft the fresh, keen, smiling face of the young English girl and how well the tight sleeves and the'short, narrow skirts become her lithe figure and active, easy carriage. Moreover, it is hot only the rich who are becomingly dressed; The general standard of dress is unmistakably higher than ever it was. Everv young woman of every class is a ladv of fashion this year. The iovotis spirit of the Coronation season has stimulated her imagination, her do s ire to look her beat, and her perception of what suits her. REVIVAL OF THE ROW. Sec the merry parties in the restaurants, hear tho people laughing and gaily talking in the‘omnibuses, in the trains. It seems to mo that friends greet one another more heartily and are gladder to meet this spring. I walk through the Park in the morning. The revival of the Row is in itself an extraordinary .feature of the dav. King-George has made the Row fashionable again' in the early morning, and the freouent appearance of the Queen and the relaxation of restrictions upon the motor-car has given now interest and movement to the Park in the afternoon. The old, da vs of the afternoon promenade, when the carriage, with its pair of fine stepping hays, had nowhere else to go hut the Park, can never come again, perhaps. The big motor-car needs a bigger circuit than, the Drive to show its paces. But no motor drive can take the place of the morning gallop between the lines of green trees, and with their Majesties setting the fashion the Row lias come again into favour as an institution and a spectacle. The crowds of pedestrian spectators have increased with the cavalcade of horsemen and horsewomen. The chairs are’ all, occupied and the seat-ticket man’s trade has returned to its pristine prosperity. The Park gardeners have felt the new impulse of tlie Row. and tire flower beds ■ are blazing with gay colour. Loudon never had a happier, pleasanter meeting-place of mornings than the Row. and it is delightful to see it come back into vogue ns.one,of the signs of the light-hearted spirit, in which London is preparing to engage in the great festivities of the season.