A DELIGHTFUL SETTING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20182, 26 June 1928, Page 3

A DELIGHTFUL SETTING

A COBLER’S COTTAGE HANS ANDERSEN’S GARDEN In the sheltered island of Funen. the very heart of Denmark, is the quaint old town of Odense, full of crooked streets and flower-boxes. Here it was that Hans Christian Andersen teller of fairy tales, and poet, was born in 1805. The white-washed cobbler’s cottage with its bright, red-tiled roof, breathes of the lore and legend so dear to the hearts of the humble anri hardy hortb culturists of this green isle (snvs a writer in the Edinburgh Weekly Scotsman). The immortal spirit of the Prince of Fairy Stories mingles with the chatter of happv children in the streets for the Danish rejoice in the love, life and laughter of their .little ones. By the dreaming revulet which runs through this old-world garden town. Hans, a house pupil, sat ns a boy and dreamed .his first wonderful tales. Here grew in Iris imagination “Thumbelina ’’ “Tim Princess and the Swine herd,” and t-ht whole-heartoid story of “Great Claus end Little Claus” —• stories which to-day delight voting and old chilrfren from Greenland to the Ganges and San Francisco to Yokohama.

But there is a note of sadness in the story of this wistful and modest writer’s life. Poverty was his portion for many years, after failure*’ both as a singer and actor. Moving to the cairital mfy of Copenhagen, he fou^, l lodgings t-.v th*' busy waters of the Nvhnvn. or Now Harbour and became one of the Tijnrnrv circle of this cleanest of seaports. Fame came to him late in life—he travelled far. met. many princes and princesses of real life, and was made an honorary citizen of his home town, an honorary citizen of his home town, Odense.

The true spirit, of fairies, however, livoq in +he scintillating sunshine of verdant Funen amid the country folk who still bring their butter, egg' produce and flowers to market, on Saturday mornings Across the hedgerow ehenuerod fields are the white towers of the village churches and thn spires of the manors. Tn their season fragrant hedges of red licac. elder, hazel, hawthorn anid wild roses e-o twined with honeysuckle and brambles serve to make this peaceful land a place of beauty in the summer time, and to cLplfnr protect fhn slopping countryside from the icy winds of winter when even the surrounding seas are blocked with ice and snow.