STRANGE ASCOT SCENE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 229, 28 September 1931, Page 8

STRANGE ASCOT SCENE

IN THE ROYAL ENCLOSURE PHANTOM PROCESSION Queer things happened at Ascot a few weeks ago. Beautiful wdmen strolled about the Royal enclosure accompanied by faultlessly dressed young men. They looked just the same as the exclusive crowds who pace the sacred lawns on the occasioi. of race meetings. Suddenly the men lifted their top hatr and cheered, and the women bent low in graceful curtsies. But the course was empty. There was no panoply of carriages and scarlet-coated outriders. It was a phantom royal procession. The scene became even more startling. The men sat on the grass with their fair companions and ate thick beef sandwiches. Where was the salmon, the chicken and the champagne 1 ? Tattersail’s was empty, and a policeman reclined in an easy chair in the paddock. He was asleep, and his helmet was on his knee. The footmen on duty at the Royal enclosure were weaning wrong liveries. A man with a megaphone and an American accent called out, “Are these men at the gate 0.K.?” “0.K., sir,’’ came the reply from one who appeared to be his assistant. The sun burst through the clouds. “Come on, ,boys,” cried the megaphone man; “let’s catch this bit of sunlight.” • ' Once again pretty women and handsome men walked through to the gate of the Royal enclosure and welcomed a phantom monarch. Then they relapsed. They had shot a few more feet of the film “The Calendar,” the Edgar Wallace racing drama. A man with a bag picked up frag ments of paper. “I wish they’d tell these people not to make such a mess,” he muttered. It was certainly the strangest “race meeting” that has ever been held at Ascot.