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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1964-05-13, Page 12• ,t. • ,yy • •. iPAGE,.TWELVE THE; LUCKNOW SENTINEL,, LUCKNOW, ONTARIO Describes And• Visit Dear 'Friends.— Celebration Marking., Shakespeare's' Anniversary To Modernized 400-Year-OId Devon Farm Now what 'shall I tell you to- "` day? :After all, in this part ' of England, there has been only . one reafy important topic the four hundreth anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare ",And !ince .we were there, and home and .Lucknow : are near~,. Stratford, Ontario, I. 'shall . give you ":some .of my impressions, • ., We arrived 4n, Stratford at, noon on Ttiesday,`' April 21" and drove into the civic parking lot. It said caravans not allowed, but I looked dumb and the man at the 'gate. Rooked• indifferent, and, we stayed. until !Friday morning, April 24, - for;two considerations, I might add. we looked out ' of . our . front. window at the ,Shakespeare mem- orial Statue and the . Theatre.. And in passing, I must say that . T like our. Canadian -Theatre better than the ofie" here that is in ap- pearance. From the theatre the scenes. are . very similar., - a beautiful green park, trees, ., the peaceful Avon 'and the dignified swans he "we arrived, Stratford' was , W ��, Its; ,. It. was.. having its; . face- washed. raining , and it' continued to : rain ' more or less intermittently until. late Thursday •• night. 'Paint was being applied.berally also and by Thursday morning, Stratford,. at least, , was in festive attire for a ' party: a " very important party'. with hundreds of guests. We were wakened early in the morning by a joyous peal of 'bells from Holy Trinity Church, Traf- fic became ' heavier and heavier as ' the morning wore , on. The Birthday Parade was set for 10:15 but was very late % beginning. The • Mayor and wire civic dignitaries. led, and were followed by repre sentatives of . more than 100`.coun- tries,'many carrying huge wreaths and, some, with ' smaller . bouquets or even dainty ' nosegays, : which were placed on ,, . Shakespear's grave' later. ' Nearly every school boy had „a ,bouquet also. - They were the boys` of the Grammar school which Shakespeare attend- ed andlater they went to • Shake tspeare's grave and laid their flow- ers there , • also. Among the VIP's was Canada's representative, Mr. A. J. McMullen. The American representative was. Mr: Eugene Black, who had officiated at the opening of. the Shakespeare . Cen= tre, the day before. He made a very good speech but his origin was very evident when • he spoke of woild, woik a7nd F`boithday! Years» ..the House. is that: -..age.- � represented and what ',a can• farm, of , two hundred, and. forty trast! ,Some adjectives I jotted acres, . • down were fantastic, wonderful, grim and spectacular when I came away from the Exhibition. By evening, the . "tumult and the shouting" ' (and the .traffic) were, beginning to die away.: We again crossed the river to the Recre- .ation Ground to `see the fireworks. While waiting for them to begin, a group of younger teen-age boys passed, singing "Happy .Birthday dear William." 'I expect' they had appreciated the school. holiday. The fireworks ' were. 'gorgeous against a beautiful,clear, dark. night sky,: with ' an ' almost full moon, .andthe silhouette:. of the graceful spire of Holy Trinity. Church. One of the most unusual and amusingof the displays . was the Trapeze Artist or the Gym- nast. The finish : ' was• William Shakespeare's head and the dates 1564-1964,.• So ended the big day, the latest and most important; of ,all Shakes peare celebrations. I wish you had all been'. with me.' '• • •Sincerely, The . Country Mouse., Twigworth, • April'; 26, 1964. Dear Friends Now ' what to tell you today! How about a' real,live, working farm?We are camped in a Car- avan site on Wear Farm in Devon. It is on the River Teign, about three miles from the mouth and we : see the, tide rise and fall every. day. There is a railway line between us and the 'river. Last evening we . counted eleven trains in about two hours everything 'from the ` so-called • Cornish` Riv- iera Express to a one car :.diesel to a long freight to a '4 car. freight., The. trains are all diesel and go about their.. business distributing no one. The Caravan Site is a ten acre field; and 'I'm sure its is the only relatively level ten : acres' in the whole farm It is covered with grass and the grass grows very fast in this mild, moist weather. There are four.cute, looking half grown lambs .;eating thegrass but later it will be cut . for winter feed. I havet no idea • how many caravans there are, maybe 100,. many permanent, all . the year homes and the others used ' only in the summer. • The actual farm has been in existence threeor four hundred Some of the 'downstairs ro oms As the parade passed the rep- have huge uge oak beams in the ceil- ings and many .of the rooms have stone flagged floors: It is painted glistening whitewith black. trim. I' expect it Is a stone house but it is plastered or ._rough cast_: on the outside. now. The farm. used to be owned by a .gentleman. of • ineans who kept a coachman and other. servants, The coachman's -cottage is near the , house. At one time thehouse and garden were surrounded by a ' high stone wall but only bits of it are left. Those bits- are over- grown .:with ivy and delicate flow- ering vines, a lovely sight. There is . a . walled garden °behindthe house with this year's early cab- bage in head, potatoes eight in- ches- high,. and peas and broad beans in bloom. There is a lovely gnarly old walnut tree near the house and two palms, .yes palms in England! I was taken', on a 'tour - of the barn yesterday . by. the son of the. must It is' very new' and covers say I thought the.poodle looked brighter than the colonel! I stood in a crowd, for more than an hour to get` a short •glimpse of • Prince ' Philip again: as he • came from., the . Shakespeare • Exhibition which he had- opened officially a short time before, `f one cow was in .a. separate stall • °'Then I went through the exhibit- for , artificial insemination. That ion which took more than`. an ' is the popular technique here at resentatives., took their' places in small,�groups at the foot of gleam ung white flagpoles.; ' each /pole with a neatly furled flag on top. :Trumpeters ' on ,a flat roof .'at the top of the street:sounded'a ,fan- fare. and, the flags of all . the. • nations .were . unfurled simultan- eously. It was, a colourful. and •thrilling moment. Many of the rep- resentatives were in gorgeous; na- tional costumes which added to' the pageantry:, We; ;