The Seaforth News, 1955-06-02, Page 2Squatter tired in
Winds, r Castle
The traffic swirls alongside
Windsor Great Park and some-
times a small grey couple joins
the stream, driven by a slim,
girlish figure, a coloured scarf
around her head. There is no
special policeman on point duty
and often the grey car has to
wait for a lull ins tthe holiday
rush along the main road.
Few of the passing drivers re-
alize that the motorist whom
they are keeping waiting is the
Queen. This anonymity truly
typifies the Queen's keen en-
joyment of her least -known
Janine, her "maisonette in a grey
tower" at Windsor.
At one time the Court went
to Windsor Castle only for East-
er and Ascots week and special
furniture had to be from
London. When the Palace serv-
ants wished to date the future
movements of royalty, they used
to inquire whether a certain
desk would be in or out of town.
Now the Queen like to pop
down to Windsor whenever she
can snatch a spare week -end.
The suite she occupies in the
Victoria Tower was presented
to her as a home of her own
when she was a girl of eighteen
... and nowhere can the Queen
and her husband enjoy greater
relaxation and privacy.
In the little dining-room—con-
verted from a former pantry--
Iier Majesty once highly en-
tertained her father by serving
a meal she had cooked herself,
and the late King so appreciated
the comfort of her rooms that
he jokingly declared he would
like to move over!
Naturally, the Queen has little
time for cooking nowadays, But
her self-contained suite still has
its awn tiny kitchen;, and an ap-
petizing whiff of eggs and ba-
con mingles occasionally with
the castle's air of grandeur.
This is the latest charming
twist in the Windsor 51017 .
the saga of the thirteen -acre
fortress that has been the home
of Britain's kings and queens
for nearly 900 years.
It was from Windsor that Ring
John sallied forth to sign the
Magna Charta, and in the royal
library Shakespeare first staged
his "Merry Wives of Windsor"
to entertain Good Queen Bess.
At Windsor Henry VIII received
that cutting rejection from a
young French princess ... "Sire,
of course I would marry you—
if I had two necks!"
At Windsor Queen Victoria
shyly proposed marriage to
Prince Albert; and whether a
lady's garter was retrieved from
the dance floor or not it was
certainly within the castle that
heroic Edward III founded the
Order of the Garter in 1344.
To -day, as 7,000 visitors a day
Jo ale through the State Apart-
ments, they see old masters
worth a million pounds and one
of the finest collections of ar-
mour in the world.
The privileged are often shown
the bullet that came out of Nel-
son'.s heart and Bonnie Prince
Charlie's sword, items that King
George V once dubbed, "Our
ordinary, everyday treasures ."
Everything has happened at
W 1 n d s o r. On one occasion
George IV entertained three
three foreign ambassadors to a
banquet and prarkisiily sat a
scared tramp on his right hand.
Another time a monkey occupied
the chair of honcur and drank
everything within reach.
The strange feet remains that
Windsor Castle is by no means
as old as it seems, Much of the
present building did not exist
150 years ago. Britain without
Windsor is unthinkable. Yet
when George III decided to use
an old tower as a hunting box
he found that the castle mould-
ering in decay and infested with
squatters.
Children from near -by shop
tenements played follow-my-
leader and tag through the
stately rooms. In fact, when
George IV closed the castle in
order that it could be used for
royal private residence, he risk-
ed unpopularity—for people had
grown used to wandering where
they pleased.
Rights of way were established
that still hold good in some
parts of the castle, despite the
sentries!
To make room for the new
wonders of Windsor, the archi-
tects planned the wonderful Z-
900 foot terrace; and there is also
an internal corridor 550 feet long
where both Queen Victoria and
King George VI are said to
have practised their first rides
in wheelchairs.
There are still many ghostly
corners of Windsor Castle which
are seldom explored. A staircase
near the Sovereign's Entrance
beat's the notice: "No One under
any circumstances whatever Is
allowed to ascend or descend.
this stairway." A pompous offi-
cial is supposed have tumbled
through crumbling stonework
and fond himself in a sewer.
Certainly there is a labyrinth
of subterranean passages cut in
the -pare chalk beneath the great
wine -cellars- which have never
_—
NUCLEAR FASHION — All her school churns toughed when Nancy
Hancock placed her hand on the high-powered Van de Graaf
generator at the County Health Fair, Nancy, 13, joined them
when she looked in the mirror and saw what the generator,
normally used to study the structure of atoms, did to her hairdo.
2
f'Jia v .At1..C.pews,
If you are one of those peo-
ple who use mayonnaise only
for salads you are overlooking
many a real treat. Mayonnaise
can be added to a great variety
of dishes to impart distinctive
flavor -- food that will have
your folks asking, "What's bt
it?"
MvsmtoOirds WITH
ANCHOVY TOAST
12 trimmed slices of toast
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
cup mayonnaise
pound mushrooms
?* cup butter
14 cup flour
2 cups milk
14 teaspoon salt
Pepper
Paprika
Toast the trimmed bread on
one side and spread with an-
chovy paste mixed with an
equal amount of mayonnaise.
For the sauce: wash and stem
the mushrooms; peel caps if ne-
cessary. Use the tender part of
the stems and cook with the
caps in butter about four min-
utes. Stir in the flour and when
well blended, add milk and
seasonings. Stir until thick and
smooth, add the rest of the may-
onnaise and pour hot over the
toast. Serves six.
a * s
CHICKEN OR TURKEY
A LA KING
cup butter
cup small mushrooms (can-
ned mushrooms may be
used)
ee
1
li
1
been fully charted. There are
mediaeval dungeons and deep
vaults where the precious crown
jewels were hidden in leather
hat -boxes during the war. Many
people on the staff, indeed, be-
lieve in the existence of undis-
covered secret passages.
Princess Margaret at one time
spent hours exploring the near-
by caverns. A former Dean of
Windsor is reputed to have
wandered along an underground
passage in the castle and
emerged a mile away in the
Great Park.
During the war, so the story
goes, an Army deserter acci-
dentally entered the castle by
this means — and was found
cringing in the Queen Mother's
bathroom.
Altogether the castle has over
1,000 rooms so that it was indeed
a chance in a thousand, Many
years ago a royal secretary re-
vealed that a well-dressed in-
truder had actually taken up
residence in this maze of rooms
and enjoyed the services of the
footman of the corridor and
kitchen for nearly a month
without being detected.
As a sequel to this exploit,
Queen Victoria made it a rule
to say goodbye to Windsor.
guests the evening before they
were due to leave, and official
lists of "arrivals" and "depart-
ures" were put into circulation.
In recent years, of course,
Windsor Castle has been
amazingly improved and
draught -proofed. Even so, the
heating and electric wiring sys-
tems are woefully behind the
times and many of the apart-
ments have remained unchanged
since VictOrian days. Conse-
quently an expenditure of $750,-
000 for modernizing the sanitary.
and engineering services of the
castle was recently put forward.
4SICS
2 tablespoons minced green
Remit
?.t cup flour
1st} cups milk
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
or turkey
1e cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons pimiento
Melt the butter in e heavy
skillet, but do not let it brown.
Cook the whole mushroom caps
and minced green pepper in the
butter over low heat for about
five minutes. Sprinkle with flour
and blend well into the mixture.
Add milk and stir until smooth
and thick, Add cubed chicken
or turkey and cook for one min-
ute, Add mayonnaise and pi-
miento, stirring in well, and
serve at once. Pass a plate of
melba toast,
e *
SAVORY CREAM SAUCE
(For Fish or Tongue)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
le teaspoon snit
le teaspoon paprika
le cup mayonnaise
14 cup minced sour pickle
1 minced pimiento
Melt the butter stir in the
flour and when well blended,
add milk and seasonings. Stir
over low heat until smooth and
thick. Boil one minute, then stir
in the mayonnaise, minced
pickle and pimiento. This is also
delicious with cauliflower or
broccoli.
* * *
HOT HORS D'OEUVRES
le (generous) cup buitter
6 oblong slices toast
1.z eup minced lobster or tuna
fish
1 tablespoon minced green
pepper
1 tablespoon minced onion
?:t cup chopped celery (fine)
2 minced hard -cooked eggs
Savory cream sauce (above)
Melt butter and fry each slice
of toast in it for one minute.
Remove toast to a hot platter
and keep hot. To the butter, add
the fish which leas been com-
bined with minced vegetables
and eggs. COok three minutes,
pile on the hot toast and over it
pour savory cream sauce, Serves
six.
Modern Et quette
Stale Cake Was
Sold At Auction
In the market place at Car-
lisle, on Wednesday, April 7th,
1832,, one of the strangest auc-
tion sales in history took place,
" Standing on a rostrum, sur-
rounded by groups of traders
and curious neighbours and
friends, were Joseph Thompson
and his wife, Mary Anne Thomp-
son.
Joseph Thompson placed a
halter round her neck and then
explained to the astonished and
amused crowd that they had de-
cided to part, and that she was
up for auction for anybody who
wanted her.
"She has become my tormen-
tor, a daily curse, a night inva-
sion arid a daily devil. But she
can make butter, sing ltloore's
melodies and plait her frills and
caps. I therefore offer her, with
all her prefections and imper-
fections, for the sum of fifty
shillings."
Through this strange perfor-
mance Mary Thompson smiled to
het friends and generally behav-
ed as though being auctioned by
her husband was a daily occur-
rence, Yet there were no bids,
And although Thompson talked
Or nearly an hour everybody
treated it es a joke.
At the last minute, however, a
stranger on the outside of the
crowd, who had a retriever dog
on a leash, pushed his way
through to the front and bid a
pound.
-1•11 take twenty shillings and
the dog," said Thompson, and in
a minute the deal was clone.
Mrs. Thompson joined her new
owner and the transaction was
solemnly recorded by the clerk
of the market in his ledger. The
ledger implies that Mary went
without resistance and calmly
accepted the whole procedure.
For England, at least, that was
a strange business, although the
auctioneering of slaves was com-
mon enough elsewhere. A fac-
simile of the 'Bermuda Gazette'
for January 25th, 1817 snakes
strange reading to -day:
TO BE SOLD BY VENDTYE
At the Subscribers' Auction
Room on Tuesday next
(Their Established Auction
Day),
At ten o'clock, to close Sales,
Men's Willow Hats, of good
reality,
Iron,
Nally assorted,
25 hags Bread,
10 Barrels Salt,
also,
Rice, core, flour, crachers,
Candles, white lead
and
A Healthy Young Negro
Woman.
But even to -day drama in the
auction room is a common thing.
At famous auction rooms such as
Sotheby's or Christie's sinal] for-
tunes change hands in a matter
of minutes and fabulous priees
are paid for strange or rare ob
jects. Once the staggering sum
of £.364.094 was bid in a single
day at Christie's- -it was during
the sale of the Holford Collec
tion—and on another occasion
£60,090 was bid for a single pic-
ture. Romney's "Mss Daven-
port."
aven-
port"
It takes a lot to surprise those
who run auction rooms, Rich
people unloading their collec-
tions, into money, families clear•
ing out old "junk" from lofts and
basements, and a few who've
bought something they think
might be valuable.
Sometimes they're right: like
the man who, in 1945, brought
into Christie's an "old print"
he'd bought down the East End
for a few shillings It was Row-
landson's original picture of the
famous Vauxhall Gardens, which
had been exhibited at the Royal
Q. What are tete occasions
when sending flowers is really
obligatory?
A. To the funeral 01 a friend,
or a member of a good friend's
family. To an intimate friend
who is — or has been — serious-
ly ill. To neighbors who give
an anniversary party. To a
guest speaker, when we are the
hostess.
Q. 11 is correct to use the
knife for cutting fish at the din-
ner table?
A. No; the fork should be
used for this. However, it may
be necessary at times to use the
knife to slip Bach a piece of re-
fractory skin.
Q. How should one eat break-
fast bacon, with the fingers or
a fork?
A. When possible, with a
fork. But when it is so very dry
and "crisp that it scatters into
fragments when broken by a
fork, flngera are permitted, as
they are also 100 very dry potato
chips,
Academy in 1784 and lost track
of ever since. It fetched £2,730.
Once, Sir Alec Martin of
Christie's said that his firm kept
a collection of weird and won-
derful things brought them for
auction; even though unsaleable,
they used to buy them for the
amusement of their custpmers,
but unfortunately a bomb de-
stroyed this curious collection
during the war,
Skeletons, instruments of tor-
ture, Egyptian sarcophagi, Vic-
torian sherry and stuffed croco-
diles are only a few of the cur-
ious things brought in for auc-
tion.
Some unique items auctioned
for substantial sums in London
have been a piece of stale cake
for E10 (it was a portion Of
Queen Victoria's wedding cake),
a lock of Nelson's hair and the
vest which Charles I wore at his
execution. The vest fetched 200
guineas.
In London every month a very
strange auction sale takes place
in which the items offered for
sale are the. prospects of life and
death. The auctioneer sells re-
versions and life policies. The
life policy of an old lady of
eighty-eight is announced as "an
attractive proposition." implying
that it can't be too long before
the policy is paid up.
But much depends on the
health and potential longevity of
the person in whose name the
life policy is held. A reversion
is a sum of money due from
somebody's will (somebody who
has already died, of course,
otherwise the purchaser of the
reversion might find that a co-
dicil has made his property val-
ueless) or under some legal
settlement.
Many people who cannot be
bothered to wait for years to
receive benefits, and legacies
auction their rights in this way.
But propably quite the oddest
item ever brought to an auction
room was a man's arm in spirit,
together with a sward. Sotheby's
realized that they could hardly
be put up for auction.
But inquiries were made about
their origin, with such good re-
sult that they were found to be
of the greatest historical inter-
est and of particular sentimental
value to Scotsmen. For the arm
had belonged to the Fifth Ear)
of Montrose, the Scottish horn
who was hanged, drawn and
quartered in the seventeenth
century.
Nobody knew fur certaie why
this grisly relic hacl been pre-
served, whether from motives of
patriotism or enmity. It is more
likely. I should think, that a
sympathizer and follower of the
Earl preserved the arm, Once
Sotheby's had been able to es-
tablish the history of this ob-
ject it was returned to Fain -
burgh and interred with th , r tet
of the Earl's remains,
An auction sale unique in his-
tory took place at 'Holborn Hall
in London last November, when
titles were offered for sale. For
over three hundred y ears a item
ily of Essex country solicitors
have collected manor rolls, maps
and records which carry with
them the dile of lord of the
manor.
The titles, of course, derive
from the days of feudalism, and
Horace Beaumont and Bolen
Beaumottnt *ere, until the sale
was over, lords of nearly fifty
manors in various counties.
Their strange collection was
knocked down for nearly £10,-
000, many people acquiring the
right to call themselves lore of
the manor far a few hundred
• pounds.
Although Americans were
keenly interested in the sale, the
Master of the Rolls, Sin Ray-
mond Evershed, decided that on
no account would these historic
documents be allowed to `,.cave
the country. Twenty-seven peo-
ple bought titles.
One purchaser, Mr. Wiliam
Foyle, the famous bnokeeller,
bought five; and is now entitled
to describe :himself as Lord of
the Manor, of Blamsten
TRIM IDEA -- Christmas tree in
theme of Mrs, Joseph Can-
a very modern vein lo the
zani's costume at a ball. Wire
and balloons add the modern-
istic touches.
HEN'S A GOOD EGG — Fur and feathers have made a happy
merger. This old hen abandoned her eggs after a two-week
sit to care for a litter of kittens belonging to eight-year-old
Warren Ball.
BOYS: REMAIN 'SINGLE' — It happened in Indianapolis — but it could happen anywhere. It's
;The old story of three boys riding one bike at the same time and an oncoming truck. The
boys were critically injured, lucky not be killed outright. Patrolman Lloyd Intel examines the
*mashed bike.. Indianapolis Traffic Capt. Audry Jacobs promptly announced police would
seize the bikes of any youngsters caught riding double or triple. "It's deadly," he said,