The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-19

TNHE visitor to England who lands
 at Southampton, finds himself 4 within a very few miles of the lit tie town of Romsey, and on June 25, and the two following days, Romsey will be celebrating the thousandth anniversary of its existence.
 Romsey is a typical English town, ''all in a nowery vale with that famous trout stream. the Test wandering through it's meadows, and beneath its bridges, and the old grey Abbey rising among it's clustered red tiled roofs
 Few towns have greater natural ad- vantages either in the way of history or locality for celebrating a brilliant pageant. The beautiful park of Broad lands, the home of generations of states men, and especially associated with Vis- count Pamerston, the sturdy premier of the sixties" lies at the very gates Of the town, and an ideal spot beside the broad stream of the Test, sheltered by leafy woods, will be available for the performance by the kind permission of the Rt. Hon. Evelyn Ashley, who 1t will be remembered, is in the habit of en- tertaining the members of the Atlantic
 
 At this spot each day after a solemn thanksgiving in the Abbey, with a ser mon by one of the bishops and services in the other places of worship, practi- cally the whole population of Romsey will join in giving somewhat in the spirit of the ancient mystery plays of the mid de ages, q series of dramatic representa- tions of the most important events in it's long history of a thousand years.
 It would be hard to find any kind of public spectacle which makes a more striking appeal to our sense of a com mon Inheritance in that brilliant past. The masses of color shown by the varied costumes, all most carefully and accurate ly designed by some of the best authori- ties in exact accordance with the fash ions of the times they represent; the deli cate greensward of the park. relieved with the shadows of the massive trees; and the ripping of the stream, which will be heard in the pauses of the chorus, will all conspire to bring back vision of ''NIerrle England' as 1t was in the day of our common ancestry.
 In a country district, like Hampshire, there are stidl to be found many links with the past For instance in one of the scenes which will represent in very striking manner the footing and destruc- ton of the Abbey of Romsey in s9f by King Sweyn and his marauding band of
 
 will appear rowing up the river will be copied from the remains of actual Danish pirate ships of King Alfred's time, the ribs of which are still to be seen sticking out of the mud on the opposite side of Southampton water. Some of the ornaments of the warriors are copied from a beautiful gold tore dug up a cen tury ago in the peat within a quarter of a mile of the very spot where the pageant is being held, and doubtless worn by one of these same sea wolves who met his fate at the hands of the Romsey peasants on the river bank, well nigh a thousand years ago. while the war songs of the Danes is taken from the early Morse songs of the Farce Isles and the Ltany which is sung by the nuns implor- ing divine delliverance, is one both as regards words and music of contempor- ary date denth century).
 Or to take another example, in a very pretty scene which commomorates the wooing. by Henry Beauclerc, of Good Queen Maude." at that time an inmate of the Convent of Romsey, and known as Princess Eadgyth As the lovers plight their VOWS before the grey old gateway of the even then ancient Abbey, they are startled by the sound of a bugle horn. and through the trees comes the lonely funeral procession which has so branded itself on the pages of English history:
 "The rolling blood-stained car, and driver grim who points his finger to the lifeless body of the King"
 Rtlt the cart is one of the ancient type of New Forest carts, which have come down unchanged since Norman times, the driver is the direct descendant of the original charcoal burners who under the name of Purkiss, have occupied for s0u years the farm which stands close to the spot where Rufus fell; and the an cient road to Winchester, still known in parts as the Kings Lane, crossed the river at the very spot where the pageant is to be held In fact, to get to their -Asts on the grandstand. people will have