The new enterprise. (Madison, Fla.) 1901-1908, 1907-10-03
"A HAMPSHIRE PAGEANT
HolU Romsey Has Celebrated a Thousand
Years Circuit

the stage. with the monarch giving
counsel to his son and receiving the
Queen and a group of Processes, and
the aged Bishop of Winchester &C
knowledging gratefully the gift to
the church, while his attendants are
singing a Latin chant The second Is
more dramatic. for 1t recites the
Hampsbire variant Of Tristram and
Isolde. with the Kings messenger
telling in love with the fair Elfrida
instead Of pressing the royal suit and
being murdered for his treachery,
with the rebuilding of the abbey at
the Bishops suggestion in expiatlon Of
the crime. This incident occurred at
Wherwell, in the upper Test valley,
but is utilized for the Romsey pag'
ant. The third episode is more spir.
tied still. for It portrays the process
sion OF the abbess and nuns, with
crowd of villagers behind them, to
shrine outside the convent, where
saint appears with golden wings and
promises them protection, and super
natural help is needed; for, WINE
they are kneellng in their litany' the
Danes are on the river In their boats
and emerging from the woods set nre
to the church before the townspeople
can rally and beat them back. Next
comes the wooing Of Princess Matilda,
a professed nun eager to escape from
the convent garden, and when the
Norman king had glanced wrathfully
at the cloister walls and departed Tor
his fatal chase in the New Forest,
his brother meets her and makes
love to her, pausing only when the
charcoal burners cart with the dead
monarch's body covered with broken
is driven across the meadow. History
is closely repeated here, for the an
cient road from the New Forest
crossed this open air theatre, and the
driver OF the cart is another PurKss-
a descendant Of the charcoal burner
of the Red Kings time,
The history Of Romsey is brought
down to 116O with the abduction OF
the Abbess Mary by Matthew OF AL
sace-another fine tableau with pic
turesque grouping of nuns, soldiers
and villagers. The deposition Of the
Abbess Elizabeth by the Bishop and
her subsequent reelection by the
nuns are the themes of the sixth ep-
isode.. with the seventh the record
is carried into the sixteenth century,
when the abbey was suppressed by
49, 1,t,,,in oo,ov,,fggtOnar nnd the
property purchaser by the vicar and
townsfolk Modern history opens
sluggishly with a civic function-the
incorporation of the borough by
James l., and then comes a stirring
fight Of the Civil war, with the post
ing of the advance guard of the Roy
alists at Romsey, the diclng and rev.
elry of the troopers by their camp
fire and the stealthy approach Of the
Puritan cavalry and successful raid
upon the enemy's camp This is fol-
lowed by a moving scene-the passage
OF King Charles l. as a prisoner
through the town, on his way to the
scaffold in Whitehall, with a little
! girl offering him a basket Of roses as
be goes on his sorrowful way The
final episode commentaries the Res
toration Of Charles II. and closes with
thanksgiving anthem from the an
Client abbey, and then there is a splen-
did tableau-the march of all the per.
formers across and around the broad
lawn fringed with woods-circling
files OF monks, nuns, ecclesiastics, war
riors, courtiers, prineesses, sovereigns
and villagers, with splendid blends OF
color under the dull gray sky and the
broad river and water meadows be
yond with their overhanging foliage
II is a glorious spectacle, on the
memory Of which ancient Romsey can
live TRANQUILITY for another thousand
years.
This outline Of the three hours en-
tertainment conveys only an made
quate impression Of the beauty Of
the pageant plan in Mr. Ashley'i
park and Of the combination of arts
tic energies which has made 1t so ef.
feetlve. For over a year the prepa
rations for II have been in progress
The vicar Of the abbey and the Rev
Canon Shrine have been writing the
songs and dialogue; the costumes
have ben designated with palnstakinl
care and made in the town; the
y shields, armlets and helmets have
been turned out by metal workers II
mission club; the music has beer
composed by Mr. Tours and the or