Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-24

cumstance Of communal existence.
from a battleax to an infants COM
forter." has been housed for the time
being In Kensington palace on The
western fringe of Hyde Park. There,
by courtesy of the king and queen
(for II is the private property OF the
royal family and wus the residence
of Queen Victoria till hel aeoessio u,
the collection VIII probably remain
until London realizes its value sufil-
clently to build 1t more suitable
home. But IL we dwell any more
upon London misunderstanding as
II is-we shall never trace the other
steps OF progress that have been nade
within the pnst year or SO.
Open Tower Dungeons
Just before Christmas the authori-
ties threw open some of the dungeons
at the Tower which have been closed
for centuries, and as the process OF
cleansing and preparations for inspec-
tion has been a Ieisurely one in &C
cordance with official habit none OF
the visitors has collapsed with what
we might call the historic after
damp Meanwhile our solid gain il
that the cells which once confined Sir
Thomas Moore and Sir Waiter
Raleigh reveal their miserable pro
portions---a minimum of space to
maximum of wall-and the fact that
nobody has yet broken his neck In
descending to these depths 10 point
against the approximation. One OF
these fine days-who knows--the spirit
of sanity and honesty will prompt
the powers that be to cart away
deal of the old stock in the armory
rooms, for the accumulation OF
hundreds OF fiintlocks and breech-
leaders and cutlasses of the same type
leaves the beholder no room to turn
around, and certainly robs the col
lection of that typical and indicative
value which such a museum should
boast. Very obviously the grim old
Norman keep was never meant to be
rare show for weapons. and the
sooner its contents are reduced to
the old sufficiency for garrison pur-
poses the nearer we shall arrive at
reconstituting the historic atmosphere
of the place.
The governor of the London mu-
scum, Mr.. Guy Laking, is making
bid for the preservation of certain
old houses in Cloth Fair which have
value as showing the old order of
city residences in days when the city
was ringed with walls and gates. and
our suburbs were heaths and marshes
infested with crows and highway
men. Our present concern Is to check
all marauders IN their inroads upon
relics of old London, and II we can
old domiciles they will continue to
afford us the nearest semblance we
IAN desire to an old city thorough
fare, with the single exception of the
old half-timbered and tumbledown
houses at Holborn Bars.
Cloth Fair has an interest of its
own, besides, for 1t was the great re-
sort of our weavers when they sat in
receipt of custom and welcomed the
the old Fair is mentioned with re-
spect by Strype, the antiquary who
edited John Stow. and comes only
second to him In our gratitude as an
historian of old London. Time came
when the Fair took the name of Bar
tholomew Fair because of the parish
patron, and IN later times, because
of the press of crowds, 1t cleared
off to the open spaces outside the
town and gradually died of its own
orgies But that Is not the fault of
the old houses in Cloth Fair, and
they well deserve preservation.
TO Convert Crystal Palace.
Other measures include the CONVEX
sion of the Crystal Palace to some
serviceable purpose. and when the
puDilC has fGCoNtleQ ITOIn Tile 0AuduS-
ton of buying that "glorfied green
house." as it has been called, 1t may
interest itself actively in restoring it
TO safety and utility, and try to WOO
some beauty back to those disordered
grounds which surround it and afford
one of the finest views south of the
Thames.
Talking of the Thames, there are
also projects afoot for extending the
urban terraces of the Embankment;
and now that the rich occupiers Of
house and offices on the part already
completed are recovering from the in
vasion of the county council trans
they may perceive that the best way
of saving the Embankment from
further inroads is by assisting to ex-
tend 1t up and down the river and
providing 1t with vis-a-vis. AS Mr..
Beresford Chancellor well points out,
London has never had more than one
side to its river, and even the north
or favorite side always showed a
ragged and disreputable edge, Uttered
with dead cats and deader merchan-