Evening star., 1923-09-05
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY

BY THE MARQUISE DE FONTENO1.
Most Americans who visit West
minister. Ahbey-that thousand year
old valhalla of the English speaking
world--where solemn memorial serv-
ices have during the past few
months. been held, both for Ambassa
dor Walter Page and for President
Harding-are profoundly interested
and impressed by the soIemnity of the
ancient fame and are awed by its
wealth of memories. No Americans
ever visit London without making it
the bourne OF their principal pilgrim
by reason of their descent and of
their language. they have a share in
the ownership of Its history and of
its traditions.
But there are some. relatively few.
American pilgrims whose patriotic
devotion to their country takes the
form of relentless hatred against
those who fought against their ma
tional Independence a century and
half ago, and who. although SO much
water has passed under the bridge
since then. and the loyal friendship
of more than hundred years has
been cemented on the battlefields of
France. where within the last dec
ade American and British soldiers
fought shoulder to shoulder and gave
their life and their blood for a COM
mon cause. nevertheless feel them
selves impelled to give expression to
their surviving resentment, even
within the gray walls, hoary with
age, of Westminster Abbey, by van
dalistic injury to it's monuments.
1t may be recalled that, although
Maj. Andre of the British army I'm
America was hanged there as a spy,
in compliance with the laws Of war,
yet that he was no traitor to his
country like Benedict Arnold, but I'm
connection with military secret sery-
ice work. He lies entombed in West
minister Abbey, In a handsome monu-
ment. adorned with a bas-relief On
which he is portrayed in the act of
presenting petition to George
the head of Andre Is either broken
off and carried away or else so de-
faced and mutilated as to render its
replacement necessary. so much so
that the vergers are instructed to be
particularly on their guard against
injury to the monument when guiding
around the abbey parties of tourists
from this side of the Atlantic. 1t may
be recalled that the memorial erected
by the late Cyrus w. Field ON the
was mysteriously blown up by people
whose identity was never asceftained.
r. xx
Every Amherst man in the United
States will be sorry to learn that
Lord Amherst, fourth earl of his line,
has been compelled. by the heavy
burden of taxation imposed upon all
land in the United Kingdom, in or
der to pay the huge expenditures in
Cured by the government during the
great war. to sell Montreal. his beau
tiful country place in Kent, near
Sevenoaks. 1t formerly bore the
name Of Riverhead, was purchased
by Jeffrey Amherst. a leading mem
Der of the bar and benches of Gray's
Inn, in 1858, and was greatly en-
larged and improved at considerable
expense by HIS eldest son and name
sake, the first Lord Amherst field
marshal, one of the most successful
of British commanders. and who
transformed the name of the place
render to him Of that North American
city by the French in 1850, which com.
pleted the British conquest of Canada.
Lord Amherst was succeeded In his
peerage and in the possession of his
5000 acres, by his nephew. who dis
tinguished himself as governor gen.
eral of India. In keeping with the
traditions of his race, the present
visited the American. University of
Amherst, is soldier. a former officer
Of the Coldstream Guards and vet
eran OF the various Egyptian cam
paigns, while his eldest son, Jeffrey
Amherst, Viscount Holmesaale, was
twice badly wounded during the
great war, as captain of his fathers
old regiment. Since then he, like
his father has been enthusia stfcally
welcomed at Amherst and greeted
with the old college song:
"Oh: Lord Jeffrey. Amherst was
soldier of the king,
And he came from across the sea.
To the Frenchmen and the Indians
-, he didYft do a. thipg .S:F
In the Wilds OF this wild couritree."
This MASSACHUSETTS university. like