The Washington times., 1923-06-16

final article of a series 3OTitte1e fO1
The Washington Times.
BY THE DUKE OF LEINSTER
tCopyright, 1898, by Cosmopolitan
LONDON, June is. - Apart
from the supreme delight of
watching a railway porter succeed
in moving more slowly than a
London suburban train, parish
registers provide for the Ameri-
can visitor the most skin-tingling
Of all the thrills that Britain has
to offer.
The House of Parliament,
Madame Tussauds, the Giants
Causeway and the way we make
coffee are WEAKNESS to the flesh
compared with the romance of the
yellow old pages on which are
recorded the births and marriage
of the two brave spirits whose
descendants might be living on
stewed tea, oatmeal or four ale
to this day if they had not saved
up their passage money 30 many
years ago.
1t is worth while travelling for
anything from six to twelve hours
in the corridor of crowded night
train with choppy Irish sea
thrown in for those that go that
way), studying the tin posters
that grace our great termini for
a couple of hours until the local
train is due to leave, and arriving
at the old village in all the
rigors of British July climatic
phenomena, just to see those reg
listers. If the silver candlesticks
have been removed without per-
mission from the parish church or
chapel any time within the last
four years you will probably be
Swallowed by the clerks grand
children, but you needn't be aware
of it.
Not An IgnOble Pursuit.
The main thing is that you find
recorded the Patrick and Norah,
the Angus and Elspeth,. or the
William and Mary Jane you have
been looking for, and mark the
place with tear. After the reg
listers. the graveyard, and after
the graveyard the oldest inhabitant
who remembers the emigrants or
older people who had spoken of
them, or who may, if your luck
is out, transpire to be your own
grand-uncle. What thrills can
equal these?
When all is said and done, ances-
tor worship is not an ignoble re-
ligion. It is followed in the Celes-
tial Empire, and the Chinese have
maintained a civilization for many
more centuries than any of the
European peoples.
Second in Importance in the list
of emotional affiliations most cher
ished by the American visitor to
England, is William Shakespeare
He was born near Birmingham. If
the inhabitants of that time had
realized the importance of the event
they would have had a mortgage
on posterity in the picture post
card and other industries
Shakespeare has survived as a
source of income to the literati
and to the shopkeepers and land
ladies Of Warwickshire, not so much
because he wrote the worlds best
plays as tAat he belonged to the
same race as William Penn. No
Britisher is proud of the fact
unless in a detached and me.
chanical way, that he is of Shakes
pearean stock. Seventy-five per
cent of the Americans who visit
Britain are acutely proud Of it.
Otherwise, why do they flock to
Stratford on Avon? The best
that Shakespeare left us was his
plays and poetry. They may be
had complete for a few shillingsA
Yet you will spend more pounds
than the shillings the volumes cost
In visiting the inessential Shakes
pearean things. If you are a
millionaire you may even bring the
baby all the way from Pittsburgh
to be baptised at the same font as
William.
The Main Drawing Card.
Why? You are searching, not
for ancestors this time, but for
traditions. AS it takes ten hundred
years before nation begins to
have traditions, there are not any
In America Even the Pilgrim
Fathers are still new furnishings
in the American hall of memory.
IT is not Shakespeare himself that
brings you to Stratford, but the
high:water mark of old England
matured thought that he repre-
scented. 1t belongs to America as
much as to us, and it draws you
over.
You are entitled to your thrill.
round the lush valley of the Avon:
put after you have gone home,
don't ask the reason for the
British house of lords. 1t is an
other tradition, kept alive this
time by human symbols.
The third great tremor that quiv-
kaA II