The Washington times., 1935-11-09
Human Side
Of the
News
By EdlDin c. Hill
NO. 10 DOWNING STREET

| WHICH history SGlll uldICuCc1 dAICA
the passing centuries, with thrill
ing fanfare Of trumpets and a
stirring roll of drums. This comes
to mind as we read that No. 10
Downing Street, in London, cele-
brates its 200th anniversary as
the home of British prime minis
ters and the beating heart Of a
great British Empire.
If that great, dingy pile-just
off Whitehall-had the gift Of
tongues. what a tale it could tell
| Of ambition, adventure and in
trigue!
The taking of India. The in
credible, romantic adventure Of
Robert Give, the youngster who
went out to India to clerk for the
East India Company and ended
his career in the House of Lords
and with a massive fortune. The
great struggle with the French and
the Indians. Lord Amherst, Sir
William johnson, Braddock,
Wolfe, Canada saved, the Amer
ican colonies lost.
The Napoleonic era, when for
20 years No. 10 Downing Street
was oppressed with such apprel1en.
sion as Britain had never known
and was not to know again until
the German guns roared over the
fields Of Flanders.
LUSTROUS NAMES
Can one imagine q gathering
of these magnificent wraithS in
the great salon of No. 10 as Big
Ben booms midnight over the
spreading city? The Earl Of Chat
ham, Pitt the Younger, DiSraeli,
with suave and incredible intelli-
gence, establisher of the British
life line through the Suez Canal;
the ponderous and stubborn Glad
stone, necessarily at odds with
Victoria, his Queen; the bearded
Salisbury of the great House of
Cecil; Lord Palmerston; the Iron
Duke of Waterloo.
Rosebery, of the House of Pri1n-
rose; tall, scholarly Arthur Bal
four; Campbell, Bannerman, Henry
Asquith, Earl of Oxford empire
builders all, and empire preServers,
gathered around the great oaken
table, remarking history, con-
templating the tremendous struc-
ture they created:
No. 10 Downing Street is frozen
history; probably no one building
Of relatively modern times so
Symbolizes the annals of a great
nation. It was in 1877 that King
Charles II presented to a remark
able IriSh-American, named George
Downing, a piece Of land not far
from his own palace in Whitehall,
within a stones throw Of where
his own father, Charles Stuart,
was made shorter by a head.
I suppose that George Down
ing was one Of the most re-
markable adventures who ever
Staked his life and his fortune
on a cast Of the dice. He came
to the American Colonies from
his birthplace in Dublin, lived
in Salem, Mass, while they were
still engaged in the thrilling
sport Of burning witches, &C
quired in Harvard College a suf.
ficient education and found him.
self, within a few years, in the
English capital at a time when
the House of Stuart was crum-
bling under the hammer blows Of
Oliver Cromwell.
He received the first diploma
ever issued by Harvard. His
restless activities took him into
fur-trading and to trade with the
Indians. For a bottle Of rum, so
the story goes, he acquired as
much land as could be covered
by a deerSkin. Shrewd George
cut the skin into thin strips and
stretched it over some 20 acres.
This yarn is perhaps apochryphal.
At all events, our Mr.. Down.
ing was a Shrewd, if not slippery,
gentleman. According to tradi-
tion, supported by some credible
documentary evidence, George
Downing became sort Of chap
lain with Cromwell'S army. He
was high in favor with the Pro
tector and with the Protectors
son, Richard. Then came the
Restoration, as England, tired Of
the grim, gloomy era of Puritan
ism, yearned for the flesh pots
Of the Stuarts.
Young Charles Stuart came
back from Holland to assume the
crown of his ancestors. And
presently, we find this astound-
ing gentleman, Downing, as high
in favor with the son Of the
monarch, whom Cromwell be-
headed, as ever he had been with
Cromwell himself.
LOST THEIR HEADS
A great many gentlemen lost
their heads-quite literally-at
that particular time because they
had bet on the wrong horse.
Over the gates of London, neatly
: affixed to spikes, were once ia
, miliar countenances Of noble and
important Englishmen who had
, followed the banner Of Cromwell
and who had concurred IN the
execution of Charles I.
But George Downing managed
somehoW-no man knows how
, to keep his own shrewd head on
his shoulders and to go about his
business quite successfully. AS I
say, Charles II gave him piece
of land near Whitehall.
A short, narrow street took his
name and continued to bear It.
| ~. "a rNou...s,a.. Chrnnk ram innd. q