Evening star., 1951-04-22
festival Year
To Dramatic
Life in Britain
BY John Roderick
Associoted Press Stoff Writer


Canterbury are growing bushy
boards. The sailing ship Bounty
is sailing up to London. An artist
in the Kent cherry orchard coun-
try is making fireproof flowers as
big as a mans head. One of his
neighbors is grooming 5000 but
terf1ies and moths for a big per-
sonal appearance.
All this is just a part of the
Festival of Britain.
The big celebration, which be-
gins May and lasts until Oc-
tober. is aimed at giving outsiders
and Britons, too. a glimpse of the
history and way of life of the
people of this island.
That's where the boards, the
ship. the flowers and the moths
come in.
The boards are being grown
for the pageants which Canter-
bury, birthplace of English
Christendom, will give through
out the festival months. They
will picture events of Chaucer's
day. when men who shaved were
considered craven weaklings.
Jack Tars as Guides.
The Bounty, built in 1875 as a
successor to Capt. Bligh'S famed
vessel whose crew staged a cele-
brated mutiny. is sailing serenely
from Ramsgate to the festival
pleasure gardens in London. It
will be on view. manned by old
jack tars dressed in costumes Of
the period as guides.
The flowers, made of plastic,
will brighten London's big shop
ping street, the Strand.
The moths and butterflies win
futter around plant life in the
festivals country pavilion, show
ing what it looks like in rural
England. L. Hugh Newman Of
IBexley is supplying 800 of them
Ia week for the exhibit.
A poet once said that Britain
was a land of infinite variety. He
must have been thinking about
the festival year.
| The things Britons have dreamed
up for this season of unrestrained
fun, games and history stagger
the most feverish imagination.
Campfires to Blaze.
Marking the start, practically
every city, town and village will
light up with a campfire on May
4. This is an idea whipped up
by the youth organizations of the
country. They are calling the
blazes Fires of Fellowship"
From then on, most every one
will get into the act. Besides
Londons' main exhibition on the
South Bank of the Thames, each
town and village plans to do
something to commemorate its
history or its future.
Canterbury will have its pag-
IeantS. The ancient town of Rye,
which locks today about the way
it did in Tudor times, will let
itself get attacked by the French
all over again. 700 years later.
/ The Frenchmen, obligingly SAIL
ing across the Channel and into
Rye Harbor just as their ancestors
idid in the 18th century, will be
dressed in period costumes. AS
soon as they're sighted-which
oughtn't to be too difficult, since
they'll be lit up-church bells will
peal a warning and guns will fire.
The Mayor of Rye will greet the
invaders" and John Bull will
plant solid kiss on the cheeks
of Marianne of France.
Rye is figuring on $3.50 to de-
fray the expenses of this little bit
of historical gayety. Town off,
cialS reason visiting Yanks will
spend that much in beer alone.
York is contributing a series Of
passion plays taken from the ones
regularly given there in the Middle
Ages. The original manuscripts
have been dug out of the British
Museum for translation out of Ye
Olde Englishe.
OOdleS of Surprises.
| For those who like their fun
long preserved, there will be oodles
| of surprises in the venerable old
Westminster Abbey Museum. The
museum is opening doors closed
since 1889 and busting off price,
less collection of bric-a-brac
On display will be wax effigies
of Charles II, Queen Elizabeth,
Queen Anne, William II and Lord
Nelson. Their clothing is authen-
tic. 1t comes from the British
Museum.
The Abbey Museums stones,
Ivestments, stocks and eff1gies have
(See BRITAIN, Page E-80