Travel and Flying
THEIR Majesties the King and Queen hope to be present at the Royal Air Force Display at Hendon on Saturday, My end. Seventy-five thousand spectators witnessed the ab • pageant from within the aerodrome last year and seats should b3 booked early (at all ticket agencies, libraries, and Ail Force stations) in order to avoid disappointment.
Boxes, which seat six, are limited in number, and cost L7,1; and £4. In the 10s. enclosure a grand stand has been erected to seat three thousand. Facilities in the 5s. and 2s. enclosure' have also been improved. e-- The programme this year will contain important new feature and the number of aircraft taking part has been increased to nearly two hundred, probably the largest concentration 01 aeroplanes assembled at any time since the War. One of the principal new events is a great air battle over Hendon, ie which the Home Defence Air Force will carry out the operations Hostile bombing squadrons will endeavour to attack London from the north, and, following the receipt of wireless intelligence, fighter squadrons from the London Defence Station at Hendon will ascend to intercept the raiders. Another event which is certain to make an interesting appeal is musical drill by radio telephony. A series of popular tunes played by the Royal Air Force Central Band and transmitted by wireless will provide the setting to which the aircraft will carry out I musical aerial ride. No. 41 Squadron, which is part of IN Home Defence Force, with headquarters at Northolt, hat been selected to carry out this new form of jazz. Facilities for motor traffic in the neighbourhood of the aerodrome will be greatly improved as a result of the courteous action of the Middlesex County Council in opening specially for the Display the new Barnet-Watford bye-pasS roads to points just beyond the entrances to the air station. * -. * * * The largest liner designed and built since the War is the "Ile de France." It has a bar twenty-nine feet long, a nursery and Punch and Judy show for children, an enormous " grand salon " decorated in the latest style, where (we learn from a descriptive circular) a wrought-iron clock " marks the joyoue hours spent in this charming room." Certainly on a smooth day (and even the French line cannot guarantee that) this new 40,000-ton floating palace will be a place of delight. The cooking and cellar will doubtless be of Parisian excellence, and these are important points on a sea voyage. * * * *
I came the other day upon one of the most charming oM inns in England, at Hurley. It is the Old Bell,' and has bees a meeting-place for travellers since the twelfth century. Some of the woodwork is rotting with age, but there is nothiog antiquated about its management or its ideas of comfort. Hurley is a fascinating old village by the Thames which travellers would do well to visit : you may learn there of a golden calf buried by the monks of Medmenham Abbey and not yet discovered. The old dovecot and tithe barn are sill standing and there is a strange tale of a chalk-worker sudden!) enriched by treasure trove of moidores and gold doubloons to the extent of £80,000. The ' Old Bell ' is only one of wall inns which are beginning to wake up and meet the needs of that new, sensible, exacting public which modern invention has begotten and sent out into the world " for to see and to admire." Another famous place is the Spread Eagle Thame, famous for its Sunday luncheons. But one might on for ever about English inns.
Miss Celia Simpson, of the Spectator literary staff, left Croydon yesterday on a week's flying tour to Zurich, Vienna. Warsaw, Prague, Dresden, Berlin ; covering 2,700 miles seven days.
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The Motoring Editor will be glad to answer questions at draw up itineraries for readers.
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