21 JULY 1967, Page 11

A hundred years ago

From the 'Spectator,' 20 July /867—The week has been full of festivity for everybody except the Prince of Wales, who has been worked off his legs. The Sultan has been "entertained" at Windsor, at the Crystal Palace, at Guildhall, at Spithead. and at the India House. At Windsor his reception was rather rapid, half an hour being allowed for pre- sentations and five minutes for lunch, but every honour was paid him, and his little son—who, we beg leave to remark, is not the "heir," though he will one day be Sultan, the throne passing in suc- cession to each eldest male of the House of Othman —was kissed and petted prettily. At the Crystal Palace thirty thousand well dressed men and women cheered him to the echo, refused to hear Titiens sing "II Bacio," fought for eatables like roughs at Greenwich Fair, and nearly trod one another to death in a stampede towards the fireworks. The utter brutality with which big women trod down little ones was a thing to mark, and but for a police- man who closed a door, and so stopped a crowd warming dOwn the staircase, fifty lives might haVe E&:ii lost."