A SCENE IN VILLAGE LIFE.
[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."' Sia,—A short time ago the Spectator emphasized the urgent need of fuller understanding between the great English- speaking nations by giving Elihu Root's speech at the unveiling of the Lincoln statue in full, also stating that Mrs. Woodhull Martin, an American by birth, had given 11,000 towards the expenses of erecting that splendid gift to England from America.- On Saturday, August 28th, another link in the chain of better knowledge and understanding was forged by the celebration of the Mayflower' tercentenary on Mrs. Woodhull Martin's beautiful estate at Bredon's Norton. The sun shone upon the gathering, and the whole village, besides many visitors from far and near, assembled on the lawn of the beautiful old Elizabethan manor house at the foot of historic Bredon Hill, where Queen Boadicea once had a camp, and within sight of Evesham, Worcester, and many other places full of memories of decisive moments in English hietory. In this old manor house once lived John Copley, one of the gentleman adventurers who joined Ralegh in his expedition to Virginia, as well as many from the neighbouring towns and villages. Appropriately enough, therefore, the village fête began with a representation of Sir Walter Ralegh being introduced to these adventurous spirits, and showing to the assembled company the potato and pipe of tobacco which he had brought back from a previous voyage and introduced into England. In the next scene a company, appropriately dressed to represent the Pilgrim Fathers, mothers and children, marched across the lawn, singing the Otcl Hundredth, towards a model of the ' May- flower.' (The actual vessel was not so large as the King's yacht, the 'Britannia,' and carried. that small band of 102 heroic souls across the stormy Atlantic, the voyage taking no fewer than nine weeks.) Governor Carver, represented by Mr. Welles, a descendant of Welles—Lincoln's great friend and supporter—addressed the emigrants, and that historic event, the signing of the compact, was enacted. The spiritual meaning of this emigration was forcibly brought home to the spectators by the opening address given by the Earl of Coventry, by the prologue read by Sir William Barrett, and by the addresses given by Governor Carver. The characters represented, were taken by visitors staying at the manor house and by people living in the neighbourhood, and no more appropriate or charming setting for the celebration could be imagined than was pro- vided by this lawn overshadowed with fine trees and surrounded by low" rose-covered walls and hedges, with white pigeons cooing and fluttering around.
We and America are indeed not independent, but
interdependent, a fact recognized from the first at this old manor house. Here the Anglo-American peace centenary cele- bration was first discussed: one of its objects was the purchase of Washington's birthplace, Sulgrave Manor, now accomplished. A further step towards better knowledge has now been taken by the founding of the first British Chair of American History, Literature, and Institutions, to be followed surely by a similar endowment in America for the study of English history and [We have been obliged slightly to shorten this letter.—ED. Spectator.]
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