21 JANUARY 1949, Page 5

High jinks, as a distinguished ecclesiastic irreverently put it, are

taking place in connection with the tercentenary of the execution of King Charles I on January 3oth. One celebration that has not been announced, but that I hope will happen without announcement, is a wash and brush up for the exterior of Inigo Jones's historic Banquet- ing House in Whitehall, now the United Services Museum. It was through a breach made in the wall of this famous building that the king stepped to the scaffold, and prayers, I see, are to be said outside the Banqueting House on Sunday week. All this seems a very good reason why the Banqueting House, the only surviving portion of the famous Palace of Whitehall, should be spruced up a bit.