ROMANTIC PERSIA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1931, Page 13

ROMANTIC PERSIA

"LIVING POEM" PAGEANT

Some of Mayfair's loveliest women appeared in gorgeous costumes of fifteenth century Persia in a "living poem" pageant which was given at Grosvenor House, Park lane, recently (writes a Londoner). Tho poem, which was enacted in three episodes, was the romantic Loves of Princess Shirin and Prince Khosru, written more than 500 years ago by Nizami, most beloved of Persian poets. One of the scenes was a Persian flower garden, in which were seen beautiful women and handsome men in costumes copied from an ancient manuscript in the British Museum. The pageant was. neither a play nor a tableau vivant, but a inixturo of both. There was slow, rhythmic movement, which was occasionally arrested to form a, picture. Persian, music was played throughout the scenes. All the rich colour of; Persia was seen in the costumes worn. The seven men taking part wore, in most cases, turbans with bright mantles over voluminous silk trousers. Tho women were brilliantly clothed in tunics and head dresses authentic in every detail.

In London there is a five-story house complete with front door, windows, ami balconies, but only five feet thick from front to back and possessing no keyhole, door bel], letter bos, or inhabitant (states an exchange). Many years ago the Underground Railway built a line through Leinstor Gardens, one of London's most dignifiod residential quarters. The inhabitants of tho gardens protested violently against the hideousness of an open culvert at the mouth of the tunnel beneath them. So the railway people covored it up by building a dummy house. From the railway track it is simply a blank wali; from tho gardens it looks like a well built house, complete in every detail. The house has been the sceno of many practical jokes. Not long ago hundred* of invitations were sent out by souk. .jester to a party there. Meantime it is always providing puzzles for tradi canvassers and others who ask police men where to find the letter-box ami the door-bell that do not exist.