NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 242, 21 June 1928, Page 5

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

For upward of a century the position of sexton at the ancient parish church of West Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, well known to visitors from' all parts of the country, has been held by the Fryer family.

Light housekeeping on a small scale goes on in a tiny doll’s house constructed in a matchbox. The designer of the minute apartments, Mr Charles Aldridge, of Battersea, spent thirty-five years building it, and making a doll small enough to be the occupant.

A masterpiece of tinycraft, this miniature is completely furnished, even to pictures on the walls and a covering nn the table.

Wrought silk was brought from Persia to Greece 325 B.C. In Borne in the time of Tiberius, a curious law was passed by the Senate. It prohibited the use of plate of gold, and forbade men “to debase themselves by wearing silk, fit only for women.’’ In ancient times silk was of the same value as gold, weight for weight, and was thought to grow in the same manner as cotton, on trees, says a writer in the Hqrsham Sign Post. Silkworms were not brought to Europe from India until the sixth century. It is on record that Charlemagne, in A.D. 780, made Offa, King of Mercia, a magnificent present of two silken vests. Boger, who was King of Sicily in 1146, did much to encourage the Sicilians to produce silk, so that they not only bred silkworms, but spun and wove the silk. Gradually the manufacture of silk spread into Italy and Spain, also into the south of France, but it was left to Henry IV. (of France) to plant mulberry trees and order the production of silk throughout the kingdom.

Silk was not manufactured in England until 1604, although there is some account of the beautiful silk mantles worn by some noble ladies at a grand ball held at Kenilworth in 1286. The clergy were permitted to wear silk as silk manufactures was made by the in 1688 and settled at Spitalfields, and from then the silk manufacture has gone steadily onwards. Some time ago a man wrote to Mr George Robey asking for £2OOO. Mr Bobey receives many begging letters, but was so surprised at the cool impudence of a request from an utter stranger for £2OOO that he could not

find words to reply. Mr Bobey.has since received the following indignant letter from the same man: “I am surprised that you have not answered my application for a loan. It has been a cruel disappointment to my fiancee, as without the money we cannot get married.’’ A source of interest to visitors to the British House of Commons is the lighting by means of electric lamps concealed above the difusing glass roof. A signal for the switching on of the lights can be given by means of a switch but.; ton concealed in the arm of the Speaker’s ehair.

The effect of switching on the lights is occasionally dramatic; One instance was when Mr Ramsay MacDonald'» plea for more Information — i ’ X am j speaking in the dark*’—was followed': Try the turning on of the artificial a light. ~.... i Twenty year? age, Mr Janies Thom-j eos, a Dundalk dentist, while cruising; i» the Mediterranean, threw a bfttilel Overboard. The bottle contained Sis ’Amines card, with a note offering to a e a set of false teeth for the finder. Mr Thomson recently received a letter from George Christian, Cooilshee)agh, Isle of Man. stating that the bottle, .covered with seaweed and barnacles. had been found by him off the Manx coast. The bottle appears to have travelled between 1000 and 2000 miles.