In ft Few Words by Jotter

St. Mary-le-Strand
What we miss by our doorstep
pOR nearly a quarter of a cen tury I have worked in Fleet Street, and yet it was only the other day that I entered the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. Go to a provincial city and you ask what there is to see. Go abroad and, guide-book in hand, you ruin your holiday determined to miss nothing. Yet here, along the historic road which once joined through fields and riverside the city of London to royal Westminster, we have one of the most striking architectural street-planning effects in the world: the two churches of St. Mary and Si, Clement's. the one after the other right in the middle of the street. Walking past idly during the lunch hour. I thought: "Why not go in?" Originally. the Catholic parish church was dedicated to The Nativity of Our Lady and the Innocents of the Strand." This was ,pulled down to enable the Duke of Somerset to live comfortably in Somerset House, and the present Anglican church was built by James Gibb and opened in 1723.
Young Pretender query
TT HE interior of the church boasts an exceptionally beautiful Italian coloured ceiling recently repainted. As the church of the society of King Charles. it has an interesting painting of Charles I and Henrietta, sister of Louis XIII. But it is surprising in this church, somehow, to see the Stations of the Cross and other evidence of a High Church tendency on the part of the present Vicar. In the porch, information is given about the Catholic Holy Week reform, and the question whether Anglicans should fast and abstain on Fridays is raised. What puzzles me, however, is a note in a leaflet on the church which states that the Young Pretender was received into the Anglican Church secretly in 1750 in this church. Is this true? Perhaps some learned reader will confirm or deny.
Hatless Women
“yr is liquid if one can pour it
A from the containing vessel, and if it is in a state of liquidity before being introduced into the mouth . To milk may be added beaten eggs, Bovril. Ovaltine, and all the various preparations designed for invalids. The result may be an unattractive brew but it
must remain a liquid in the common estimation.1 What one must resist. however, is the temptalion to enliven the mixture with even a little drop of brandy". From p. 144 of "Priests' Problems" by Canon E. J. Mahoney. edited by Rev. L. L. McReavy alums Oates 42s.). Clearly, not everything in this valuable book. culled from the feature "Questions and Answers" in the "Clergy Review " makes heavy reading—though some of it inevitably does, together with much I.atin. There is a sort of fascination in the complexities of ecclesiastical law and its unravelline so that something practical. plain and definUe emerges. I am glad to see indulgence shown to hatless *omen in church. "Better for women to make a visit hatless than to make no visit at all. . . We think therefore, failing stricter directions from the local Ordinary, that the rector of the Church should never reprove an individual for appearing hatless in church". These 335 questions and usually long and learned answers will be most valuable to the clergy. but plenty of laymen will find great interest in not a few of the answers.
'My Fair Lady'
AS one of the highly privileged citizens of this country who have actually seen " My Fair Lady" at Drury Lane, I ask myself how it can come about that two to three hours of light musical comedy can excite in such a degree the press and people of two great nations. No show on earth could justify this strange mass hynotism, especially as one of its effects is to cause considerable disappointment when one finally makes the grade and actually joins in the ritual worship. Everyone must have experienced the effect of being told that " you simply must see that film; it's absolutely wonderful." One would have thought it so, no doubt, had one accidentally hit upon it. But having heard its praises so exaggeratedly sung, the film always proves something of a disappointment. Equally, had one (per impossible) dropped into Drury Lane with little idea of what was on, one would have thought that the show was really first-class. But all one can do now is to pick holes in it.
Brilliant Higgins
THEY are numerous. For example. it follows the Pyg
malion dialogue so closely that any reasonable person wants to know why Rex Harrison's brilliant acting as Henry Higgins was not given its chance in a straight production of one of the best plays in the English language. Instead of which. he is asked to speaksing some pleasant enough songs that completely ruin the illusion of an otherwise masterly performance. Julie Andrews as Eliza Was a delight to look at and a delight to hear singing, but she was a dull Eliza. We are left with the romantic tin-Shavian ending, and wondering how anyone could possibly suppose that Higgins could marry Eliza. Stanley Holloway, as Alfred Doolittle, was the only person to get some balance, because one can imagine that Cockney bursting into jovial song. I personally was lost in admiration at the scenery and the costumes, but a well-known critic who actually says that the show " overtopped expectations" described the former as " unimaginative, opulent and vulgar -so where are we ? Yet what a marvellously urbane musical it would have seemed if one had not heard so much about it.
Plays' Endings
THF false ending of " My Fair
Lady " did not matter much; but what about the false ending of '' Breach of Marriage" on ITV ? This play on artificial insemination by Dan Sutherland sounds more unsuitable for home viewing than it actually is. But, if my memory serves, the playwright's whole point was the impossibility of reconciling husband and wife after the deed. The taste of the masses now demands the husband's contemplation of suicide followed 'immediately by a touching reconciliation as though nothing had happened, and all had been justified. I suppose the author agreed, but it seemed an interesting example of false sentimentality ruining an otherwise quite good sermon.
Jesuit Superiors
THERE must have been a certain
amount of amusement among members of the Society of Jesus over our recent announcement that a new Provincial had been " elected." This word appeared owing to the deficiencies of telephonic communication between
our London office and our printers' office. The General is elected on a very restricted franchise, but other superiors are appointed by the General. May one. without giving offence, suggest that Jesuit headmasters who, in the big boarding schools, are Rectors should nowadays have longer periods of office? Jesuit Rectors only have six years of office, though some prolongation is possible. But the successful modem headmaster of a public school should surely be retained for many years. This could be done quite easily by making the headmaster the present Prefect of Studies, while the Rector governs the community and house as a whole. This is the custom in the Jesuit day schools.