should be England's chosen champion of Christendom and have his knightly exploit pictured on guineas, sovereigns, half-sover= eigns and half-crowns, when those coins were current in the realm.
For George, literally rural in its meaning, has an essentially English ring. It speaks of stolidity, of rustic humour and of manly simplicity. "Farmer George" was term of affection given to the third of that royal name on the Throne of England. And, soon England will be joined with her sisters all over the world in honouring the Jubilee of his descendant, King George V.
The name of England's patron saint is closely interwoven with English folk-lore and tradition. The national festival was often associated with Hock-Tuesday which ands its place in this year's calendar a week to-day. Hock-tide re~ presented the break of the year—the victory of Summer over Winter—so it was fitting that St. George's defeat of the Dragon should be invoked o illustrate an agricultural event. The sword-dances in pre-Christian England took their rise from the folk-songs celebrating mythological or historical heroes. [They expressly acclaimed the feats of champions and the resurrection of Summer. Later, when Christian ritual prevailed, they were adapted [to suit ecclesiastical convenience, but they retained their principal characters—the fool in the fox' skin, the "Bessy" (a man dressed in Jwoman's clothes) and, in due course, the romantic figure of St. George. Thenceforward these /sword-dances, still celebrating the /turn of the year, became known as. St. George plays, although it should noted that where those plays: stil! survive in England they are St. George's Cross—embodied in the Royal Navy's own Red Ensign floats to-day over many an English village spire. It. speaks, the St. George plays did, of an England burgeoning into the glory of Summer. Tt gaily flutters the message of England to neat little hamlets as well as to demure country-towns, The big cities and sophisticated boroughs may what they like about it, For George is rural and his heart Iles In the England of yeomen—as his name implies, To outsiders it mav be a too complacent England—an England which cannot always exorcise the Podsnapian spirit nor refute the charge of insularity.,"The criticism may be passed for what is worth, Yet perhaps some may see merit in a smiling, comfortably hedged countryside which recks not of matters over the crest of the hill whence the road leads on to breath less, restless hurry. She is, on the whole, a tolerant England who 1s content to let the world wag as it will, so Tong as her domestic quiet ig not disturbed. She will send her sons and daughters across the seas on adventure bent, but they have to comply with her routine when they come back—to isten to her tale of crops, of harvests, of sowings and of all the small beer of the village, Whether they have accomplished small things for great, she gives a maternal ear of negligent sympathy which does not linger too long lest she should bbe affronted by the disclosure of outlandish and newfangled customs, So she quickly returns to her chares and expects the wanderers conform. But as the Cross of St. George fies over the Church tucked away in the sleepy hollow, she is resolute in encouraging the spirit of England to spread itself Jat need. Within the church itself {the signs and symbols of the wider fife are reverently preserved; and, when all is said and done, they fonty typify the ordered decorum lof the true England of St. George. They enshrine the deeds which, through the passing of centuries, have buttressed English freedom, What else they may have done is no matter when the sun's rays have given their last gentle salute to the flag on St. George's Day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.