Melbourne Observer. 110420A. April 20, 2011. Part A

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Melbourne

48 PAGES STATE EDITION Vol 43 No 1426 SERVING VICTORIA SINCE 1969

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO SOUVENIR Pages 15, 16

Ph 1-800 231 311 Fx 1-800 231 312

Observer WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011

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LEST WE FORGET

The Bakery Cafe Mernda RE-OPENS ITS DOORS AFTER 70 YEARS!

Small Heritage Listed Bakery

Our new French chef (who is also a choclatier) will be making fine chocolates for Easter, along with Hot Cross Buns

including GST

120 YEAR OLDWOOD FIRE SCOTCH\ OVEN

● Offering old fashioned cooking, a variety of pastries, light meals, cakes and coffee ● Sourdough bread ● Alfresco and indoor tea room in a beautiful Victorian period setting ● Catering & special functions ● Disability accessible ● Dinners by arrangement

Open 6 days per week. Closed Mondays 8am-4pm Tue.-Fri. 9am-3pm Sat. 10am-3pm Sun. 107 Schotters Rd, Mernda. Ph 9717 5834

All Suburbs Taxi Trucks

KD LANG TOUR DETAILS

★ Servicing Melbourne and Geelong ★ Pensioner discounts ★ 1 item to large house ★ 2 man from $88 per hour ★ 7 days/24 hours free quote

Page 8

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Royal Pacific Resort Royal Pacific resort is the perfect “”Absolute waterfront” holiday destination, Only minutes north of Surfers Paradise and centrally located to all major tourist attractions, major shopping centres, restaurants and within an easy 15 minute drive to Movie World, Sea World, Dream World and Wet 'n' Wild.

JACKIE CLANCY FEATURE

Go to website for special offers 488 Marine Pde, Biggera Waters Phone: (07) 5529 2288 www.royalpacific.com.au

Page 14

VICTORIA PICTORIAL SPECIAL Page 41

Melbourne

Observer ISSN 1447 4611

■ ANZAC Day observations will be held across Australia on Monday (April 25). Pictured is bugler, Sgt Cameron Earl, as one minute’s silence was respected after he sounded The Last Post at the Nurses Memorial Centre commemorative service held on Sunday at St Kilda Rd, Melbourne.

The Scotch College Army Cadet Unit provided a guard of honour, featuring Piper James Atcheson. Hundreds were welcomed by Prof. Sandra Legg, President, with prayers led by the Rev. Judi Pollard. Lt Col. Ted Lynes recited the Ode, and hymns were sung by The Keytones Choir. The wreath laying ceremony included floral tributes from dozens of organisations.

TURN TO P.42

RCH GOOD FRIDAY APPEAL - PHONE 9292 1166

Page 2 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20 2011 - Page 3

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Page 4 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Location is everything!

Coolum Beach Getaway Resort provides spacious air conditioned accommodation in a small family friendly resort featuring a quiet, charming, secluded setting where you can really get away from the hustle and bustle of modern day life and yet it is only an easy stroll to the beautiful patrolled beach, great shops and alfresco dining.

SEE - Our Coolum Beach Accommodation Amenities This Coolum Beach accommodation is located right in the heart of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and is centrally located for all of the attractions the area has to offer.

18 fully self contained 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments are available now at realistic prices that won't break the bank. A value for money holiday for couples and families.

All of the units have balconies most of which overlook the courtyard, pool and ½ size tennis court - which is great for keeping an eye on the kids while they swim or play.

Decorated in bright, summery shades of blue and yellow, every modern convenience is at your finger tips. This Coolum Beach Resort Accommodation really is your home away from home.

3-7 First Ave, Coolum Beach Qld 4573 Phone: (07) 5471 6759. Fax: (07) 5471 6222 www.getawayresort.com.au info@getawayresort.com.au

DOCTOR ZHIVAGO OPENING NIGHT PICTURES: P15 IS A KISS JUST A KISS? COURT ASKED PAGE 7

Melbourne

Observer

$2.1 MIL. DECEPTION ALLEGED PAGE 9

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2011

Cancer setback for Derryn Hinch

HOME LOAN BID FRAUD: COURT TOLD

A MELBOURNE woman, 24, has had a suspended jail sentence reduced, after the Court of Appeal heard that her husband pressured her to lodge false documents in order to secure a home loan facility.

Meganita Marannu had a 36-month suspended jail sentence reduced to 10 months, suspended for 10 months.

Supreme Court Judges Ashley and Weinberg, sitting as the Court of Appeal, heard that Marannu was just 21 when she obtained a $625,954 loan, supplemented by a second loan of $132,900. “(Ms Marannu) was prevailed upon by her husband, an older man whom she had married in May 2008, and who dominated her life, to buy his parents’ home, which was under threat of being lost because of mortgage default,” Judge Ashley said.

“That is where (Ms Marannu) and her husband, as well as his parents, were then living.

Money was needed. She had no money.

“Her husband and an associate created false documents, which asserted that (she) was employed in his solicitor’s practice.

“Somebody other than (her) - probably her husband - prepared loan applications. The applications were faxed or emailed to the lending institutions. (She) never met the lenders, or had direct contact with them.

LLEYTON HEWITT SUED

Criminal probe

● Derryn Hinch and his producer Shannon Reid on the red carpet at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday night.

■ Melbourne radio personality Derryn that he could have less than 12 months to live.

“The right half of my liver is now no longer Hinch is undergoing liver surgery this week cancer-free,” Hinch says. “ A new tumour in his fight against life-threatening cancer.

Hinch is having ablation treatment where had been sighted before but at only a miniscule part of the cancerous liver will be burnt away. seven millimetres in size was considered nothHe underwent ultrasound treatment last ing. In the past four weeks it has grown to 1.4 week for doctors to assess whether they could centimetres.

“They’ll attack it by going in through the reach the liver without damaging other orskin, into the liver, with a fine wire electrode gans.

The 3AW ‘Drive’ presenter has been told and, with heat, burn the cancer away.””

“All this occurred against a background in which, unknown to her, her husband had been for several years under criminal investigation, apparently with respect to defrauding a client or clients; and in which, known to her, his parents’ home had been sprayed with bullets on one occasion, and on another occasion her husband had been bashed in a city street.”

Judge Ashley said there had been an attempt to abduct the husband and wife, seemingly orchestrated by a ‘hit man’ whom her husband had allegedly engaged to deal with a defrauded client, but who had fallen out with her husband.

Ms Marannu admitted she was not the real target of the charges, but had been used as a “lever” to persuade her husband to pleade guilty.

Ms Marannu, an Indonesian woman, was said to be “under the dominion of her older husband, a man of Italian extraction”. She pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

● Lleyton Hewitt ■ American sports promotion firm, Octagon Inc., has won permission to sue worldfamous Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt, in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Associate Judge Mukhtarlast week allowed the application, surrounding matters of Hewitt’s personal management and investment of earnings.

Octagon is claiming fees or commissions alleged to be payable under agreements where Octagon acted as Hewitt’s agent.

“Such agreements involve the management of commercial affairs such as merchandising and promotional activities, product endorsements, tournament guarantee payments, licensing agreements, ehibition matches and television appearances.”

VICTORIA’S INDEPENDENT WEEKLY NEWSPAPER

Page 6 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

20 years on

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People Melbourne

Send news to editor@melbourneobserver.com.au

● Craig Huggins ■ Gold 104.3 personality Craig Huggins is one of the few people in commercial radio who qualify for long service leave.

‘Huggy’ is about to celebrate 20 years at Gold, where he also serves as Studio Manager. Part of his early radio career was at 3XY. Craig will celebrate the anniversary on May 6.

● Neil Pigot ■ Melbourne-based actor Neil Pigot is to front a Foxtel-based TV program, The Diggers, which premieres on Monday (ANZAC Day, April 25). Pigot narrates the 90-minute ‘special’ looking back at the Aussie soliders, dating back to Gallipoli, 1915.

■ Melbourne writer Claire Halliday has been holidaying in Adelaide, where she says her children “turned on high voltage cuteness and have their nanna in the palms of their cupcake-sticky hands”.

Lovely word picture.

Fax: 1-800 231 312

Opening Night at Her Majesty’s Welcome sight

The Diggers

● Val Jellay ■ Melbourne’s showbiz set was pleased to see Val Jellay at the opening night of Doctor Zhivago at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday.

Val had just been released from Epworth Hospital, Richmond, where she had been admitted immediately after the Myer 100th birthday celebrations.

Val was accompanied to the opening by her son, Marty Fields.

● Pictured on the Red Carpet at the opening night of Doctor Zhivago, at Her Majesty’s Theatre, are Melbourne Observer Editor Ash Long, with Nicki Wendt.

Only kidding

Spotted at The Long Room

● Amy Hattam

● Rita Quadara ■ Observer reader Rita Quadara notes:“When I was a kid I didn't have an X Box or Wii. I had a pushbike and a curfew, a.k.a. the street lights. I lived outside, not inside.

If I didn't eat what was for dinner then I didn't eat. .

Life wasn't hard, it was Life. And I survived!”

■ Local model, Suzie Wilks, 41, has given birth to Ruby Ann O’Halloran.The bub weighed in at 4.08kg (9lb) and was 54cm.

Suzie and husband Nick, 34, married last August.

● Mark Beretta ■ Sunrise TV newshound Mark Beretta has triggered the curiosity of foodies after he hinted that all was not well with a restaurant meal that he ate late last week. “"You go to a nice restaurant for a special occasion, spend a lot of money, but end up with food poisoning? What do you do? Tell them? Yes/ No?" It turns out that the restaurant where the anniversary meal was celebrated was in Sydney.

“Finally called the flash Sydney restaurant we had our anniversary dinner at. Told them about my food poisoning.

They weren't concerned!

Nice,” says ‘Beretts’.

Going digital

■ Melbourne celebrity gardener Alfie Duran lost seven kilograms following his emergency gall bladder operation at Cabrini Hospital.

Leaving 3AW

■ Journalist Amy Hattam is leaving the 3AW newsroom, to take on a new media position.

News of her departure became public at the weekend.

Poisoned

● Doctor Zhivago star Anthony Warlow was seen in the company of Melbourne celebrity columnist Suzanne Carbone at The Long Room, Collins St, late last week

● Julie Houghton ■ Melbourne theatre and music identity Julie Houghton was at Federation Square last week to officially launch a number of community radio stations adding digital services for their listeners.

Julie co-hosted a program for classical music station, 3MBS-FM, and explained its history extending back to 1975.

The nine stations included 3RRR, Light FM and PBS FM. ■ Melbourne TV newsreader Mal Walden will celebrate 50 years in the media, in June. Mal’s early years in the business included stints at Warrnambool, Launceston and 3DB-LK. He is currently working on Ten’s News At Five on Mondays-Thursdays. He admires the way that TV colleagues David Johnston and Brian Naylor were able to retire at times of their own choosing.

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au Melbourne

Observer

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2010 - Page 7

Breaking News

It’s All About You!

Melbourne

WHEN IS ‘A KISS JUST A KISS’? Observer - TEEN THREESOME CASE IN COURT In This 48-Page Edition

Happy families in Music and Mayhem

● Do Paula Chambers, Hattie Hook and Laurie Davis represent a happy family?

Visit Premmle Players' production of Music and Mayhem to find out, suggests Observer columnist Cheryl Threadgold.

Photo: Erik Donnison ■ The play of songs, dance, laughter and $13.75 (Children under 15, incl. $1.25 booksurprises is created by Erik Donnison and ing fee).

Laurie and is being presented on May 7, 14 at Bookings via Peninsula Visitors’ Informa7.30pm and May 8, 15 at 3.00pm at the Mt tion Centre, 9.00am – 5.00pm, 7 days a week, Eliza Community Centre, 90-100 Canadian or phone 5987 3078, or in person at 359B Pt. Bay Rd., Mt Eliza.

Nepean Rd., Dromana or online at www.

BYO food and drink. Tickets: $27.50 (incl. peninsulahospice.com.au $2.50 booking fee), $13.75 (children under 15, This show is being presented specially to incl. $1.25 booking fee). raise funds for Peninsula Hospice Services.

Tickets: $27.50 (incl. $2.50 booking fee) - Cheryl Threadgold

JAIL TERM REDUCED FOR SEX-WITH-BOYS MAN

From Our Court Roundsman

■ “A kiss is just a kiss,” according to the lyrics of the classic As Time Goes By song from the Humphrey Bogart-Ingrid Bergman film, Casablanca.

However, legal argument over a 24year-old man’s session with two teenage girls, aged 14 and 15, has been at a centre of a Court of Appeal hearing.

Judges Maxwell, Weinberg and Harper rejected the application by Richard James Curtis to appeal against his conviction on two charges of committing an indecent act with a child under the age of 16.

The Court heard the girls, ‘SL’ and ‘KV’ kissed each other, at the urging of Curtis, believing them to be over 16.

“The indecency resides not in the act of kissing but in the instigation of the act by a 24-year-old man for his own sexual gratification,” said Judge Harper.

“It was well open to the jury to be satisfied that (Curtis’s) conduct in this respect was of a kind which ‘right minded persons would consider to be contrary to community standards of decency’.”

No Observer next week ■ There will be no edition of the Melbourne Observer published on April 27 due to the Easter/ANZAC break.

Our next edition will be published on Wednesday, May 4. Our office will re-open at 9am,Wednesday, April 29.

Our staff will have a mid-year break. We hope our readers enjoy a safe and relaxing holiday week.

Latest News Flashes Around Victoria

Scammer’s bad call ■ Scammers picked the wrong target when they called Wangaratta Police's crime prevention officer, Leading Senior Constable Helen Parfett. A caller claiming to be from a computer service provider tried to convince her to allow remote access to her home computer because there was something wrong with the virus system.

Bomb scare: charges ■ John Tsorotes, 28, from Clifton Springs, has vowed to fight to clear his name after being charged with making threats to kill, after an incident that closed Geelong’s CBD late last week.

LIVE AT ROD LAVER ARENA International star André Rieu is coming to Melbourne, with his ‘Celebration of Music’ shows at Rod Laver Arena on May 10-11.

André’s show will feature a special guest appearance by The Seekers.

The Melbourne Observer has a Gold Pass (double) - with two tickets, valued at $199 each We also have a number of André Rieu CD/DVD packs to give away as runner-up prizes. These are valued at $50 each.

To enter the competition simply complete the form below and mail to reach us by Monday morning, May 2.

Our usual Observer reader competition rules apply.

■ Victorian Supreme Court Judges Bongiorno, Harper and Hansen had reduced the jail sentence of convicted pedophile Craig Lawrence Davy.

Davy had been imprisoned for a minimum 14 years after pleading guilty to all counts on a 19-count presentment to County Court Judge Pamela Jenkins.

Sitting as the Court of Appeal, the Judges reduced Davy’s jail term to a non-parole period of eight years.

The Court heard that Davy, 41, committed the sexual offences against two boys as young as eight.

Indecent acts The Judges were told that Davy masturbated in front of one of the boys whilst they were watching television. The child was encouraged to do the same, and was photographed.

Some weeks later Davy performed fellatio on the younger lad, and then had the boy perform the same act on him.

The abuse continued “maybe once a week” for some years.

Davy also admitted acts of sodomy, as well as filming video recordings of the two boys in explicit acts of fellatio and sodomy.

“Recognition by the justice system of a real discount for such a guilty plea has an encouraging effect on those subsequently charged with such offences,” said Judge Bongiorno.

Observer Showbiz

WIN! ANDRÉ RIEU GOLD PASS

From Our Court Roundsman

● Justice Bernard Bongiorno

Di Rolle: I Love My Job ........................ Page 8 News: Melbourne man charged ............. Page 9 Long Shots: The Editor’s Column .......... Page 10 Melb. Confidential: Andre Rieu upset .... Page 11 Yvonne Lawrence: Life and Style .......... Page 12 Max: Drug dealer’s jail term cut ......... Page 13 Melb. Extra: Jackie Clancy profile ......... Page 14 Observer Showbiz - Starts Page 33 Melbourne Trader Lift-Out Observer Classic Books - Holiday Reading Harry Beitzel’s Footy Week - Page 42 Best Movies, DVDs Local Theatre News Radio, TV Mega Crossword

Melbourne

Observer READER COMPETITION Send to André Rieu Comeptition, Melbourne Observer PO Box 1278, Research Vic 3095 - to reach us by first mail Monday, May 2, 2011. Winners’ names will be published in the May 4 edition. Tickets will be Box Office collects.

Name: ........................................................................................................

Address: ..................................................................................................... ................................................... Postcode: ...............................................

Page 8 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Walking With Dinosaurs

■ My column this week is very much about what is coming to Melbourne.

It is never ending. There is no doubt about Melbourne. There is always something happening and it gets bigger and better.

The world’s number one selling tour Walking With Dinosaurs is returning to Melbourne.

This show has been a huge hit across the world and deserves to be mentioned simply for the fact that it keeps coming back.

Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular, based on the award-winning BBC television series which was seen by more than 700 million people, will return to Melbourne’s Hisense Arena on Wednesday May 4.

Since 2007, Australia’s own Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular has been on a record-breaking world tour, where the production has played to 6.5 million people and taken over $350 million at the box office.

Tickets are on sale now!Call 132 849 or www.ticketek.com.au Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular originated in Australia, where after years of planning the show came to life at Sydney’s Acer Arena in January 2007 and has since been touring the world garnering record-breaking statistics.

Last year, Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular was the number one worldwide tour - selling more than 1.9 million tickets and outranking Bon Jovi, U2 and AC/DC! Further to this phenomenal success BRW magazine also named the producers of Walking With Dinosaurs, Global Creatures, Number One on their prestigious Top 50 Australian Entertainers List for 2010.

For more information, or school assignments www.dinosaurlive.com gives the most comprehensive educational background to these amazing creatures that roamed our planet so many years ago.

Trust me when I first saw them I wanted to take them home!

Inventive minds ■ It was Al Gore who said, “during my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative of creating the internet'”!

I for one had to go back and read that quote when I first heard it and bless his cotton socks he thinks he invented the internet ... let him have his dreams, I have always wanted to have the initiative to invent something that was missing, like Bette Smith Nesmith, single mother of one son, who in 1951 invented the first correction fluid in her kitchen.

Working as a typist, she used to make many mistakes and always strived for a way to correct them.

Starting on a basis of a tempura paint she mixed with common kitchen blender, she called the outcome fluid Mistake Out and started to provide her co-workers with green bottles on which the brands name was displayed.

By 1956, Graham founded the Mistake Out Company and continued working from her kitchen night and weekends to produce small batches of correction bottles.

She was fired from her typist job after she made a mistake that she did not manage to correct. She had typed in her company name instead of the bank's.

After this stroke of bad luck, she decided to devote her time to her new company. The inventor offered the product to IBM, which declined the offer.

She sold the product from her house for 17 years; the name was changed to Liquid Paper shortly after.

By 1968, the product was profitable, and in 1979 the Liquid Paper Corporation was sold to the Gillette Corporation for $47.5 million with royalties ● Turn To Page 33

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To

Di

I love my job!

Di Rolle is heard most Mondays with Keith McGowan on 3AW, just after the 1am news.

For K D LANG TO TOUR HERE

■ It was Madonna who said Elvis is alive and living and his name is K.D. Lang.

I love K.D.Lang. I have been lucky to have worked with her and I look forward to her tour of Australia this November.

Tickets are on sale now. If I don’t see another show this year, I will definitely be at the front row of K.D. Lang.

The concert tour will see K.D. perform shows with her new band, the Siss Boom Bang, in Melbourne.

She will play a very special outdoor show, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

It was great to see K.D. here promoting her brand new studio album Sing It Loud.

Her appearance on Adam Hill In Gordon Street on ABC-TV1 was superb.

Her album produced, by Lang and Joe Pisapia, is the award-winning singersongwriter’s first record made entirely with a band of her own since the pair of albums with the Reclines that launched her groundbreaking career over 20 years ago.

This collection of songs reflects the organic, collaborative nature of the sessions, which took place at Pisapia’s Middletree Studios in Nashville.

Many of the songs were recorded live in the studio and that energy is palpable. kdlang.com contains full details of the new album, as well as a free download of a song from it.

No 1 album ■ Sing It Loud is Lang’s first studio album since 2008’s Watershed, which saw

with leading Melbourne publicist DI ROLLE

quently toured with Lang since their 2002 Wonderful World duets album.

Lang has also contributed to numerous soundtracks, and has appeared in films.

She is renowned for her live shows, prompting the New York Times’ Stephen Holden to observe: “Few singers command such perfection of pitch. Her voice, at once beautiful and unadorned and softened with a veil of smoke, invariably hits the middle of a note and remains there.”

Saturday, November 12 - Melbourne Sidney Myer Music Bowl www.theartscentre. com.au Phone 1300 182 183, www.ticket master.com.au Phone 136 100

● K D Lang Australia deliver K.D GLAAD. In 1996, she her first ever number received Canada’s one 1 album. highest civilian honor, Watershed also de- the Order of Canada. buted in the Top 10 of She has appeared the Billboard 200 and alongside such musireceived gold certifi- cal luminaries as Roy cation by ARIA. Orbison, Bonnie In early 2010, she Raitt, Elton John, marked the 25th anni- Loretta Lynn and versary of her record- Tony Bennett. ing debut with Recol“She’s the best ■ I lie. I will be going lection, a career retro- singer of her genera- to another concert two spective which went to tion,” observed in fact: the incompanumber one for three Bennett, who has fre- rable Bob Dylan perweeks and which has received platinum certification by ARIA. Later that year K.D. performed Hallelujah, the Leonard Cohen classic, to a standing ovation at the 2010 Logie Awards which saw the album surge back into the number one position.

In February this year, Lang’s Hallelujah Vancouver Winter 2010 was nominated for a Juno Award for Single of the Year.

The track is her interpretation of the Leonard Cohen classic and was recorded live at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

To date, Lang has won four Grammy awards, eight Juno Awards, a BRIT, an AMA, a VMA, and ● Michael Feinstein four awards from

And also ...

forms at Rod Laver on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

My tickets have been on my desk for months now. It will be the 20th time I have seen him in concert, having seen him around the world many many times over the years.

Michael Feinstein is the other. The multiplatinum-selling, fivetime Grammy-nominated American entertainer Michael Feinstein is touring Australia this July performing the classics from his Sinatra Project album.

Michael will take the Sinatra Big Band to the Melbourne State Theatre Arts Centre on July 6.

Spectacular ■ Tickets to this Big Band Spectacular go on sale today (Wed., April 20).

As part of the tour Michael will also be performing at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival on June 25, for more information on this show go to www.adelaidecabaret festival.com.au Feinstein is considered one of the premier interpreters of American standards.

His 200-plus shows a year have included performances at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl as well as the White House and Buckingham Palace.

More than simply a performer, Feinstein is recognised for his commitment to celebrating America’s popular song and preserving its legacy for the next generation.

He serves on the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board,

which has been asked to ensure the survival, conservation and increased public availability of America's sound recording heritage.

Feinstein earned his fifth Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for The Sinatra Project, his Concord Records CD celebrating the music of ‘Ol’ Blue Eyes’.

Recently, he released the CDs The Power Of Two – collaborating with Glee and 30 Rock star Cheyenne Jackson – and Cheek To Cheek, recorded with Broadway legend Barbara Cook.

Get ready to witness one of America’s greatest performers and his big band as they belt out all the Sinatra classics to Australian audiences.

Paul Dainty once again brings the classiest of artists to Melbourne.

He will be bringing K.D.Lang here and he is also responsible for bringing Michael Feinstein to our shores.

Wednesday, July 6 - Melbourne State Theatre, Arts Centre Tickets at the Arts Centre 1300 182 183 or www.theartscentre. com.au or Ticketmaster 136 100 or www.ticketmaster. com.au

Doctor Zhivago ■ The opening night for Doctor Zhivago was held at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday, with an all-star party following. The Observer was there. Photos are on Page 15.

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - Page 9

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au Melbourne

Observer

Breaking News

Statewide

MELBOURNE MAN CHARGED Briefs Not there ■ East Link lawyers failed to turn up at Ringwood Court when limo driver Daniel Hughes wanted to challenge his account in Court. the matter has been struck out.

News From Around Victoria

$3m Xanadu claim

From Our Court Roundsman ■ Steven Avgouladakis, of Melbourne, has appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court following an Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation.

Avgouladakis, 42, was arrested and charged with a total of 38 charges relating to obtaining property by deception and obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

ASIC alleges that Avgouladakis raised more than $2.1 million from 26 investors residing in Melbourne and Port Macquarie, New South Wales.

Despite promising to invest their money on the stock market, Avgouladakis allegedly used the funds for purposes other than trading.

Matthew

Avgouladakis was released on conditional bail and was ordered to reappear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on May 3.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is prosecuting the matter.

Newsagency closes

‘His Tedness’ returns to town

■ Artist Agnes Bruck has entered a portrait of a tormented Matthew Newton in the Salon des Refuses exhibition. Bruck is married to Newton’s lawyer, Chris Murphy.

■ Creditors are owed more than $3 million from the Melbourne production of Xanadu, starring ChristieWhelan, according to press reports.

Creditors are due to meet on May 11, with the production company ● Christie Whelan headed by Mark Pennell and Phillip Corr now in voluntary administration.

■ Powney's Newsagency, Bendigo, is in voluntary liquidation with estimated debts of more than $780,000. Owners Bill and June Tzouroutis closed the doors of the newsagency for the final time 10 days ago, reports The Bendigo Advertiser, which is owed $98.20.

Armed robber jailed ■ Wodonga armed robber, WayneVictor Craig, who brandished a large knife when demanding money at a service station has been given a three-year jail sentence. Craig had developed a “raging drug addiction”, said Judge Marilyn Harbison

Stalker avoids prison ● Matthew Newton Melbourne

Observer

● Melbourne radio man Keith McGowan welcomed former Northern Territory Administrator Ted Egan back to home town this week. They lunched with mutual friend Nick Le Souef.

Your Stars

with Christina La Cross

Aries (Mar 21 - Apr 20) You rams are really hard to work out at times, but I know you well enough to say that you've fallen harder than you were willing to admit to others. Make that call, you know you should.

Taurus (Apr 21 - May 21) This is a good time to take relationships to the next level as not only are you ready for changes but you're also ready for commitments that previously you would not have thought twice about accepting.

Gemini (May 22 - June 21) You don't seem to know how you feel about a person in your life that once meant so much to you. Don't be frightened to take the bull by the horns and to have a confrontation.

Cancer (June 22 - July 23) You have spent so much of your time on the people you love that you've not had enough time to sort out your own worries. Mars hands you the use of his agility today; use it.

Leo (July 24 - Aug 23) Stop worrying about the trouble you've been having with a project and get some help on it instead. Sometimes you are so stubborn; it's silly! Not even you can know everything, so don't even try.

Virgo (Aug 24 - Sept 23) Use the help on offer from Venus to get in touch with the emotions you've been hiding from and admit to yourself what it is that you really need. It's time to stop playing and start living.

Libra (Sept 24 - Oct 23) Information that came your way last week has led you to review your feelings towards a certain person. Don't be too hasty to part company though; check out all the facts for yourself.

Scorpio (Oct 24 - Nov 22) Taureans are of a special significance in your life, and should be responsible for the exciting air around you. What you want is changing, and conversations you have today should definitely confirm this fact.

Sagittarius (Nov 23 - Dec 21) With the help of the stars you have finally learnt that you can leave the past behind.

You also see that you were aiming too low and that you can afford to ask for more.

Capricorn (Dec 22 - Jan 20) I know that there is an atmosphere between you and a family member. There comes a time you know when you have to give respect to age, and I'm afraid now is just such a time.

Aquarius (Jan 21 - Feb 19) Flirting with a face that is spoken for is only going to leave you out in the cold with friends and family, so step back and act with caution. More people than you think are watching.

Pisces (Feb 20 - March 20) You can relax today. Confrontations forecast for this time are sure to make this month better not worse. Travel may cause disarray to plans, but fall in line, reasons for, which will become apparent soon enough.

■ Repeat sex offender John Kristy Parker, 56, has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after stalking 12-15 year old girls on Internet chat forums.

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Page 10 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Melbourne

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Long Shots

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Forgotten Fortunes ■ Latest ‘Unclaimed Moneys’ details relased by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission shows millions of dollars owing to bank , building society and credit union customers.

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● William and Kate ■ In nine days time, Prince William will marry Kate Middleton.

It is a wedding that will stop the globe, a world fatigued by wars, cyclones, floods, earthquakes and nuclear disasters.

Forget the hoopla that Melbourne will be tuned in to the footy. Who wants to watch a Sydney v Carlton match anyway?

We have a preview of the Royal Wedding on Page 40.

ANZAC Day

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with Ash Long, Editor “For the cause that lacks assistance, ‘Gainst the wrongs that need resistance For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do”

for our soldier son James and his Digger mates, currently at home in Australia in Townsville.

André fever

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■ Please take some time on Monday (April 25) to observe ANZAC Day Australia’s own day to remember those who contributed so much so that we can live in peace.

Long Shots was a guest on Sunday for the Nurses’ annual observance at St Kilda Road.

Parents Marjory and Jim Long served in World War II, as did parents-in-law Bill and Isobell Tunzi.

And this column will have special thoughts on Monday’s ANZAC Day

■ André Rieu fever has hit Melbourne, ahead of his concerts at Rod Laver Arena on May 10-11.

● Angela McGowan and André Rieu

Fiddler On The Roof

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● Andrew Kobas, Michael Popowycz, Bohdan Myroniuk and Alex Dechnicz will appear in CLOC Musical Theatre’s upcoming production of Fiddler on the Roof All the details are in Cheryl Threadgold's Community Theatre report on Page 37.

An exclusive radio interview with André Rieu was due to go to air at 4am yesterday (Tues.) with Keith McGowan on 3AW. More about that, and the behind-the-scenes story, are on Page 11.

W.S. Gilbert

● Sir William Gilbert ■ Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (November 18, 1836–May 29, 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his 14 comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan.

The most famous include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado.

Julie Houghton, a good friend of the Melbourne Observer, tells us of the Savoy Opera Company’s latest tribute, a performance of Trial by Jury and HMS Pinafore.

More details are on Page 33.

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT COURT REPORTS Contents of Court Lists are intended for information purposes only. The lists are extracted from Court Lists, as supplied to the public, by the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, often one week prior to publication date; for current Court lists, please contact the Court. Further details of cases are available at www.magistratescourt.vic.gov.au The Melbourne Observer shall in no event accept any liability for loss or damage suffered by any person or body due to information provided. The information is provided on the basis that persons accessing it undertake responsibility for assessing the relevance and accuracy of its content. No inference of a party’s guilt or innocence should be made by publication of their name as a defendant. Court schedules may be changed at any time for any reason, including withdrawal of the action by the Plaintiff/Applicant. E&OE.

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Observer Treasury Thought For The Week ■ “Humility is no substitute for a good personality.”

- Fran Liebowitz

Observer Curmudgeon ■ The woman who constantly interrupts a man’s conversation is either already married or never will be.

Text For The Week ■ Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."

- John 11:25-26

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Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - Page 11

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Confidential Melbourne

Talk is cheap, gossip is priceless

BEHIND-THE-SCENES ROW OVER ANDRE RIEU SCOOP

&

■ Former Victorian priest Peter Pavlou has been officially removed from the Catholic priesthood.

He pleaded guilty to committing an indecent act with a 14-year-old boy and possessing child pornography.

Melbourne’s Secrets

Sheila, what a dame

■ Some teachers at Ringwood Secondary College are in the spotlight after eight of them admitted drinking late at night at a Phillip Island three-day camp.

■ Magistrate Rodney Crisp says Frankston is in the grip of drugs and alcohol. “Drugs are freely available. It’s scary.”

■ Safecrackers Daniel Soltan and Hoani Peraihi have had jail sentences increased. Ringleader Soltan’s non-parole term has been increased from 25 months to five years.

Rumour Mill

Location, location ...

■ Melbourne showbiz critic Peter Ford has been mocking the Today and Sunrise TV shows over their promoting of their RoyalWedding coverage.

The shows have been boasting that they are telecasting from ‘Buckingham Palace’. Ford rightly points out that this is ● Peter Ford not the case, and that the Aussie crews will be in a park across the road from the Palace.

However, there is always ‘sting’ around a Peter Ford story. His critics say Ford should be open about his own broadcasts from occasions such as the Oscars.

They claim Ford boasts about being in Hollywood for the Academy Awards, but files much of his work from a hotel room, some distance from the Kodak Centre.

Whoops!

Short Sharp

Bitch

● Sheila Scotter arrives at the theatre ■ For many years, media doyenne Sheila Scotter could make or break a production with an acid-filled newspaper report. At the age of 91 this year, Miss Scotter made a grand entrance at Her Majesty’s Theatre late last week for the opening night of Doctor Zhivago. Miss Scotter was wearing her trade-mark black-and-white, with a curious touch of London pearly queen fashion.

Whispers

● André Rieu: gave interview to McGowan ■ There were some tense moments behind-the-scenes this week at the 3AW studios before an interview with international violinist André Rieu finally went to air.

The exclusive chat was eventually due to be conducted yesetrday (Tues.) at 4am with Keith McGowan, who comperes the Overnighters program. He has also broadcast in-depth interviews with Rieu on his previous two visits to Melbourne.

But McGowan’s chat proceeded after Nightline cohosts Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady had proclaimed that ONLY THEY had the exclusive Melbourne interview with the Dutch superstar.

Rieu’s publicised chat with Mansfield and Brady never went ahead, despite extensive pre-publicity on 3AW that the pair had scored a scoop.

‘Bruce and Phil’ were due to pre-record the chat with Rieu at 7pm Thursday, but due to an international time calculation error made by a publicist, this did not proceed.

Mansfield and Brady are understood to be very upset by the snafu. It follows botched arrangements at Etihad Stadium in 2008, when Rieu was furious with Mansfield over his hosting of Rieu’s personal appearance prior to first concert tour.

McGowan, who has kept in contact with Rieu by email and phone over the years, arranged this week’s interview directly with the star.

■ Editor notes: The Melbourne Observer was offered an interview with André Rieu, but this was politely declined by us because of time constraints before this preEaster edition. But we do have an André Rieu Gold Pass giveaway, with CD/DVDs as consolation prizes.

Footy tackle case out ■ Dandenong Magistrate Lesley Fleming has thrown out assault charges against Noble Park United soccer player Dragan Sember, 33. The Police informant failed to provide necessary witness statements for the second time, bringing stern criticism from the Magistrate.

● Helen Kapalos ■ There is a real difference between Melbourne’s celebrity photographers ... and those from the rest of the world.

When Ten newsreader Helen Kapalos had a minor wardrobe malfunction on the red carpet last week, the snappers stopped pushing the shutters, and alerted her to a revealed bra.

Paparazzi with manners ... it wouldn’t happen anywhere else on earth.

In hand Hear It Here First

Pay rise ■ Which radio personality has voiced their ambition to have their pay package doubled at 3AW? That ain’t going to happen.

Hotel won’t be rebuilt ■ The burnt-out Maindample Hotel, near Mansfield, will not be rebuilt by its current landlords.

Simon spreads wings ■ Cricketing identity Simon O’Donnell has branched into wine production and land development in the Heathcote area, reports the local McIvor Times. O’Donnell is branching out through OTI Management, part of the O’Donnell; Thoroughbred International group that he operates with long-time friend Terry Henderson.

Councillor collared ■ Manningham Councillor David Ellis has been fined $250 for illegally using a anti-barking dog collar.

E-Mail: Editor@MelbourneObserver.com.au

● Kim Duthie ■ Teenage headliner Kim Duthie claims to have pocketed $1000 after a nightclub appearance in Melbour ne at the weekend.

“Just got paid $1000 cash for being in a nightclub! The manager thought I was doing an appearance.

Hahaha!” she said on Twitter.

No doubt her Twitter entries will assist her in remembering receipts when it comes time to send returns to the Australian Taxation Office.

■ Brown paper envelopes with news tops can be sent to this column at PO Box 1278, Research 3095.

Page 12 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne

Observer Life & Style

‘SCHOOL PAPER’ FLASHBACKS News Briefs Logie nod

● Laurie Oakes ■ TV newsman Laurie Oakes looks set to be admitted to the TV Week Logies Hall of Fame on the May 1 awards night.

To PM

■ There is not much in life that is free, except the joy of opening the door to your memory and let it roam at will.

From the mail, which I received this week, many readers have been letting their minds go back to their school days, and I’ve been treated to some wonderful recollections.

Betty of Glenburn has given me hours of enjoyment remembering my rural school days. Not only did she write about her school days, but also she sent me copies of two Education Department School Papers for grades 3 and 4 dated 1942 and 1954.

Betty’s letters are descriptive and newsy. You couldn’t possibly miss a word. And her recall is wonderful.

I couldn’t remember the name of my early schoolteachers much less the number of our school, but Betty describes it all in detail.

I suspect she and her husband Ray have shared many memories.

■ Peter and I were like kids again as we eagerly opened the two School Papers and in no time we were swapping stories of our early school days.

Bless you Betty for sending the papers.

Ray went to Mernda School so that he could pick up the mail and bread on the way home. By the time he got there he had usually pulled out so many bits of bread, he had created an inverted hole in the center.

Peter smiled when he read that because he would be sent up the street to buy a ‘high tin loaf’ from the bakers and on the way home would start attacking the middle of the warm bread. Consequently when he arrived home he had made a tunnel through the loaf.

Betty thinks that sliced bread was a good invention.

On stage ■ Presenters for the Logies awards have been named as Adam Hills, The Chaser boys – Chris and Craig, Hamish Blake and Andy Lee, Roy and HG, Chris Lilley, Catherine McClements, Karl Stefanovic, Peter Stefanovic, Sarah Murdoch, Jamie Durie, Shaun Micallef, David Stratton, Margaret Pomeranz, Richard Roxburgh, Lisa McCune, Stephen Curry, Deborah Mailman, Shane Jacobson and Megan Gale.

Not many Seven personalities.

■ Our memory lane went to the iceman and his horse and cart making a delivery. I don’t know how the kids knew when the ice man was in the street, but in no time there were dozens of little hands grabbing chunks of ice off the back of the cart.

It was interesting to read Betty’s story of the effect the Great Depression had on their family. Sometimes families didn’t know where the next penny would come from and many farmers just had to walk off their land.

Talk to youngsters today and most wouldn’t have heard of the Depression. So much for learning about Australia’s history.

Betty asked me if I remembered Pioneer Day. It was before my time, but what a terrific idea, and I enjoyed reading about it in the School Paper.

Good times in the barn ■ On November 19, schools throughout Victoria remembered the pioneers who came from overseas to make their homes in Australia.

Children were encouraged to find out from their parents and grandparents all they could about the first family members who came to Australia, and in what circumstances.

It was said that if the family history were not written then, it probably would never be written.

At the bottom of the page there was a note for teachers: Extracts from the Pioneer story will be found to be suitable for dictation for both grades.

Remember dictation? I’m sure that kids today have never heard of it, more’s the pity.

Preston was a suburb that was talked about in the paper. The main road to Melbourne is now called High Street, but it was almost impassable in winter because of swamps and deep ruts. Only bullock teams could get through. On Sundays the family went to ‘church’ by bullock dray to the nearest place where services were held.

A bullock dray was also the bridal carriage at one of the first marriages held in the district. Then came the great day when the first church services were held in Jeffrey’s barn. They wrote that these were good times.

Family ancestors ■ Betty’s husband felt very embarrassed about his ancestry being reported in the School Paper.

Betty told me that her claim to fame was having a convict great grandfather. He was a sea captain. His

Merrily, merrily wave the flags; Gaily the bands march by.

The Queen is smiling a beautiful smile.

(There is even a smile in the sky!)

Reitta Drysdale wrote the poem for the School Paper.

Grand procession fun

Sliced bread invention

Memories of Depression ● John Burgess ■ Game show host John Burgess was employed by the Nine Network’s A Current Affair this week to take pensioner grievances to Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Yvonne’s Column

with Yvonne Lawrence yvonne.lawrence@bigpond.com

eldest daughter married the man who found gold in Stawell in 1853.

There was a lot of poetry in the School Paper, and it surprises me that I still remember so much.

The 1954 edition was full of the visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. There was even a message from the Governor-General telling the children to help the Queen in truth and honesty and thought for others.

“Sing God Save the Queen and remember it is really a prayer that you sing,” he said.

There was a poem of course: Mary is wearing a pretty new frock; Johnnie, a brand new tie.

The children are smiling as they wait.

(There is even a smile in the sky!)

Mary is dreaming a beautiful dream: In her hands she will hold a bouquet; And shyly she’ll kneel before the Queen, “For Your Majesty,” she'll say.

Johnnie is busily dreaming too: In a uniform trimmed with braid, A policeman is he, on a lovely white horse, Leading the gallant parade.

Then suddenly flags begin to wave, And proudly the big bands play.

“The Queen is coming!” the children shout; “Hip hip, hip hip hooray!”

Mary is fixing her pretty new frock, Johnnie is straightening his tie.

Tip-toe they stand, and loudly cheer As their Queen drives slowly by.

Melbourne Observations with Matt Bissett-Johnson

■ It’s rather dated but very sweet. Imagine how that would have excited the youngsters at the thought that their Queen was visiting.

The issue of 1942 told of the separation of old Melbourne. Four days’ holiday was not considered too much in which to celebrate the separation of Victoria from New South Wales.

Thursday was set aside for a religious thanksgiving, but late in the day a race meeting was held on the beach near Port Melbourne. There were illuminations at night and flaming tar barrels. Four days yet! Nothing much has changed.

The following day saw the Grand Procession. The Melbourne printers, who exhibited a printing press mounted on a huge wagon decorated with greenery and drawn by eight magnificent horses, provided the greatest novelty of the procession.

There was a story called the American Scene that tells the history of our Pacific neighbour, the United States of America.

It said that it would be a splendid day for the whole world when boys and girls of all nations set to work earnestly to try and understand one another.

Monday morning rituals

■ Betty, you have given me hours of enjoyment with your letters and the two School Papers. You gave me the chance to open the door of my memory and I have had a wonderful week. Thank you.

I believe that if a modern version of the School Papers was provided for school children, using the vernacular of today, the messages that the Government is trying to get across to the young ones such as drink driving, what smoking does to the smoker, road rules etc, and most importantly that ‘no’ means ‘no’ would get through to them.

The spelling lists on the back page were such a subtle way of learning to spell correctly. It is an ability sorely needed today.

To some, this nostalgia is all a bit “yesterday” but think of the many famous Australians who were committed, and really spoke from the heart when it was the ritual on a Monday morning, summer and winter for the flag to be raised, and the headmaster give the command “Boys salute the flag.”

And the assembly with hands on their heart would recite: I love God and my Country; I will honour the flag; I will serve the Queen, and cheerfully obey my parents, teachers and the laws.

The school assembly then marched into classes to the out -of- tune fife and drum band.

- Yvonne Contact: Melbourne Observer, P.O, Box 1278, Research 3095 Radio 3WBC 94.1 FM P.O. Box 159, Box Hill 3128

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - Page 13

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Observer Mailbag PO Box 1278, Research, Vic 3095 Editor@MelbourneObserver.com.au

Mystery kitchen tool?

Melbourne

Observer

Latest Gossip

ToThe Max

DRUG TRAFFICKER’S JAIL TERM REDUCED BY JUDGES

MAX ■ Observer reader Robert Drossaert, via 3AW producer Simon Owens, has passed on a photo of a mystery kitchen tool.

It was picked up from a shop at Inverloch by a friend for a couple of dollars.

It has been a hot topic of discussion at alocal pub. Nobody has any idea to what purpose the tool might be used.

50 bucks is 50 bucks E-Mails: Editor@MelbourneObserver.com.au

Every Wednesday in the Observer “There are only two types of journalism - dull journalism and exciting journalism. The true journalism is exciting and decidely unobjective.

True journalism, in my view, is devoted entirely to the revelation of facts which someone does not want revealed. That is the high point of journalism; it is the real meaning of being a journalist; it is also exciting and is interesting to read.” - Maxwell Newton

● Edna and Ken ■ Jacki Green e-mails this yarn: Ken and his wife Edna went to the Royal Show every year, and every year Ken would say, ‘Edna, I'd like to ride in that helicopter’.

Edna always replied, “I know Ken, but that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks'.

One year Ken and Edna went to the Show, and Ken said, “Edna, I'm 75 years old. If I don't ride that helicopter, I might never get another chance'.

To this, Edna replied, “Ken that helicopter ride is fifty bucks, and fifty bucks is fifty bucks'.

The pilot overheard the couple and said, 'Folks I'll make you a deal. I'll take the both of you for a ride. If you can stay quiet for the entire ride and don't say a word I won't charge you a penny! But if you say one word it's fifty dollars.'

Ken and Edna agreed and up they went.

The pilot did all kinds of fancy manoeuvres, but not a word was heard. He did his daredevil tricks over and over again, but still not a word.

When they landed, the pilot turned to Ken and said, ‘By golly, I did everything I could to get you to yell out, but you didn’t. I'm impressed!'

Ken replied, 'Well, to tell you the truth, I almost said something when Edna fell out, but you know, “Fifty bucks is fifty bucks!'

Bean bag warnings ■ Fantastic Furniture Pty Ltd, Spotlight Pty Ltd and Smash Enterprises Pty Ltd supplied bean bag covers which failed the mandatory labelling standard.

The Federal Court in Melbourne last week declared, by consent, that the traders contravened the Trade Practices Act 1974 by supplying the bean bag covers which were not affixed with the required choking hazard warning label.

■ Drug dealer Mario Kapetanovic has had a minimum jail sentence reduced from two years by 16 months, by Judges Ashley and Weinberg, sitting as the Court of Appeal.

Kapetanovic pleaded guilty to trafficking in ecstasy tablets. He was caught with 1500 tablets, during ‘Operation Jedi’ conducted by Victoria Police.

Two other offenders, Dalibor Vasic and Darryl Briggs, also pleaded guilty to trafficking and other drug offences at the time.

The Court was told that Kapetanovic was a “close and trusted associate of Tomislav Samac, and a close associate of John Waters”.

“These two were principals in a major drug dealing ring that was the subject of a large scale police investigation.” A third principal in the group was named as Boris Trajkovski.

The Judges noted that Kapetanovic had showed a lack of genuine remorse.

Street level value of the 1500 tablets was put at between $37,500 and $75,000.

The Court heard that Croatian-born Kapetanovic was the product of a close and loving family environment. His father was an anaethetist and his mother a nurse.

He had worked as a nursing assistant, security at shopping centres and nightclubs, includeing Waters’s nightclub at Melton.

Melbourne

Observer The Max Factor

‘BORDERLINE INTELLECT’

■ A minimum threeyear jail sentence handed out to sex offender Shaun Matthew Pettiford has been reduced by Supreme Court Judges Neave, Mandie and Tate.

Pettiford’s appeal to the Court of Appeal followed his guilty plea to three charges of sexual penetration of a child under 10.

There were three victims: one aged 9-10, another aged 7; the third aged 6-8.

Pettiford licked one victim’s vagina, fondled her intimately, and put his penis in one victim’s mouth, pushing her head back and forth.

Each of the victims spoke of their fear, shame and sense of powerlessness.

The Court was told that there was an increased burden of imprisonment on Pettiford because of low intelligence anjd other mental impairments.

Psychologist Jeffrey Cummins said Pettiford had an IQ of 75, with 94

Look Back In Anger

● County Court Judge Felicity Hampel per cent of his peers obtaining a higher full score.

“He consciously or unconsciously gives the impression he is more knowledgeable and more adept at reasoning and processing information that is actually the situation.”

Pettiford’s non-parole jail term has been reduced by six months. Judge Tate disagreed with his collaeagues and said he would have dismissed the appeal.

■ Recent graduates from The National Theatre Drama School have founded Melbourne's newest independent theatre company, The Millinery, which will present John Osborne's Look Back in Anger at Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall, from May 4 - 14.

Directed by Wayne Pearn (founder and artistic director of Hoy Polloy), Look Back in Anger will feature Tosh Greenslade, Daniel Niceski, Lauren Smith and Kassie Whitson.

Osborne revolutionised British theatre in 1956 with the premiere of Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

Wayne Pearn says: "It bid a long overdue farewell to the upper and middle class drawing room staple and initiated ‘The Angry Young Movement’, a new wave of theatre which dealt with the gritty realism of the working and lower-middle classes."

Look Back in Anger still has the power to shock and disturb today as it did in 1956 as it explores class conflict, identity, alienation, loneliness, anger and apathy.

Performances: May 4 - 14 Times: Tues - Fri 8pm; Sat 2pm and 8pm; Sun 5pm Venue: Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall, 189 High St., Northcote.

Bookings: 9481 9500 or www.northcote townhall.com.au

Leaders

● Bob Brown ■ Greens leader Bob Brown has won a seat at the leaders’ debate in Canberra. It has left Warren Truss, leader of the third largest party in the Parliament, the Nationals, why he hasn’t been invited.

Cash case

● Wimalananda Thero Digamadulle ■ Tbe head monk of a Berwick-based Sri Lankan Buddhist order has been accused of deceiving his followers after Police found more than $34,000 cash stashed in his temple room, reports the Berwick Leader.

Wimalananda Thero Digamadulle, 53, who lives at and runs the Sakyamuni Sambuddha Vihara Temple in Homestead Rd, faced Dandenong Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of obtaining property by deception and one of dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime.

Butcher ■ Heroin-addicted Jessica Harrison, 21, has faced Geelong Court after stealing more than $400 of meat from Tasman Meats at Newcomb.

Harrison and her co-accused took the meat from the store without paying.

The store manager retrieved about $300 of the meat.

Page 14 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2010

Whatever Happened To ...

Norman Swain

By Kevin Trask of 3AW and 96.5 Inner FM

● Jackie Clancy ■ Jackie Clancy was one of the most unique comedians to appear on television and radio in Australia.

He worked with some of our legendary television personalities including Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton.

Jackie Clancy died on November 15,1987, exactly 10 years after the passing of his radio partner Bill Acfield.

Jackie Clancy was born in Leeds, England, and during his teenage years he became a boxer. He enlisted in the Army during WWII and was taken prisoner during the Dunkirk invasion in 1941.

He escaped from a POW camp in Germany and was awarded a Military Medal after the war.

In 1951 he was hired as a boxing instructor at the Billy Butlin's Holiday Camp at Filey, North Yorkshire.

Jackie soon had "stars in his eyes" and joined in the entertainment show playing Captain Blood for the children. He worked onstage in sketches with Des O'Connor. Others who got their start Butlin's Holiday Camps included Cliff Richard, Charlie Drake and Dave Allen.

He met his wife Margot, who was an entertainer at the holiday camp and the couple married. In 1956 Jackie and Margot migrated to Australia.

Jackie got his break in the HSV7 television variety show Club Seven where we saw his comedy talents for the first time. He was continually trying to get into the club and being thrown out.

Jackie was sacked from Channel Seven for using material during a television segment that was considered controversial at that time.

Bert Newton managed to get him a job at Channel Nine and on Jackie's first appearance he retold the same joke that had got him sacked from Channel Seven.

Jackie suffered with depression as a result of his wartime experiences. I loved his sketches - the sad clown with the long hair always the underdog.

He was an original stand up comedian with great material. In the 1970s turned to radio and teamed with Bill Acfield on 3UZ and they were a ratings smash. We all loved Ackie and Jackie.

Jackie and Bill wrote the scripts for their show and they adapted the lyrics of Sweet Sorrow for their closing song Don't sorrow, when we say goodbye, don't start feeling blue.

Tomorrow's not so far away, that's when we'll see you.

In' it lovely Bill, if that old clock stood still, Bill, Bill, when you're with me Billy Willy.

The clock would never say we've got to go away would it Billy.

That'd be fine with me, Jackie.

So don't sorrow, when part cause then, It's great, when we meet again.

When Jackie became ill, at his own request it was kept secret. In accordance with his wishes the funeral was private. For some time, the public were not aware that this beloved comic had died.

Kevin Trask The Time Tunnel - with Bruce & PhilSundays at 8.30pm on 3AW That's Entertainment 96.5FM Sundays at Noon 96.5FM is now streaming on the internet.

To listen, go to www.innerfm.org.au and follow prompts.

Or listen on the Telstra T - Hub.

Observer Melbourne Extra Melbourne

ROCK OF AGES - IT’S BIG! Review By Artie Stevens ■ Hilarious and Feel-Good are just two of the terms that take a bit of a beating in the promotion of this 80s based story.

It's not that they're particularly wrong, rather you get to a stage where you feel like you're being force-fed on the terminology.

From the moment I walked into the Comedy Theatre I had that warm and fuzzy feeling of walking into somewhere familiar.

The set was straight out of LA, but could have been St Kilda in the 80s or perhaps Darlinghurst Rd in Sydney's Kings Cross.

Anyone that has spent time in and around any of those areas during the mid to late 80s would have felt similar.

The music was loud, as it should be with songs from Foreigner, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Poison, Jefferson Starship, Pat Benatar and Whitesnake.

The story is familiar, boys meet girls, that's plural, and in one case boy meets boy, fall in love whilst around them the world is being shaken by developers and strip club owners.

It's a simple story and there are no surprises.... no, correct that, there ARE a couple of funny twists, in amongst some of the greatest Rock music of the period.

The audience were regularly dragged, willingly, into the show with slow clapping, singing along and torches waving.

Big Hair, Big Voices and excellent staging, with a fine live backing band make Rock of Ages a great diversion.

Former Sleepy Jackson and End of Fashion member Justin Burford and Amy Lehpamer starred with great support from Michael Falzon as Stacee Jaxx, Francine Cain as the ever protesting Regina and Lincoln Hall is not gay, he's just German. You'll get the idea.

I guess the only issue I had was an over-emphasis on Australian icons and characters in the program. It's nice to be acknowledged, but this is set in Los Angeles and really didn't need all the Aussie gags.

All in all though, if you loved the music of the eighties and want a fun night out that'll get you dancing in the aisles, then look no further than Rock of Ages.

- Artie Stevens

● Rock Of Ages opens at The Comedy Theatre

Easter Art ■ An Easter Art exhibition by Ross Paterson will be staged at the Old Post Office, Seymour.

It will be open, free entry, Good Friday through to Easter Tuesday, 11am to 4pm It includes oil, watercolour amd pastel paintings by Internationally established Goulburn Valley artist.

50 Emily St (Old Hume Hwy), Seymour. Phone; 5792 3170.

‘LARAMIE PROJECT’ 10 YEARS LATER

■ Red Stitch Actors Theatre presents the Australian premiere of The Laramie Project - 10 Years Later from April 27 May 28 (Opening Night on April 29) at Rear 2 Chapel St., St Kilda.

Directed by 2010 Green Room Awards winner GaryAbrahams and written by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theatre Project, this new play is a sequel to one of the most performed plays of the last decade, Tectonic Theatre's The Laramie Project.

The play is a leading example of contemporary verbatim or documentarystyle theatre investigation of the ripple effect of a single, senseless murder.

In 1998 a young gay student, Matthew Shepard, was brutally beaten and left to die on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming.

Just a month after the murder, members of the Tectonic Theatre Project arrived in Laramie and set about conducting a series of interviews that formed the basis of The Laramie Project (1999).

Subsequently, Matthew Shepard's name became synonymous with the push for federal Hate Crime legislation in the USA, culminating in The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009).

In 2008, the creators returned to Laramie to see how the town had changed since Shepard's death.

By Cheryl Threadgold

Originally intended as a short epilogue, this entirely new play includes interviews with Shepard's mother, his killers and follow-up interviews with many Laramie residents from the original work.

It unmasks a community wrestling with stigma, denial and social change and offers some compelling insights into our own construction of history.

The Laramie Project - 10 Years Later features Red Stitch ensemble members David Whiteley and Ella Caldwell, alongside special guest actors Kim Gyngell, Paul Ashcroft, Terry Camilleri, Hester Van Der Vyver, Rosie Traynor, Emily Thomas and Brett Ludeman.

Performances: April 27 - May 28, Wed - Sat 8.00pm; Sunday 6.30pm; Sat (except April 30) 4.00pm.

Tickets: $20 - $34.

Bookings: 9533 8083 or www.redstitch.net Venue: Red Stitch Actors Theatre, Rear 2 Chapel St., St Kilda.

From The Outer

Melbourne

Observer

kojak@ mmnet.com.au

With John Pasquarelli

■ Bullshit baffles brains every time. Juliar, in a mad last ditch stand to change our minds on her carbon tax has announced an ‘overcompensation’ scheme to bribe middle Australia – a crazy redistribution of wealth which would have Karl Marx’s ghost applauding.

If middle Australia is seduced by this crude cargo cult strategy then we are indeed doomed and no whingeing please when the you know what hits the fan.

The contrived leaks and spin re the budget are whirling out there and predicted cuts to medical research have created a new antiJuliar lobby but let’s wait and see.

There should of course be cuts to our mad foreign aid spending but too many of our MPs covet some cushy UN job after their political lives are over.

Kevin Rudd’s portfolio will be safe for sure allowing him to continue his dervish-like way around the world at our expense but surely something must give soon?

Sacking Rudd and sending him to the back bench would be fraught with risk but leaving him pursuing his vendetta is much riskier and Juliar also has that loony Wilkie person yapping at her heels over his pokies plan, so she has plenty to deal with.

I think that the stress is getting to her.

You can send an e-mail to John Pasquarelli: kojak@mmnet.com.au

Macbeth at Docklands ■ Following the success of their critically acclaimed production of The Comedy of Errors, the Australian Shakespeare Company's latest promenade-style, interactive production embraces the spellbinding tragedy of Shakespeare's Macbeth, playing for a limited season in the stunning surrounds of Shed 4 at the Docklands from May 11 - 28.

This is the tale of the heroic Scottish noble who is beguiled by both the witches and his own wife to murder his beloved king in what becomes a successful but bloody ill-fated quest for the throne of Scotland.

Dates: Wednesday, May 11 – Saturday, May 28 Prices: Adults $40, concession $35, groups 10+ $35, children (5-15yrs) $25, booking fee may apply.

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20 2011 - Page 15

Showbiz People

Doctor Zhivago Opening Night Her Majesty’s Theatre

● Rhonda Burchmore, Anthony Warlow, Rhonda’s daughter Lexie

● Jennifer Hansen and husband Alan Fletcher at Doctor Zhivago

● Lawrence Money with wife Helen at the after-show party

● Vanessa Allan, Frank Howson, Pam Allan in Collins Street

● Jennifer Hadden with Dr Sally Cockburn at the Doctor Zhivago party

● Val Jellay with Marty Fields outside Her Majesty’s Theatre

● Agatha Stavrakis with Lisa Wiggins

● 3AW marketing and promotions chief Sharna Jones with Sussan Hassett

Page 16 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Showbiz People

Doctor Zhivago Opening Night Her Majesty’s Theatre

● Kerry Armstrong with Sigrid Thornton outside Her Majesty’s Theatre

● Eight-year-old Grace, with her dad, Ten News weatherman Mike Larkan

● Di Donnikien with husband George, of Ten News

● Jeanne Pratt (The Production Company) with Felicity Beale

● Ken Mackenzie Forbes with John Hay-Mackenzie

● Annette Allison with Julia Blake on the Red Carpet at Her Majesty’s

● John-Michael Howson and Suzanne Carbone were the centre of attention

● Matt and Melissa Hetherington at Doctor Zhivago

Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20 2011 - Page 17

Observer Classic Books

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rv se US N Ob N IO BO CT SE

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

A Child’s History of England CHAPTER 30. ENGLAND UNDER MARY Continued from last week

And his fears for himself turned out to be well founded. While he was waiting at Cambridge for further help from the Council, the Council took it into their heads to turn their backs on Lady Jane’s cause, and to take up the Princess Mary’s. This was chiefly owing to the beforementioned Earl of Arundel, who represented to the Lord Mayor and aldermen, in a second interview with those sagacious persons, that, as for himself, he did not perceive the Reformed religion to be in much danger — which Lord Pembroke backed by flourishing his sword as another kind of persuasion. The Lord Mayor and aldermen, thus enlightened, said there could be no doubt that the Princess Mary ought to be Queen. So, she was proclaimed at the Cross by St. Paul’s, and barrels of wine were given to the people, and they got very drunk, and danced round blazing bonfires — little thinking, poor wretches, what other bonfires would soon be blazing in Queen Mary’s name.

After a ten days’ dream of royalty, Lady Jane Grey resigned the Crown with great willingness, saying that she had only accepted it in obedience to her father and mother; and went gladly back to her pleasant house by the river, and her books. Mary then came on towards London; and at Wanstead in Essex, was joined by her halfsister, the Princess Elizabeth. They passed through the streets of London to the Tower, and there the new Queen met some eminent prisoners then confined in it, kissed them, and gave them their liberty. Among these was that Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, who had been imprisoned in the last reign for holding to the unreformed religion. Him she soon made chancellor.

The Duke of Northumberland had been taken prisoner, and, together with his son and five others, was quickly brought before the Council. He, not unnaturally, asked that Council, in his defence, whether it was treason to obey orders that had been issued under the great seal; and, if it were, whether they, who had obeyed them too, ought to be his judges? But they made light of these points; and, being resolved to have him out of the way, soon sentenced him to death. He had risen into power upon the death of another man, and made but a poor show (as might be expected) when he himself lay low. He entreated Gardiner to let him live, if it were only in a mouse’s hole; and, when he ascended the scaffold to be beheaded on Tower Hill, addressed the people in a miserable way, saying that he had been incited by others, and exhorting them to return to the unreformed religion, which he told them was his faith. There seems reason to suppose that he expected a pardon even then, in return for this confession; but it matters little whether he did or not. His head was struck off.

Mary was now crowned Queen. She was thirtyseven years of age, short and thin, wrinkled in the face, and very unhealthy. But she had a great liking for show and for bright colours, and all the ladies of her Court were magnificently dressed.

She had a great liking too for old customs, without much sense in them; and she was oiled in the oldest way, and blessed in the oldest way, and done all manner of things to in the oldest way, at her coronation. I hope they did her good.

She soon began to show her desire to put down the Reformed religion, and put up the unreformed one: though it was dangerous work as yet, the people being something wiser than they used to be. They even cast a shower of stones — and among them a dagger — at one of the royal chaplains who attacked the Reformed religion in a public sermon. But the Queen and her priests went steadily on. Ridley, the powerful bishop of the last reign, was seized and sent to the Tower.

LATIMER, also celebrated among the Clergy of the last reign, was likewise sent to the Tower, and Cranmer speedily followed. Latimer was an aged man; and, as his guards took him through Smithfield, he looked round it, and said, ‘This is a place that hath long groaned for me.’ For he knew well, what kind of bonfires would soon be burning. Nor was the knowledge confined to him.

● Charles Dickens The prisons were fast filled with the chief Protestants, who were there left rotting in darkness, hunger, dirt, and separation from their friends; many, who had time left them for escape, fled from the kingdom; and the dullest of the people began, now, to see what was coming.

It came on fast. A Parliament was got together; not without strong suspicion of unfairness; and they annulled the divorce, formerly pronounced

by Cranmer between the Queen’s mother and King Henry the Eighth, and unmade all the laws on the subject of religion that had been made in the last King Edward’s reign. They began their proceedings, in violation of the law, by having the old mass said before them in Latin, and by turning out a bishop who would not kneel down.

They also declared guilty of treason, Lady Jane Grey for aspiring to the Crown; her husband, for being her husband; and Cranmer, for not believing in the mass aforesaid. They then prayed the Queen graciously to choose a husband for herself, as soon as might be.

Now, the question who should be the Queen’s husband had given rise to a great deal of discussion, and to several contending parties. Some said Cardinal Pole was the man — but the Queen was of opinion that he was NOT the man, he being too old and too much of a student. Others said that the gallant young COURTENAY, whom the Queen had made Earl of Devonshire, was the man — and the Queen thought so too, for a while; but she changed her mind. At last it appeared that PHILIP, PRINCE OF SPAIN, was certainly the man — though certainly not the people’s man; for they detested the idea of such a marriage from the beginning to the end, and murmured that the Spaniard would establish in England, by the aid of foreign soldiers, the worst abuses of the Popish religion, and even the terrible Inquisition itself.

These discontents gave rise to a conspiracy for marrying young Courtenay to the Princess Eliza-

beth, and setting them up, with popular tumults all over the kingdom, against the Queen. This was discovered in time by Gardiner; but in Kent, the old bold county, the people rose in their old bold way. SIR THOMAS WYAT, a man of great daring, was their leader. He raised his standard at Maidstone, marched on to Rochester, established himself in the old castle there, and prepared to hold out against the Duke of Norfolk, who came against him with a party of the Queen’s guards, and a body of five hundred London men. The London men, however, were all for Elizabeth, and not at all for Mary. They declared, under the castle walls, for Wyat; the Duke retreated; and Wyat came on to Deptford, at the head of fifteen thousand men.

But these, in their turn, fell away. When he came to Southwark, there were only two thousand left.

Not dismayed by finding the London citizens in arms, and the guns at the Tower ready to oppose his crossing the river there, Wyat led them off to Kingston-upon-Thames, intending to cross the bridge that he knew to be in that place, and so to work his way round to Ludgate, one of the old gates of the City. He found the bridge broken down, but mended it, came across, and bravely fought his way up Fleet Street to Ludgate Hill.

Finding the gate closed against him, he fought his way back again, sword in hand, to Temple Bar. Here, being overpowered, he surrendered himself, and three or four hundred of his men were taken, besides a hundred killed. Wyat, in a moment of weakness (and perhaps of torture) was afterwards made to accuse the Princess Elizabeth as his accomplice to some very small extent. But his manhood soon returned to him, and he refused to save his life by making any more false confessions. He was quartered and distributed in the usual brutal way, and from fifty to a hundred of his followers were hanged. The rest were led out, with halters round their necks, to be pardoned, and to make a parade of crying

out, ‘God save Queen Mary!’ In the danger of this rebellion, the Queen showed herself to be a woman of courage and spirit. She disdained to retreat to any place of safety, and went down to the Guildhall, sceptre in hand, and made a gallant speech to the Lord Mayor and citizens. But on the day after Wyat’s defeat, she did the most cruel act, even of her cruel reign, in signing the warrant for the execution of Lady Jane Grey.

They tried to persuade Lady Jane to accept the unreformed religion; but she steadily refused.

On the morning when she was to die, she saw from her window the bleeding and headless body of her husband brought back in a cart from the scaffold on Tower Hill where he had laid down his life. But, as she had declined to see him before his execution, lest she should be overpowered and not make a good end, so, she even now showed a constancy and calmness that will never be forgotten. She came up to the scaffold with a firm step and a quiet face, and addressed the bystanders in a steady voice. They were not numerous; for she was too young, too innocent and fair, to be murdered before the people on Tower Hill, as her husband had just been; so, the place of her execution was within the Tower itself. She said that she had done an unlawful act in taking what was Queen Mary’s right; but that she had done so with no bad intent, and that she died a humble Christian. She begged the executioner to despatch her quickly, and she asked him, ‘Will you take my head off before I lay me down?’ He answered, ‘No, Madam,’ and then she was very quiet while they bandaged her eyes. Being blinded, and unable to see the block on which she was to lay her young head, she was seen to feel about for it with her hands, and was heard to say, confused, ‘O what shall I do! Where is it?’ Then they guided her to the right place, and the executioner struck off her head. You know too well, now, what dreadful deeds the executioner did in England, through many, many years, and how his axe descended on the hateful block through the necks of some of the bravest, wisest, and best in the land. But it never struck so cruel and so vile a blow as this.

The father of Lady Jane soon followed, but was little pitied. Queen Mary’s next object was to lay hold of Elizabeth, and this was pursued with great eagerness. Five hundred men were sent to her retired house at Ashridge, by Berkhampstead, with orders to bring her up, alive or dead. They got there at ten at night, when she was sick in bed. But, their leaders followed her lady into her bedchamber, whence she was brought out betimes next morning, and put into a litter to be conveyed to London. She was so weak and ill, that she was five days on the road; still, she was so resolved to be seen by the people that she had the curtains of the litter opened; and so, very pale and sickly, passed through the streets. She wrote to her sister, saying she was innocent of any crime, and asking why she was made a prisoner; but she got no answer, and was ordered to the Tower. They took her in by the Traitor’s Gate, to which she objected, but in vain. One of the lords who conveyed her offered to cover her with his cloak, as it was raining, but she put it away from her, proudly and scornfully, and passed into the Tower, and sat down in a court-yard on a stone.

They besought her to come in out of the wet; but she answered that it was better sitting there, than in a worse place. At length she went to her apartment, where she was kept a prisoner, though not so close a prisoner as at Woodstock, whither she was afterwards removed, and where she is said to have one day envied a milkmaid whom she heard singing in the sunshine as she went through the green fields. Gardiner, than whom there were not many worse men among the fierce and sullen priests, cared little to keep secret his stern desire for her death: being used to say that it was of little service to shake off the leaves, and lop the branches of the tree of heresy, if its root, the hope of heretics, were left. He failed, however, in his benevolent design. Elizabeth was, at length, released; and Hatfield House was assigned to her as a residence, under the care of one SIR THOMAS POPE. It would seem that Philip, the Prince of Spain, was a main cause of this change in Elizabeth’s

Continued on Page 18

Page 18 - Melbourne Observer - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

From Page 17 fortunes. He was not an amiable man, being, on the contrary, proud, overbearing, and gloomy; but he and the Spanish lords who came over with him, assuredly did discountenance the idea of doing any violence to the Princess. It may have been mere prudence, but we will hope it was manhood and honour. The Queen had been expecting her husband with great impatience, and at length he came, to her great joy, though he never cared much for her. They were married by Gardiner, at Winchester, and there was more holiday-making among the people; but they had their old distrust of this Spanish marriage, in which even the Parliament shared. Though the members of that Parliament were far from honest, and were strongly suspected to have been bought with Spanish money, they would pass no bill to enable the Queen to set aside the Princess Elizabeth and appoint her own successor.

Although Gardiner failed in this object, as well as in the darker one of bringing the Princess to the scaffold, he went on at a great pace in the revival of the unreformed religion. A new Parliament was packed, in which there were no Protestants. Preparations were made to receive Cardinal Pole in England as the Pope’s messenger, bringing his holy declaration that all the nobility who had acquired Church property, should keep it — which was done to enlist their selfish interest on the Pope’s side. Then a great scene was enacted, which was the triumph of the Queen’s plans. Cardinal Pole arrived in great splendour and dignity, and was received with great pomp. The Parliament joined in a petition expressive of their sorrow at the change in the national religion, and praying him to receive the country again into the Popish Church. With the Queen sitting on her throne, and the King on one side of her, and the Cardinal on the other, and the Parliament present, Gardiner read the petition aloud. The Cardinal then made a great speech, and was so obliging as to say that all was forgotten and forgiven, and that the kingdom was solemnly made Roman Catholic again.

Everything was now ready for the lighting of the terrible bonfires. The Queen having declared to the Council, in writing, that she would wish none of her subjects to be burnt without some of the Council being present, and that she would particularly wish there to be good sermons at all burnings, the Council knew pretty well what was to be done next. So, after the Cardinal had blessed all the bishops as a preface to the burnings, the Chancellor Gardiner opened a High Court at Saint Mary Overy, on the Southwark side of London Bridge, for the trial of heretics.

Here, two of the late Protestant clergymen, HOOPER, Bishop of Gloucester, and ROGERS, a Prebendary of St. Paul’s, were brought to be tried. Hooper was tried first for being married, though a priest, and for not believing in the mass.

He admitted both of these accusations, and said that the mass was a wicked imposition. Then they tried Rogers, who said the same. Next morning the two were brought up to be sentenced; and then Rogers said that his poor wife, being a German woman and a stranger in the land, he hoped might be allowed to come to speak to him before he died. To this the inhuman Gardiner replied, that she was not his wife. ‘Yea, but she is, my lord,’ said Rogers, ‘and she hath been my wife these eighteen years.’ His request was still refused, and they were both sent to Newgate; all those who stood in the streets to sell things, being ordered to put out their lights that the people might not see them. But, the people stood at their doors with candles in their hands, and prayed for them as they went by. Soon afterwards, Rogers was taken out of jail to be burnt in Smithfield; and, in the crowd as he went along, he saw his poor wife and his ten children, of whom the youngest was a little baby. And so he was burnt to death.

The next day, Hooper, who was to be burnt at Gloucester, was brought out to take his last journey, and was made to wear a hood over his face that he might not be known by the people. But, they did know him for all that, down in his own part of the country; and, when he came near Gloucester, they lined the road, making prayers and lamentations. His guards took him to a lodging, where he slept soundly all night. At nine o’clock next morning, he was brought forth leaning on a staff; for he had taken cold in prison, and was infirm. The iron stake, and the iron chain which was to bind him to it, were fixed up near a great elm-tree in a pleasant open place before the cathedral, where, on peaceful Sun-

www.MelbourneObserver.com.au

Observer Classic Books days, he had been accustomed to preach and to pray, when he was bishop of Gloucester. This tree, which had no leaves then, it being February, was filled with people; and the priests of Gloucester College were looking complacently on from a window, and there was a great concourse of spectators in every spot from which a glimpse of the dreadful sight could be beheld.

When the old man kneeled down on the small platform at the foot of the stake, and prayed aloud, the nearest people were observed to be so attentive to his prayers that they were ordered to stand farther back; for it did not suit the Romish Church to have those Protestant words heard. His prayers concluded, he went up to the stake and was stripped to his shirt, and chained ready for the fire. One of his guards had such compassion on him that, to shorten his agonies, he tied some packets of gunpowder about him.

Then they heaped up wood and straw and reeds, and set them all alight. But, unhappily, the wood was green and damp, and there was a wind blowing that blew what flame there was, away.

Thus, through three-quarters of an hour, the good old man was scorched and roasted and smoked, as the fire rose and sank; and all that time they saw him, as he burned, moving his lips in prayer, and beating his breast with one hand, even after the other was burnt away and had fallen off.

Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, were taken to Oxford to dispute with a commission of priests and doctors about the mass. They were shamefully treated; and it is recorded that the Oxford scholars hissed and howled and groaned, and misconducted themselves in an anything but a scholarly way. The prisoners were taken back to jail, and afterwards tried in St. Mary’s Church.

They were all found guilty. On the sixteenth of the month of October, Ridley and Latimer were brought out, to make another of the dreadful bonfires.

The scene of the suffering of these two good Protestant men was in the City ditch, near Baliol College. On coming to the dreadful spot, they kissed the stakes, and then embraced each other.

And then a learned doctor got up into a pulpit which was placed there, and preached a sermon from the text, ‘Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.’ When you think of the charity of burning men alive, you may imagine that this learned doctor had a rather brazen face. Ridley would have answered his sermon when it came to an end, but was not allowed. When Latimer was stripped, it appeared that he had dressed himself under his other clothes, in a new shroud; and, as he stood in it before all the people, it was noted of him, and long remembered, that, whereas he had been stooping and feeble but a few minutes before, he now stood upright and handsome, in the knowledge that he was dying for a just and a great cause. Ridley’s brother-inlaw was there with bags of gunpowder; and when they were both chained up, he tied them round their bodies. Then, a light was thrown upon the pile to fire it. ‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley,’ said Latimer, at that awful moment, ‘and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’And then he was seen to make motions with his hands as if he were washing them in the flames, and to stroke his aged face with them, and was heard to cry, ‘Father of Heaven, receive my soul!’ He died quickly, but the fire, after having burned the legs of Ridley, sunk. There he lingered, chained to the iron post, and crying, ‘O! I cannot burn! O! for Christ’s sake let the fire come unto me!’And still, when his brother-in-law had heaped on more wood, he was heard through the blinding smoke, still dismally crying, ‘O! I cannot burn, I cannot burn!’

At last, the gunpowder caught fire, and ended his miseries.

Five days after this fearful scene, Gardiner went to his tremendous account before God, for the cruelties he had so much assisted in committing.

Cranmer remained still alive and in prison. He was brought out again in February, for more examining and trying, by Bonner, Bishop of London: another man of blood, who had succeeded to Gardiner’s work, even in his lifetime, when Gardiner was tired of it. Cranmer was now degraded as a priest, and left for death; but, if the Queen hated any one on earth, she hated him, and it was resolved that he should be ruined and disgraced to the utmost. There is no doubt that the Queen and her husband personally urged on these deeds, because they wrote to the Council, urging them to be active in the

kindling of the fearful fires. As Cranmer was known not to be a firm man, a plan was laid for surrounding him with artful people, and inducing him to recant to the unreformed religion.

Deans and friars visited him, played at bowls with him, showed him various attentions, talked persuasively with him, gave him money for his prison comforts, and induced him to sign, I fear, as many as six recantations. But when, after all, he was taken out to be burnt, he was nobly true to his better self, and made a glorious end.

After prayers and a sermon, Dr. Cole, the preacher of the day (who had been one of the artful priests about Cranmer in prison), required him to make a public confession of his faith before the people. This, Cole did, expecting that he would declare himself a Roman Catholic. ‘I will make a profession of my faith,’ said Cranmer, ‘and with a good will too.’

Then, he arose before them all, and took from the sleeve of his robe a written prayer and read it aloud. That done, he kneeled and said the Lord’s Prayer, all the people joining; and then he arose again and told them that he believed in the Bible, and that in what he had lately written, he had written what was not the truth, and that, because his right hand had signed those papers, he would burn his right hand first when he came to the fire. As for the Pope, he did refuse him and denounce him as the enemy of Heaven.

Hereupon the pious Dr. Cole cried out to the guards to stop that heretic’s mouth and take him away.

So they took him away, and chained him to the stake, where he hastily took off his own clothes to make ready for the flames. And he stood before the people with a bald head and a white and flowing beard. He was so firm now when the worst was come, that he again declared against his recantation, and was so impressive and so undismayed, that a certain lord, who was one of the directors of the execution, called out to the men to make haste! When the fire was lighted, Cranmer, true to his latest word, stretched out his right hand, and crying out, ‘This hand hath offended!’ held it among the flames, until it blazed and burned away. His heart was found entire among his ashes, and he left at last a memorable name in English history. Cardinal Pole celebrated the day by saying his first mass, and next day he was made Archbishop of Canterbury in Cranmer’s place.

The Queen’s husband, who was now mostly abroad in his own dominions, and generally made a coarse jest of her to his more familiar courtiers, was at war with France, and came over to seek the assistance of England. England was very unwilling to engage in a French war for his sake; but it happened that the King of France, at this very time, aided a descent upon the English coast. Hence, war was declared, greatly to Philip’s satisfaction; and the Queen raised a sum of money with which to carry it on, by every unjustifiable means in her power. It met with no profitable return, for the French Duke of Guise surprised Calais, and the English sustained a complete defeat. The losses they met with in France greatly mortified the national pride, and the Queen never recovered the blow.

There was a bad fever raging in England at this time, and I am glad to write that the Queen took it, and the hour of her death came. ‘When I am dead and my body is opened,’ she said to those around those around her, ‘ye shall find CALAIS written on my heart.’ I should have thought, if anything were written on it, they would have found the words — JANE GREY, HOOPER, ROGERS, RIDLEY, LATIMER, CRANMER, AND THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE BURNT ALIVE WITHIN FOUR YEARS OF MY WICKED REIGN, INCLUDING SIXTY WOMEN AND FORTY LITTLE CHILDREN. But it is enough that their deaths were written in Heaven.

The Queen died on the seventeenth of November, fifteen hundred and fifty-eight, after reigning not quite five years and a half, and in the forty-fourth year of her age. Cardinal Pole died of the same fever next day.

As BLOODY QUEEN MARY, this woman has become famous, and as BLOODY QUEEN MARY, she will ever be justly remembered with horror and detestation in Great Britain. Her memory has been held in such abhorrence that some writers have arisen in later years to take her part, and to show that she was, upon the whole, quite an amiable and cheerful sovereign!

‘By their fruits ye shall know them,’ said OUR SAVIOUR. The stake and the fire were the fruits of this reign, and you will judge this Queen by nothing else.

CHAPTER 31. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH THERE was great rejoicing all over the land when the Lords of the Council went down to Hatfield, to hail the Princess Elizabeth as the new Queen of England. Weary of the barbarities of Mary’s reign, the people looked with hope and gladness to the new Sovereign. The nation seemed to wake from a horrible dream; and Heaven, so long hidden by the smoke of the fires that roasted men and women to death, appeared to brighten once more.

Queen Elizabeth was five-and-twenty years of age when she rode through the streets of London, from the Tower to Westminster Abbey, to be crowned. Her countenance was strongly marked, but on the whole, commanding and dignified; her hair was red, and her nose something too long and sharp for a woman’s. She was not the beautiful creature her courtiers made out; but she was well enough, and no doubt looked all the better for coming after the dark and gloomy Mary. She was well educated, but a roundabout writer, and rather a hard swearer and coarse talker. She was clever, but cunning and deceitful, and inherited much of her father’s violent temper. I mention this now, because she has been so over-praised by one party, and so over-abused by another, that it is hardly possible to understand the greater part of her reign without first understanding what kind of woman she really was.

She began her reign with the great advantage of having a very wise and careful Minister, SIR WILLIAM CECIL, whom she afterwards made LORD BURLEIGH. Altogether, the people had greater reason for rejoicing than they usually had, when there were processions in the streets; and they were happy with some reason. All kinds of shows and images were set up; GOG and MAGOG were hoisted to the top of Temple Bar, and (which was more to the purpose) the Corporation dutifully presented the young Queen with the sum of a thousand marks in gold — so heavy a present, that she was obliged to take it into her carriage with both hands. The coronation was a great success; and, on the next day, one of the courtiers presented a petition to the new Queen, praying that as it was the custom to release some prisoners on such occasions, she would have the goodness to release the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and also the Apostle Saint Paul, who had been for some time shut up in a strange language so that the people could not get at them.

To this, the Queen replied that it would be better first to inquire of themselves whether they desired to be released or not; and, as a means of finding out, a great public discussion — a sort of religious tournament — was appointed to take place between certain champions of the two religions, in Westminster Abbey. You may suppose that it was soon made pretty clear to common sense, that for people to benefit by what they repeat or read, it is rather necessary they should understand something about it. Accordingly, a Church Service in plain English was settled, and other laws and regulations were made, completely establishing the great work of the Reformation. The Romish bishops and champions were not harshly dealt with, all things considered; and the Queen’s Ministers were both prudent and merciful.

The one great trouble of this reign, and the unfortunate cause of the greater part of such turmoil and bloodshed as occurred in it, was MARY STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS. We will try to understand, in as few words as possible, who Mary was, what she was, and how she came to be a thorn in the royal pillow of Elizabeth.

She was the daughter of the Queen Regent of Scotland, MARY OF GUISE. She had been married, when a mere child, to the Dauphin, the son and heir of the King of France. The Pope, who pretended that no one could rightfully wear the crown of England without his gracious permission, was strongly opposed to Elizabeth, who had not asked for the said gracious permission.

And as Mary Queen of Scots would have inherited the English crown in right of her birth, supposing the English Parliament not to have altered the succession, the Pope himself, and most of the discontented who were followers of his, maintained that Mary was the rightful Queen of England, and Elizabeth the wrongful Queen.

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From Page 18 been if she had had no alliance with that great power. And when her young husband, on the death of his father, became FRANCIS THE SECOND, King of France, the matter grew very serious. For, the young couple styled themselves King and Queen of England, and the Pope was disposed to help them by doing all the mischief he could.

Now, the reformed religion, under the guidance of a stern and powerful preacher, named JOHN KNOX, and other such men, had been making fierce progress in Scotland. It was still a half savage country, where there was a great deal of murdering and rioting continually going on; and the Reformers, instead of reforming those evils as they should have done, went to work in the ferocious old Scottish spirit, laying churches and chapels waste, pulling down pictures and altars, and knocking about the Grey Friars, and the Black Friars, and the White Friars, and the friars of all sorts of colours, in all directions. This obdurate and harsh spirit of the Scottish Reformers (the Scotch have always been rather a sullen and frowning people in religious matters) put up the blood of the Romish French court, and caused France to send troops over to Scotland, with the hope of setting the friars of all sorts of colours on their legs again; of conquering that country first, and England afterwards; and so crushing the Reformation all to pieces.

The Scottish Reformers, who had formed a great league which they called The Congregation of the Lord, secretly represented to Elizabeth that, if the reformed religion got the worst of it with them, it would be likely to get the worst of it in England too; and thus, Elizabeth, though she had a high notion of the rights of Kings and Queens to do anything they liked, sent an army to Scotland to support the Reformers, who were in arms against their sovereign. All these proceedings led to a treaty of peace at Edinburgh, under which the French consented to depart from the kingdom. By a separate treaty, Mary and her young husband engaged to renounce their assumed title of King and Queen of England. But this treaty they never fulfilled.

It happened, soon after matters had got to this state, that the young French King died, leaving Mary a young widow. She was then invited by her Scottish subjects to return home and reign over them; and as she was not now happy where she was, she, after a little time, complied.

Elizabeth had been Queen three years, when Mary Queen of Scots embarked at Calais for her own rough, quarrelling country. As she came out of the harbour, a vessel was lost before her eyes, and she said, ‘O! good God! what an omen this is for such a voyage!’ She was very fond of France, and sat on the deck, looking back at it and weeping, until it was quite dark. When she went to bed, she directed to be called at daybreak, if the French coast were still visible, that she might behold it for the last time. As it proved to be a clear morning, this was done, and she again wept for the country she was leaving, and said many times, ‘ Farewell, France! Farewell, France! I shall never see thee again!’ All this was long remembered afterwards, as sorrowful and interesting in a fair young princess of nineteen. Indeed, I am afraid it gradually came, together with her other distresses, to surround her with greater sympathy than she deserved.

When she came to Scotland, and took up her abode at the palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh, she found herself among uncouth strangers and wild uncomfortable customs very different from her experiences in the court of France. The very people who were disposed to love her, made her head ache when she was tired out by her voyage, with a serenade of discordant music — a fearful concert of bagpipes, I suppose — and brought her and her train home to her palace on miserable little Scotch horses that appeared to be half starved. Among the people who were not disposed to love her, she found the powerful leaders of the Reformed Church, who were bitter upon her amusements, however innocent, and denounced music and dancing as works of the devil. John Knox himself often lectured her, violently and angrily, and did much to make her life unhappy. All these reasons confirmed her old attachment to the Romish religion, and caused her, there is no doubt, most imprudently and dangerously both for herself and for England too, to give a solemn pledge to the heads of the Romish Church that if she ever succeeded to the English crown, she would set up that religion again. In reading her unhappy history, you must always remember this; and also that dur-

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Observer Classic Books ing her whole life she was constantly put forward against the Queen, in some form or other, by the Romish party.

That Elizabeth, on the other hand, was not inclined to like her, is pretty certain. Elizabeth was very vain and jealous, and had an extraordinary dislike to people being married. She treated Lady Catherine Grey, sister of the beheaded Lady Jane, with such shameful severity, for no other reason than her being secretly married, that she died and her husband was ruined; so, when a second marriage for Mary began to be talked about, probably Elizabeth disliked her more. Not that Elizabeth wanted suitors of her own, for they started up from Spain, Austria, Sweden, and England. Her English lover at this time, and one whom she much favoured too, was LORD ROBERT DUDLEY, Earl of Leicester — himself secretly married to AMY ROBSART, the daughter of an English gentleman, whom he was strongly suspected of causing to be murdered, down at his country seat, Cumnor Hall in Berkshire, that he might be free to marry the Queen. Upon this story, the great writer, SIR WALTER SCOTT, has founded one of his best romances. But if Elizabeth knew how to lead her handsome favourite on, for her own vanity and pleasure, she knew how to stop him for her own pride; and his love, and all the other proposals, came to nothing. The Queen always declared in good set speeches, that she would never be married at all, but would live and die a Maiden Queen. It was a very pleasant and meritorious declaration, I suppose; but it has been puffed and trumpeted so much, that I am rather tired of it myself.

Divers princes proposed to marry Mary, but the English court had reasons for being jealous of them all, and even proposed as a matter of policy that she should marry that very Earl of Leicester who had aspired to be the husband of Elizabeth. At last, LORD DARNLEY, son of the Earl of Lennox, and himself descended from the Royal Family of Scotland, went over with Elizabeth’s consent to try his fortune at Holyrood.

He was a tall simpleton; and could dance and play the guitar; but I know of nothing else he could do, unless it were to get very drunk, and eat gluttonously, and make a contemptible spectacle of himself in many mean and vain ways.

However, he gained Mary’s heart, not disdaining in the pursuit of his object to ally himself with one of her secretaries, DAVID RIZZIO, who had great influence with her. He soon married the Queen. This marriage does not say much for her, but what followed will presently say less.

Mary’s brother, the EARL OF MURRAY, and head of the Protestant party in Scotland, had opposed this marriage, partly on religious grounds, and partly perhaps from personal dislike of the very contemptible bridegroom. When it had taken place, through Mary’s gaining over to it the more powerful of the lords about her, she banished Murray for his pains; and, when he and some other nobles rose in arms to support the reformed religion, she herself, within a month of her wedding day, rode against them in armour with loaded pistols in her saddle. Driven out of Scotland, they presented themselves before Elizabeth — who called them traitors in public, and assisted them in private, according to her crafty nature.

Mary had been married but a little while, when she began to hate her husband, who, in his turn, began to hate that David Rizzio, with whom he had leagued to gain her favour, and whom he now believed to be her lover. He hated Rizzio to that extent, that he made a compact with LORD RUTHVEN and three other lords to get rid of him by murder. This wicked agreement they made in solemn secrecy upon the first of March, fifteen hundred and sixty-six, and on the night of Saturday the ninth, the conspirators were brought by Darnley up a private staircase, dark and steep, into a range of rooms where they knew that Mary was sitting at supper with her sister, Lady Argyle, and this doomed man. When they went into the room, Darnley took the Queen round the waist, and Lord Ruthven, who had risen from a bed of sickness to do this murder, came in, gaunt and ghastly, leaning on two men.

Rizzio ran behind the Queen for shelter and protection. ‘Let him come out of the room,’ said Ruthven. ‘He shall not leave the room,’ replied the Queen; ‘I read his danger in your face, and it is my will that he remain here.’ They then set upon him, struggled with him, overturned the table, dragged him out, and killed him with fiftysix stabs. When the Queen heard that he was dead, she said, ‘No more tears. I will think now

of revenge!’

Within a day or two, she gained her husband over, and prevailed on the tall idiot to abandon the conspirators and fly with her to Dunbar.

There, he issued a proclamation, audaciously and falsely denying that he had any knowledge of the late bloody business; and there they were joined by the EARL BOTHWELL and some other nobles. With their help, they raised eight thousand men; returned to Edinburgh, and drove the assassins into England. Mary soon afterwards gave birth to a son — still thinking of revenge.

That she should have had a greater scorn for her husband after his late cowardice and treachery than she had had before, was natural enough.

There is little doubt that she now began to love Bothwell instead, and to plan with him means of getting rid of Darnley. Bothwell had such power over her that he induced her even to pardon the assassins of Rizzio. The arrangements for the Christening of the young Prince were entrusted to him, and he was one of the most important people at the ceremony, where the child was named JAMES: Elizabeth being his godmother, though not present on the occasion. A week afterwards, Darnley, who had left Mary and gone to his father’s house at Glasgow, being taken ill with the small-pox, she sent her own physician to attend him. But there is reason to apprehend that this was merely a show and a pretence, and that she knew what was doing, when Bothwell within another month proposed to one of the late conspirators against Rizzio, to murder Darnley, ‘for that it was the Queen’s mind that he should be taken away.’ It is certain that on that very day she wrote to her ambassador in France, complaining of him, and yet went immediately to Glasgow, feigning to be very anxious about him, and to love him very much. If she wanted to get him in her power, she succeeded to her heart’s content; for she induced him to go back with her to Edinburgh, and to occupy, instead of the palace, a lone house outside the city called the Kirk of Field. Here, he lived for about a week. One Sunday night, she remained with him until ten o’clock, and then left him, to go to Holyrood to be present at an entertainment given in celebration of the marriage of one of her favourite servants. At two o’clock in the morning the city was shaken by a great explosion, and the Kirk of Field was blown to atoms.

Darnley’s body was found next day lying under a tree at some distance. How it came there, undisfigured and unscorched by gunpowder, and how this crime came to be so clumsily and strangely committed, it is impossible to discover.

The deceitful character of Mary, and the deceitful character of Elizabeth, have rendered almost every part of their joint history uncertain and obscure. But, I fear that Mary was unquestionably a party to her husband’s murder, and that this was the revenge she had threatened.

The Scotch people universally believed it. Voices cried out in the streets of Edinburgh in the dead of the night, for justice on the murderess. Placards were posted by unknown hands in the public places denouncing Bothwell as the murderer, and the Queen as his accomplice; and, when he afterwards married her (though himself already married), previously making a show of taking her prisoner by force, the indignation of the people knew no bounds. The women particularly are described as having been quite frantic against the Queen, and to have hooted and cried after her in the streets with terrific vehemence.

Such guilty unions seldom prosper. This husband and wife had lived together but a month, when they were separated for ever by the successes of a band of Scotch nobles who associated against them for the protection of the young Prince: whom Bothwell had vainly endeavoured to lay hold of, and whom he would certainly have murdered, if the EARL OF MAR, in whose hands the boy was, had not been firmly and honourably faithful to his trust. Before this angry power, Bothwell fled abroad, where he died, a prisoner and mad, nine miserable years afterwards. Mary being found by the associated lords to deceive them at every turn, was sent a prisoner to Lochleven Castle; which, as it stood in the midst of a lake, could only be approached by boat. Here, one LORD LINDSAY, who was so much of a brute that the nobles would have done better if they had chosen a mere gentleman for their messenger, made her sign her abdication, and appoint Murray, Regent of Scotland. Here, too, Murray saw her in a sorrowing and humbled state.

She had better have remained in the castle of

Lochleven, dull prison as it was, with the rippling of the lake against it, and the moving shadows of the water on the room walls; but she could not rest there, and more than once tried to escape. The first time she had nearly succeeded, dressed in the clothes of her own washerwoman, but, putting up her hand to prevent one of the boatmen from lifting her veil, the men suspected her, seeing how white it was, and rowed her back again. A short time afterwards, her fascinating manners enlisted in her cause a boy in the Castle, called the little DOUGLAS, who, while the family were at supper, stole the keys of the great gate, went softly out with the Queen, locked the gate on the outside, and rowed her away across the lake, sinking the keys as they went along. On the opposite shore she was met by another Douglas, and some few lords; and, so accompanied, rode away on horseback to Hamilton, where they raised three thousand men. Here, she issued a proclamation declaring that the abdication she had signed in her prison was illegal, and requiring the Regent to yield to his lawful Queen. Being a steady soldier, and in no way discomposed although he was without an army, Murray pretended to treat with her, until he had collected a force about half equal to her own, and then he gave her battle. In one quarter of an hour he cut down all her hopes.

She had another weary ride on horse-back of sixty long Scotch miles, and took shelter at Dundrennan Abbey, whence she fled for safety to Elizabeth’s dominions.

Mary Queen of Scots came to England — to her own ruin, the trouble of the kingdom, and the misery and death of many — in the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-eight. How she left it and the world, nineteen years afterwards, we have now to see.

Second Part WHEN Mary Queen of Scots arrived in England, without money and even without any other clothes than those she wore, she wrote to Elizabeth, representing herself as an innocent and injured piece of Royalty, and entreating her assistance to oblige her Scottish subjects to take her back again and obey her. But, as her character was already known in England to be a very different one from what she made it out to be, she was told in answer that she must first clear herself. Made uneasy by this condition, Mary, rather than stay in England, would have gone to Spain, or to France, or would even have gone back to Scotland. But, as her doing either would have been likely to trouble England afresh, it was decided that she should be detained here.

She first came to Carlisle, and, after that, was moved about from castle to castle, as was considered necessary; but England she never left again.

After trying very hard to get rid of the necessity of clearing herself, Mary, advised by LORD HERRIES, her best friend in England, agreed to answer the charges against her, if the Scottish noblemen who made them would attend to maintain them before such English noblemen as Elizabeth might appoint for that purpose. Accordingly, such an assembly, under the name of a conference, met, first at York, and afterwards at Hampton Court. In its presence Lord Lennox, Darnley’s father, openly charged Mary with the murder of his son; and whatever Mary’s friends may now say or write in her behalf, there is no doubt that, when her brother Murray produced against her a casket containing certain guilty letters and verses which he stated to have passed between her and Bothwell, she withdrew from the inquiry. Consequently, it is to be supposed that she was then considered guilty by those who had the best opportunities of judging of the truth, and that the feeling which afterwards arose in her behalf was a very generous but not a very reasonable one.

However, the DUKE OF NORFOLK, an honourable but rather weak nobleman, partly because Mary was captivating, partly because he was ambitious, partly because he was overpersuaded by artful plotters against Elizabeth, conceived a strong idea that he would like to marry the Queen of Scots — though he was a little frightened, too, by the letters in the casket.

This idea being secretly encouraged by some of the noblemen of Elizabeth’s court, and even by the favourite Earl of Leicester (because it was objected to by other favourites who were his rivals), Mary expressed her approval of it, and the King of France and the King of Spain are supposed to have done the same. It was not so quietly planned, though, but that it came to

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From Page 21 Elizabeth’s ears, who warned the Duke ‘to be careful what sort of pillow he was going to lay his head upon.’ He made a humble reply at the time; but turned sulky soon afterwards, and, being considered dangerous, was sent to the Tower.

Thus, from the moment of Mary’s coming to England she began to be the centre of plots and miseries.

A rise of the Catholics in the north was the next of these, and it was only checked by many executions and much bloodshed. It was followed by a great conspiracy of the Pope and some of the Catholic sovereigns of Europe to depose Elizabeth, place Mary on the throne, and restore the unreformed religion. It is almost impossible to doubt that Mary knew and approved of this; and the Pope himself was so hot in the matter that he issued a bull, in which he openly called Elizabeth the ‘pretended Queen’ of England, excommunicated her, and excommunicated all her subjects who should continue to obey her. A copy of this miserable paper got into London, and was found one morning publicly posted on the Bishop of London’s gate. A great hue and cry being raised, another copy was found in the chamber of a student of Lincoln’s Inn, who confessed, being put upon the rack, that he had received it from one JOHN FELTON, a rich gentleman who lived across the Thames, near Southwark. This John Felton, being put upon the rack too, confessed that he had posted the placard on the Bishop’s gate. For this offence he was, within four days, taken to St. Paul’s Churchyard, and there hanged and quartered.

As to the Pope’s bull, the people by the reformation having thrown off the Pope, did not care much, you may suppose, for the Pope’s throwing off them. It was a mere dirty piece of paper, and not half so powerful as a street ballad.

On the very day when Felton was brought to his trial, the poor Duke of Norfolk was released. It would have been well for him if he had kept away from the Tower evermore, and from the snares that had taken him there. But, even while he was in that dismal place he corresponded with Mary, and as soon as he was out of it, he began to plot again. Being discovered in correspondence with the Pope, with a view to a rising in England which should force Elizabeth to consent to his marriage with Mary and to repeal the

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laws against the Catholics, he was re-committed to the Tower and brought to trial. He was found guilty by the unanimous verdict of the Lords who tried him, and was sentenced to the block.

It is very difficult to make out, at this distance of time, and between opposite accounts, whether Elizabeth really was a humane woman, or desired to appear so, or was fearful of shedding the blood of people of great name who were popular in the country. Twice she commanded and countermanded the execution of this Duke, and it did not take place until five months after his trial. The scaffold was erected on Tower Hill, and there he died like a brave man. He refused to have his eyes bandaged, saying that he was not at all afraid of death; and he admitted the justice of his sentence, and was much regretted by the people.

Although Mary had shrunk at the most important time from disproving her guilt, she was very careful never to do anything that would admit it.

All such proposals as were made to her by Elizabeth for her release, required that admission in some form or other, and therefore came to nothing. Moreover, both women being artful and treacherous, and neither ever trusting the other, it was not likely that they could ever make an agreement. So, the Parliament, aggravated by what the Pope had done, made new and strong laws against the spreading of the Catholic religion in England, and declared it treason in any one to say that the Queen and her successors were not the lawful sovereigns of England. It would have done more than this, but for Elizabeth’s moderation.

Since the Reformation, there had come to be three great sects of religious people — or people who called themselves so — in England; that is to say, those who belonged to the Reformed Church, those who belonged to the Unreformed Church, and those who were called the Puritans, because they said that they wanted to have everything very pure and plain in all the Church service. These last were for the most part an uncomfortable people, who thought it highly meritorious to dress in a hideous manner, talk through their noses, and oppose all harmless enjoyments. But they were powerful too, and very much in earnest, and they were one and all the determined enemies of the Queen of Scots.

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The Protestant feeling in England was further strengthened by the tremendous cruelties to which Protestants were exposed in France and in the Netherlands. Scores of thousands of them were put to death in those countries with every cruelty that can be imagined, and at last, in the autumn of the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-two, one of the greatest barbarities ever committed in the world took place at Paris.

It is called in history, THE MASSACRE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW, because it took place on Saint Bartholomew’s Eve. The day fell on Saturday the twenty-third of August. On that day all the great leaders of the Protestants (who were there called HUGUENOTS) were assembled together, for the purpose, as was represented to them, of doing honour to the marriage of their chief, the young King of Navarre, with the sister of CHARLES THE NINTH: a miserable young King who then occupied the French throne. This dull creature was made to believe by his mother and other fierce Catholics about him that the Huguenots meant to take his life; and he was persuaded to give secret orders that, on the tolling of a great bell, they should be fallen upon by an overpowering force of armed men, and slaughtered wherever they could be found. When the appointed hour was close at hand, the stupid wretch, trembling from head to foot, was taken into a balcony by his mother to see the atrocious work begun. The moment the bell tolled, the murderers broke forth. During all that night and the two next days, they broke into the houses, fired the houses, shot and stabbed the Protestants, men, women, and children, and flung their bodies into the streets. They were shot at in the streets as they passed along, and their blood ran down the gutters. Upwards of ten thousand Protestants were killed in Paris alone; in all France four or five times that number. To return thanks to Heaven for these diabolical murders, the Pope and his train actually went in public procession at Rome, and as if this were not shame enough for them, they had a medal struck to commemorate the event. But, however comfortable the wholesale murders were to these high authorities, they had not that soothing effect upon the doll-King. I am happy to state that he never knew a moment’s peace afterwards; that he was continually crying out that he saw the Huguenots covered with blood and

wounds falling dead before him; and that he died within a year, shrieking and yelling and raving to that degree, that if all the Popes who had ever lived had been rolled into one, they would not have afforded His guilty Majesty the slightest consolation.

When the terrible news of the massacre arrived in England, it made a powerful impression indeed upon the people. If they began to run a little wild against the Catholics at about this time, this fearful reason for it, coming so soon after the days of bloody Queen Mary, must be remembered in their excuse. The Court was not quite so honest as the people — but perhaps it sometimes is not. It received the French ambassador, with all the lords and ladies dressed in deep mourning, and keeping a profound silence.

Nevertheless, a proposal of marriage which he had made to Elizabeth only two days before the eve of Saint Bartholomew, on behalf of the Duke of Alen‡on, the French King’s brother, a boy of seventeen, still went on; while on the other hand, in her usual crafty way, the Queen secretly supplied the Huguenots with money and weapons.

I must say that for a Queen who made all those fine speeches, of which I have confessed myself to be rather tired, about living and dying a Maiden Queen, Elizabeth was ‘going’ to be married pretty often. Besides always having some English favourite or other whom she by turns encouraged and swore at and knocked about — for the maiden Queen was very free with her fists — she held this French Duke off and on through several years. When he at last came over to England, the marriage articles were actually drawn up, and it was settled that the wedding should take place in six weeks. The Queen was then so bent upon it, that she prosecuted a poor Puritan named STUBBS, and a poor bookseller named PAGE, for writing and publishing a pamphlet against it. Their right hands were chopped off for this crime; and poor Stubbs — more loyal than I should have been myself under the circumstances — immediately pulled off his hat with his left hand, and cried, ‘God save the Queen!’ Stubbs was cruelly treated; for the marriage never took place after all, though the Queen pledged herself to the Duke with a ring from her own finger. beth, who appears to have been really fond of him.

To Be Continued

Observer Crossword Solution No 14 R A L L Y I N A A E E R E S I S T O E T E N R E S I S T N S H E E M P OW E R A B R A E S C A P E S S R I ME S S E NG U E M E ME A T B A L B L L A L E A N E S T E N M I S T E P S I N E R ME I MP A L E P W L I MOA N E D I D MA L M I DGE E E NO T DOR A DO P L Z I GEM I N I R B N A MA K I NGS I O B U NUR T UR E S G S C HO T S HO T E I T O DR E S S E S A I X EMP A T H Y B M A U G L E E F U L E S S E P R I E S T T M U M MOP P E DU E I S A S I L E NC E

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