August 26

26 Sunday (239-127)

12th After Trinity

Stayed in until 11:30 a.m. then we went for a walk to Hyde ark and Kensington Gardens. We had ice cream sodas in Hyde Park. We looked for the Peter Pan statue but could not find it, but in any case it was not to be seen as it was being cleaned up after that outrage done to it the other day when somebody covered it with tar and feathers.
At 2 p.m. Hilda came round to spend the afternoon and evening with us

We went to Lyons in Oxford Street for tea, then we came back and played the gramophone for the rest of the evening. Daddy saw Hilda back to the hospital and we retired to bed.

N.H.

*Note:

Kensington Gardens was not a happy place on 22 August 1928. A newspaper account of the time describes "Children, with their lips pouting sadly and with tears in their eyes". The object of their lamentation was the much-cherished statue of Peter Pan. Overnight, someone had poured a pail of tar over the bronze boy's head, then whimsically garnished it with cushion feathers.

The press reveled in the 'outrage', gathering broken-hearted comments and mawkish reactions from a devastated public.

"Poor Peter," one little fair-haired child exclaimed, "all in the dark, where he can't see the birds, and the water and everything".

"If I knew who had done it, I would smack them," shouted a little boy in a sailor suit, holding a model yacht in his arms.

"Where are my bunny rabbits and the little mice!" a tiny girl demanded [referring to the animals decorating the base]. "I always come and say good morning to them. May I make sure they're still there? I want to tell them I'll be back tomorrow."

Peter's "grotesque appearance" was soon shrouded from public gaze by a tarpaulin. Immediately, men set to work with knives, paraffin and other implements. The statue took two days to clean, and traces of the tar lingered even then. Dorothy Dickson, an actor who'd recently played Peter Pan on stage, commented: "It is the most stupid thing I have ever heard of. I cannot imagine what reason anyone could have for such a silly piece of vandalism. The only conclusion I can come to is that whoever did it must be a lunatic."