Quiet Sunday

On Sundays the British may go to the cinema, but not to the theater. The theaters are closed, and big sporting events are prohibited. Under Britain's strict "Quiet Sunday Laws," some of them centuries old, a poet may give a recitation so long as he makes no gestures and dons no costumes (only a Scotsman may perform in a kilt--others would be dressing up). The laws forbid game shooting (except rabbits), beekeeping demonstrations, milk deliveries between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., buying bread at the baker's after i :30 p.m. (although it is possible to borrow a loaf and pay later). A Briton may buy toothpaste but not a toothbrush, may have his shoes repaired but may not buy shoelaces. He is not supposed to ride in a boat (but excursion boats do a rollicking business at every seaside resort). He is not supposed to travel more than five miles away from home, nor go outside his own parish to watch a football game or cricket match.

Time & again, 20th century Britons have tried to amend or abolish the Quiet Sunday Laws, only to find themselves up against a coalition of fond tradition and the Lord's Day Observance Society, a body which is resolutely led by 71-year-old Herbert Henry Martin, known all over Britain as "Misery" Martin.

Last week the reformers made another try in the House of Commons, and were countered by Misery Martin with petitions bearing 512,735 signatures. People who want to reform the traditional British Sunday, complained one lady educator, are those who say: "Reading bores us, walking and cycling tire us, family reunions irritate us, museums and picture galleries are too clever for us, and the BBC sometimes expects us to concentrate our attention." The House rejected the reforms by a vote of 281 to 57.

Sunday came & went as usual: poetry readers cautiously controlling their hands, villagers in their Sunday best, and news vendors--in violation of the law against "public crying,"--shouting: "Sunday papers! Brighter Sunday gone to 'ell."

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