V -E-V odds & ends.

We regret to record the death of “Buddy” Featherstonehaugh, who raced before the war with to much enthusiasm notably in Alfa Romeos, and whose prowess at the wheel was maintained in post-war days. The Times obituary was devoted to his jazz career and did not refer to his motor racing. In 1920 Smith & Sons, the motor accessory people, were selling a ham mascot, very like, if not exactly the same as, the famous Alvis mascot, for £3 15’s. in bronze, 4 gns. in gilt or silver-plate. A reader has sent us some very early pictures of motor vehicles at the Motor Show held at Tunbridge Wells in 1895. Most of these were published in the Press at the time and have reappeared frequently in more recent days. But it now appears that the picture of Sir Davis Salomons’ Peugeot was printed back-to-front in the first-ever issue of The Autocar and has been so reproduced ever since, as was the picture of the Hon. Evelyn Ellis’ Daimler-engined Panhard-Levassor! And a picture of the De Dion steam-horse at the Show seems to confirm that it was taken at Tunbridge Wells and not at the Paris-Rotten Trial of 1894, as it is captioned in Bird’s book “The Motor Car – 1765-1914”. The photographs were mounted by Russell & Sons, of Baker Street and Windsor and appear to be the originals. The Hon. C. S. Rolls appears in one of them, and as he was known to have spent a weekend in 1896 at Broomhill, the Kentish home of Sir Davis Salomons, it seems probable that he was also at the 1895 Exhibition.

Another reader has sent us photostats of much publicity material relating to the Ariel car, including an account of its ascent of Snowdon in 1904 and of a Land’s End-John O’Groats Run made by Charles Sangster in 1904, when he drove nearly 900 miles in 35 hours 35 min. running time. This latter Run is commemorated in a very long poem ! The same reader tells us that the Dundee Reg. letters TS related to Toni Shaw, who was promised this recognition after teaching someone in the Council offices concerned to drive. A Jubilee Rally for traction-engines and vintage vehicles is planned for July 9th/10th at Hatfield House, Herts. This is an appropriate venue, because the oak tree under which the first Elizabeth is said to have been sitting when she heard of her Ascension to the Throne is close to the rally ground. The rally is to include a parade of 1952 vehicles, of the kind current at the time of the present Queen’s Ascension, when one of the song hits of the day, incidentally, was “Meet Mr. Callaghan!” Details for the rally from: P. Barnes, 82, Park Meadow, Hatfield, Herts, AI,9 5HB. The Darlington & Stockton Times recently carried a story about an early 39 h.p., water-cooled single-cylinder De Dion Bouton, Reg. No. BE 201, bought for £5 in 1920 and scrapped after an accident. It seems to have been given an R-R shape radiator at some time and its gas headlamps can still be seen at the Black Lion Hotel in Richmond, Yorks. A St. Albans newspaper had a picture recently of a Swift cyclecar used in 1914 by the local police to apprehend scorchers on the A1. The same story refers to a fatal accident in 1906, between a pony-and-trap and a Rolls-Royce, at Markyate, and one wonders whether this involved an early Silver Ghost and who was driving it?—W.B.