Planquette (1848-1903) was a clever business-man-musician who made it his business to find out what people wanted, and to serve them with that sort of music faithfully, as long as they would have it. Graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, he began by composing songs and tit-bits for cafe concerts, and soon took to operettas. Perhaps his greatest success was in Lea Cloches de Corneville, which was extremely popular when it came out in 1878, and has kept its place ever since. Rip van Winkle was also very successful in London in the early eighties.
The Gentle Maiden is an old Irish air, to which English words have been set by Harold Boulton. They sing the praises of a gentle maiden whose eyes have the glance of sunlight.'
COUNTRY GARDENS is the original, or aboriginal, name of one of the traditional dance tunes which the late Cecil Sharp noted down somewhere in England and published in his book of Morris Dance Tunes. To the expert it is a handkerchief dance ' ; to ordinary folk it is a jolly and captivating tune with a touch of Handel's best in it. Percy Grainger has made it into an exhilarating piano piece. 8.20 ORCHESTRA Selection of Johann Strauss's
Waltzes

9.0 WEATHER FORECAST, SECOND GENERAL NEWS BULLETIN

9.15 Mr. VERNON BARTLETT : The Way of the World '
MR. BARTLETT in his weekly talk on Foreign Affairs gives to the ordinary listener who has not the leisure or the expertness to follow the drift of world politics a clear, concise and human account of 'The Way of the World.' Mr. Bartlett's style is not without humour and sympathy During the course of a successful journalistic career and, later, of his work for the League of Nations, he was witness at first hand of the struggles, military and political, of the nations of which he talks. His book 'Europe in the Melting Pot,' a collection of essays on his experiences as a newspaper correspondent during the troublesome days immediately following the War, makes excellent and informative reading.