5.15 Daventry
The Children's Hour
' The Waterways of England No. 5
Adventures of Plymouth Sound
A Play by L. DU GARDE PEACH
THIS PLAY is all about the Pilgrim Fathers, and whenever you hear of them you think of the Mayflower, for that was the ship in which a hundred Puritans, fleeing from religious persecution, sailed from Plymouth to America on September 6, 1620.
That Plymouth-not only Plymouth,
England, but Plymouth, U.S.A.—so much concerns them was the result of accident, for they had sailed from Southampton a month earlier in two boats, one the Mayflower and the other the Speedwell, but the latter was found untrustworthy, and the Mayflower sailed alone from Plymouth, as we have seen.
Then, again, accident played a part in their future, for they intended to land in Virginia, but, from some cause or another, landed in Massachusetts instead. They were among the first settlers, and the first town they built they called Plymouth after the name of the port they had left. It might just as well have been Southampton, Virginia, but for chance.
These settlers and their descendants changed the whole course of American history, but du Garde Peach's play this afternoon has to do with their departure from Plymouth Sound. A brave body of men and women, undaunted by the false starf they had made, setting out on a perilous journey to an unknown land.