Show I LAST LONDON CHARLEY I Who Still Goes His Rounds and Calls the Flying Hours London Mali An incident which has just occured has brought to the minds oa Holborn police inspector and a few other Londoners one of those amazIng incongruities of which London Lon-don life can furnish so many ex a11ples Who would suppose that in the heart I I of London within sound of the underground under-ground railway and within sight of I the motor car a genuIne Charley still goes his rounds and calls the hours I in a loud voice the long night through This comedyif you lIke to call it so takes place with unfailing regularity In Ely place Holborn No spot could be more appropriate for the perpetuation perpetua-tion of such a custom than this ancIent precinct where John of Gaunt time honored Lancaster drew his last breath and where If we are to believe I be-lieve Shakespeare good strawberries strawber-ries rIpened In the garden of the bishop bish-op of Ely whose chapel still lifts its ancIent though much hidden walls in I Ely plaqe After thc reversion of the property I to the crown in 1762 various arrangements I I arrange-ments were made whereby Ely place remaIned a private precinct under the government of commissIoners These I commissioners still exercise theIr rule Sir George LewIs is their present I chaIrman which is fortified by acts of parliament and their watchmen have legal power to arrest mlsdemean I ants within Ely place and hale them to the nearest polIce station lot that the power is often exercised But it was exercised this very week In a trivial matter which went no further than the police station The charge of misbehavIor was indeed refused by the inspector on duty who momentarily momen-tarily doubted the authority of the Ely place watchman to act as a constable con-stable But on this point he was speedily set rIght by the production of the act The night watchman in Ely place Is required to cry the hours from 11 p m to 5 a m Nor may his duty be perfuncttrily discharged Four times along the length of Ely place must his cry of past eleven or past twelve etc be heard No polIceman enters Ely place night or day unless specially summoned Nor Is the Charley who keeps watch and ward there within closed gates at night a guardIan of mere empty offices Adjoining the place and out by the foresaid commIssioners are the Ely mews dewllinss Here 16 familIes are resident and this little hive of humanity manIt as well as caretakers of Ely place proper are under the Charleys direct protection and have theIr slumbers punctured by his melodious cries |