That great building was often
endangered because of its proximity to the Strand and Fleet Street;
and the Strand and Fleet Street, being regarded by the Germans as
arteries of Empire, were frequently attacked by German air-craft.
But in Rossiter's studio there was an under-ground annex as
continuation of the house cellars; and the household was instructed
that if, in Rossiter's absence, official warnings of an air-raid
were given, certain jars were to be lifted carefully off the shelves
and brought either into the library or taken down below in case,
through shrapnel or through the vibration of neighbouring
explosions, the glass of the studio roof was broken.
One day in October, 1917, the German air fleet made a determined
attack on London. It was intended this time to belie the stories of
the heart of the Western district being exempted from punishment
because Lady So-and-so lived there and had lent her house in East
Anglia to the Empress and her children in 1912, or because Sir
Somebody-else was really an arch spy of the Germans and had to go on
residing in London. So the aeroplanes this time began distributing
their explosives very carefully over the residential area between
Regent's Park and Pall Mall, the Tottenham Court Road and
Selfridge's.
Lady Rossiter in her overall was disturbed at her indexing by the
clamour of an approaching daylight raid; by the maroons, the
clanging of bells, the hooters, the gunfire; and finally by the not
very distant sounds of exploding bombs.
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