The Royal Diet.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 134, 7 June 1890, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Royal Diet.

If the Queen is absent from the country in person, ehe is still present in custom and conbroversy. Most people, for instance, like to know what good things tho Queen likes, bub especially those who are loyally imitative, or who may happen bo be bhe vendors of bhe articles in question. In a. certain ancient kingdom the daily custom ab Court was for the king to go into his chamber bo r.ouut all his money, while bhe queen retired bo bhe parlour to eat bread and honey. The kingdom of Greab Britain and Ireland has fallen upon different if nob humbler times, The king, when there is one, does nob' require bo cbunb his money, when he has any to counb. He is saved bho trouble by a State officer, who makes Bis Majesty aii allowance ; and when there is a queen, as ab present, she does not feed on bread and honey, but on semolina puddings, one of which, according to a paragraph, no doubt inspired from the Royal kitchen, her present Majesty consumes every day for her lunch. This precious paragraph will have a strong etlecb throughout bhe country. For one thing, there will bo' a great run on the thing known as semolina; and we would almosb be justified for the suspicion that a semolina flour syndicate is at the bottom of the pudding story. Retail grocers should keep their finger upon the pulse of the market. Dietetic reformers, like the vegetarians, will rejoice to hear that however much the Royal kitchen may send forth odours, as from Araby the Blest, the Queen herself ' has an extremely plain diet.' The temperance party, always dovoted bo the Throne, will become more loyal than ever when they know bhat H_r Majesty takes no. wine. Wicked publicans may sneer, and say that though the docbors won'b allow bhe Queen bo, bake wine— which, after all, is libble better than wash—they order her to take whisky, the purest of all the liquors. But bhab would be a mosb disingenuous sbatement, for, as a, mabter of fact—and bhe bemperance parby would nob tail* to poinb ib oub—the only alcoholic beverage permitted Her Majesty is not whisky, bub * weak whisky-and--1 water,' a very different thing from the real Simon Pure, drawn from the. still, tawny depths of ten-year-old casks. May we nob gather from these circumstances that the Queen, if not an absolute teetotaller, is a genuine temperance reformer ? Ibis a slight concession bo say so; and the intelligent reader, who is now million-mouthed, may take it as almosb a divine oracle, bhab subjecbion to weak whisky and waber, especially if volunbary, is one of bhe most conspicuous signs of civilisation, .which means, deep thinking and shallow drinking. Beforo leaving the grand theme, it is onlyfair to the food reformers to add" that the Queen has made for her ' a special kind bf French bread,'which has *a soft crust and saves bhe beebh.'