"ROYAL ASCOT."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 130, 4 June 1929, Page 23

"ROYAL ASCOT."

SINCE QUEEN ANNE'S DAYS.

ITS SOCIAL DAYS

'HIGHFLYERS'' AXD "RIFF RAFF."

(By HORACE WYXDHAM.)

Ascot, which has now become the Mecca of the fashionable world during the four days that its programme lasts, was evolved from comparatively humble beginnings. Yet its claim to be considered "Royal" is well founded, for the racing there was established by Good Queen Anne, whose main interests (when her husband and seventeen offspring had gone to another world) were horses and hunting. This was in the year 1711. Society not having then heard the present call of Cowes and the moors, the first Ascot programme was fixed for August. It was a simple enough one, with only a eoiiple of items on the card, arid the Windsor servants and grooms acting as judges and stewards. .

This initial meeting was, it is interesting to note, attended by Dean Swift. He was among the guests at Windsor Castle that summer, and he casually alludes to Ascot as "a place they have made for a famous racecourse." His reverence was shocked to observe among the company assembled on the Heath, "a maid of honour dressed like a man." This daring Amazon was a Miss Forester, and her unconventional costume consisted of "a long coat, a flapped waistcoat, and a smart three-cornered cocked hat. bound with gold lace." Altogether rather suggestive of the circus ring. "A true silly maid; I did not care for her," was the Dean's caustic comment. "Nobody axed vou, sir, she said," was very possibly her spirited riposte. Such things have happened. Early Days at Ascot, Together with the "high-flyers," the public's attendance at Ascot in its early days attracted a considerable volume of rib'-raff. An ill riff-raff, too, for the scum of St. Giles' mingled openly with the cream of Mayfair. The roughs and toughs among the former had no respect for the •"'quality,''' and would turn the Heath into a bear-garden. Hooliganism was rampant: gangs of pickpockets infested the course; and fights between bookmakers and disappointed backers were of common occurrence. One such encounter took place under the eyes of William IV. himself. "His Majesty," declares a chronicler, "enjoyad the mill eo much that he put up a handsome purse for the combatants." "Brighter Ascots" in those far cff days: In 1832, when the "Sailor King" paid another visit to the famous Heath, he had an unfortunate experience. As he was dismounting from hio carriage, a stone was thrown at him by a one-legged pensioner, John Collins, who' adopted this unofficial method of calling attention to a grievance from which he considered himself suffering. It was a cowardly attack; and, had not the police interfered, the assailant would have been strung up by the furious onlookers. As it was, he was tried for . "high treason," and sentenced to death at the Old Bailey. After full inquiry, however, he was declared to be a lunatic, and, as such, went to Bedlam instead of to the gallows. Rise of Ascot. What did more than anything else to give a "tone" to Ascot in the years that followed was the institution by George IV., in 1820, of that picturesque feature which is still maintained, the "Royal Procession" up the course. Despite the mechanical age in which we now live, cars have not yet ousted the seven fourhorsed landeaus, in which their Majesties and their guests, attended by outriders and postilions in brave array of scarlet and gold, travel from Windsor. The Royal patronage which Queen Anne (since dead) accorded to Ascot has continued almost uninterruptedly. George I. vras seldom there, but his son, George 11., together with the Duke of Cumberland, the Duke of \ork ("jolly, cursing, courageous Frederick"), and the Prince Regent never missed a meeting if they could help it. They also bred many famous horses, and won a number of prizes. William IV. was another 3tauneh patron, and always had a big house-party at Windsor for the "week." Queen Victoria's first visit to Ascot | was made when she was a young girl of 15. It is said that on this occasion she | was "much upset by hearing vulgar and unreffhed remarks among the crowd." Still, this did not deter her from another visit in 183S, "wearing a lace dress, and a white gauze poke bonnet, trimmed with pink ribbons and ornamented with roses." After her marriage, she Brought with her the Prince Consort, who was very much impressed with this picture of "England at play. So, too, in 1544, were a couple of other foreign visitors of distinction, King Frederick of Saxony and the Emperor Nicholas I. of Russia. • It was the late King Edward who probably did more than anyone else to set the seal of fashion on the Ascot meeting and to make it first and foremost a "society" function. When Queen Victoria became a widow, he, as Prince of Wales (together with Queen Alexandra, as Princess of Wales), continued the traditional Royal patronage. He also ran a number of his own horses; and in 1897 he carried off the Gold Cup with Persimmon. In 1923 his son, King George (who, as a boy of thirteen, saw hi? first Ascot in IS7S) secured the Royal Hunt Cup. The Royal Enclosure. To the majority of people who mingle with the Ascot throng every June the special. interest of the meeting centres round that carefully railed-off and jealously guarded strip of turf in front | of His Majesty's bos, the Royal Enclosure. Human nature being what it is, the "hadge" which serves as the "open sesame" there is a, very coveted possession. It is also very difficult to secure, for, although something like 6000 are issued, the number of applications exceeds 60,0C0. Hence it follows that not more than one in ten can be successful. Certain privileged individuals have what i? practically a prescriptive right of admission. On this favoured list are peers, officers of the Brigade of Guards, members of the War Office and Admiralty staffs, bigwigs of the political, social, and diplomatic worlds, highlyplaced Civil servants, and distinguished foreigners and visitors from overseas, etc. Anybody else who wants to be present has to apply beforehand to Vis-1 count Churchill, at St. James' Palace, j All such requests are there very care- > fully examined by a group of experts, | headed by a barrister with Sherlock Holmes' instincts and a phenomenal knowledge of the applicant's "'past.'"' -"If the smallest stain is on this (bankruptcy and divorce proceedings being; the chief barriers), a polite refusal is tne j inevitable result.

If all is well, and the coveted voucher is granted, it has then to be exchanged

for a "badge/ 3 entitling the bearer (whose name is written on.it) to enter the Royal Enclosure, and the adjoining lawn and paddock and stand. The privilege also means putting down a substantial sum, as there is a charge of £6 for a man and of £4 for a woman. The presence of a large number of women in the Royal Enclosure is a comparatively modern innovation. Describing an Ascot of fifty years ago the author of a volume of memoirs remarks: "There were .not more than a hundred ladies among the throng"; and in ISSS this authority says the number was only twenty. Now it is at least a couple o*f thousand. Another change is in the matter of attire. "All the ladies in the Enclosure had to wear bonnets" observes a frequenter during the "70's," and continues: "Hats could not be worn in the presence of Royalty. Our dresses had long skirts trailing on the ground." Cost of Ascot. If one wishes to do things well, and to mingle with the rank and fashion (but not necessarily in the sacrosanct Enclosure), attendance at Ascot means money. Lots of money. The admission ticket alone runs away with £7 for the week, and a covered stall costs £L 10/ a day extra; while a box for the meeting is not to be had under £15, and a really good one is double this amount. Then there is the matter of refreshments. A very modest luncheon is 15/ "without wine," and a King's ransom with any thing out of a bottle. Further, hosts and hostesses who 'want full measure of comfort (and don't mind paying for it) do not get off under ten guineas for the use of a private room in which to entertain their guests. But of course the chief expense is incurred in another department. This is that of clothes. Here Ascot has always reflected the very last word. As with ourselves, so with our grandparents. !• irst, Georgian dandies, in wigs and lightly strapped trousers, beaver hats, stocks and frilled shirts; clean-shaven, bearded and whiskered; and long coated and short coated; and now clean-shaven and morning coated and silk hatted. Similarly, their feminine belongings. Once, nothing but bonnets and shawls and crinolines and billowy petticoats, and heads curled and ringletted; now all of them in the shortest of short skirts and the silkiest of silk stockings: and their wearers bingled and shingled and Eton-cropped and bobbed and debobbed. Savile Row, Bond Street, and the Rue de la Paix. "II faut souffrir," etc. Still, the result is worth it. With Royalty as host and hostess; the cream of Mayfair for company; music and laughter and happy talk; long stretches of velvety lawns, with a background of gorse and fern; banks of chestnuts topping the paddock; an abundance of flowers; and everything spick-and-span and swept and garnished, "Royal Ascot" is a veritable pageant of colour and life and movement. A typical picture of "society" at its best. Nothing to equal it anywhere! .