LONDON GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 175, 26 July 1930, Page 4 (Supplement)

LONDON GOSSIP.

PRESENTED AT COURT.

THE PILGRIM'S WAY.

(By NELLE M. SCANLAN.)

To the socially aspiring to be presented at Court is the final triumph. The Royal imprimatur sets the seal on much endeavour. The person to be presented does not make application to the Lord Chamberlain, it is the person sponsoring her, or making the presentation, who does that. Most colonials are presented by the wife of the High Commissioner for their Dominion, and mothers who have been presented sponsor their daughters. There is an unwritten law that, the lives of the person to be presented must have conformed to a certain standard.

It is twenty-seven years since the presentation of a lady has been cancelled by "Gazette" notice. The brief announcement in the London Gazette that "the presentation of Mrs. Christopher Courtney has been cancelled" caused a social sensation. Captain Courtney is a high official in the Air Force, and the presentation was made by Lady Salmond, wife of the head of the Air Force. Mrs. Courtney was presented last month. Before her marriage to Captain Courtney in 1926, she was the divorced wife of Arnold Grayson. The unwritten law still holds at Buckingham Palace. • # * •

Edward the Black Prince was born 600 years ago, and tthe commemoration of this event is being celebrated. at Canterbury Cathedral, which contains his magnificent tomb. After the passing of these centuries, his armour and gauntlet still hang above his tomb. The festival will last for seven days, and part of it consists of Shakespearean performances in the Cathedral precincts, with the lovely old building as background. Among the singers who are taking part in the musical portion of the ceremonies, is Dame Clara Butt. Once the Canterburv Pilgrims arrived on foot, and the old" Pilgrims Way is now a speeding motor road. To-day they come by car.