ENGLAND'S PRINCESS.

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

ENGLAND'S PRINCESS.

SPARTAN LINES OF EDUCATION.

Princess Elizabeth has passed her fourth birthday. So familiar are we with her golden curls and smiling blue eyes that no fresh photograph is necessary to bring before those of up who have never seen her, a perfect mind picture of our beloved Princess, nor do we ever tir* of hearing about her eventful life (says an English writer).

One of the most remarkable things about the little Princess is the fact that, with the exception of one bad cold last winter, she has never been ill. She has been brought up on almost Spartan lines —-wearing few clothes, going out in all weathers, eating the plainest of food, including fresh fruit daily, going to bed early, and getting up at the same time each morning. Only when driving on cold days, or when.travelling, has she worn a hat.

Consequently she is, first and foremost, sturdy, with a well-poised head, and has no nerves. - She seems to have no fear of anyone or anything. While this upbringing is based on a modern regime, it is not unlike the upbringing of her mother who, as a little girl, was often out and about in . the grounds of their house at Waldenbury at six in the morning, or over the moors at Glamis soon after seven. She, too, more often carried her hat in her hand or hung it on,a tree, than she wore it on her head; she, too, while shyer than her small daughter, and the very-much-younger-than-the-rest member of a large family instead of an only child, was free from fear. As far as possible, too, the Princess has been kept from understanding anything about her Royal status. It is true that, as soon as she was steady on her feet, she learned to curtsy to her grandmother, the Queen, whenever she paid a visit to the nursery, and very soon after that, to kiss both the King's and Queen's hands. But it was merely the imitative faculty of the average child which was responsible for that formality., She saw her nurse .curtsy, so she curtsied; she saw "Uncle David" and "Aunt Mary" kiss their father's hand before they kissed his cheek, and she began to do the same thing. The Royal family always drop a swift curtsy and touch the Queen's hand with their lips before they receive her kiss of greeting. And -she has charm- —the charm that belongs naturally to her mother, the Duchess of York, on one side, and to her uncle, the Prince of Wales, on the other. She likes playing rough-and-tumble games, however, a good deal more than she cares for dolls and dolls' houses or even sewing, although she can sew a little and often does when she is with her mother. Her new accomplishment of bowling a hoop; however, and practising the art of catphing a ball, is really more to her taste, and she would sooner dahce to her toy gramophone than listen to riiusic.All the same, she likes mugic well enough to try to play the piano and the old spinet, to which her mother sometimes sings her quaint Scotch airs and nursery tunes, and those delightful songs of Robert Louis Stevenson's which are loved in so many nurseries.

The Duchess of York is always most anxious that people should understand that her small daughter is being brought up on simple, natural lines to be an ordinary, normal girl.