A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 85, 11 April 1931, Page 4 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

A PRACTICAL PRINCE. PAVLOVA AND THE DANCE. '{Prom Onr London Lady Correspondent.) It is, J. am told, the Prince of Wales' bwn i wish that no vote should be asked for in Parliament in connection with his long tour in South America. The whole burden will fall upon his private purse and there is-.no doubt that tho journeywill cost him a very large sum of money. While he regards it as a private trip, everyone recognises the business benefits it is certain to confer. It is quite certain, therefore, that a vote would very readily have passed through the House of Commons. The Prince of Waleb, however, has an intense dislike of Parliamentary criticism, and no . one appreciates more fully thau he does that the House of Commons always has a few hot-heads amongst its members who delight, in an opportunity of indulging in criticism of Royalty. No responsible person takes their hot air seriously, but it does a certain amount of mischief among the groundlings. CLIVEDEN. A great ado has been made over Lord Astor's decision to offset his supertax by letting Cliveden. It is about 40 years ago since Lord Astor's father bought this famous Thames mansion from the first Duke of Westminster. The latter, whose peculiar idiosyncrasy was wearing blue collars like G. 8.5., owned the two finest riparian houses in England—Cliveden, amidst the woods of the best reach of the Thames, and Eaton Hall, an even more palatial country house just as idyllically placed on the most picturesque reach of the Cheshire Dee. Before the Grosvenors had Clivedenjt was owned by different noblemen, including Mr. Churchill's puissant ancestor the. great Duke of Marlborough. But truth compels the admission that to-day, with the Thames vulgarised by motor trippers, Cliveden reach is no longer what it was. Its up-river "chic" has vanished. DR. ETHEL BENTHAM'S BILL. It is considered likely that the late Dr. Ethel Bentham's Bill dealing with the nationality of married Englishwomen will now be taken 1 charge of by Miss Eleanor Rathbone, the Independent \foman M.P. The bill seeks to entitle women married to foreign husbands to retain their British nationality, and, before her death, Dr. Bejjtham had the satisfaction of seeing it pass its second reading, and of knowing that it had the approval of the Government and the House. The reasoned and attractively delivered speech which she made at the time of the second reading was almost , the last time that she was heard in the House. There is more interest than anight at first thought be imagined in the bill, for women still remember the hardships which those who were marlied to aliens had to endure during the : "war years.

THE BOOM IK ILLNESS. Six weeks ago the doctors were making bitter complaint of the slump in business. They attributed it to a variety of causes and especially to the depression in trade. People, they said, could no longer afford to be ill and, especially amongst women, there was a very noticeable falling-off in the number of patients Buffering from nervous complaints. All this is now changed. The" doctors are run off their legs and anyone who is not suffering from gastric influenza seems to be suffering from pneumonia, bronchitis or pleurisy. And the amusing thing is that if you ask the doctors why there is this sudden excess of illness they will tell you that it is all owing to the manner in which we neglected minor illnesses at the end of last year! "Everyone thought they could do without the doctor and kept struggling along at their business until the inevitable collapse came." A PREMIER'S HOME. I learn that the Duchess of York has agreed to open next summer an "eventide home," which is being established by the Church of Scotland Social Committee. The building, at present known as Belmont Castle, is the former home of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and is a modern building beautifully situated in Strathmore, about ten miles from Glamis Castle, where the Duchess spent her girlhood. Belmont Castle was bought after Sir Henry's death by the late Sir James Caird, and presented to the Town Council of Dundee, which, however, found itself unable to make effective use of the gift. The castle adjoins the village of Meigle, where Sir Henry and his wife are buried. PAVLOVA.

A wonderful memory of Pavlova comes to me. The greatest balleriaa of our time, like most supreme artists, was highly strung and very temperamental. It was just before the War, and she •was dancing with Michael Mordkin at the Palace Theatre. He was every bit as great a dancer as Pavlova, and they had a furious quarrel. The last night of their engagement they literally danced a duel on the stage. Each strove to out-artist the other. Pavlova put all her soul and genius into her masterpiece, the butterfly dance, and won an ecstatic ovation. But Mordkin danced his bow dance as even he had never done before, and the whole house rose to recall him. I can see Pavlova's face now, as Mordkin, taking his call and with him a gesture of real artistic inspiration, broke his bow in his hands.

ELLEN TERRY'S DRESSES. Lllen Terry left behind her a wonderful collection of stage dresses. When her farm at Smallhythe, in Kent, is placed on a proper footing as a national memorial to her it is hoped to convert one of the rooms into a museum of theatrical clothes, of which her own costumes will form the nucleus. Many of the dresses she wore during her long association with Henry Irving at the Lyceum are at the moment being cleaned and repaired in readiness for ibis. Her daughter, Miss Edith Craig, has been prevailed upon to allow some of the most interesting of the costumes to be exhibited very shortly in York, where the great actress was very well known, and where there are to-day many artistic people who would appreciate the opportunity of seeing them. In this little exhibition will be included the dress she wore as Ophelia on her very first appearance with Irvivg at the Lyceum, as Well as her costume as the Nurse in one of her very last performances—with Doris Keane in "Eomeo end Juliet."