A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

NEW CAREER FOR WOMEN. HOW TO DEAL WITH RATES. (From Our London Lady Correspondent.) Westminster Abbey already holds a fino monument to Henry Fawcett, the blind Postmaster-General who married Millicent Garrett, of feminine suffrage fame, who is also to be honoured in the nation's shrine of memories. One of the most pathetic stories of Faweett's blindness, over which he triumphed so magnificently, is of the occasion when, out riding together during a Brighton election contest, his wife was thrown from her horse, and he thought she was killed. His anguish and pathetic weeping were almost unbearable to witness. The wedded life of these two great publicists was an unblemished romance. It is fitting that the Dame Millicent memorial will take the form of an addition to the original monument to her husband. There will be a small medallion head of the wife, and two inscriptions, enclosed within bronze wreaths, will be affixed one on each side.

"FORE!" TO THE WORLD. The Ladies' Golf Union is to be congratulated on the efforts it is making To "show the flag" in a golfing sense in different parts of the world. This year we are entertaining an American team of women golfers at Wentworth. Not only is a return visit in contemplation, but we are also sending an English team to do battle against the French ladies at Le Touquet. The year's programme provides also for the dispatch of a touring team to the Cape. Women's golf in South Africa is not yet sufficiently advanced for the Dominion to put forward a serious challenge to the Mother Country. But a tour of this kind always gives a great impetus to any game. In time we may have a South African team coming over here. Our bunkers, at least, should not worry them, for much of the golf in South Africa is played on sand. The funds for these ambitious plans are derived, in the main, from the fees charged at champiynship and other meetings, SITTING OUT. Familiar old phrases keep turning up again with entirely new meanings. A friend, who employs a worthy charwoman from a neighbouring workmen's tenement, was shocked to hear that the hard-working but impecunious dame had been summoned for her rates. My friend offered assistance in the tragic emergency, but the stout-hearted woman, incidentally a direct descendant of a one-time classic pugilist, refused to hear of it. She said she would just go to the court and "sit out." Asked what she -meant, she explained. Rate summonses, usually for amounts of about 20/, are common in the tenements. And the settled habit is to attend, tell the magistrate a more or less true story of poverty, and wait for his kindly: "Tut, tut! A hard case! One day's imprisonment. That means that you must sit hero in the court till it rises." These cheerful Cockney dames take a little light refreshment —and their' knitting.

"NIGHTGOWN" FROM QUEEN ELIZABETH. It would seem that bishops must have been aa proverbially "hard up" as our modern curates in Queen Elizabeth's time. A scroll, containing a list of her New Year gifts to her courtiers and friends in 1584, has been presented to the trustees of the British Museum, and records that all these ecclesiastical dignitaries were given money. So, too, was Sir Thomas Bromley, the Lord Chancellor. Her Majesty's gift to Sir Thomas was the quaint sum of £13 6/8. But for some of her friends Elizabeth was at pains to choose more personal and intimate presents. Lord Hunston, for instance, received a tha Elizabethan word for dressing-gown —of rich "carnation satin."

* MOMMA" MAKING PLANS. I hear estate agents in the West End of London are receiving many inquiries for houses for the London season. Most of these inquiries come from the United States, and it is evident America's monetary troubles are not going to have much effect on next summer's trans-Atlantic traffic. Npr is it altogether surprising la view of the depreciation in the pound sterling, living expenses in London will be relatively low from the American point of view. This is probably the explanation why so many people are taking houses for two or three months at a time. They are anxious, on the one hand, to avoid the hotel _ charges. Furthermore, they realise that it will be much cheaper to stay in London than in Paris. They are therefore planning a much longer sojourn in our midst than has been their practica hitherto. The wife of the American Ambassador is expecting to be very busy indeed presenting trans-Atlantic debutantes at this season's Courts.

SOCIETY'S CAFETERIA. • Society, which now works for its living, has decided that its ordinary clubs and restaurants ax© much too luxurious and leisurely for luncheon visits, so it has launched out and established two cafeteria clubs —one in Grosvenor Street and the .other a short distance away, and enrolled scores of members at a guinea a year. As the description of the clubs implies, everybody helps himself to food, and the most delicious light dishes may be piled up on little trays and carried from a buffet to a small table. One of the clubs is called the Cutty Sark, and there are decorations reminiscent of a boat. The other is known as Punch. The younger generation is delighted with the ventures, and the men who sell cars, and the women who sell frocks, are often joined there by such well-known people as Lady Seafield, Lady Alington, some of the best-known actresses, and a few actors. Both Princess Arthur of Connaught ana Lady Carisbrooke have been in, from time to time, to see how things are going.

WOMEN CIGAR SMOKERS. A friend who called for his wife to take her home after playing bridge in the afternoon tells me he was... much surprised to see three of the eight women players smoking thin cigars. Cigar smoking, however, is becoming popular with quite a number of women, and one West End cigar merchant now markets a specially slim cigar made of very light leaf, which is bought almost exclusively by women. He has always made cigars for South American and Russian women, who smoked cigars even in Victorian times, but the growing fashion among Londoners is something new. A well-known actress used to smoke cigars some years ago, and was thought unique for doing so. Many of the women who are now smoking cigars are doing it in order to break themselves of excessive cigarette smoking.