WOMEN ADMITTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 303, 22 December 1932, Page 12

WOMEN ADMITTED.

The Devonshire Club, in London, after rejecting by large majorities five times in its history the proposal to admit women guests, is now devoting its ground floor exclusively to a section for the entertainment of women. The club was founded in 1874 as a Liberal Club by the Duke of Devonshire and his son, the Marquis of Hartington—then leader of the Liberal' party. It has long ceased to be a political club, however, although the Dukes of Devonshire have succeeded one another as president. On the first floor is the famous private dining room, once the scene of the lunch parties given by Gladstone to further the cause of Home Rule. It was at this club, many years ago, that a famous literary figure, long since dead, rented a bedroom. He had the reputation, and the appearance, of disliking soap and water, yet every morning he went to the <bathrooin with sponge, towel and a walking stick. That walking stick was rather a mystery until a°fellow member evolved a theory. So one morning the bathroom door was forced, and the man of letters was discovered in his dressing gown standing by the bath and stirring the water with his stick, to the accompaniment of ablutionary noises.