A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 88, 15 April 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

romance of the peerage

EAST MEETS WEST. «*

(From Our London L/ady Correspondent.) As most loyal-subjects are aware, the Tvhite pearl carnation is the King's favourite flower. On public occasions it is as inseparable from liis buttonhole as the orchid was from the buttonhole of the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. What is not so generally known is the fact that when he is resident at Buckingham Palace, the flower is always supplied to him by one firm, nurserymen on the outskirts of London. A fresh bloom is sent up every morning all the year round. When jig jg at Windsor Castle, or at Sandringham, His Majesty, of course, is not dependent on outside growers to the game extent. His own glasshouses provide him with all the carnations he requires. And needless to say his gardeners pay special attention to having a sequence of white blooms always available.

THE KING'S HUT. The planting in Windsor Great Park 0 f a number of saplings sent to the Prince of Wales by the junior section of the Canadian Forestry Association of British Columbia is not the only memento we have of the lumbermen who spent their time in the Great Park during the war. There is also the log cabin summer house, which was erected by the lumbermen themselves during the later stages of the war and situated dow just below the east terrace of the castle gardens. The hut is built in the real Canadian style, and is a favourite spot of the King's when the Court is in residence at Windsor. Also of Princess Elizabeth, who loves to hold afternoon tea parties here with the Kin" and Queen and little friends as her guests. Canadian lumbermen who built the hut were not an idle party. They were drafted to Windsor to convalesce after a turn in hospital, but time hung heavily on their hands, and they asked to be allowed to do "something." One conceived the idea of building the King a log summer house. Bis Majesty readily assented to the idea and aS the timber was cut from the Great Park woods.

| ROMANTIC FORBEARS. Romance enters richly into the family history of the Duke of Leeds, whose forthcoming marriage has been mentioned. The founder of the line was a 16th century London apprentice, Edward Osborne, of Ashford, in Kent, who saved the small daughter of his master, a clothier with a shop on old London Bridge, 'by diving into the Thames after her when she tumbled out of an overhanging window. Later he married her, and lived to become a theriff and Lord Mayor of London. His grandson became a baronet, and his greatgrandson was the first Duke of Leeds. A much later Victorian ancestor was the young Parliamentary candidate, standing for a London suburban seat, who was tackled by a rude heckler. The latter asked, alluding to the candidate's obvious youth, "Does your mother know you're out." To which the future duke, with prompt aplomb, retorted: "Yes, and by to-morrow night she'll know I'm in." A true prophecy as it proved.

THROUGH INDIAN EYES. Just now.' London's interesting visitors include the Begum Sahiba of Khaipur and her son, who is to take up the study of scientific agriculture in this country. In her native country this impressive little lady dwells in strict •seclusion. She never appears unveiled in public, and always attended by a suite of 30 officers. Here in London she goes unveiled, and her sole attendant is a'maid-servant. She is very gracious inj her views about London and Londoners, attributing to the latter "charming manners" that are not always in evidence to Londoners themselves. With most Oriental visitors, what most impresses the Begum is our street traffic, the never-ending whirl and rush of ■which she finds most fascinating. But it seems a pity these visitors from distant lands should concentrate on London. They might get another and better impression from rural England.

PAGANI'S. An event of some note at the West End has been the 60th anniversary of Pagani'a restaurant in Portland Street. A restaurant that is slightly off the tea ten West End track, and survives so well'for all those years, is a place of some distinction. For the West End is fickle where its dining-out rendezvous fi re concerned, and is apt to cold shoulder the favourite of yesteryear. What has made the fame of Pagani's, however, apart -from its really good catering and management, is its professional and artistic clientele. There is one room in the restaurant whose walls bear," 5 close packed but legible, thousands of famous autographs. Every famous actor, musician, artist, doctor, lawyer, and social celebrity London has known during the past half-century has added his name to that curious wall decoration. lam told that an expert, who was asked to act as valSer, put the total of those autographs at not less .worth than £50,000.

NICE RIPE PIPPINS. One of the privileges the Duchess of York enjoys, now that she has become & "freeman" of the Shipwrights' Company, is that of the freedom from police interference if she sells apples in the London streets. It is an old privilege conferred by the charter of the Shipeights' Company. The notion of the Duchess of York pushing a coster's harrow along Piccadilly is a • pretty conceit which will assuredly appeal to Communist Russia. The Duchess was invested with the freedom by her own husband in his capacity as permanent faster of the Shipwrights' Company. ■As a preliminary to the ceremony, the Duchess had to be formally introduced to her husband by one of the office hearers.

HEIR of an ancient race. The birth of a son to the Hon. Robert Bid Mrs. Devereux will give great satisfaction in the neighbourhood of the Welsh border. The infant is destined to become in the fulness of time, 19th Viscount Hereford and premier Viscount of England. The title was created in 1550 in favour of the third Lord Ferrers,. "J recognition of his distinguished services in the French wars of Henry VIII. The Devereux family have held lands in England ever since the Conquest. The most romantic and unfortunate Devereux the second Earl Essex —Elizabeth's ill-fated favourite, who was executed on Tower Hill.. With him died the Earldom of Essex, but the Viscounty °f Hereford was continued by a cousin.