A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

ALFRESCO DINING

BRILLIANT SPANIARD,

[(From Our I/ontfon Lady Correspondent.)

la different parts of London recently the past few days attractive young jsrouicn have been seen wearing ordinary itrouser suits in tho public streets. This piay or may not bo part of some organised movement to popularise male fcttire for women. These young women, jwho possessed notably handsome figures had the look of advance°skirKiieberci in a regular trouser campaign. Some of them escaped, like the tall girl in a brown velvet suit in Hyde Park, with nothing more than curious backward glances. Others, in the less sophisticated suburbs, elicited catcalls and were nearly mobbed, so that they were glad to take refuge in taxis. So apparently public opinion, even in tlieso postwar times, has not changed greatly since 1819, whan the immortal Airs. Amelia Bloomer, of New' York, challenged Victorian opinion in a similar fashion.

SONG OF HATE. I hesitate to tell another nightingale fetory when there aro so many going round, but this one deserves a hearing, jf only because it disapproves tho theory that nightingales aro incorrigibly shy birrts> A friend, who has given over about 50 acrcs of rough woodland in Cambridgeshire to form a miniature bird sanctuary, was walking round one evening looking beside the stream for a reed warbler's nest. She left her walking etick standing in tho ground a few yards away. Suddenly she was startled by a flood of melody behind her. Turning, she eaw a nightingale perched on tho handle of her stick, "registering hate," with bright, beady eyes, and singing lustily to attract attention to himself, and from the nest on which the little hen nightingale was sitting a few yards away. VISCOUNT BRIDPORT'S SISTER. Tho engagement has been announced of Miss Eileen Hood, who is an Honour-able,-and sister of Viscount Bridport. This young lady, whose mother was a vvcll-known actress, Miss Eileen Kendall, lives at Richmond with an uncle and aunt, and is a keen sportswoman. Sho is a fine and fearless horsewoman, a flying enthusiast, and full of adventurous spirit. Sho is the young lady who cheerfully offered not long ago to be carried across a wire, sixty feet abovo tho ground and with no net below, on which a famous. circus acrobat and balancer performed at Olympia. Her friends might have failed to stop this adventure, but fortunately tho authorities stepped in. They did so with most characteristic sang froid, intimating that their only objection was that there .might be risks, in the event of a fall, to spectators who had paid for their seats. OPEN-AIR MEALS. Whence this sudden enthusiasm oh the part of London newspapers, for more open-air cafes in London? We a"e told how far wo lag behind Paris in this respect, and assured ihat our climate is just as good as that of Franco for alfresco dining. It was Charles 11. who started that theory. Ho declared that there were more nights in England than in any country in Europe when one could sleep out of doors, comfortably. I wonder how often he tried it? Personally, if it comes to sleeping out, I should prefer Southern Europe, and, if it is a matter of dining outdoors, I prefer Paris to London. Incidentally, though I often' breakfast in Kensington Gardens, I never see any Fleet Street people there. The truth is that our London climate is all against alfresco meals. Tho occasions when it is neither too wet nor too cold are few and far between, and worst of all, much too uncertain for making plans ahead. NO FRAME-UP. How many modern feminists have heard of Aijaruc? She was a tall and beautiful Tartar Princess, daughter of King Caidu, and her name means "Shining °Moon." Her parents wanted to marry her off in the Tartar way, but sho coaxed her father to agree that no suitor should have her who could not throw her in a wrestling bout, and who • was not prepared to wager a thousand horses on tho match. \Vhcn that naive old Venetian globe-trotter, Marco Polo, met the lady in 1280, she had acquired over 10,000 horses, and ten suitors had bitten tho dust. Then came a most handsome, manly and eligible -young Prince, whom her parents were anxious Aijaruc should wed. But Shining Moon pertly refused to listen. to her royal father's subtle suggestion that she should lose the bout. Down went the Prince, and Aijaruc stabled his horses. How would that sort of thing appeal to our Stamford Bridge girl athletes? MORE PIRACY. Dress designers aro not the only people who are complaining that their best ideas arc pirated. A similar lament conies from the furnishing firms, ally thoso that specialise in pcrl». furnishing, v or seek to introduce the individual touch into their decorative schcmcs. A number of women are making a substantial income by acting as professional advisers to brides ill tills matter of furnishing. And the big firms complain that some at least of their number make a tour of the big shops under the pretence of buying, in order to assimilate some of the ideas of the experts. It is, of course, almost impossible to stop this sort of thing. The furnishing firms lay themselves open to this particular form of piracy when they seek to attract custom by arranging specimen rooms either inside their own premises, or, alternately, in one of a row of new houses that the builders may be putting up. INTERESTING OCCASION. Members of the Diplomatic Corps in London are pleasantly intrigued by the fact that the Prince of Wales honoured the Spanish Ambassador with his company at a reception at the Spanish Embassy. Senor Perez Ayala was appointed to the Embassy when the Republic was set up in Spain, and, owing to their intimate friendship with King Alfonso and the relationship of Queen Ena to our own Boyal family, members of the Court Circle have sometimes found things just a little difficult when social details in connection with Spanish relationships have been in question. The Prince, however, who has bridged many gulfs, willingly consented to attend a reception at the Embassy when Senor Ayala and his cultured American wife proposed that they should give one in honour of Dr. Julia Boca's Argentine trade mission to this country. The Ambassador, and the circle of literary and artistic friends which he lias gathered about him in the two years that ho has been in London, naturally treasure the occasion.