A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 237, 7 October 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

GOSSIP FROM LONDON,

A CELEBRATED HOSPITAL.

pYom Our London Lady Correspondent.)

There is ono London institution at least where feminism reigns supreme land men are rigorously barred. This j s the South London Hospital for Women, founded 20 years ago with that express embargo on masculine humanity. It is managed, staffed and run by women only, flD d never onco in its 20 years' existcncc has a male specialist even been consulted. There is now talk of ambitious developments at this hospital, but still, of course, on the settled lines of women only. I have heard men doctors comment on this feminist exelusiveness as compared with the facilities that women students and doctors obtain in other general hospitals. But nothing can shake the firm femininity of the South London institution. It is a citadel of petticoat rule, and apparently a flourishing and Eucccssful one.

r' THE MAID THAT CHARS. Some go-ahead welfare institution at ithe East End of London is launching a class for women workers, the majority of whom aro cither office cleaners or charwomen, for the intensive Study of tlio works of Shakespeare. I am told that tho intelligent interest taken byclass attendants in Shakespeare's writings is remarkable. So keen are they that there, is already talk of them presenting 'one of the plays as an amateur theatrical venture. I can well imagine some Cockney charwomen I have known being thoroughly intrigued by Falstaff, and putting up quite a. good show, in the role of Mistress Quickly or Doll Tearsheet. What humour, too, they would get into playing the merry wives. Probably Shakespeare's humour makes truer appeal to the proletariat women than to the suburban high brow ones. •' CURIOUS. It is amusing to find the hamjet, in ©no rcspect at least, far more sophisticated and modern than London. Elect Street makes quite a song about it when two daring young women stroll down the Broad Walk in Kensington Gardens in the middle ,of the day. London still gapes, in fact, at women in trousers. Yet the truly rural country accepts them without surprise. I suppose tho wartime land girls have educated rural opinion up to this pitch. On a recent stroll I lunched in a garden at Chiddingfold, where the only others present were si party of hefty women campers, all wearing uncompromising boy scout shorts. When I called later at a village inn, the neat maid who served me wore zipp-fastened flannel trousers as unselfconsciously as her own brothers. My last call was at a lonely farm for a glass of milk. The dairymaid who answered my knock had on riding breeches. INSIDE-OUT FASHION. Judging by some recent novelties (demonstrated by lovely mannequins at West End fashion parades, tho latest feminine foible is to be an economical one. Fabric gloves, for example, have naturally come back to favour with the warmer weather, and are now being imade with equal workmanship and finish inside and out, so that they may be worn both ways. The inside colour is differjent from the outside, so as to match idifferent costumes and toilets. With one of these two-shade reversible pairs of gloves it is possible by using pastel shades, to match four different outfits. Much the same idea is to be exploited also with silk stockings. Wo shall soon have two-colour reversible stockings. This certainly sounds economical, but in the case of New Bond Street fashion chops the Virgilian tag about the Greeks and presents almost assuredly applies. BEACH COIFFURES. Never has such a variety of bathing dresses and kindred equipment been displayed in West End shops as this eumiraer. Apparently tho idea is, so far as bathing costumcs are concerned, to strike the most fantastic and vivid colour and design possible. Our beaches are going to be exceptionally bright this summer, if people actually wear tho kind_ of garments that London shops are stocking. Among the novcltics is a bathing coiffure, or, in other words, a rubber hair outfit. This ingenious attachment is made of rubber and protects the head from water, but at even close range, especially when wet, it looks very- like a well-barbered coiffure in perfect order. The rubber hair may be of any shades you choose, from yellow to black, brown to red, or, if your fancy lies that way, even bright emerald. Don't tell me of your sad sea waves nowadays. The beach will thoroughly deserve the R.L.S. epithet "uproarious." SOARING PRICES. A friend of mine who has been seeking holiday accommodation at one of the famous golfing resorts on the south coast., was telling mo that the extent to which prices have soared since last year is simply beyond belief. It is inexplicable—unless it is due to a belief that the Prince of Wales may spend a short holiday there. For a short rent during the height of the season as much as £300 is being demanded for houses which boast only half a dozen bedrooms. Other houses, which last summer were asking a rental of £14 a week, are now asking £40 a week. Exorbitant charges of this kind usually defeat their own end, and aro generally followed by a last-minute slump. But the agents have already got a large number of the houses oil their hands, and are confident they ~ will find tenants for the remainder beforo the beginning of July. SUCH A NICE MAN. From information received I gather that an elderly relative of mine must have given some trouble to-day to a London bus conductor. This lady knows little of London, and is a little nervous about losing her way. She came up from West Kensington, having recently arrived from Sicily, on a number 9 bus, and I was waiting for her at a luncheon rendezvous. She duly arrived, not many minutes late, and obviously very pleased with herself. She told me she had met "such a nice bus conductor," who put her down at tho right 6pot, and even expressed his regret that he was "too busy to see her to the very door of the restaurant." I further gathered that his parting injunction had been: "It lose your 'way, mum, don't forget tp send me a wire!" The best of the joke is that the busman's sati/3 was entirely wasted. My elderly relative was Ceauinely delighted by his kindness.