A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

GOSSIP FROM LONDON.

ROYAL ASIDE.

(From Our London Lady Correspondent.) Charming little stories are still being told of the personal side of Jubilee Week. On one of the days when the £ing drove through the streets with the Queen, and was constantly raising his hat en route, he arrived at liis destination with a slightly worried look on his face. Getting out of the Royal carfare, he handed his outdoor coat to an attendant, and, as he entered an anteroom to prepare to receive people who ffer e waiting to be presented to him, he turned to the Queen, and said in a low voice: "Is my hair fairly smooth at the hack, my dear? I've had my hat o ff so many times." The Queen stepped back a pace, found that everything wa? all right, nodded her head with a kind little smile, and then proceeded to adjust the King's tic in most natural and unconcerned way. Just, in fact, like any devoted wife, who was anxious that her husband should be sartorially perfect. ENGLISH HOSTESS. Princess Ingrid was very anxious that her wedding, while it embodied all the pretty Swedish traditions, should have its English side, especially as her mother, the late Princess Margaret of Connaught, was an Englishwoman, and 6he has so many things in common with the English side of her family. Fortunately her step-mother, the charming Crown Princess of Sweden, who was Princess Louise Mountbatten, is also English, and was fully in sympathy with this only daughter of her husband, and everything that could be done to make the ceremony attractive and memorable from the more personal and domestic side was arranged by her. Princess Louise is the daughter of the Dowager Lady Milford Haven, an aunt of the King, who has a suite of rooms at Kensington Palace, where her daughter visits her from time to time on her visits to this country. PRINCESS ARTHUR OF CONNAUGHT It was not surprising to her personal friends that Princess Arthur of Connaught chose the aeroplane as her method of travel to Sweden for the wedding of Princess Ingrid. H.R.IL has during recent years developed what the Prince of Wales calls airmindedness, and when possible makes her long journeys by air. Next to the Duchess of "Kent, she has flown more miles than any other of the Royal ladies.. The Princess lias taken lessons in flying, so keen is lier taste for aviation, and rumour was prevalent recently that she was contemplating an aeroplane trip on an extensive scale —to Africa, as a matter of fact. This has not materialised yet, but, although it still remains in embryo, I am told the project is not outside the bounds of possibility. Prince Arthur is not so enamoured of air travel as his wife, but he has made several short journeys by 'plane. He took the more conventional, though longer, way to Sweden for the -wedding. YOUNG LADIES-IN-WAITING. Princess Ingrid of Sweden, now the Crown Princess of Denmark, will not have to complain, as did her mother, the late Crown Princess Margaret of Sweden, that there is very little young society about the new Royal Court to which she has accompanied her husband. Princess Margaret found life in a Swedish Royal Palace rather serious a.nd dull and longed for young people of her own age with whom to exchange opinions, and, generally, share her life. Princess Ingrid has in her new entourage at least six ladies-in-waiting, who aie very near her in the matter of yeais, who share her love of sport, and are looking forward to co-operate with her in all the out-of-door pursuits to which, in her home country, she lias been used to devoting so much time.

RUSSIAN ART. London's forthcoming exhibition of Russian art continues to attract great interest. The fact that the Duchess o Kent has followed its fortunes so carefully has, naturally, made people inquisitive in regard, to it, but there are other sides to it —one, the beauty of these art treasures with which the old Russian aristocracy surrounded themselves, and another, the pathos of seeing in such a setting as an English town house personal trinkets which were worn or handled by men and women who suffered death during the Russian Revolution, and ornaments —like the chalice from one of the principal cathedrals which belong to the history of the old, unhappy Russia. Among the jewels is a wonderful diamond and sapphire tiara, insured for £20,000, which belonged to the maternal grandmother of the Duchess of Kent —the Grand Duchess Vladimar—and has been lent by Queen Marie of Rumania. MAGPIE SCHEMES FOR ASCOT. There have been dress shows in London for Ascot. Women seem unable to make up their minds definitely about either colours or styles, but are anxious to make the Silver Jubilee Ascot a memorable one so far as the fashions pageant is concerned. Leaders of fashion seem to be in favour of lovely colours. The dressmakers feel that there lias teen a surfeit of rich royal shades, as well as of pastel tones, during the social functions which have already taken Place, and are suggesting that black, white or black and white ensembles Would 6pell real chic. So they are lielplng_ their clients to come to the decision, which they themselves want them to make, by staging parades in which the mannequins show exquisitely made black Rowns, hats, sunshades, gloves and hand')a?s, frocks which are all white but l have black accessories, and ensembles W black and white. It will be interesting when the royal meeting arrives J-p see whether the dressmakers win. They usually do. STAYING IN LONDON. . Lord and Lady Lonsdale are not seen ln London a frreat deal, even during the season, although their "beautifully appointed house in Carlton House Terrace is alwavs kept readv to receive them. This" summer, however, it is possible to see Lord Lonsdale exercising his do£s in the Mall most mornings, he and his wife having been in residence in town for some weeks. They came up originally to entertain friend? f °r the Silver jubilee, and a larsre party of guests watched the Royal procession from their windows and formed a luncheon party afterwards. They have attended a number of functions since, and Lord Lonsdale, keenly interested as ever in horses, has spent a good deal of time at the Royal Tournament at Olympia. " 1