A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 139, 13 June 1936, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

Queen Mary And Marlborough House.

A WOMAN CERTIFICATED MARINE ENGINEER

(From Our London Lady Correspondent.)

LONDON, May 7, IT hns now been decided that Queen Mary will take up residence at Marl-

borough House in September, not in June, as was first intended. The house has not. been occupied since Queen Alexandra lived there, and only the servants' quarters, which were used by the York House staff, have been kept up to date. These are now being considerably enlarged to accommodate Queen Mary's larger staff. Every week the Queen, sometimes accompanied by the Duchess of York, drives over to look at the house. The work in the private rooms is nearing completion. The walls have been stripped of brocade and silk hangings and papered in the pale colours selected by Her Majesty. Two pictures which are being exhibited at the Royal Academy this year, one' of the Lying-in-State" by Frank Beresford, and the other of last year's Jubilee Thanksgiving Service at St. Paul's, by Salisbury, have been bought by the Queen to hang in her new home. Gifted Daughters. The two daughters of the Hon. Mrs. Geraldine Drummond, who herself is a daughter of the late Lord Amherst of Hackney, are keeping to the family tradition of doing worthwhile things. Victoria Drummond is the only British woman certificated marine engineer and the only woman who has worked as a regular member of the engine room crew of an ocean-going liner. She served as an apprentice with the Caledonian Shipbuilding Company, and has worked for several famous lines. Her younger sister, Frances, is a promising artist, and has had a picture accepted by the Paris Salon, which opened last week. The study is one of gentian flowers, the rich blue colour of which are remarkably depicted and redolent of the joyous atmosphere of the Alps.

Rhapsody in Grey. There was a pretty wedding at Chelsea Old Church, Cheyne Walk, when Monica Waddington, sister of Patrick Waddington, who is making a hit in "Glass Houses" at the Royalty Theatre, married Mr. L. E. Swann. The bride, who has the dark, flashing beauty of a gipsy, wore a lovely gown of dove grey chiffon designed by herself. Her headdress was a garland of brown orchids, and she wore a pair of Georgian earrings. the gift of her actor brother. Only one bridesmaid attended her, and she also wore a dress of grey chiffon, with a tiny cap of brown chiffon and brown mittens. More than 200 wedding presents have been received, among them two sets of exquisite hand-drawn linen sheets made from flax grown on the King's farm at Sandringham. Curves Come Back. There is a Rubens-like atmosphere about the portraits in the Stella Burford -~'h>w at the Werthcim Galleries. Th ; modern young artist has overlooked tin! fashionable streamlined artists model ' for those of more generous proportions. She specialises in mural decorations, and declares that really fat women make much better subjects for this type of painting. The only time she makes an exception is when she is commissioned fo decorate the walls of bathrooms. Mrs. Burford, who is the wife of the wellknown writer of film scenarios and mystery novels, finds her heavyweight models amongst acrobatic dancers, who develop their muscles to an extent perhaps more brawny than graceful.

Dame Laura. I cannot recollect .another year when the unofficial place of honour at tlio Royal Academy has been occupied by the work of a woman, yet this year Dame Laura Knight's "The Show Is On" hangs in the position generally reserved for Royal portraits. This painting, which depicts circus artists waiting in the wings for their act, is not. however, the work purchased by the Academy under the terms of the Cliantrey bequest, which is Dame Laura's "Spring in Cornwall"— a dazzling canvas, richly aglow with bright coloured flowers vying in their varied brilliance with the rainbow overhead. Dame Laura Knight has six of her pictures hung this year, two of them being impressions of Ascot. Honeymoon in England. The wintry April weather changed the honeymoon plans of Miss Prunella Beckett, daughter of Sir Gervase Beckett, who was married last week at St. Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale, to Dr. Bathurst Norman. The young couple were to have gone on a trip to Norway, but at the last minute decided upon a motoring tour in England instead. Miss Beckett is the sister of Mrs. Anthony Eden, and the small son of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs made 14s debut at the wedding as a train-bearer. In company with Lady Diana Wortliington's son, Charles, he wore a period suit with n green velvet aoat over knee breeches, and sported the frilled jabot and ruffles of a Georgian beau.

Queen's Country Home. I hear that Queen Mary has definitely decided to make Sandringham House her country home. Her Majesty hopes to go there at Whitsuntide in order to arrange the house to her requirements. Nothing has been done there since the King's death in January, and the late King's rooms will be maintained very much as they were during his lifetime. Whilst in town Queen Mary is spending a good deal of time at Marlborough House, where, almost weekly, consignments of goods from Windsor, Balmoral, Sandringham and from The Coppins, the late Princess Victoria's house at Iver, are arriving to form part of the furnishings of Her Majesty's future home in town. It is the Queen's intention to have a goodly proportion of her porcelains at Marlborough House. This is a study which greatly fascinates her, and she will devote more time to it now that she is able to seek relaxation from the round of State duties which formerly fell to her lot. Epsom Races Ball. Crinoline parties are being held in several Mayfair houses in order that guests taking part in the tableaux at the Epsom races ball may learn to manage their hoops with dexterity. Frith's famous canvas will be brought to life, and one of the foreground figures seated in the barouche will be Lady Elizabeth Hare, wearing a lacetrimmed pink crinoline and carrying an absurd Gin Victorian parasol over her shoulder. Other passengers are to be Lady Sylvia Savile and Miss Charmian Fane, and the carriage party are finding it quite a considerable feat to dispose four or five full-sized crinolines in one ordinary-sized barouche. The "sports girl" of the period shown in the picture will be portrayed by Lady Dawkin's daughter Christina, wearing a green riding habit and a feathered hat.