A Maid In Mayfair

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Maid In Mayfair

(Special Correspondent.) LONDON. THE Duchess of Kent would be glad to be reunited to her young family when she returned to London. She probably missed the mites more than they missed her. For they had a right royal time during her absence, including a visit to their grandmother •t Sandringham. Before then they were staying at Sandwich, which j k aa ideal spot for youthful royalties to go for a holiday. At Littlehampton, aptly named the Children's Playground, or any*other resort on the south coast, the children would almost inevitably BAT* been surrounded by a ring of spectator* when they were taken down to the sands. Sandwich, however, is almost unique, in that the seafront is the private property of the residents in its immeeftato neighbourhood. Even the broad read which runs along the eeashore is m ftfrate thoroughfare, where there are ao police to enforce speed limits or things of that sort. When he was Prlaea of Wales, the Duke of Windsor was a frequent visitor there. In his oaae golf was the attraction. It is the attraction also to Lady As tor, who has * delightful cottage looking out on the ■•a and links. She entertains a great deal there at week end*, and, though •ho oalla It a cottage, the dimensions of tho place may be gathered from the fact that strangers frequently mistake it for the hotel. BAUWTED BOUSE, Staying on holiday at St. Margaret's Bay, two or three years ago, was the one and only occasion that I found myself in what appeared to be a haunted Wma It was quite a modern villa, but there was a rather tragic story attach lag to it. And at night lights would be mysteriously blown out and doors would silently open without any apparent human agency. There was one bedroom, fat particular, that our domestic cat refused to enter and where our dog's hairs bristled with terror if any attempt were made to coax him in. Apart from these ghostly disturbances, I was sometimes disturbed in the small hours by the roar of 'planes passing over the house-top* and heading seaward over the Channel. Inquiries addressed to local residents invariably produced the same reply. "Oh, that would be the Prince of Wales, taking a party of his friends over to Le Touquet. He often dees that." LOrTrXm'S ■ SUBURB." Le Tenqnet, indeed, is regarded almost •a a Ix>ndon suburb by the "bright young things" in eociety who delight in tahiag a flip over the Channel. If the Duke of Windsor were back in London ho would, I am sure, he one of the first to f«t his name down to attend what the organisers are calling'the "Le Touquet Night," arranged for an evening in December. Several well-known hostesses

rERE'S an amazing amount of colour in the fashions this summer, but some of the smartest women are going about in all black, all white, or all navy blue, or whatever. The only order is going to be this: Do right by your figure and face. , In other words, flatter yourself. Wear a dancing dress that is ten inches off the floor, with a skirt like a gipsy's. Wear a skirt that is 30 yards round, with a crinoline under it and that has a bodice slim and tight-fitting. Wear 4 slim, draped frock, swathed after the manner of Cleopatra. Wear a streamHne, modern frock with sleeve*. All are fashionable. Anything goes. And the same for daytime' ... a swagger coat, a loose, narrow coat, a three-quar-ter belted tunic coat, a redingote, a box jacket, all are very fashionable. Anything goes, so long.as it is alive, vibrant and charming. Too many women try to make themselves all over for the sake of a dress. It can't be done. No matter bow you slice it, it's the same old personality, the same hipline, etc. Choose your dress, or coat, or euit, with a stern determination that it's going to flatter you. And that you are not going to try to revamp yourself to suit it. no matter how grand it is. Be exacting with your hat, for if it doesn't do grand things for your head end your face it will be a criminal bit o f straw and gadgets. The

are interesting themselves in tlie occasion, including Lady Crewe, Lady Bessborough, Lady (Austen) Chamberlain, and others who frequently spend *hort holidays at Le Touquet. The Mayor of Le Touquet himself is being invited to attend, and will assuredly be made to feel that he has been bidden to a home from home. For there will be many reminders of Le Touquet, including a representation of the lighthouse, which is almost as much a landmark at lje Touquet as the appropriately red lights that greet you when you enter the harbour at Monte Carlo. It will, in fact, be Le Touquet all complete except ; for the pine trees and the golf links. SOHO DINNERS. A 6ubtle change is taking place in the menus of the small restaurants, in Soho. In the old days, when you took your seat at one of the tables, you were impressed at once by the multitude of knives and forks flanking either side of the plate set for hor3 d'oeuvres. For the modest sum of half-a-crown you could get a seven-course meal, leisurely consumption of which occupied well over an hour. Gradually the table d'hote meal is giving plac-s to dinner a la carte. Presumably the profit on the latter is more substantial, for it is difficult to see how money could be made on those long seven-course banquets. One theory advanced is that '■ the famous Soho dinners have been killed by ridicule. They never quite recovered from the old story of the man who was taken to sample one by a knowledgeable friend. At the finish of the meal he was asked what he thought of it. "Excellent-,, excellent," he exclaimed. "Now you have one with me." LUXURY GOLF. We are very prone to complain about the heavy expense of golf. But club subscriptions and other charges of the kind arc still small compared, with some of 1

the American clubs. A keen player, just back from New York, tells me he asked about the cost of joining one club, and was dumbfounded. There w. no entrance fee, as we understand it. But you have to take up the shares of a retiring member, and the price of these depends on the condition of the stock markets. In the slump period he could have got in for a mere £1500. To-day it would cost him £3000. It is not suggested that all this money goes down the sink. He get* a considerable dividend on hi« shares. But on the top of this initial outlay he has to pay an annual subscription of £100. After playing one round of the links the English visitor thought it was almost worth it! Apart from a,magnificent golf course, the clubhouse provided every possible form of luxury, including soft music from the ukelele while he was taking his shower bath. It was not this club, but one in England, that electrified its members recently by intimating that, while ladies might wear trousers on the links, they must be taken off on entering the clubhouse! PRINCESS INGRID. The Duke of ConnaugM, like other members of the Royal Family, has been greetly concerned at the serious illness of the Queen of Denmark. To him it has meant a personal disappointment, for he had been looking forward to an early visit from the Crown Princess Ingrid. who never fails to stay with him for a few days when she comes to England. Princess Ingrid had planned a short holiday over here for the early autumn, which would have enabled her not only to see the duke, but would have given her an opportunity also of getting some hunting. Until her mother-in-law, the Queen of Denmark, is completely out of danger she feels that duty calls her to remain on in Denmark. A double tie binds her to Qu*en Alexandria, for it was her sister-in-law,

Princess Ingeborg, of Sweden, who took Princess Ingrid and other members of the family into her own home in their childhood on the death of their mother, Princess Margaret, the Duke of Connaught's daughter. FALLING FRANC. A letter from Paris tells me that prices are soaring to an alarming extent in the French capital. Tourists and others who think of taking a cheap holiday on the other side of the Channel will suffer rude disillusionment. As the franc falls in value expenses go up in more than inverse proportion. The greatest sufferers, of course, are the Parisians themselves. The English visitor does at least get nearlv twice as many francs for his pound note a* he did before. But French people, who have fixed incomes, have to pay more for their lijrht. coal. food, taxicabs. omnibuses, and even for the stamps they put on their letters. There is a big sma+terinjr of English and American visitors in the capital, and they are all complaining bitterly of heavy hotel bills and other expenses. The disposition seems to be to blame the present French Government rather than to attribute the cause to the unbalanced condition of French finance. KIPLING'S ADMIRERS. Rudyard Kipling's gifts are to be honoured for all time in the Imperial Service College, Windsor, where memorials are to be erected to him and a Kipling library is to be built. His admirers are founding a memorial fund to endow bursaries at the college, which was his old school when at Westward Ho. They will meet at a banquet at Grosvenor House in November, and the Earl of Athlone. accompanied by Princess Alice, wjjl preside. The bursaries will help sons of public servants all over the Empire to attend the college, and the High Commissioners for Tndia. Southern Rhodesia and New Zealand are, naturally, keenly interested in the scheme. Two of Kipling's heroeA of "Stalky and C 0.," Major-General L. C. Dunsterville and Mr. C. C. Beresford, have promised to attend the banquet, and among the many prominent people who are giving their support are Lord Baldwin, Lord William Scott and Lord Nuffield.