"She Loves To Dance. . .

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 189, 12 August 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

"She Loves To Dance. . .

For Women.

LONDON. I WAS talking recently to a hostess who sees a good deal of the Duchess of Kent and has entertained her in her own home. Speaking of the regret she feels that the King's youngest brother and his wife will be away from London for two years, she said she wished that people knew the Duchess more intimately. There was so much gossip about the restaurants missing her, and certain night clubs being less glamorous without her, and the impression given was that this was the only side of life that had any appeal for her.

"She is young," she said. "She loves to dance. She married a prince already in the set that takes a good deal of its recreation that way, but those are not her only interests."

She went on to tell me of the Duchess' intense love for her home—of the plans that she has made for the houses which she will occupy in Australia, so that they, too, shall be homelike and possessed of character instead of just Government residences. Her affection for her children does not stop at merely choosing good nurses for them. Their food, their clothes, their health are her personal concern, and the whole of life at the Duke's lielgrave Square home centres round Prince Edward and Princess Alexandra and their relationships with their parents. Clothes, of course, interest her enormously, but, according to my informant, she has such an inborn flair for them that her wardrobe does not mean any-

Being The Notes Of A Maid In Mayfair tiling like the expenditure of time and thought that many a society woman devotes to it. My friend is confident (hat the Duchess will become as popular in Australia as she is in England. Les Bruyeres It will be melancholy news to French people on tiie Riviera that the Duke of t'onnaught is giving up his villa at St. Jean. He is, to them, the last representative of the spacious Victorian days when the Mediterranean Riviera came into its own as the select winter time resort of the wealthy instead of, as now, the happy all-the-year-round holiday ground of the many. To the Riviera French lie has for a generation been "i.e. Grand Prince," as distinguished from hundreds of other Royalties. But age will claim its debts. The Duke is now 88 and a journey of SO(J miles by sea and land is not to lie liulitlv undertaken. Already he has missed his Mediterranean season in favour of our own south coast and elsewhere. So there seemed little reason in retaining Les Bruyeres. Lady Patricia Ramsay is now his devoted companion and only surviving child. Residence in England has the consolation for the Duke that it ensures frequent visits also from the Crown Princess of Denmark, still better known as Princess Ingrid.

Mending a Fuse At a tea party I met Miss Caroline Haslett, C'.B.E., director of the Electrical Association for Women, and hon. secretary of the Women's Engineering Society. She talked of the increasing interest women are taking nowadays ill electricity and engineering, those living in country districts especially appreciating all that modern science has done in aiding them to run their homes with the minimum of trouble. Miss Haslett, who has helped hundreds of women on the way towards making good incomes by practising the electrical and engineering crafts, mentioned an occasion when the Queen, then Duchess of York, visited tTie housecraft school. The Duchess was keenly interested in everything she saw. Before departing she said: "And now, wiTl you please show me how to mend a fuse? The Duke cannot do it." Instruction in the homely task was forthcoming. The Duchess proved an apt pupil and went away smiling with pleasure over the little bit of extra practical information she had received. Land Women Lady Victoria Hicks Beach, chairman of Council of the Women's Farm and Garden Association, which has as its president Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, emphasises the national importance attaching to women who know something of the land. She feels it is essential to have an efficient and permanent foundation of women, already trained and used to land work, who may be relied upon in an emergency to supply the staff and framework of a women's land army. There are elements of such a foundation in existence—stronger and more numerous than in 1014—but Lady Victoria wants it to be stronger, more cohesive, more numerous. The type uf

volunteer now coming forward makes it plain that, given opportunity for training, there are manv women working in towns who would be only too glad to fill the vacancies existing in agricultural employment. Thorough agricultural training cannot be acquired in a few weeks, although excellent reports have been received about volunteers who taken the opportunity to study for a short time at the various farms and market garden establishments where training h«s been offered. Lady Victoria believes that these practical holiday courses are. at any rate, a step in the right direction. Carisbrooke House It is just over a year since Dame Sybil Thorndike opened a hostel, known as Carisbrooke House, for middle-aged women compelled to rely upon an institution for shelter. The house in Upper Tulse Hill is not a large and barracklike place, but comparatively small, quite homely and nicely furnished, with accommodation for 32 inmates. The women attend to the housework, help in the kitchen and in the laundry, and also make themselves responsible for the good appearance of the garden. They go about their household duties in the morning, and are generally free by afternoon for whatever they like in the way of knitting and sewing. The idea is to fit them to take their place more in the scheme of things so far as efficient workers are concerned. It says much for the understanding work done at the hostel in the way of studying individual needs that (53 women obtained employment during the first year of its existence. The London County Council celebrated its jubilee by throwing open to the public some of the establishments under its care, and Carisbrooke House was one on view.