THE PRINCESS OF WALES' DAIRY.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 6094, 9 November 1887, Page 6

THE PRINCESS OF WALES' DAIRY.

An American lady, who has recently been describing the residence of the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, gives the following interesting sketch of the Princess' dairy :—

A ten minutes' brisk walk through the pleasant grounds, and the opening of a swing gate, bring you to one of the most attractive features of the Princess of Wales' own dairy. Imagine, if you can a Swiss cottage with projecting eaves and peaked gables, built of dark Norfolk stone, and broken by quaint little windows with diamond panes. There are four rooms, besides a small dressiug--oom under the eaves in this pretty place, and naturally I chose to enter the most interesting one first, the tea room, in which the Princess has placed every ornament with her own hands, and where, in the afternoon, she goes with her friends and cuts the bread, the butter for which she churned herself. The room is small, has a light matting on the floor, and the walls are covered with dark sage green paper. All the woodwork is oak, simple, but well carved by hand; and in the square window a cushioned oak seat is placed. The chief decorations are tiles, beautifully painted by personal friends and relatives of the Princess. The very door by which you enter has on the inside three tiles in Watteau tints inserted between the panels, and painted by the Duchess of Manchester. They* show three plump and lovely little cherubs fishing, and very much" tangled up in their own lines. Thesewere the earliest tile contribution to'the tea-room, when they were matched by the first Duchess of Westminster, who sent, for the door opposite, opening on a tiny stairway, three tiles of similar size ! arid coloring, but much better done, repre senting the same cherubs hunting a wild boar, though for safety two had hied up a tree. Above the wainscoting were three tiles with Kate Greenaway sketches, very daintily finished by the Princess Louise, and five still more cleverly done by the Duchess of Cumberland. These represent Danish dairy scenes, and when the Queen of Denmark visited her daughter she told the old dairy woman that one tile, showing a fascinating little dairy with a red and whife tiled floor, an open swinging window in which roses were peeping,and a pretty aiaid with a Dolly Varden dress and a coquettish cap, was really a facsimile of her own dairy in Copenhagen. Over the mantel is a small, square mirror in black teak wood, and round and above it are hung a quantity of very beautiful India ware of a brilliant blue color, brought, by the Prince from Singapore. On the mantel-shelf stands the curious teapot, said to be priceless in value, and the Prince's own contribution to the room. It is of Dutch manufacture, very old, and in the shape of a very stout Dutchman sitting astride a barrel of wine. Pulling up the old man's cap you find it acts as a lid, and here the tea is put in. The veryfat stomach answers as the body of the pot, and, turning a tiny gold spigot in the barrel, out runs the favorite live o'clock beverage. The coloring of this piece of china is so perfect, and the halfdrunken but pood-tempered expression so natural, as quite w> fascinate the beholder. The dairy proper, where the Princess makes thick yellow cream turn into fragrant through the medium of a dainty silver churn, has also much to interest the visitor. The walls are covered with tiles presented to the Prince, which he had. placed there as a surprise for his Royal dairymaid. These tiles were made in Bombay, and are of a peculiar peacock blue, in which the rose, the shamrock, the thistle, and the motto, "Ich dien," are ingeniously intertwined. Round the room runs a white marble counter, covered with silver pans, porcelain lined, and bearing the Prince's plumes and initials. These were filled with cream-coated milk from the sweet-breathed Alderneys near by. Broad bracket shelves of marble held numerous cows, bullocks and calves of different sizes and every imaginable material, including Italian and Parisian marble, alabaster, china, terra-cotta, and silverall gifts. A long milk jug, painted by the Princess Louise to match the Indian tiling, stood in one corner, and opposite the door was the mounted head of the Princess' pet Alderney, with a silver plate recording her virtues and the number of prizes she has won at shows.