A LETTER FROM LONDON

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 29, 29 October 1928, Page 13

A LETTER FROM LONDON

THEIR MAJESTIES IN SCOTLAND

THE HISTORIC BRAEMAR GAMES

London, September 20. Balmoral is always a source of delight to the King at this season of the year. He loves the quiet simplicity of its life and the interests and pleasures attached to his position as a country squire. Their Majesties Were delighted to have with them Princess Alice and her husband, Lord Athlone, home on leave from his important duties as Governor-General of South Africa. ' Since they came over, Princess Alice and her husband have spent little time with members of the Royal Family owing to engagements on the Continent • and their long-promised visit to the Queen of Holland. Princess Alice has confessed how much she would have / liked to spend part of August in London, in that delightful residence at Clock House, Kensington Gardens After the visit to the Continent they could only remain, at the palace for a week because they were under promise to go to Balmoral. Not for many years has Balmoral welcomed so many Royal visitors. Princess Eudoxia of Bulgaria has been a guest, and Princess Cecile , of Greece went there on the day the Duke and Duchess of York arrived to join their small daughter, who had paid a visit to her grandmother whilst her parents remained at Pitlochry Lodge, having the distinction of the Court Circular all to herself. The King of Spain is also expected shortly. Braemar Highland Gathering. The Highland gathering at Braemar was one of the most successful meetings for years. The weather was brilliantly fine, the attendance, estimated at 23,000, was a record, and the presence of the King and Queen conferred a final touch of distinction. Their Majesties reached the sports ground about three o’clock, and remained for an hour. They drove over from Balmoral in an z open carriage drawn by four grey horses, and were accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of York. At the entrance to the arena the kilted clansmen, .with pikes, axes, and claymores, were lined up as a guard of honour, and their pipers played the Royal salute, but the notes were almost drowned by the great burst of cheering which greeted the Royal party. The Queen wore a blue coat and a hat of silvery grey, and the Duchess of York was also in blue, with a fur collar and sleeves, and a blue' hat. The King and the Duke of lork wore kilts of Royal Stuart tartan and Glengarry bonnets. A few minutes after their arrival the clansmen paraded before the Royal box with pipers playing. The King, with the Queen beside him, stood at the entrance to the pavilion and acknowledged the Highlanders’ salutes. - Lord Claud Hamilton and Mr. Rudyard Kipling accompanied the Royal party from Balmoral, and others present at the Royal Pavilion were Prince and Princess Arthur of Connaught and their son, the Earl of Macduff. Prince Arthur wore a kilt of Royal Stuart, and Princess Arthur a skirt of the Duff. Braemar has become the premier social event of the Highland season. The private enclosure in Princess Royal Park was thronged with fashionably dressed women, drawn from'many of the shooting parties in the Highlands. It is not only a social occasion, however, as for humbler people it means a wonderful day out, and a picnic in the centre of incomparable beauty, with the added interest of a continuous programme of traditional Highland sports. An Increasing Problem. The wonderful autumnal weather with which we have been lately blessed has raised in an acute form the problem of road traffic. There has been chronic congestion of the great southern highways throughout the summer, and every day new cars are being put on the road. Usually, traffic begins to diminish in September, but brilliant sunshine and unclouded skies have-been keeping everybody on the roads. The scenes last Sundaywere simply amazing. With the shortening of the days everybody came home from the south coast about the same time, with the result that all the southern highways within twenty miles of London became more congested than Piccadilly. Traffic got completely out of control, and in the sort of nervous exasperation which a prolonged crawl produces on drivers the road rules were freely broken, and it was everybody for himself. The > wonder is that no serious accidents occurred. Everybody is wondering what will happen next summer when there Will be thousands and thousands

more cars on the roads. All sorts of remedies are being suggested, but none of ’ them is very convincing or likely to be immediate in its effect. Arterial roads skirting some of the notorious Surrey bottle-necks, like Guildford and Leatherhead, might assist matters a little, but even arterial roads become congested, and progress along the new Kingston by-pass at the rush hours is not much more speedy than it was through the narrow streets of that ancient borough. The railways must be contemplating, the present state of the highways with a certain malicious satisfaction, for if the existing state of affairs anyone who wants to reach his .destination quickly and by a given time- will, certainly use the rail in preference to the road. Recruitment for Holy Orders. The problem of. how the continued decrease in the number of candidates for Holy; Orders is to be stemmed is discussed ill the current, number of the official “Church Assembly News" by Canon. Kidd, the Warden of Keble College, who brings to material he used at the Church Assembly in July additional statistics made available by the results of the examination of candidates for admission to Keble Lodge next month. In recent years the full muster of the clergy in the Church of England has dropped, from 20.000 to little more than 10.000, and the re-, cruitment is about 150' less than the annual depletion by death and resignations. Unless this annual deficit Is reduced the outlook for the, immediate future is most'disquieting. “It is sOou going to be impossible.” Dr. Kidd says, “not merely to cope with the increase of population in England and to send missionaries overseas, but even to pro vide for existing work at home.” Dr Kidd asserts that there is no la,ck of men; the difficulty is to find money for their training. Here he brings in bis new figures about the men who are go ing up to Keble next month, and he supplies an analysis about their circumstances and plans for post-Univers-ity life. The Keble figures must be taken only as an average sample from bulk. Keble. Dr. Kidd reminds us. is not a theological college: it is just as any other constituent college of Oxford ■ /

University, except that all its members are members of the Church of England. Seventy-four men will be admitted to Keble next month. Of these only thirty-three are looking forward to Holy Orders, and the remainder are destined for a variety of secular occupations. A Famous Figure on the Turf. The Earl of Durham, who died this week at Harraton House, Exning, Newmarket, at the age of seventy-three, was a prominent figure on the turf. For, upwards of half a century he was an owner of horses, but it was not until last year that he succeeded in winning a classic race. Then his filly. Beam, a daughter of one of his “favourite mares, Mistrella, won the Oaks from a good field, which included Book Law, the subsequent St Leger winner. She won as a two-year-old also, but in Lord Durham’s opinion the best horse at that age which he ever owned was Peter Flower. The colt did not develop quite as much as was expected, but was third in the Two Thousand Guineas in 1891. Most of Lord Durham’s notable successes were gained in the North, and on three occasions he won the Northumberland Plate, Drizzle winning in 1889, Sherburn in 1899 and Osbech in 1902. Osbech won many other important events, including the Liverpool Spring Cup, the Great Yorkshire Handicap, the Jocke.v Club Cup and the Century Stakes at Sandown Park, a race worth £lO,OOO. Elected a member of the Jockey Club in 1881, Lord Durham exercised a very great influence on the administration of racing.. He had many close associations with the city of Durham, of which he was Mayor twenty-eight years ago, when his brother, Commander Hedworth Lambton, now Sir Hedworth Meux, received the freedom of the city for his services in the South African War. Lord Durham was afterwards honoured in this manner in recognition of his services to the county as Lord-Lieiitenant and in other capacities. The North-country estate of the late Earl is situated near Ghester-le-Street, and it was there that he entertained the King and Queen some years, ago. Since the death of his sister. Lady Anne Lambton, he had not often stayed there, preferring to remain in his London house. His death causes a vacancy among the Knights of the Garter, to which Order he was appointed in 1909. Lord Durham is succeeded by his twin brother, the Hon. F. W. Lambton, who was born a few minutes after the Earl.