ROYAL ROBES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 108, 8 May 1937, Page 19

ROYAL ROBES

EXHIBITION LATER

At the suggestion of the Queen an exhibition will be held immediately after the Coronation of the robes and dresses worn by members of the Royal Family at the ceremony in Westminster Abbey on May 12. It if hoped * include the regalia, states the London "Daily Telegraph." , . Arrangements are now being made by Lady Smith-Dorrien to open the exhibition on Whit Monday, May 17, in the building of the Royal School of Needlework, Exhibition Road, Kensington. "Queen Elizabeth feels that so very few people will be able to see the historic regalia, dresses, and robes that a few days ago she suggested this exhibition to me," Lady Smith-Dorrien said. , ,' "Members of the Royal Family have already promised to lend me articles for exhibition, and' I think we shall have a very good collection which should be of interest to tbe many visittors who will be in London for the Coronation. OPEN IN EVENINGS. .' "So'that Londoners who are at work during the day may have a chance to see the exhibition, we propose to keep it open until quite late each night." ■ According' to present plans, the exhibition will remain open for two weeks.: A charge of 5s will be made on one day, 2s 6d on another, and Is on each of the remaining days. After 6 o'clock the charge will be Is on all days. The proceeds will be devoted to charity. It is hoped that both the King's and Queen's regalia, which will be.carried

so impossible and so futile to judge people now by the earlier standards. Specially it should not be applied to home life. In former days both parents to a large extent lived fir the home and its occupants. The mother brought an unspecified number of children into the world, and the father accepted the fact as inevitable. No one thought of any means, of limiting life—it simply was not done; and parents, both fathers and mothers, accepted the burden of the family. Now, so' far as social workers can tell, both parents are agreed as to the wisdom (so far as they can see at present) of limiting families. Fear stalks the land because of many uncertainties ahead, both political (in the. dangers of war), social, in the way of limitation of what are now' ordinary, pleasures, and economic, on account of the high price ■•of medical and nursing service; of necessary foods and attention for children —keeping in mind the fact that quite a different standard of food; is recognised nowadays for little ones from the earliest days—also the fact that for young mothers there is no possibility of getting home assistance, however sickly or nerve-worn they may be. It is a fact that there must be a drastic alteration •of conditions for young people of small means' who marry if they are going to produce families with a really happy and secure feeling that they will be able to give the young ones all the necessaries of life, that they will be able, to educate them well, and that later there will be jobs, for all of them. ••-..- What could be more ' terrifying for affectionate "parents than to contemplate the plight of the very young men of the time who were not able to be properly trained in any special ways? It appears to be much the same all over the Empire, at all ev ( ents, and it is hardly fair to blame any set of people at present for the lamentably small birth-rate. When this unpleasant transition time is over, and the new experimental ideas have had time either to prove an immense success 'or else to be jettisoned out of life as impracticable, then it will probably be seen that the pendulum will swing across the world, and the larger families, which were undoubtedly .very happy ones in most instances; will become possible again. Those, who belonged to the generations, and remember the happiness in homes with brothers and sisters, the fun they had together, and in company with other large "crowds,"- and the support they were often able to be to their parents in later times, know there is no comparison really in the'joy of life that existed in many ways then—though in quite different ways to those of the present. , : The drawback was :in the sfact that complete control over the lives of other human beings is a dangerous thing to many natures," and as this existed in the "heads of the households!' it meant often, tyranny which, was quite unjustified, .as had been told many times' in novels and history—arid in some families this . made for unhappiness that otherwise would never have existed. at;-the Coronation, will:be on view at the .exhibition. : . ':.-.. . " The King's regalia consists of:—St. Edward's Staff, the Golden: Spurs, the Sceptre with the Cross, the Pointed Sword of Temporal Justice, the Pointed Sword of Spiritual Justice, the Sword of Mercy, the: Sword 'of State, the Sceptre with the Dove, the Orb. and St. Edward's Crown. The Queen's regalia ■ consists of:— The Ivory Rod with the Dove, the Sceptre with the Cross, and the Queen's Crown. -The King's mantle, which will be on view, was made in 1902, and used, by King Edward VII 'at his Coronation. It is of purple velvet, trimmed with white ermine and embroidered in gold, with gold tassels. It will be altered to fit King George and then returned to the Royal School of Needlework for the embroidery' to be thoroughly overhauled. This embrodiery is of a very delicate and complicated pattern, embodying the emblems of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.' '■-

Many of the dresses and robes which peeresses and peers will wear at the Coronation will be historic garments, worn by the parents and grandparents of the present owners at /previous Coronations and at Queen Victoria's Jubilees.'*.