WELL-EARNED REST

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 27, 2 February 1938, Page 16

WELL-EARNED REST

PRINCESS AS COOK

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, January 15. The Queen has been enjoying a wellearned rest during her Christmas holiday at Sandringham, and is feeling well armed now with health and strength for the long' list of engagements which, await her on her return to London. One of her great pleasures at Sandringham has been supervising the cooking lessons of Princess Elizabeth. She has been experimenting on her parents and members of the household for some time, since she began her lessons under the King's chef, M. Rene Roussin, in the Palace kitchens,

and her training has been continued at Sandringham.i Drop scones were, for a time, her masterpiece and often graced the Royal tea table, but her great ambition was to bake a Christmas cake with her own hands. She fulfilled this desire last month when she made a fruit cake, iced and decorated it, and sent it off to a Welsh mining village as a present for local children. With it she sent a note in her own upright handwriting to the1 effect that the cake was all her own : work and that she would like to know how many people were able to share it. Needless to say, the children were delighted with the gift. RUSH MATS ADMIRED. The Duchess of Kent', who spent the Christmas vacation at Sandringham before going: to Athens to attend the Royal wedding, is said to be delighted with the effect of rush mats on the floors at Sandringham House and is considering using similar ones at her own country home, "Coppins." The mats, which resemble those used for the stone floors of baronial halls in the olden days, were introduced to Sandringham .by Queen .Mary. Country girls will come to- town next month to display samples of • their: craft to the Duche«s at Belgrave Square. These '■hand-plaited mats are; said to be' un : rivalled for stone floors. ' The'rushes are gathered after the fall of the leaf, cured, and stored so that the wind, can blow- through them. They are green at first,*but later become golden brown in colour. . s .. . .-,.■, • 'CHOOSING A CRUISING / WARDROBE. ' The Princess Royal and Lord Harewood plan ,a visit to London "next week; the latter to take the two boys to Eton, and the former, to, choose new spring clothes for the visit which she and her husband: will- pay/shortly to Cyprus.. ■ ..'• i ..... ...■■ ■■■....-, The new collections will be seen in advance by' the Princess when making her selection of spring light-weight woollen coats and; suits for day-time wear in Cyprus. The sunshine1 and slightly higher temperatures there will enable winter-weight clothes to'be dis-carded-in the afternoons, although fur coats will be needed for the cold nights. .'•..:' QUEEN MARY'S GIFT. .Queen Mary has presented, to the Hull; Corporation the collection of 600 dolls left to her recently by Miss Emma Carey, of Surrey. 'The dolls were taken to the Wilberforce Museum, where they were unpacked. Mr.: T. -Sheppard, director of the Hull Museums, said: "The dolls come from all parts of the world, dressed in their national: costumes. . There are dolls used by Eskimo children and some from the South Sea Islands. Miss Carey, who died last November at the age of 89, had devoted nearly 70 years to making this collection. . "One method of exhibiting a large number of the smaller dolls will probably be by preparing a model of the old Queen's Theatre at Hull, in which certain dolls will be shown on the s^age as acting in Cinderella ■or some other play popular with children, with other dolls as audience."