IN LONDON

Evening Star, Issue 19939, 8 August 1928, Page 12

IN LONDON

ASCOT AMD RAIN [Written by Cynthia, for the ‘ Even ing Star.’] June 24. Frankly I roared over the description an irishman gave me of some of the people in the Royal enclosure at Ascot this year. “I’m just telling you the threadbare truth,’’ ho said, “ there were people in that enclosure whoso chimneys I wouldn’t even sneeze down!” Wasn’t it a priceless way of letting me know what ho thought of thorns' It is not a cheap jaunt either. The men pay £6 and the women £4 to bo able to hang that magic bit of pasteboard on themselves, and so gam admission to what is considered the Hall mark of being “it.” Well, give me a comfortable box at Ascot, the lawn and tho paddock are all you want, tor the great and mighty swarm in from the enclosure after every race, and so you see them all if you want to without the worry and fuss of getting an enclosure ticket. Farewell to Ascot for a year! it wasn’t all honey by a long way, and tho once golden Ascot when summers were brilliant seems some miles off now. Cup Day, when it is expected that every woman will outshine herself, was damp and unpleasant, with a wet drizzle m the air, and so threatening that no Royal procession took place to gladden the eyes of the throng. The Royal party from Windsor Castlo motored in closed cars to the course, so there was no pageantry on the day of days, and 1 think most people were glad to pack up and depart when Friday dawned with hut very little promise of better weather. Taking it all round, 1 must say I was disappointed. No woman could live up to the Ascot tradition yesterday. To be quite frank, “ Ladies’ Day,” in the padaock was a dull and dreary disaster. When a woman who has devoted much loving thought in order to rouse the hatred of other women is forced to borrow a man’s macintosh to save her beauty from the rain, you may see tragedy or comedy, according to your nature. What should have been Ascot’s most brilliant day was merely a series of tragedies; and tho motor cars and the trains took away thousands of women who sat with bitterness in their hearts because the other woman had not turned green eyes on them. Well, this is England, and this is the climate my Indian relations say they are dying for. Lot them have it, say II I was sorry, too, for the girl

who hawked about a big ostrich feather fan. Why not have hidden it in the cloak room. Then 1 reflected on the amount of money paid for lovely creations spoilt and bedraggled by being crushed beneath a raincoat. Really the sorrows of those who strained a point to take their wives and daughters to Ascot, must have been very real. WHAT THE QtJEEN WORE. Usually on Cup Day the Queen wears very beautiful clothes, but this year it was impossible, and Her Majesty was attired in the new tone of lavendar blue, with toque en suite; and she wore a long silver grey coat. King George wore a dark overcoat well buttoned up to the neck when he arrived, and there were no white toppers in the Royal box, but the more sombre hue of sturdy useful clothes. Others of the- Royal party were the Prince of Wales, the Duke and Duchess of York (the latter in golden beige and a paler beige hat), the Duke of Gloucester, Prince George, Princess Mary (who had a blue "own and hat and a brown shaved lamb coat), and Lord Lascelles. Princess Helena Victoria was in the Royal box, wearing a rose beige coat and a grey hat, and Lady Patricia Ramsay, who wore a long black coat trimmed with summer'ermine—all very nice and suitable, but not Ascot modes by any means. I could not help being struck with the number of blue-eyed young Englishmen in the paddock. Far more men have blue eyes than women. THE VISITING HAIRDRESSER.

It annoys mo when I read in American papers of the idleness of British women. Why Americans have such ridiculous ideas about us I never could discover. “Jealousy,” remarked* a friend who had 'constantly been in the States. Yet that is absurd, for American women are just as competent as we are, perhaps in some ways more so. Well, one new calling or line of the wage-earner now is to become a visiting lady hairdresser. It is a thoroughly o-ood idea, for there are hundreds of women who want their hair attended to. cut, waved, or dressed, and who haven’t the time to attend the hairdresser. for they are the most unreliable of people, and when you do book an appointment they never keep time. They are complaining bitterly that so many necessitous gentlewomen have been trained to do this work well, but it is partly their own fault. Hair waving and dressing cannot done hurriedly, and time must be given to it, otherwise the effect is disastrous. GEORGETTE AND LACE COATS. A feature of this year’s summer garden party and race costumes is the chiffon and lace coats, of the same tint and material as the dress. They are either flounced with pale summer fur or collared with fur. Sometimes cuffs only are of fur or ostrich feathers. I saw lots at Ascot, and very pretty they were. They were worn last year, but have caught on to a greater extent this year. I must say they are distinctively charming, and ever so smart. At a very fashionable London wedding the other day two such costumes took my fancy. I wonder if they’ll take yours. Here goes for a description: They were worn by mother and daughter, and I must say were charming. The mother’s was carried out in pale orchid mauve georget+e, the dress made with a coat to match, flounced with pale grey fur, which also formed the collar. With this toilet a hat of deeper mauve looked delightful. The daughter’s dress was very like the mother’s, and the unlined coat the same shape; but the dress was of shrimp pink, and the fur on tho hem of the coat was palest cream colour. A pink wide-brimmed hat was held in front with a diamond brooch. - Both those costumes were charming. THE QUEEN’S THOUGHTFULNESS. I have noticed, despite the lack of warm sunshine, that the hanks of grass on our railways are burnt black through falling cinders from tho engines. It brought to mind a very thoughtful act of Queen Mary’s just recently. She was driving over a common, and noticed smoko coming from a clump of gorso bushes. Immediately the Royal footman was sent to inquire the reason. He found tho furze bushes well alight, so Her Majesty motored off to the nearest call office and at once informed the police. X heard this action of tho Oneen’s saved the whole common from destruction. Only this week I motored through one of the loveliest bits of Sussex. all black and hare through a fire, which originated, it was said, through careless motorists throwinig down lighted matches where they had been picnicking. WORN OUT.

I hear of numbers of society 'girls—particularly debutantes—who are suffering in health through the strain of tho London season. Many of the most popular and bephotographed debutantes, who have scarcely had four hours’ sleep each night for the past week, have received doctors’ orders to stop dancing and go to bed at midnight. According to our grent-annts and grandmothers, the present-day girl hasn’t the lasting power of their day. One reason is because they were brought up on early hours, and reared in purer, fresher "air in the country; and another is that there were no night clubs in those days. Now, after a ball, the young girls go on to these clubs and dance till 4 a-.m. No wonder they, even those in their teens, begin to fade. Mother’s advice isn’t listened to. “ Mothers are so hopelessly oldfashioned,” one girl remarked to me. Well, I thought, you’ll soon be oldfashioned yourself, that’s one quite sure thing.