MAINLY FOR WOMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 December 1938, Page 9

MAINLY FOR WOMEN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

PEERESS A RECLUSE.

MOTHER OF LADY GALWAY

LONDON, November 12.

To the country folk living in ancient Holdenby and neighbouring hamlets in the valleys near Northampton, the Dowager Lady Annaly of Holdenby House has been for generations the bright star watching over their lives. Yet this great old lady, friend of kings and queens, living in one of the most famous houses in. England, has been to the villages a personage of complete mystery. For more than half a century she lias lived in a suite of rooms in Holdenby House, rarely seen by the outside world and never taking part in the gay social life before her marriage in 1884.

Only a few of the older people have seen her, none has even spoken to her and none can explain the riddle of her extraordinary existence.

They may never find the answsr now.

Aged seventy-six her always fragile health now- delicate beyond repair. Lady Annaly is not expected to leave her rooms again.

. Her windows remain with their blinds drawn winter and summer, except on rare occasions. The temperature of her rooms is kept unfailingly at seventy degrees. Even her relatives hardly ever see her now.

Lady Annaly was a. graceful goldenhaired girl of slim figure and Dresden china beauty when as the Hon. Liliah Georgiana Agar-Ellis, daughter of Lord Clifden, she married’ Lord Annaly.

She was one of the most popular debutantes in London Victorian society, and a first-rate dancer. Soon after the birth of her first child, the present Lord Annaly, she began to withdraw herself from the active life of the countryside, and her visits to London became fewer.

BECAME TIMID . A significant fact is that Lady Annaly was a twin; the other twin, also a girl, died at the age of two. She developed a timidity at meeting strangers, a shyness which made her go lb remarkable lengths to avoid inrtoductions of any sort. At that time she devoted hei' life exclusively to her children—two daughters were born to her, one now tho wife of Viscount Galway, Gover-nor-General of New Zealand. Meanwhile her husband, who died in 1922, entertained brilliantly both at Holdenby House and in London. But the amazing thing is that although Lord Annaly was host at Hbldenby House to King George V. and Queen Mary, the Duke of Windsor as Prince of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of York, Lady Annaly never met them while they were there.

As her husband was master of the famous Pytchley Hunt for twenty years many hunt balls were held at Holdenby House. But all Lady Annaly would hear of them were the music and laughter floating up from the great drawing-room to her suite above.

About six years ago the Duchess of York brought the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to Holdenby House, but again the hostess was invisible.

The last person to occupy the rooms which the dowager v.’ill now never leave was the Prince of Wales in 1924. Most of her days are now spent sleeping or resting in the bed in which he slept.

Lady Annaly still retains a staff of ten servants, still keeps up her town house in Hertford Street, still keeps her motor-car, though she will never use it again.

Her woman companion, vzho has been with her more than forty years? told me: “It was always understood when royalty came that Lady Annaly would be excused her role as hostess. The matter, in fact, was never mentioned.

“Lady Annally spends most of her time reading and writing letters. Sho is still a fine looking woman and hei’ brain remains extraordinarily alert.

“Nothing has been disturbed since she last looked over the house.

Now one of her greatest pleasures is to look across the lawns beneath her bedroom windows when the village fete is held in the grounds every year. She does so many kindnesses in the village that I could not start to tell you of them.”

Even in her own house Lady Annally remains the Invisible Lady of Goodness. She invites there for weeks at a time people whom she has never met personally, but whose friendship she values. None of these guests ever sees her.

FASHION LEADER.

DUCHESS OF KENT’S SUCCESSOR

Will Countess of Haugwitz-Revent-low (Barbara Hutton) become the leader of fashion while the Duchess of Kent is in Australia? Actually no one woman can hope to succeed the Duchess. For apart from her taste and flair for creating new styles that express her personality, her clothes are such that they cannot be copied (says a London wrter). Countess Haugwitz-Reventlow, with her frag'Ho "porcelain” beauty, is a dream of loveliness.

But women who observe her jewellery, her enormous eyes and perfect coiffure, can have little hope of being able to imitate even faintly such an elus.ive.ly exquisite picture. Many women in society are extremely well dressed and smart, , but they lack the sutble sense of chic that distinguishes the Duchess. There is, for instance, Lady Louis Mountbatten, who has a beautiful face and lovely figure. The Duchess of Buccleuch, sisterin- law of the Duchess of Gloucester, is a conventionally beautiful dresser with quiet and perfect taste.

MANNEQUINS’ UNION.

LONDON, November 23

London’s loveliest mannequins have formed a trade union which already has 220 members. They seek taxi fares home after late shows, a guinea a day for travelling time and a. minimum wage of £3 a week for staff mannequins and a guinea a day for freelances. It is expected that 6000 mannequins will join.

PIONEER WOMAN DOCTOR.

SIXTY YEARS OF PRACTICE.

LONDON. October 27.

A pioneer woman doctor, Dr. Jane, Walker, who has been practising for nearly 60 years, celebrated her seventy-ninth birthday this week. She will celebrate the diamond jubilee' of her entry into medicine during the

Dr Walker is one of the famous pioneers of open-air treatment for consumption in England, and her diamond jubilee will bo commemorated by the establishment of the Jane Walker Juvenile Research Clinic, at Nayland, Suffolk. It was there, nearly 40 years , ago, that she founded what is now the famous East Anglian Sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis.

The Research Clinic is to provide facilities for . the extended . treatment, under specialist supervision, of children whose subnormal physical condition may predispose to tuberculosis, rheumatism, chronic anaemia, and severe nervous disorders. Accommodation is available for 40 childien. This is to be increased to 100. A campaign is now being launched to establish a fund of £25,000 to provide a perpetual income for the centre.

Dr Walker was born in Yorkshire, the daughter of a prosperous blanket manufacturer. She decided to become a doctor, although at that time women. were barred from the profession. Those were the days of rigid convention. which barred women from the profession, but Jane Walker was de- | termined, and her liberal-minded | father encouraged her. I She studied at the London School of Medicine for Women and in Vienna and because no British university would grant her a medical degree she went to Brussels to take Her M.D. For many years she was in general practice, until 46 years' ago, she' wenti to Germanj r to investigate on behalf of a friend, the open-air treatment of consumption there.

She returned home an advocate of tho new method, and though scorned by the public opinion of the day, which prescribed treatment within closed doors in warm, stuffy rooms, she opened a sanatorium at Downham Market, Norfolk, beginning with six patients. As it developed, the centre was transplanted to Nayland. It has become the model for a large number of similar institutions at home and abroad.

To-day Dr. Walker divides her busylife between her I-larley street consulting room and heg famous sanatorium at Nayland, six miles north of Colchester. ■ Her . Harley street waiting room gives you an idea of her wide interests in : life, for the walls are covered, -with modern- pictures, there are three Rothensteins and an Eric Kennington. “Collecting pictures is my great [hobby,” Dr Walkei’ said. “Since the age of 14, I wanted to be a doctor. In those days women doctors' were not supposed to be wanted, and many of my family were against me. Fortunately, I had the support of my r father, and he helped me all through.” I

WOMEN MAKE ME TIRED BECAUSE

This is why,women make me tired: They have suburban mentalities and Hollywood emotions.

When they say beauty they mean some film star or other.

When they say love they mean passion.

When they say passion they mean sex.

When they- break off an'engagement it is all for the best, but when the man does it it is caddish. They put a commercial value on their wounded hearts and sue for breach of promise.

If they want a divorce they expect their husbands to allow them to do the divorcing. When they discuss- other women they are usually scandal-mongering. When they discuss- men they are usually obscene. They have a habit of referring to a creature called a “nanny”—no relation to- a goal. Their minds are cluttered up with clothes like a box-room with lumber. They don’t know the difference between attractiveness and good looks; sentiment and sentimentality; pathos and bathos.

They yank their skirts up to their knees for no other reason than that “skirts are worn short this - season.” They perch on their heads concoctions idiotic enough to make a cow jump over the moon.

They pull their eyebrows out by the roots. .

And smell of face cream and powder, and like a beauty-parlour generally. They call you “Darling,” and it doesn’t mean a thing. They smear your face ail over with lipstick when they kiss you. They think they can drive cars. When they ape men they do it badly. They ape all the worst qualities in men. i

They wear furs in summer. And thin silk stockings in midwinter. They regard it as chic to halfundress for dinner and the theatre. They wear shoes that cause them to walk on the balls of their feet and throw their knee-joints out. They talk about a pretty jumper, a pretty girl, a. pretty view, a pretty piece of music. Their idea of romance is a close-up of an embrace.

Their idea of a tragedy, a man who has done them wrong. Thej r are hysterical. And shrill.

They are mawkish about other women’s -weddings, and form themselves into mobs outside churches to stare at brides. They are cruel about other women who deviate from the moral code. They lack imagination. They like their maids to wear caps and aprons and call them “Madam.” They put themselves into a uniform called "Fashion.” Tney cannot think straight. They cannot distinguish, between thought, and emotional reaction. They are the inferior sox and always betray it, but will never admit it. They are the wives and mothers of the men who will be killed in the next war, and they do nothing about it.

Thej arc their own. worst enemies. Because of that, most of all. —Ethel Mannin in’ ‘Lilliput.’

COIFFURE PROBLEMS SOLVED.

LONDON. November 10. The new, • swept-up style of • hairdressing demands a special neatness which for some women is not easy cd

achieve. A well-groomed look is an essential part of this mode, and \t allows no loose, wisps of hair to give an untidy appearance •to the back of the head. One solution to the problem was .discovered. 25 years ago,, when women brushed each side of the hair slightly—-toward the-centre of the head. The right side folding over the left was kept in place by a comb on the top. The wisps were then brushed up in the same slant with a “curling fluid.” To-day this old trick is as successful a's ever it was. By brushing the hairs on a slant, it Is found that they stay as arranged. In the place of the “curling, fluid,” a good setting lotion is now used. It is a simpler matter to keep the front and sides of a high coiffure' tidy. The American college girl hairstyle is specially practical in this respect and very charming for the very young. Upswept side pieces are kept iu place by little bows tied to coloured combs.