Queen Mary Weilds the Shears

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7192, 26 June 1933, Page 2

Queen Mary Weilds the Shears

It is not gfuoruily known, that the Queen .is I 'an expert dcres not like-ivy* There was once a gopd deal of ivy at Sandringham, as Kihg Edward was fond of it, but now thejo is not much. ‘The Queen' has often been seen removing it or supervising its removal. It is related that on one occasion her Majesty, wearing gloves and armed with a pair of shears, stripped the ivy from the cottago of one of the estate workers. She d:d it in business-like stylo and kept her ladies-in-waiting- busy clearing it'away. The occupior.and his wife wore..out at the time,- 1 When the wife returned to sec most of the ivv gone and the Queen at work on it, her Majesty explained that she thought the 'cottage'woiild’look better and be more healthy without it, arid said: “I hope you do not mind.” Her Majesty thinks tho old walls look more imposing when bare than when covered with ivy. At Hunstanton,. ln the “Garden, of Rest”’ is a- ruin-which was once covered with ivy.., One-.day the Queen, visiting the garden, -remarked to the‘gardener that-'it would look better if the ivy were removed.- - Later thiis was done, exposing aline old walk There is no doubt that the Queen;was right. “The Queen,” said the gardener. “knows as much as many headgardeners do.”