“THE MAIL’S’’ LETTER FROM LONDON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 9 August 1928, Page 7

“THE MAIL’S’’ LETTER FROM LONDON

SOCIAL AND GENERAL ITEMS

PRINCES’ AFRICAN TOUR

(From Our London Correappndent.) A

LONDON, Mill June,

The general outline of the- tour hv the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester in Africa has been settled, hut there are innumerable minor details left for final decision later. The visit to the Eastern Colonies and Protectorates will be more or less private, though, tho royal tourists realise, perhaps a little wistfully, it is impossible for the Prince of Wales to visit any part of the Empire without a certain amount of ceremony., But the forthcoming one will not be on anything like the same strenuous scale as the Prince’s South African visit four, years ago. The report about the brothers being guests of tho Earl of Athlone and Princess Alice for Christmas must be wrong. Tho Covernor-Gon-eral and H.R.11. will bo liomo then. The plan is, on the contrary, that tho Prince and tjie Duke will arrive at Capetown, where their motor 1 tour ends, about tho time tho Earl and I’rincess get hack from England—about the end of January. PRINCE AS CARICATURIST The American newspapers frequently get hold of Court, and Society news from London that, does not reach the English newspaper offices. This may have a twofold explanation. Either American purnalism can afford to outbid 1 lcet Street on the financial side—which is probably just as correct as that New York publishers can outbid London for all forms of literary wares; —or else American teditors occasionally get planted on them .journalistic “exclusives which are really imaginative fiction. A high market encourages that sort of commerce. Personally, I fancy that must be the category of the latest American story about H.R.H. They say that the Prince of Wales is a clever amateur caricaturist, and that be has delighted his friends by a comic sketch of Winston introducing his last Budget. The Prince was over the clock with the Duke of Gloucester on Budget day, but lie never attempted even to make a note. A ROYAL PLAYGROUND I found to-day by accident a quiet little spot where Princess Mary’s two hoys play on fine days when they are in London. They have the free run of tho private gardens in Hyde Park —a charming place, beautiful with flowers, ana the green, of trees and hushes, and the, singing of birds these days —and they take their out-of-door plavthings across there from Chesterfield House. They .are great friends with the gardener, a simple kindly man, who allows Master George Lascelles to indulge in his favourite pastime, that, of asking questions. All kinds of interesting and amusing knowledge is ex-changed by the King’s grandson and his gardening friend When I passed the garden to-day both hoys'-had thrown down the tennis racquets with which they had been playing,'and were intently watching tho grass being cut by shears. Master Gerald Lascelles was very sad about the number erf daisies whoso heads had to he sacrificed. , A PROMISING YOUNG POLITICIAN I discovered, the other day that Miss Betty Baldwin, the Prime Minister’s youngest daughter, is a great lover of the gramophone. She has a charmiug room of her own at No. 10 Downing Street, and the household can usually tell by the musical strains, or the lack of them, whether she is in or not. .Miss Betty takes politics very seriously. She is the central figure in a group of politicians’ daughters who study the questions of the day, and who can speak quite well on them. She'is probably the only member of the group who has not had her hair shingled. It is deep gold in colour, and she years it in a “bun” at the back of her head. A NEW FASHION Mrs Dudley Ward seems to have set a charming ballroom fashion. Quito early in the season she floated across the dancing space in an exclusive club' one piglit with a brightly-coloured chiffon handkerchief in her left hand. It was .so large that it covered completely her partner’s shoulder, and now every other woman at a dance sports a similar handkerchief, and makes men’s black clothes look quite gay and colourful. Mrs Dudley Ward is an exquisite dancer. Tiny and slim, slip is also very light and graceful in her movements. So many women who like, dancing trust to luck" and a clever partner to pull them through when a new dapee is introduced. 'Mrs Dudley Ward takes the greatest pains to learn new steps, and so is always at her ease on the dance floor. LUSITANIA TREASURE Special interest attaches to the attempt about to be made by an American syndicate to salve some of the treasuro from the Lusitania. It is now thirteen years since the famous Cunarder, sister ship to the Mauretania, was torpedoed by German U-boats and sunk off the South Coast of Ireland. That sensational episode had as much to do with America’s entry into the war as anything, and the Lusitania will figure in history ever more than did the Alabama. Besides the tragic loss of life involved, much treasure sank with the Cunard liner, arid though salvage at this date in such depth of sea must he difficult and hazardous, success might- he well rewarded. Will the divers’ work throw any light on one great wav controversy —the German assertion that the liner carried munitions of war? SWEDISH DELICACIES I have been at more than one party lately where Swedish delicacies have graced the afternoon tea-table or The supper-buffet. At first they appeared wherever Princess Ingrid of Sweden was a guest, out, of compliment to her homo country. Then hostesses fcnuid. that their guests adored the Swedish fancy breads and sweet cakes, and that, there was a great, run on the national savoury sandwiches.. And they continued to order them for English guests. Tho savoury sandwiches remind one of American ones in that they have a. combination of fillings. Ail American sn/ndjwich. though., is thick and substantial. A Swedish one is made with wafer-1 ike. slices of bread and butler, and (lie very slenderest layers of. say. cheese and ham and cucumber, or whatever the ingredients may be. STRAWBERRIES AND WINE At the smartest West End hotels and restaurants strawberries and cream has long been regarded as a plebeian dish scarcely fit for English patricians and American millionaires. At most of these places the Continental fashion has been adopted, and strawberries served m

COMMENT ON CURRENT EVENTS

shallow dishes with either red or white wine, or, better still, somo liqueur. This foible of the wealthy gourmets is now spreading, as ■ fashions .are wont to do, to tho lessor and cheaper feeding resorts of London. The suburban lady, who asks for strawberries and cream, almost “places” horsolf socially. Thus is an old-established English festival assailed. But raspberries and cream has always been rated tho better dish jin Devon, and, truth to tell, strawberries and wine is, for most palates, npt only an improve,ment on tho older tradition, but much less trying to delicate livers. The wine seoms to bring out tho flavour, too. A DICKENS RELIC Even if it is only an inkstand used by Dickens it is good to know that something doos return from America. Back in 1872 Dickons gave tho inkstand to a Miss Grace Norton of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Nortops were personal friends of Dickons who desired something of common uso in his house to remind them of pleasant associations. One cannot imagine this affair of ornamental brass and porcelain and _of French manufacture giving inspiration to Dickens, and it- was probably a piece from the drawing-room appropriate enough as a present to a Victorian vouug lady. In any case it was prized and it has just been returned as a. rare gift from tho niece of. the Miss Norton in question to the Dickens House in Doughty street, which, formerly the residence of tho novelist, is now a museum and tho headquarters qf tho Dickens Fellowship. SELF-CONSCIOUS BOATERS We wore promised a notablo revival this summer —if and when it ever arrived—of the once familiar straw boater. Twenty years ago, or even less, these hats were worn by most men. Nowadays they have undergone almost a total eciipsc, and so far, though admittedly the weather lias not been suitable, thoro aro few traces of the predicted return to popular favour. I That a long cyclo of wretched summers may have contributed much to . this obsolescence cannot bo questioned, but the immense vogue of tho light soft, felt and the cap fori outdoor wear is probably just as big ' ac ’ tor. A straw boater may look summery, hut there aro more suitable hats for hot weather, and tho few I have seen about this year were chiefly to display special colours, and, even then with a certain shy self-consciousness. Men are sartorially tho inferior sex. _ They have not tho aplomb to carry off idiosyncrasy. A STRATEGIST I have heard somp amazing things about tho cuteness of the sparrow. Our London birds certainly display all the uncanny shrowduess of a street gamin. But a "well-authenticated episode from Hertfordshire beats all. This suggests something like higher military strategy on the part of a country sparrow who was aware of a hovering sparrow-hawk. Tho sparrow kept pretty near somo wiye netting. When the deadly foeinau in the sky suddenly swooped down, , the sparrow waited for. him, and then darted at the last instant through the bigtnesh wire. The sparrow-hawk unerringly changed direction in mid-pounce, and swerved after him like a ricochetting bullet from a rifle. The sparrow thus demonstrated that the race is not always to the swift nor tjio victory to the ‘strong. He was hopping about, twittering in triumph, on the other side of the netting, whilst his enemy lay dead, caught in the mesh, with split beak and broken neck.