LONDON GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9401, 6 January 1894, Page 3 (Supplement)

LONDON GOSSIP.

• [FEOM OCB SPECIAL CORRESPOITDBHf.J - > ; •" •/ : : November 24. ' " Utopia, Limited/' still pursued its successful and profitable career. It is a curious coincidence that two years go a comic opera entitled " Utopia"— which', the central idea is the localisation of . a new "Utopia," where all was bliss until complications arose from the importation of ail English stockbroker— brought out two years ago by Dr. Hunt, and favourably received. I understand also that a work of similar class bearing the same title : has recently been produced in New Zealand.. This triple run on a Utopian subject is singular.: • I: ■. ' One curious custom of English royalty is the total absence of water from the dinner-tables of all members of the reigning house in this country. Even fingerbowls are excluded. The Duke of Cam* bridge was lately asked for an explanation, and he replied that it was a relic of Jacobin times, as the Jacobites were in the habit, when drinking the Sovereign's health, to pass their glasses over the water, meaning that they drank to "the Sovereign over the water." So, to preclude the possibility of any such covert disloyalty—in the Sovereign's actual. presence, at all events—ib became the custom to have no water on the table when any of the reigning royal family were present. And so finger-glasses were banished,: and the old custom survives long after the cessation of thg cause of it. . ■ ■

In the Parents' Review there is an article by Miss Alice Powell on the subject of " Mothers as Sick Nurses." The writer points out that in acute cases the services of a trained nurse are indispensable, and suggests that, in large numbers of children's ailments, the mother might easily acquire sufficient technical skill to make her a tar better nurse for her child than the most highly-trained stranger. Some knowledge —thorough, if limitedof sick-nursing is so easily acquired nowadays that, with a little self-control on the mother's part, there need be no necessity in cases of childish ill* ness to rush distractedly about for a nurse, the employment of whom often involves unnecessary expense and inconvenience. This is worthy the attention of mothers in New Zealand.

It) is generally thought that the facb of Lady Rachel Northcote's body having been cremated will do a great deal to extend this method of disposing of the dead. One paper, after describing the method as " reverently and thoroughly sensible," says " Not only are the Northeotes known and respected for their Bimple, unostentatious piety, but they are thoroughly orthodox, and are the last people in the world to countenance anything that seemed in any way inconsistent with their beliefs. It will nob be surprising to find thai their example in this matter is widely followed."

It seems that at "The Fifes" a peculiar system of etiquette prevails. Ab ordinary royal houses the guests assemble for dinner together with their royal host and hostess, and they pair off in the usual way according to precedence but at the Fifes the guests assemble in the library, and when all there, including the Duke, the servants announces "the Princess." All rise, and bow or curtsey. Then a second announcement comes, " the Princess is served," and she walks oub first and alone, the Duke following with the lady whose right it is to receive the escort.

There are many nice stories current aboub the Duke of York's courtesy to those who gave him wedding presents, but were nob numbered among personal acquaintances or even society folks.' For instance, an old-established firm of fishing-tackle makers with whom the Prince of Wales and most noble sportsmen deal, quite unpretentiously sent a couple of fino rods and some special trout and salmon flies for his acceptance, and the Duke came round personally to the shop one morning lately, leaned over the counter, and expressed his great delight at the gift, which he declared had pleased him as much as anything he had received.

Another time he wrote with his own hand a letter of thanks to & lady who had sent him and the Duchess a case of scent distilled by herself. She already supplies the palaces with certain sweet waters, and sent her humble little offering without an idea of hearing further about it. But , the young couple seem to have been most anxious that all who remembered them should be properly thanked, and, wherever possible, in a quiet, unofficial, friendly way. There is some talk of introducing the new Russian valse here this winter in the hope that ib will attract the gilded youth to the ballrooms, for this - dance enables each to have twelve partners in every valse, thus rendering the possibility of being bored with one girl for at least a quarter of an hour quite oub of the question. It is also mora exciting and slightly less decorous than the ordinary valse, and there is an idea that this may also help to commend ib in fashionable circles where " dancing men" are scarcer now than ever. Gossips found a subject in the fact that the Duke and Duchess of York have so soon left Sandringham, and that the Princess of Wales refuses to have her movements chronicled while she is in England. Bub in reality the Princess of Wales did nothing in town that was worth reporting day by day in the daily press, and beyond going to a picture gallery or two and a few shops, she ,nd the Princesses Victoria and Maud hardly appeared in public at all. j . A good deal of wonder had been manifested at the patent swing which has been erected at York House by command of its royal mistress. One critic remarks:—"The Duchess' taste musb be nob only innocent bub juvenile, and hardly in keeping with the excessively grave demeanour she mainbains towards the public, which, if persisted in, will certainly jeopardise her pristine popularity." Ab a recent Courb ball the German Empress wore a magnificent diamond ornamenb which attracted universal attention nob only for its value, bub by virtue of the deep historical interest connected with it. The ornament originally decked the hat of Napoleon 1., and was stolen, in company with the Emperor's baggage, by the Prussian Huzzars ab the battle of Waterloo. The buckle was worn by Napoleon at the coronation in Notre Dame in the year 1804. Fashionable society insists on knowing why the Prince of Wales will not go to Chatsworth Heuse, and nobody seems able to explain. All that is really known is tbab the Prince had accepted the Duke of Devonshire's invitation for the Derby raceweek, that the Yorks were also asked, and that a specially brilliant party had been invited "to meeb the Prince;' then suddenly there cam© the announcement that the Prince's engagements" would not permib him to go. < ■' Bub then this teas one of his engagements, and an important one according to the social standard by which such things are tested. So the excuse was pronounced " too thin." ■*

Ib is alleged that some hitch arose over the list of invitations. Easy-going as he is in many matters, the Prince is particular 4 almost to the point of tyranny about the people whom he is asked to meet at anyone a house. The list has always to be submitted to him in advance, and if someone happens "to bo asked who does not please him, or if someone else is omitted whom he wants and expects to meet, ib is , quite likely that he ( will cancel the engage- f ment. ' This is suspected to have been the case in the present instance. The Duko of Devonshire has a "stiff back" of_ hit own, and might not care to receive dictation in his capacity as host even from royalty. ' ' " " \ / ■■ Despair reigns in many a female heart In consequence of the Prince's default, for, I am tola, the preparations made in advance in the shape of new dresses were quite " out of the common." It is known that His Royal • Highness delights "in well-dressed . women, and those who please his fastidious taste at one place are exceedingly likely to be invited to meet him elsewhere. 11 Hencs these weeps " The sad discovery has been made that) present-day children care nothing about '■ \ that treasured plaything of an older gene- -~ ration known as "'JNoah's Ark." Elaborate mechanical toys and educational ; games have taken the placo of < the quaint ark, with ' its ' extraordinary figures 'of Noah who always wore - a round plate-like f coloured , wooden bat—his wife and family, and strange animals, which left 80 much to* ;? ! the imagination. JiV* 1 • - : v