ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18089, 13 May 1922, Page 8 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

One of the first (asks to which Princess Mary proposes to apply herself, when she settles to her now life in England, is the preparation for a ball she. hopes In give at Chesterfield House in the early part of June in order to celebrate her advent to the ranks of London host-esses. This is likelv to be one of the ©lost memorable entertainments that has been given in town for many years past, and the King and Queen will bo present, as wel as every other member of the Royal Family then in town. The ballroom at Chesterfield House has just boon thoroughly redecorated, and now presents a very handsome appearance.

An interesting arrival recently was a son to Sir Edward and Lady Davson. The young mother is Margot, elder daughter of Elinor Glyn, (he novelist, and bad a very pretty wedding at St. Margarets. Westminster, in April of last year. Lady Davsou's sister i s Lady (Rhys) Williams, who had a son some weeks before 80 the baby just born is Mrs. Elinor Glyn s second grandchild.

It is estimated that approximately 500,000 persons in and about New York listened in bv wireless telephone to tho wedding service of Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles, according to the Montreal Witness. Had it not been for tbo difference in time which set the ceremony at 6 a m. in Now York tho number doubtloss would have been larger. Those who failed to catch tho promises to love, honour, and obey heard the strains of the "Wedding March" filling the great halls of Westminster Abbey. The huge Marconi station in Wales distributed the sounds. Special apparatus, consisting of amplifying and tuning devices, was designed on the American side of the Atlantic for receiving the waves and transforming them for the average receiving set. Tho 16,000-meter wave length which tho Marcotn station used wa s entirely outside the ability ot any but the very "largest and best-equipped stations.

Mis* Ellen Terry recently celebrated her seventy-fourth birthday, and her little flat in St. Martin's Line became a shrine for gift-boariiv: friends, to such an extent that the staff of hall porters was increased to cope with the arrivals. Already plans are on foot to make this illustrious woman's seventv-fifth birthday an event worthy of achievement. Miss Terry is now in excellent health. What form tho future ceremonial will take is not known, but her own profession and the general public will be more than enthusiastic.

Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles, while in France, motored over from the Villa Medici and visited the famous Baptistry of St, John, which was at one time a cathedral. While the couple wero examining the interior crowds began to gather in and around the building, and shouts of "-Long live the Princess!" and "Long live England!" were raised. Iho crowd of admirers grew to such proportions that they had to withdraw, motoring over to the Certosa Di Val d'Ema. There they were received by the monks of the monastery, who showed them round its chapels, cloisters and gardens. Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles tasted the liqueur which is made by the monks, and afterwards returned to the Villa Medici.

During their visit to the cathedral at Florence. Princess Mary and Viscount Lascellos also had the opportunity of seeing the most stupendous instrument for determining the day of the summer solstice the world possesses—-tho gnomon which ToscanelK built into the southern window of tho lantern above the dome of the cathedral and the great meridian line and solstitial marks on the floor of the north transepb-300 feet below the window. As tho sun crosses the meridian of Florence at its greatest altitude on the day of the summer solstice it throws a great shaft of sunlight through a circular orifice in the gnomon down to tho floor beneath and a circle of light fills the solstitial disc. When Florence was visited by a severe earthquake in 1895 it was thought tho cathedral had suffered movements that might affect its stability, but the authorities were reassured subsequently when observation of the solstitial shaft" of sunlight proved that neither the great, dome nor the floor had moved in the slightest.

Marlborough, where the Countess Bathurst recently unveiled a memorial, supplies an illustration for the controversy then raging on poets and potions. Thomson, wrote a great part of his " Spring" during a visit to Lady Hertford at Marlborough. But the patroness repented of her hospitality when she found the poet carousing with her husband. Thomson must have offended badly to erase from his hostess' memory his dedicatory lines to herself and the spring:

\Vh*n nature all Is blooming and benevolent, like theo. As an offset Lady Hertford entertained Dr. Watts, a less poetic but, far more temperate versifier.