THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20114, 27 November 1928, Page 5

THE QUEEN OF HEARTS.

LITTLE PRINCESS ELIZABETH. BY SI A DELE INK SNYDER. The most popular young person in all England is the Princess Elizabeth. She lias now reached the mature age of two, and some day slio may be the second Queen Elizabeth of England. It. all depends. Her favourite uncle, the Prince of Wales, is still unmarried and still ridifig to hounds!

Two years old is considered rather young to give interviews and the Duchess quite rightly feels that there is no reason lo admit visitors to tlio nurseries. All the diplomatic letters and prayers that yon may offer at (lie English Foreign Office come to no avail. Every ono you meet tells you the little anecdotes that show you tho Princess* popularity and make you more and more eager to write about her, but though you have telegraphed your friends that you will be in London only two or three days, eleven have passed and still you don't know if the nurseries are decorated in pink or blue. Finally, though, the morning came when 1 did see the Princess. She was dressed in a little pink coat and bonnet, trimmed with brown fur. Like all the British Royal Family, she is very fair skinned, has light curly hair and blue eyes, and has the Duchess of York's winning smile and attractive vivacity.

When you are shown (lie Princess' nurseries, Her Royal Highness lakes a personal interest in seeing that you don't overlook anything, especially the hamper that contains her best clothes. It is the same one that held her first things rind now harbours her nicest frocks. '1 In; Princess runs over to the hamper crying,

" pitty desses," and she is so feminine that ' she is quite crestfallen when "Nanny" doesn't open the hamper and show you its treasures. Both her day and night nurseries are on the top floor, iti the front of the house, and aro flooded with sunshine (whenever the sun does shine in London). The day nursery is made gay with cretonne, soft rugs and easy chairs, and everywhere framed pictures of the Duke and Duchess, and of grandparents, uncles and cousins. There is an array of toys and a wonderful toy cabinet, with drawers that move easily in arid out, so that quite soon the little Princess can pull them out for herself and find what she wants to play with. She has a big woolly teddy bear that she always takes to bed with her, but all the rest of the toys sleep in the toy cabinet at night, and she takes a motherly interest in seeing that they are comfortably tucked in.

' The night nursery joins the day nursery. The colour scheme is white and blue; the furniture of white enamel, stencilled with little blue wreaths.

The Princess Elizabeth has just outgrown her crib. When she came home from her Christmas trip to Sandringham,' she found a new bed, white enamel with little blue wreaths to match her other furniture. Beside the bed there is ajways a big easy chair for Duchess of York to sit in; for every night she comes up j stairs to read to her little daughter as the Princess is going to sleep. Princess Elizabeth is treated as is every child in a happy household, and may go down to see her mother whenever she wishes. She always wishes to go the first thing in the morning, and generally tries to start off when she. has only one. sock on, and explains to the nurse that " Mummy fix this," waving the other sock in her hand

Like all healthy babies she is very fond of having her own way. Ihe story is that the last time she went to have her picture taken the photographer was trying the time-honoured way of amusing children by dangling a white crystal before her eyes. When he gave her the crystal it 110 longer looked so fairylike, and she flung it to the floor. The Duchess of York cried reprovingly, "Betty, Betty, that's naughty!" Betty, however, still-refused to express admiration for the crystal, and her mother said, " Betty must do as she is told." "Betty do what she wants," was the prompt, reply. "Then Betty is a naughty, naughty child," said the Duchess. " Betty naughty, but she do what she wants," happily responded the Princess. Her chief delight at present is to play with her uncle, the Prince of Wales. He slips over to the Piccadilly house very often, and gets down on all fours to play bear or barking dog. or galloping horse, while the little Princess shrieks with delight. Then together they build wonderful houses of bricks and blocks, which the Princess is allowed to have the joy of knocking down. She in her turn afforded her nn>;le amusement this last Christmas when she went with her father and mother to bo with the Royal Family at Sandringham. The Duchess had taught the little Princess how to make a court curtsey—rit was to bo a surprise to the Queen. SIIO was so adorable and so awkward when she made it that the Prince of Wales kept her doing it all day long, while he shook with laughter. When she was only nine months old her father and mother went, on a. six months' trip to Australia, and the littlo Princess stayed nt Buckingham Palace with her grandparents, Queen Mary and King George. She lived in the old nurseries that overlook St. James' Park. To say her grandparents adore her would be putting the matter in true terms. It was many years since the Queen had had a baby to care, for as her own, and it was a great joy to have this happy child. Her mother dresses her in simple white, pink or blue crepe de chine frocks trimmed with little round collars and cuffs edged with lace. Over these she. nearly always wears either a littlo coat that the Queen has crocheted, or a littlo Shetland wool

sarque. Tim Duchess of York's house is like all British homos— 1 lie (ra liour is when Iho children come into the drawing room awl personal friends call. The Princess Elizabeth comes down whenever her mother is at home.

In spring and fall the Duke and Duchess and the Princess Elizabeth spend' many week-ends at. Windsor Castlo with Quern Mary and King George. Tlioy wero thoro tin's last April for Princess Elizabeth's second birthday. There was no birthday party because the Queen was in mourning for one of her cousins who had died recently, but the Princess was very happy. She was given a much-longed-for puppy dog, which her uncle, the Prince of Wales, had selected specially for her, and her two cousins, the sons of Princess Mary, were there to play with her.

The boys' father and mother were in Egypt, and the children wero visiting their grandparents. The, boys are both engaging, interesting children. Master George, as ho is called, is five: Master Gerald, three. This year at Windsor they wero each given a liltle garden plot for their very own, the same that their mother and grandfather and great-grand-father were taught gardening in. At. Windsor there aie five little irarden beds that first belonged to Queen Victoria, and then to King George and liis brothers, and then to the Prince of Wales, the Princess Mary, and now to the new

generation. , No doubt in another year Hie June Princess Elizabeth will join her cousins and try her hand at gardening.