LADY BLEDISLOE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20519, 21 March 1930, Page 19

LADY BLEDISLOE.

OUR NEW VICE-REINE.:

HERSELF AND HER HOUSE.

(Contributed.) A house in Sloane Street, London, is desolate now, because Lady Bledisloe, the wife of New Zealand's new GovernorGeneral, has gone away. Come and look at the house. Ifc overlooks a square, blooming in summer-time with sweet scented flowers, where pretty girls and young men play tennis on miraculously gi'een lawns.

Lord and Lady Bledisloc's town house—their country house is Lydney Park, in Gloucestershire —is stately and yet homelike, original without being bizarre. The spacious hall conveys a welcome to those who enter, and the maids have an air of happiness and contentment not too common among English domestics. The dining-room, panelled in dark brown, shows gleams of red. Its indirect lighting, and tha shining mahogany table, aro an invitation to the great business of dining. But dining, apart from pleasant and interesting company, is like a salad without the dressing. The dinner parties in which the table has taken its humble share, are made up of the most delightful persons. The table has listened to weighty conversations as to the best methods of improving arable land—Lord Bledisloe has spent his lifo in the interests of English agriculture—listened t-o the talk of all sorts and kinds of distinguished men and women. Ifc has rejected Lady Bledisloe's beauty. The Drawing-room.

Tho great drawing-room upstairs has the charm of restful yet rich harmonious colouring. Tho walls arc panelled in deep cream—in which a ray of sunshine has been caught. The carpets are rose-tinted, the curtains deep bright green, the hue of young beech trees in May-time. The chintzes have a neutral background with a design in blue, green and rose. A dignified chintz. Everything in the room is worth looking at, from a coloured matchbox, to the pictures, and the collection of china. Lady Bledisloo is a collector and has, among other treasures, some of tho old Swansea china which is unobtainable now. She, of course, had special opportunities for getting it tvhen she was a girl, the daughter of tho first and last Lord Glantawe, and lived in Wales, near Swansea, in the County of Glamorganshire. One end of tho drawing-room, divided from the larger room by a square opening, narrows toward a latticed window in the further wall, with another latticed window above. To the right, and in view of the person who occupies the writing table placed there, is another latticed window opening on to winding stairs, and a landing, where there is a tallboy filled with priceless china. Orange. Blue. Crimson. Rose! One of the nicest things in the room is tho contrast of the polished mahogany doors with tho cream panelling of tho walls. The Great Tostl. On the grand piano is a signed photograph of Tosti. Who, of a certain age who sings at all, has not sung his immortal "Good-bye?" He trained Lady Bledisloe's voice. She is very musical, and will take a great interest in all things musical and artistic in New Zealand. Her voice, a contralto, is one of - tho many gifts given her by tho gods. They gave her, too, her youthfulness of spirit, which makes her look so young. The photograph of herself in her court dress last year is very like her. It is no trick of the artist which gives it its charm. Unfortunately photographs are not as a rule tinted, or one would observe her bright colouring, which with most of-us is such a fleeting S^t.

When Lady Bledisloe was the Hon. Elaine Jenkins, as a young girl in Wales, she was its loveliest daughter. Those who want to know exactly what she looked like then had better consult the English "Book of Beauty." She was—she is—so full of vitality, so interested in people, so kind to all who are sick and sorry. Lady Bledisloe is also interested in things. She inherited administrative ability from her father, who was a prominent industrialist, and a noted Liberal politician in South Wales. There arc many philanthropic societies which have cause to bless her. She also organised and ran tho Red Cross in Wales during tho Great War. In New Zealand Lady Bledisloe will find much to interest'her. She is not as yet' a skilled fisherman* but has tried her hand at casting on the lawns at Lydney. Wherever she lives she will make her homo delightful. She has the art of homemaking. Even in a desert island she would make a cave attractive by means of shells, palms, flowers and pebbles. She is a sun worshipper, too, and will appreciate tho best climato in the world.