EXERCISE FOR WOMEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1651, 21 October 1903, Page 26

EXERCISE FOR WOMEN.

WHAT QUEEN ADEXANDRA THINKS. Oixeen Alexandia has always been an advocate of games and athletics fox' girls if kept within I'eascix. Slie liorself was veiy fond *of all outdoor games as a child. In running she was as swift of foot a® Atalanta, and skating came as naturally to her as walking. “Never," wiote an enthusiastic admirer of lxer, the mother of the then lector of Sndringham, "did oux* deal' princess look more gracefully and fairy-like than when skimming over the ice on her skates. She seemed to express the poetry of motion." Although fond of riding, the Queen, owing to the necessity of sitting on the wrong side of the saddle, has not been a. great horsewoman. Driving was at one time a very favourite amusement of hers, and people living round Sandringham used to watch for the pretty pair of greys she tooled along so deftly. On one of her biidlidays a little carriage with four ponies was given her by the Eimpei'or of Russia, and she drove these either four abreast o>r in the usual foui'-in-hand style. Her Majesty encouraged her daughters to try every form of outdooi' and indoor exercise, and arranged that they should receive lessons in boating',, riding, swimming and billiards, They are all fond of cycling, especially the Princess Victoria., who has made several bicycle excui'sions with her intimate friends. The Duchess of Fife's favourite sport is salmon fishing, and few ladies can throw a fly a® skilfully and* play a. salmon as scientifically a.s sli-e can. Princess Charles .of Dexxmark is a good tennis player, and lias lately taken up the fancy for croquet, a game in which the Queen excels. The King and Queen showed their interest in swimming by their visit to the Bath Club the other day to witness the matches), and they both expressed the opinion that evei’y boy and girl in the kingdom should learn to swim, and that every facility should be given for the poorer ones to do so.