THE VICEREINE OF INDIA.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1651, 21 October 1903, Page 35 (Supplement)

THE VICEREINE OF INDIA.

lively Curzon, of Eledleston. is the subject of a picturesque sketch, by Mrs Sarah Tooley in the ‘‘Woman at Home.” She quotes as her preface a couplet from an Indian poet on Lady Curzon : “A Hose of roses bright, A vision of embodied light.” On her maternal side, Ladv Curzon comes from John Carver, the first Puritan Governor of Plymouth, and on her father’s side from James Van Leiter, a Hutch colonist who settled in Maryland in 1760. Her first thirteen years in Chicago were followed by further education in Washington. Mrs Tooley makes the significant remark that her father’s wealth had less power to gain her an entrance into the exclusive circles of the olct Washington families than into London society. On becoming the most distinguished belle in

Washington, the favourite of the Clevelands, then at the White House, she was brought out in London society by Mr Bayard, then American Ambassador. It was then she met Mir Curzon, a bachelor of thirty-four years. Of him the writer tells this incident: “He had been a distinguished dudu at Eton, and carried all before him when he entered Balliol College, Oxford, where his cleverness and self-sufficiency called forth the following verse from a waggish undergraduate : “ ‘My name is George Nathaniel Curzon. I am a most superior person; My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek, And I dine at Blenheim twice a week.’ ” Married in Washington, in 1895, Mrs Curzon spent part of her honeymoon in fighting the Southport election for her husband. Mrs Tooley thus describes her heroine:

‘‘Lady Curzon is a gifted child of nature, and her abilities have received the highest culture. She is well read, musical, and makes her chief friends amongst clever people. To the usual educational knowledge she unites the broad outlook upon life born of travel in many lands and intercourse with some of the finest intellects of the day. She possesses social genius, a ‘level head,’ is not without ambition, and is eminently feminine and attractive.” Of her Indian career she says that the Vice-Regal pair have struck the keynote of their administration by giving prominence to native rulers, and showing the utmost courtesy to the people. The Vice-Regal Court is no longer a palace of pleasure for Anglo-Indian officials : “While probably no previous Vicerov has toiled harder in controlling and mas-

tering the intricacies of Indian government tlian Lord Curzon, no Vicereine has maintained the social side of the position more successfully than Ladv Curzon. Her beautiful gowns snarkled with Indian embroideries and jewels, and her tiny daughters had their muslin frocks of native texture. Everything which the Vicereine could do to encourage the home industries, especially those of women, was done; and great was her satisfaction when Queen Alexandra ordered her coronation dress to be manufactured and embroidered in India.” The last wish of Queen Victoria as Lady Curzon first went to India was for the medical training of women for work in the zehanas. Consequently, Ladv Curzon nas raised £30,000 for endowing Victoria scholarships for the training of Indian midwives.