NOVEL EXHIBITION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLV, Issue 7551, 12 August 1885, Page 4

NOVEL EXHIBITION.

The Miniature Mme. Tussaud Exhibition, hold recently by permission of the Lady Egerton of Tatton at 23, Rutland-gate, on behalf of the industrial fund of the Girls’ Friendly Society, proved a great success. On the opening day, shortly after three o'clock, the packed crowd -within doors and the crowd waiting outside for admittance, testified to the popularity of the Girls’ Friendly Society as much as to the curiosity excited by the novel entertainment, designed and organised by Mrs Symes Thompson. After much pushing and scrambling the drawing rooms were reached, where the wax headed dolls were on view, grouped and costumed to illustrate scenes from English history. The space of time included in the miniature exhibition being from the days when Druids gathered mistletoe to_ those of Queen Victoria, ample opportunities for variety of treatment were allowed the designers. The groups adapted and copied from old tapestries and pictures, were perhaps the happiest in arrangement. Thus Miss Gladstone sent William the Conqueror 1 crowned a second time with his Queen Matilda of Flanders at Winchester Cathedral by Aldrid, Archbishop of York, the costumes copied from the Bayeux tapestry and other contemporary illustrations. Mrs Goodlake contributed a Tudor group, copied from a Holbein at Hampton Court Palace. One of the groups, contributed by the Lady Helen Stewart (president of the London branch of the Society! showed the lady’s Plantaganet ancestors, in menacing attitudes, plucking the white and rod roses of York and Lancaster in the Temple Gardens. The same hand sent a representation of the Duchess of Albany (patroness of the London diocese) in widow’s weeds, her children at her knee. The Countess of Munster was represented by an animated and brightly designed representation of Queen Elizabeth dancing before Sir Roger Aston, afterwards groom of the chamber of James I. watching with astonished mein the be hooped and farthingaled maiden queen pirouetting to the sound of t( a little fiddle.” Among the most picturesque groups was one representing the pre-historic figures of King Arthur, Sir Launcelot, and Sir Galahad, contributed by the Hon. Mrs Sturgis and members of the Barret House Girls’ Club. Mi?s Homes and associates of tho Arundel branch sent Pope Gregory pausing to look at the bright-haired British children in the slave market at Rome. Mrs Symes Thompson contributed, among other groups, an elaborately arranged archaic interior, showing Alfred the Great as a child, poring oyer a book of Saxon poetry, kneeling by hia mother’s side, while in the foreground his two less studious brothers are seen playing with their bows and arrows. Figures in the varied attire of the Jacobite and Georgian eras were too numerous to allow mention of them here. The great attraction proved to be the group representing Queen Victoria holding a Drawing-room, contributed by Mme, Stephanie Roper. In this glittering array Mr Gladstone might be recognised by the height of the shirt collar bestowed upon him. Among tho “general groups” the Countess of Dartmouth, sent a “Children’s Hunting Scene j” Miss Gladstone, an interesting model of the cot room of the Latymer Infant Day Nursery in Blechynden-streefc, Netting Hill; Lady Florence Blount illustrating nursery rhymes. Space will not allow ua to mention more of the ninety groups contributed by the members of the association. Making their way through the crowd came emissaries from the Countess of Galloway s flower stall, carrying baskets and knots of fresh blossoms. In the library Lady Helen Stewart and Miss E. Matthews presided over the refreshment stall, where figured the excellent cakes that had competed for and won the prize offered for the best culinary results achieved by the members of the society. Lady Brabagon Mrs Jerome Mercier exhibited, in the dining room, the beautiful needlework and church embroideries executed by invalid members of the association ; there also Lady Florence Blount presided over the stall devoted to underclothing j the solid and dainty sewing displayed excited much admiration. Prizes had been offered by some of the ladies, members of the society, to the young girls and invalids whom they befriend in the most sympathetic meaningof the word, and the successful specimens of handiwork were shown. The Countess of Lathom and Mrs Symes Thompson presided over a tastefully arranged stall, covered with attractive specimens of art pottery and pretty knickknacks, Lady Stewart and Miss Barron angled in a reed-bordered fish pond. A procession of historically dressed children, small medioeval ladies in pointed heuners and flowing veils, dainty princesses in sweeping mantles and high ruffs, young crusaders and tiny jesters with tinkling caps and bells, was a charming sight as it wended its way down the long drawing room,—Queen