ONLY FOR A NIGHT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8190, 3 August 1912, Page 9

ONLY FOR A NIGHT.

BRILLIANT BALL SCENE. ROYAL GUESTS. One of the most brillianf "balls of the present season was given a few weeks ago at Surrey House by Lord Ribhlcsclale, the entertainment being in honour of his youngest and only unmarried daughter. .Lord Ribblcsdale, who is one of the most picturesque figures in London society, and an artist to his finger-tips, personally superintended all the details of the ball, requiring little assistance from his daughter, Lady Lovat, or his sister-in-law, Sirs Asquith. Surrey House is an admirable setting for a great entertainment, for the late Lord Battersea erected a splendid staircase and a lofty ballroom, with a first-rate parquet floor. The mansion was, however, transformed beyond recognition last night, for 'Lord Ribblcsdale brought his own priceless collection of pictures from Bisburn, as well as pictures, tapestries, and objets d’art, and was thus enabled to entertain in London amid the surroundings of his ancestral home in Yorkshire.

Find examples of tho art of Lely, Raeburn, Hassell, and other portraitjiainters hung on tho walls, genuine, Florentine mirrors reflected tho gay dres sos of the dancers and in the card and sitting-out rooms antique settees, and fauteuils in their original old brocade upholstery took the place of tho up-to-dato gilt chairs or seats familiar in latter-day ballrooms. No modern note was allowed to jar tho eye or spoil the general • seventeenth century atmosphere which prevailed. Even in the minstrels’ gallery, where Herr Gyula Boxhorn’s Viennese Band was installed, early 17th-century rout seats and stools were provided fbr the. musicians, and on. buffets. and supper tables the priceless, family plato of the Commonwealth and Jacobean periods was used.

The guests drank tjieir orangeade or champagne from old Waterford glass, every piece of which was worthy of a collector’s cabinet. There were no flowers in the supper rooms, the circular tables relying for their adornment on treasured porcelain bowls of “faniillo rose” china filled with luscious fruits and flanked with waxen tapers set ill old silver candlesticks. The stairway was. however, covered by a high rustic trellis, in which roses and jasmine were entwined, giving the effect of a winding hedge of blossom. All fashionable London was represented. Prince Arthur, the Grand Duke Michael, Countess Torby, Countess Zia and Princess Pless were discernible among tho dancers. Tho Duchess of Norfolk, Marlborough, Westminster, Portland, Sutherland, and Wellington were representatives of •famous ducal houses.

Mrs Asquith camo with the Prime Minister and. Miss Asquith, and was of great help to the host’s two daughters, Lady Lovat and Mrs Mathew Wilson, in entertaining, the. 600 guests. Lady Derby and Lady, Dudley, both gave big dinners for the. dance, • and Lady Almgton,' Lady Salisbury, Lady Brassey, Lady Leicester, and Lady Londesborough brought daughters, the last-named also chaperoning .Lady Enid Fane.