LONDON CHAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10035, 28 April 1894, Page 4

LONDON CHAT.

(Fbom Oub Special Cokhespondent.)

.London, March 9.

The Queen came to London again on Monday in preparation for her second Drawing room, which duly came off on . Tuesday in, splendid weather and with tho usual brilliancs.

Apparently it did not take long to weary the Prince of Wales cf his renewed domesticity. After doing his part in.a public duet of ostentatious conjugal felicity for several days, H.R H. suddenly bolted to Paris by special train and special steamer. And there he is having some consolatory fan. Princes are mortal.

Mr and Mrs Gladstone went to Windsor as arranged last Friday to " dine and sleep." The Queen was very gracious to both. Some people fancy that her Majesty's graciousness was accentuated by her knowledge of the G.O.M.'s intentions for the following day. The Queen and Mrs Gladstone had fully an hour's private and confidential chat all to themselves. Mr and Mrs Gladstone returned to town next day—ho no longer Premier, she ho longer "Mrs P." *- b

A feminine correspondent writes to me:— " One of the latest fads in fancy work is plaiting straw in the same manner as they used to do in Dunstable in the time when England boasted busy village industries and machinery had not rendered capable fingers idle. The Princess Henry of Battenberg has just had a hat made by Mrs Henry Heath, the fashionable hatter, of straw plaited by her own royal handa. It is said the Queen is quite an adept at the same work. I remember long ago that everyday straw hats were all plaited at home—but then in the good old times thrifty housewives spun their own linen thread, and the-Shirts made therefrom were heirlooms. To-day we buy German and Belgian household linen, which* if not so good as Irish by a long way, is yet most artistically ornamented." The Germans aro developing artistic tastes. They are-^that is, their swells are—going in for the coloured; dress coat, and the "wearing of the green" is to be the Teutonic order of the day. The German tailors are showing the green model with great confidence. The Prince of Wales, who is more than rather proud of his calves, is credited with the wish to revive the highly ornate style oE dress in vogue with the first of the Georges. Then silk stockings and breeches were the vogue, with gold-laced coats and vests. At present the old-world stock has come back to favour, and white silk ones are the chosen for the Row.

The bomb scare has affected the theatres. Timid people prefer the sanctity of home; At the time of the Fenian scare many householders broke Up house ill London and retired to the country. A friend of mine was in the country —fair north—arid staying at a friend's house. One morning he received a letter from two antiquated maiden cousins announcing their approaching return to their native wilds. They had parted with their town house, as they had been told the Fenians were going to blow up London by charging the gas pipes with gunpowder.

Mrs Langtry is writing a book. So luns tho announcement. To those ia " the know " the fact is Mrs Langtry employs a literary "ghost"— the only way to give such a book the ghost of a chance! Four years ago the modern Aspasia began thi3 work of art—her own piquant memoirs. Her many scribbling friends had a finger in the pie. At first she dictated her matter to a secretary, then growing dissatisfied, she engaged a smart journalist), who had advanced quite two-thirds in his task when the capricious lady threw him over, and the MS. into the fire after regaling a dinner company with elegant extracts. She then toik up the pen herself, and it is said Mr Edmund Yates was peculiarly useful in consultation. But she writes erratically—sometimes at white heat, at other times sb} lays the MS. away for months. A good many publishers have made a bid for the tasty morsel, but the, Jersey Lily knows how to gild the lily herself. She will print, publish, and absorb all the profits herself.

A curious story of the Baring failure is given on a side authority. Lord Ravelstoko sent his eldesb son to the Argentine Republic to report on the financial prospects of the country. A short time sufficed to convince him that the Government was utterly rotten. He cams Home and said co. Lord Ravelstoke called his son an ass, and buried his great wealth in its Argentine grave, and the good city of London quivers still from the effects of the financial shock which followed.

The Miss Bessie Billwood who has been "had up "for assaultiug a " duke's " head in Philadelphia in return for having a dollar flung at her, is tho Marchioness of Aylesbury—more's the pity.

A lady writes to mo:—" Worth has put down his foot, and the 'tailor-made' is doomed. But Worth is jußt a little too previous. He can make but not unmake a mode. In sumptuary matters the thunders of the ckurch failed, and women wore the obnoxious hoop and towering head-gear to the end. But Worth decrees thaS women are once again to become women, and he means to help them by bringing in extravagant frou-frou. And the best of it is that the grande dame of Paris goes in for the tailormade, has suits constantly from Eedfern, and tries to look English—in which she signally scores failure. While she sets the fashion we are pretty safe from autocrats of the' Worth type."

Christie's in the season is a very fashionable rallying place. The other day it was crowded. The occasion was the sale of the Eglinton jewels. A suite of black pearls and diamonds set forth to have been the property of Miry Stuart was bongut by tho eminent upholsterer and cabinetmaker, Sir Blundell Maple, M.P., for £345. Now tho Scotsman warned bidders that the jewels never did belong to that fateful sovereign, and it proved its assertion by the date of the gold work. However? Sir B. Maple plunged. And an expert had valued the necklace at only £2000. It was composed of six splendid black pearls, each set in a cluster of brilliants, connected with chain-pattern links. AU the sale realised was £6050.

The Queen has had a lift constructed at Windsor for her use at a cost of £2000. Her Majesty is becoming very infirm. At the late Drawing-room she received sitting. It is said she is becoming more tyrannical than ever, and it is no secret that the visits the outlying members ot her family make to her are periods of penance. They dare not walk in the grounds of Windsor without her special permission. The visit of the Empress Frederick has had a beneficial effect on tho Princeßs of Wales, who, at her sister-in-law's entreaty, gave up her trip to Greece, and consented to appear at the two first Drawing-rooms of the season. The Prin(•o3B also is now to ba seen driving with the Prince. This is also a reform presumably due to the same influence.

"The newest vests for ladies," writes my feminine correspondent, "are hand-knit, with white silk spots sewn on. One of light blue, hand-knit in silk, had Ecarlet spots. The ' Tattersalls' are exploded."

Shakespeare's "As You Like It" was acted this week at the Prince of Wales's Theatre by a cast of ladies only, and very well acted it was, too. Orlando (Miss Ferrar) was admirable. The orchestra was of ladies only. The charming pastoral play has seldom been more delicately manipulated. It is said that some other plays will be feminised in the same way, the object being to keep unemployed artistes in practice.

At the same time the idea is not regarded as a happy one, especially in the case' of " As You Like It," in which much of the point consists in the assumption of male attire by Rosalind. All this point is lost when everybody is feminine and everybody dresses in masculine habiliments. However, it is a novelty, and novelty is the craze of the day, so I suppose this will be popular for a while.