LONDON CHAT.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2159, 11 July 1895, Page 50

LONDON CHAT.

JFhom Our Speciai. CoRHESPOJTDEifr,)

London, May 3

That nice little Queen of Holland, with her round-faced, jolly-looking mother the Queen Regent, arrived in London a few days ago and waß received at the Victoria station by a nuniof English royalties. Toe visit of the two Dutch Queens is, however, to be strictly of a private nature. Young Wilhelmina wanted to »cc Eugland. Her mother thought it a desirable part of her education — »s indeed it is of everybody's, colonial Cabinet Miuistcrs not frepkd — to tee England and etudy her iustitufurW, .&». So tbe two royal ladies are staying quietly at a West End hotel, as "the Countte.s Buren and her d»u,{ht«r." lam glad to s*y their deeire for privacy is being respected. The two Qumsob are disiinctly non-imposing in pretence, and, even ap*tt from the n+itenceof crowns and eeep<re3 as part of their wearing apparel, might vety well pws for bd ordinary English ma and her daughter out shopping. And so they do. She seems really a nice girl, little Queen WilheliMina. And she isn't a beauty ; stie is b»rdly even pretty. But she is not at all b&d looking, with her bright, fr*nk blue -eyes, her clear skin, her fair hair, and her intelligent sad amiable expression. Bat she is a. thorough Dutch girl, in the typical aenso. Her very Btrftight hair, which will not teke an atom of curl or wave ; her di-niure expre«*ion ; a certain solidity of figure ond a studious quietness, tending toward old-fat-kionedneis of garb, all tood to give her that particular air of quaintness which we somehow associate with the term "Dafeh." Everybody who knows her says she is frank, lovable, and kind-hearted. She is great on dolls, and h«-s a perfect army of them. She is joyous and energetic in- temperament, and delifiht* in fun and out-door exercise. Her oae Borrow is that she cannot have numerous fjirlfriends and mix with tjbem on terms of absolute equ»lrty. Herein Royalty has its drawbacks. Ihis bright young girl of 14 has already deeply felt the pplendtd loneliness of her position. However,' let us hope she will have "a real good time," as the Americans say, in England. ft was May D iy, by-the-bye, on which our own Queen returned to her land ; and this was remarked on as a good open. 1 dent exactly know why : but one thing about it does not ec^m4k) ms ominsus of good: Iv spit", of her good heiUh aud good spirits, Her Majesty, I am sorry to say, is steadily becoming a compltte cripple. It is only a question of tim°, and rh*t sot very long, when th". Queen will be absolutely UiiAbJe to walk. She is not far from that now. Two or 'three steps ooonprise tho extent of her possible arubulation-. It w*6 quite sad. to notice, the difficulty she experienced in lauding In fact it h»s come to this already that tho Queen has virtually lost the use of the lower limbs through rheumatism. She occasionally, v»hen this is unavoidable, takes ono ortwo painful steps, but only with the aid of a crutch and a stick, and the support of two attendants. -As a rule, all her moverm nt* are made in wheel-cba'rs or lifts, Ev-n to the last drawing room, the Quee.n, had to be wheeled in a ch'-ir, and she can only get about Balmoral, and Windsor, and Osborne by the use of Muiilar eppHtii-cts. She comes down in a*> lift, and then i= wheeled in a chair to her carriage, and vice versa. It is very sad, for otherwise she seems so well and »t> oug. But she has never fully recovered from the severe attack of rheumatism, which •he h\d at Oeborne in August last, and now it > has bee -me cbronic. I suppose, in plain terms; her M r< jest} is now paying the natural penalty for all that reckless indulgence, in cold winds and draughts, and open carriages in win'er, and; other wild imprudeoces of many years' duration. ' Nature will have her tevenges. Quite refreshing are some of the press comments on Lady Russell's conjugal suit. One •piper pleasantly remarks : — '.* In the unspcak' *bly vile ch»rges which she mede »g»inst her husband (and which e>he now admitted to have been bastd upon no kind of evidence whatever) this virago waj aided and abetted by tho shot-kit g old hag referred to in the proceedings as ' Lady X.' and t>y her nlother, Lady Scott, whoee testimony in court amply proved the sort of woman she is. All three deserve to be shunned in future by decent people of both iexe«." That is pUin speaking. But surely no one vrho read the evidence can say it is too etong. Wfcen you consider that these three wretched women deliberately invented a hideous charge against an honourable gentleman — never mind whether he was an earl or a tradesman — without the slightest foundation, and then employed ten detectivts to trump up false evidence in support | of it, the grave danger to every decent person involved in such infamy remaining unpunished Js-plearl/seen. Yet, unlrss by social ostracism, this villainous "Lady X." — whose name never ought to have been allowed to escape public ' opprobrium, asd that valuable wife, Lady RnsseH, and her precious mother will go scot free, after committing acts for which many people in a lower rank of life have deservedly coffered severe legal penalties. If the object was that indicate i by Lord Russell's counsel, the offence becomes simply more sordid, but not more vile and dangerous to society. The marruge of tbe Duchess of Marlborough, t formerly Mrs Hammf-reley, and a very great heiress, to Lord William Bereeford, was a grand affair, and rather surprised many who, posing as especially well informed, said that, tsiucefhe death of tbe Duke, the Ma rib troughs had never noticed his widow. The present Duke gave away v bii stepmother, and h-s never would hire done so had he~not h&d hie mother's consent and approval. It is well known that she was liberal in the exlivme to tbe young fellow, and on the break up of the Blenheim menage her conduct was splendid, and touched Lady Bland ford to the heart. The bride was dressed in pale grey brocade and priceless lace. Her bonnet wai embroidered in diamonds, and nhe wore some very fine ones on ber peck. Lord William is extremely popular in society, and, like all tbe Boresfords, a brave man, afraid of nothing in or out of the world. He is sbout 50, and is the brother of the gallmt Lord Charles Beresford, There was a wonderful

glittering at the wedding, the pick of the aristocracy at present in London being there, tbe greatest compliment the bride could have been paid, as it was a tribute to her personality and her conduct, if perhaps a wee bit to her purse. She is credited with four millions of money. The failure of the 12 good men and true to find a verdict in the Wilde caso is to be regretted, as it entails the re-issue of columns of B)t\\ and a second trial may result in an acquittal on forae law points. However, no bail was aUowtd, a proof of what the judge thinks of the case. Mrs Oscar Wilde is with Lady Mount-Ttmple, at Torquay, and ib is rumoured that she will. try for a divorce as soon as the result of the trial is arrived at. She will, in that case, re-take her maiden name of Lloyd. A I&dy who knew Lady Wilde before her marriage to Dr Wilde, the oculist, told me that she considers her "the cleverest woman she had ever known, and the greatest, goose." She used to dress the baby Oscm Wilde as "the God af love." I wonder whether he was one of those loathsome urchins ono sees with golden curls dewu their shoulders, neither boys nor girls. One marvels at the taste of parents who thus uts*x their sons. Japan has taken the world by surprise, and it 6ev ms not at all unlikely that in living knowledge Japau will rank as one of the greatest Powers. • The Mikarh) is said to be the bluestblooded fovereiga in the world. He is the 121 st Emperor of Japan by direct descent through a line that beg*n 600 years B.C. Taere are a great many Japs in London studying professions and literature, but there is every indication that Japan will soon have her own independent universities, where »ll of knowledge will be at first hand, and we may yet send our youth there to matriculate. Siam also is represented here 1 berally. The Crown Prince is the trump card at receptions, and his. studies do not progress during the season. When in full dress, ths Kms of Si<un is worth £200,000 as he stands. Ths Crown Prince is decidedJy literary, and writes tor Englirh children's magazines. He has the perfect command of three European languages. I was surprised to bear that Worth, the great Parisian dressmaker , made a fortune of one million sterling in Paris. Ho was a liberal man both to chanties and to art. He also had a Urge e-t-ibli-shmeutto keep up, and h<? sst up his sons in the business. ~- It is said of him that he was the special artist of sovereigns and the dnni monde. He never made any dress under £45 He did this in self-preservation, he said, as unless ho had made bij piiiea prohibitive he could never have executed the orders that would hwe overwhelmed him. May 18. IHE ACADEMY EXHIBITION. Nobody even ye 1 ; seenn, to know what to siy about this year'a Royal Academy Exhibition. Personally my second inspection confirmed my first view — that the show possesses high average merit, but few really " great " pictures. Aud I think the mfkjority of the critics agree with me in this. I believe there is a better general average of m-srit ; tbut th*re are more really go^d pictures than usual aud fewer really b*d ones But one misses the occasional outfUmiog of brilliance which took one's admiration by storm in 1893 and 1894. To my mind Almi-Tadema's " Spring " is the picture of the year But it does not flame out at you. On the contrary, you have to kok for it Or else, as you pass Blong, you suddenly think how well the marble is painted in tha^. rather small and narrow picture, and then you stop aud examine the multitude of snail figures and details so exquisitely and elaborately depicted, and then you exclaim in a moment, without any need of cttalogue-refer-ence, " Alma-Tadtma, of course ! " And so it is. He has never, in my judgment, done anything noer in that peculiar stjle of which hs is a unique specialist. Carpsrs complain cf its "microscopic" fiuish. They grumble at so many figures being crowded into so small a space, aud ask why he didn't paint a good b ; g thing while he was about it. I cannot follow this line of thought. Alma-Tadeina's strong points are exquisite delicacy of execution and finish, combined with singular beauty of drawing aud colouring^ daring originality of plan, and marvellous skill in the treh.tm«-nt of apparently unpromising subjects. In these he hasj no superior — few, if any, equals — and he givi-s us paintings which are always things of beaufcy and jojs for eTer. Why should he spread himself oat into a totally different stjle which might not — probably would not— suit his special powers half so well ? For the life of me I cannot see why he should. You might as well grumble at a great tenor because he did not s'ng bass. It wa6 " the thing " to go into raptures — real or affected— over J. W. Waterhouae's large picture of " St. Cecilia SWpiug," which occupies the place of honour in room No 2. Into these rapture* I have not yet been able fully to enter The fault no doubt is mine. I freely admit the beauty of the faces, the gorgeousntss of the scheme of colour. I recognise a certain qutint and indescribable ch»rm about the whole ivork. Bat — ah. that odious little word ! — was it, I wonder, essential that the attitudes of the sleeping saint and of the two serenading angels should be so extraordinarily stiff an<i sug#«?ative of mediseval stained window work ? Was it necessary that such queer and staring combinations of colour should be employed ? I suppose it wes, for the picture has made Mr Waterhouse a R A. As for Leader's delightful English landscapes, so full of air and freshness, and glassy pools or streams, and sunny foliage, they are always a joy to look at. So are the cattle of Cooper, that non*gonari*n — nonagenarian-and-one I believe he is now. Sir Frederick Leight->n, in my humble judijme >t, was never so charming as this jear. "lie employs that peculiar colouring which he has made his own. But the general effefit is exceedingly fine, and the work, when s'udied in detail, is superb. His " Maid with the Golden H»ir" — an exquisite maiden of 15 or 16— is the one which pleased me most ; but hia " Flaming Jane," another yourjggirl, coiled up asleep in a most extraordinary attitude — declared by some critics to be impossible, but asserted by Sir Frederick to have been exactly copied from

what he once saw, — is the most remarkable. The semi-transparent or fl ime-coloured robe 3 give an amazing blazs of co'onr. At the private view I was amused to watch Harry Furniss sketching his versions of several pictures. Theso have now coma out in a Bmall illustrated pamplileb. Borne of the caricatures are capital, others less good ; but it is well woith possessing. MISCELLANEOUS. A late dignitwy of the church— an Oxford don — used to tell the following interesting story illustrative of " presence of mind," which has just been revived as a tribute to his memory: — "A friend," he said, "invited me to go out with him on the water. Tho sky was threatening, and I dccliued. At leDgth he succeeded in penuading me, and we embarked. A squall cime on, the boat lurched, and my friend fell overheard. Twice he sank, and twice ho rose to the surface. Ha placed his hands on the prow and endeavoured to climb in. There was great apprehension lest he should upiet the boat. Providentially I had my umbrella with me. / had the presence of mind to s'rike him two or three hard blows over the knuckles. He left go his hold and sank. The boat righted itself, and we were saved." To the day of his death he was known thenceforward as " Presence of Mind." He was hazy latterly in his presentation of the church service. He prayed for "the maintenance of wickedness and vice and the punishment of true religion and virtue," and once told hia hearers that " heaviness may endure for a j-ty, but night cometh in the morning." Both of these utterances puzzled them for a while, uutil they had time to reconstruct the scntencos. But a more recent and painful instance of the loss of that " presence of mind " on which the ex-don of Oxford prided himself occurred la^t week at tbe National Liberal Club, where ' a great gathering of Radicals was hold to welcome her Majesty's Ministers to feast and drink and disport on the light- fantastic too. The Prime Minister made a speech. In point of fact he was not fit for it. He te still suffering greatly from the sequela of his influenza, and ought not to Slave ventnred oo speechifying to an excited audience. But he did, and in the middle of his spsech- suddenly turned ghastly pale and stopped. His m-ntal powers had failed him. He had lest the thread of his discourse and none could supply it. After an interval of blank silence, which was one of the most ghastly things in my recollection, Lord Roeebery managed to pick himself up somehow and finish. But he was packed off to ges in the admiral's yacht next dny. The death of auy man, if he has held a position of prominence, always gives rise to inconvenient remiuiscences that if such aro in the background. The passing away of the E«l of 'Pembroke is no exception to this rule. The late oarl waf«, as nil the world knows, the son of the elegant and much-loved ttatesman, Sidney Herbert. He was a oVicate youth, oarrying abu t with him the sced<J of mischief from very earl> d«.yi», left by scarlet fever. His doctors told him that if ho lived till he grew a beard he would round 45, and so he did, but for years hi 6 life was on tufferance, ,nnd a battle with death. It may be remembered that when he succeeded to the Pembroke earldom through the death of the " wicked earl " he took a voyage round the world, aud stayed for some time at Fiji. He had a travelling medico, a clever man of the world. A short time after his return home the earl wrote a ye y spicy book of trave's, indeeH so spicy was it that the mothers o? that day tabooed the'lojk, and the virtuous press censured his lordship for being so wickedly clever. Aftar.all he only wrote of these islanders as he found them, and as to many othew have found them. Then it was whiipcreS that the book was by the doctor aud not by his distinguished patient. Bat Lord Pembroke was clever enough to make a reputation for himself in any walk of life he chose to adopt ; his health it was that shut for him the gates of fame: His only sister is Lsdy de Grey, a nams well known in the world of mondaines. Cricket is in its fullest swing, and already has been in many ways extraordinary. In the fir-t place Dr Grace, the veteran " W.G.," now 47 ye^rs old, has already twice exceeded 100 and once 200. Yesterday he actually put together a score of 288 for his county against Somerset. It was superbly played in hia best Btjle, and made without giving a chance. He had previously mnde 103 for M.C C. Yesterday's frat made his hundi edth score of 100 and upwards, all in first-class matches. It made al«o the tenth time he had exceeded 200 in an iunings. He has twice made over 300 in fits^:class matches. His centuries in smaller matches are countless, and he hag made 400. Never was fuch a batting record in all cricket -history. But there ha» been other marvellous play this week. Notts yesterday completed an innings of 726 against Sussex— a record for county Matches — of which Gunn made 219, Howitt 119, and Bagguley 110. Also, Lockwood mude 158 for Surrey ag%int>t Warwick, Jackson 122 for England against Cambridge Uuiviraity, and F#vler 118 for Somerset against Gloucester. ' Nor has the bowling been behindhand, though overmatched by the Pplfndid battirg in such perfect weather. Brock well, bowling for Surrey jesterday against Warwick, took eight wickets for only 22 rurs ; and Raujitsinjhi, the famous Indian Cantab, who plays now (by residence) for Sussex, has done wonders alike with bat and v.ith ball. It bids fair to be a most interesting cricket season.