LONDON CHAT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2163, 8 August 1895, Page 44

LONDON CHAT.

(Fkom Ouk Own Couhkspondknt.)

London, June 15 Glvious weather s> far Ins clmrncteriscd the men to of June 1895. We have had almost cloudless Hkiss,, biilliaut sunshine, genial warmth tempered by pleasant breezes, and without any excessive he&t. It ib ideal June weather. Unfortunntely, all this meteorological joy ia not enough for the British farmer, or, rather, is 100 much for him. He wants rain. A very long period of dryness bus nc^r prevailed over the greater pirt of these islands, and un'ess copious showers fall before long, I ftar the agricultural consequences will be serious. Prayers for rain are being offered up in the churches. Our gracious Sovereign is enjoying be r se!f in the distant Highlands, sow looking their loveliest, but returns to town next week, after which various State functions will be held. Tho Queen goes.next to Oaborne, and in August will pay .auother visit to Balmoral. *

The secret about the last Royal Drawing Room b»8 oozed out. People suspected all along that there was some special reason why the Princes-s of W»les did not hold it instead of Princess Louise, seeing that she had uudeitakeu to hold the laßt two Drawing Rooms. They were right.

I am told on high authority that when the list of names of ladies to -be presented at the second Drawing Room — duly signed by the Lord Chamberlain and approved by the Queen — was submitted to the Princess of WaleH Bhe took exception to one particular name, and required that it Bhoold be erased. As tho lady to whom she objected is Ires grandt dame and belongs to one of England's most famous families, this demand croak d the utmost consternation. IChe Princess was implored to give way, and every possible argument was employed to consince her of tho necessity of yielding. But Alexandra would not budge an inch from. the {position she had taken up. " I have made too many concessions already," she said, " and I will make no more." What was to be done ?

Lord Carrington, tho Chamberlain, deplored his inability to comply with the Princess's requet-t. "Then," replied the Princess, "I Bhall not hold tne Drawing Boom." Lord Carrington tried his utmost powers of perBuision, but in vain. "It is useless to urge it," B&id the Princess. "I have ffiven way too much already on this point, and I will do so no more." So the Chamberlain had to depart foiled. He proceeded to Windsor, and laid the matter before the Queen, who communicated the Heir Apparent. Nothing came of it. The Queen was convinced that it would never do to erase the name of the lady objected to, who under another name had attended many DrawiDg Rooms before, but who on this occasion had to be presented afresh it being her first appearance after accession to a higher title. So it was agreed that the Princess of Wales should l)e excused on the score of indisposition.

Alexandra found out what was the plan. I believe she had her suspicion?, and pressed her ' inquiries .as to what would be done in consequence of her refufal until she succeeded in ascertaining r?hat was proposed.

What followed was this : — Ten days before the date of the Queen's intended departure for Scotland, the Princess of Wales and her two Tmmarried daughters imde a hurried and unexpected visit to Windsor with the ostensible object of Baying good-bye to her Majesty. And then 5 learn on very good authority a remarkable eoene took place. Alexandra, the fair and gentle, exprf ssed her view* with quite unprecedented ■warmth and passion. " Nothing

shall induce me to hold the Drawing Raom if that person ia allowed to bo present," I am told the Princess said, " and I hear that if I do not it will be said that I refused on account of illness. That will be utterly untrue, a'ld I iviSl publioly contradict it. If lam reported to be ill I will drivo about London and the Park all the ftfti.rni.on on which the Drawing Koom is hold pnd will show niyatlf as publicly as possible, uulcßa that person is excluded a« I have desired."

Now, can you possibly describe such a situation otherwise than in the vulgar phrsse " a pretty kttUe of fish "? I don't' think so. At jinyrate the Queen found horbt-lf.quite impotent the face of the Princess's determination. Alexandra was fairly roused at last. And she canied her point. No official announcement of her indisposition was made. Priucasa Louise held tbe Drawing Roam. And the proscribed lady was not jyresint.' Of course everybody understands that a private intimation was conveyed to her I hat she had bebter find some excuse for staying away this time else there would asaurtdly be *' wigs on the green," and things might be reni dered unpleasant for her in various quarters. The lady in question is no fool. Far from it. | She is as clever as she is beautiful, and that is saying a good defil, as I cau testify from personal observation.

I will not do my New Zealand readers the injustice io suppose for a momeut that they need any key — which it might be iujudicious to furnish—to this curious little affair. I feel sure I may take it that they "take" me, and that awkward explanations arc needless. And I think I may assume also that they will concur in myview as to the extreme regretfulness of all thia. Indeed, I am very much afraid we have not yet heard the last ot it.

Happily, that odious story about the Duke of York's alleged morganatic alliance seems to have died away, for the present at any rate. I trust it may not be revived. The Duke and Duchess seem to live very hoppily, and their popularity remaius unabated. But I cannot discover whether or not the "insupfr*ble obsi acle " to their Royal Highnesses' desired visit to the colouie* is ieally what ever j body imagines, or whether those society journals which stoutly deny it are accurate. However, we shall all know in good time. Meanwhile, they won't visit you just yet. It is said that the Queen never goes into public without a half-acknowledged dread that her life might be attempted ; it has been so six times during, her reign. It is 55 years sinco the first attempt. This was by a jomg barman named Oxford. He fired two Bh(.t« at her M*jet>ty and the Prince Consort as they* were driving up Constitution Hill. The Queen showed the greatest courage, and her husband was far more exercised on her account than she was "for her own. Oxford was kept in asylums for 25 years, and then was released on condition that he left the country. No one knows -if he is still alive. Just two years after, at the same place and with a pistol also, another youth named Francis attacked the Queen. He was condemned to death, but the extreme penalty was remitted. I think that he died in confinement. Some say that he was liberated ou a ticket-of-leave, but I doubt it. The other attempts are too trivial to record, and the allegod one of which the papers made each capital last week was too trivial in the extreme. The man was a lunatic, and is now in the asylutn for life.

A London paper has got hold of some special data respecting the meat's of the Queen. Ib has got them from a book printed for private circulation only by a recently deceased auditor of the Royal accounts for 50 years. Full detail* are given, and the auditor arrive 3at the total

of her Majesty's wealth, by simple calculations, too involved,' however, to reproduce without explanation. This total is £35,000,000. Her purßonalty, such as pictures, &c , is not included in the estimate. It seems a strange broach of offi :iivl duty to make such disclosures, even with tbe thin vuieor of privacy. But the chronicler does not. takes into ace.ouut the £2,700,000 the Quean puid off of tho old debts of her uncle? George Bnd William, aud her father, the Dake of Ifeufc. v

The Shahzadiv can scarcely bo called a social success, inasmuch as he has quite ignored the fair sex, and does not seem to like to be spoken to by them. Th* Lady Mayoress, as in duty bound, curtseyed low in Ear«.p-an fashion on the occasion of hu visit to the city, but the Prince p<ud no attention to htr greeting, and actually hesitated to take the place assigned him at the banquet — viz , at her right hand. And it is further said that he never does acknowledge the salutations of the fair sex. Tho old Shah of Persia us id to admire our pretty women too much if anything, and call them '♦ angels." It is said on good authority that he made a handsome off»r for one or two he had specially admired. The magnificent Dorche^tsr House, rented by the Crown for the Shabzada. and his suite at £1000 per week, in already considerably dwnagrd by tho little games of the soldier attendants, who have a cheerful way of sptn<ling thmr leisure. They throw kt.ivts at the doors, and one i« greatly damaged in consequcuce. It is of raro workmanship, iulaid and ornamented. They are always quarrelling among themselves, and the other night ttere was a cry of murder. The guards were called to the rescue, but one man lies in a very precarious condition. At the least provocation they 3raw knives and deal death if they can.

I had a very good view of the Afghan Prince as he went to the Guildhall reception, for his carriage passed close in front of the window of your London office. His appearance did nob strike me precisely as it seems to have done some of my friend-} and oorreppondents. I thought his fac<j\intelligent, and by no means ugly. As to hi* stolid nonobseivautness, that was not so in my experience. As he passed be caught sight of the beautiful lantern tower of the Church of St. Duustan in the West, which is opposite my office window. He turned sharply round, and evidently asked Sir Gerald Fitzgerald sevoral questions about the building and its history. At anvrata that is what he ceemod to me to do.

There were great grumblinge at the whole traffic of the busiest part of the city b ing stopped several hours in the busiest part of the day for the Shahzada's twopetmy-halfponny procession. The crowd of spectators was of modest dimensions for London, and for a wonder was almost exclusively masculine. The latest social surprise is the marriage of the Duke of Argyle, a veterau of 72, to Miss M'Neill, an ingenue of 21. Tha "Yellowhaired Laddie," as the* Scots call the chieftain of the Clan Cimpbell, is a muchly-martied man. His firat wife was a daughter of the Duchess of Sutherland, the Queen's intimate friend. She bore him 12 children, and then made room for No 2, the widow of Colonel Auson, and daughter of Bishop Claughton. This la 1y died last year, and she was taken to Canneß in the Riviera, in compliance with her dying request and laid bes'de her flrat huiband. But the legend on her tombstone, a cross of purest marblf, is—" The beloved wife of the Duke o? Argyll." The marriage was [not felicitous. A well-known nobleman told a friend of mine some years ago, that both had indomitable wills, aud they could not hit it off at all. At one time there was a rumour of a separation. " It was very foolish of Argyll " said the noble-

man in question, "to marry a woman of 40 ; he ought to have married some falce soft young girl, and had her trained into his own ways and ideas." This is just what the gentleman was doing himself, but ho died before his experiment had fluished her education. Ho, however, left her his entire fortune, the title dying with him. The Duke has tho character of being a terrible "boss in his own famity." All his daughters are married except tho Lady Victoria, who ia sadly delicate. She is quite given up to good works. The M'Neills axe Highlanders, and as proud of their family as M* Call urn Mohr of his.

There is much spsoulation as to the sort of work Oscar Wilde has to peff orm in the priaoD, and many believed that the old treadmill had censed it* mission. This is not so, and the high priest of reslheticißm has to keep it going just like any Philistine, gome houra a day. He had also to pick oakum. He is isolated from all companionship. It is underatood that he is at CMdb&th Fields Prison. His costume is a drab moleskin suit-, including knickerbockers, markod with the broad arrow. He has blue stockings, not of the art shade, strong shoes, and a white linen cap. He will ba kept three months at the wheel, and then employed in some roetshanicol work, trade, or at odd jobs about the yard. Lady Wilde is seriously ill, and at her advanced age it is unli^ly that she will ever see her brilliant son again. Mrs Frank LasHo, who for a brief peri-id called Mr Willie Wilde, Oscar's brother, husband, in here; She has been most kiud to poor Lsdy Wilde, and for long allowed her a hundred a year. Oscar never allowed his mother any fixed inoomd, and when he was in all the luxury of his vicious life she has sat in her house with the gas cut off, as she could not pay for its consumption. Mrs Oacar Wilde used to send the unfortunate lady dinner from her own table, b2tween two plates.

I was told to-day that Mrs Prank Leslie had made friends with Willio, and that they had mutually agreed to let the little epiaode of their marriage drop into oblivion.

The Ladies' Kennel Association held its initial exhibition in the beautiful grounds of llmuleigh Club, on the banks of the Thames. The association is in its infancy, but it already h\a nearly 700 members, among them the Princess ©f Wales, who bad several onferits, and took prizes. Her Royal Highness is a great dog lover, and owns many valuable specimens of various breeds. The exhibition was entiraly got up snd managed by ladies, and it went off without a hitch. It was- a "smatt" function, the P.iocess attending with her daugbte's, and the Pru.co also. The ladies sold the elaborate catalogues at Is 6d each,- and a tivatiso on whippet racing, also the journal of the association. Duchesses, countesses, and a score of titled ladies led their dogs into the show ring themselves. And do nob suppose that the exhibits were all or mostly of the pot dog variety, as there was not a sporling c'ags unrepresented, aud there were bloodhounds, Newfoundlands, wolfhounds, a\id the gentle bull dog »8 well. The prizeß were valuable, one lady winning with a Japanese Spaniel the £70 trophy. There were alao handsome silver tea services, a 20-guinea challenge cup, and one at 30 guineas aa well. Then there was the whippet race, and valuable prizes there too wore won. The course was 200 yards. It was niO'tt exciting, and there is little doubt that the sport will become a fashionable one. A rude critic remarks that the women have " gone to the doga," as might hare beon expected with their up-to-dafce masculine ways.

However, no one can call Ihe Princem of Wales cither masculine or " up-to-date" iv

— . i tmm j the objectionable sense of the Uttor tena;* Some people think that if she were more "up-to-date" in that sense she might enjoy more conjugal devotion than has fallen to her lot.