MISHAPS AT THE QUEEN'S DRAWING ROOM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2205, 4 June 1896, Page 49

MISHAPS AT THE QUEEN'S DRAWING ROOM.

It is no easy matter to manage the huge Court train at first; and how to make a curtsey graoefully and rise again without tripping up over tha train, or disturbing tha Bet of it, is an art which has to be regularly learnt by the young ladies who go to Courfc for the first time. The usual plan is to go and learn from a dancing mistress ; other girls are taught by. their mothers. But, in any case, the form of practice is the earns. A heavy tablecloth is pinned on to the girl's dress, so that ib SWEEPS ALONG THE GROUND like a train, and, thus arranged, the girl advances, curtseys, rises, and backs again h and again until she is able to manage her appendage with ease. The badness of making a curtsey also requires praotioe and muscle, for it consists in sinking down almost on the knees, bending the head forward the while. On one occasion when a very stout lady had reached the lowest point of the curtsey, she found that she had lost control over her muscles, and, instead of rising, rolled over on the floor, from whioh she was assisted to rise by tho Lord Chamberlain. A similar accident happened to another very stout lady, but she always deolared that she would have been all right bnt that as she rose she distinctly felt a tug at her train, just as if someone bad trodden on it, and she was sure that Lady X , who oame after her, had done it on purpose in order to gratify a little private vengeance by causing poor Lady V to make an exhibition of herself before her Sovereign. In consequence of these accidents one of. the Lord Chamberlain's subordinates, selected for his strength, is now chosen to stand facing the Queen, so that he is just behind each lady as she curtsies, it is his business TO CATCH ANT LADY who may overbalance herself, and sc avoid any similar catastrophes. The most startling inoident that baa occurred at a Drawing Room of late years was the Queen's refusal to receive a certain lady just at the moment when she was* advancing in full Court array to kiss her Majesty's hand. The Queen knew of her private reputation ; and bo, though the Lord Chamberlain protested . that, having been passed by the Office and by the Queen herself at the scrutiny of candidates for presontation, the lady was entitled to be presented, her Majesty persisted that she had not understood before, but that now that she did understand that particular lady should not pass her. " I will not reoeive Mrs ," said tha Queen, in her most peremptory tone. And in the end Mrs had to turn baok and leavo the palace unpresented. On one occasion some excitement was caused by the appearance of A BLACK POODLE in the corridors. He was. out and curled In the most approved fashion, and the ladies would have been delighted with him at any other time, but on this occasion they were all in mortal fear that he would spoil their dresses. He made his way gradually towards the throne room, and was just trotting gaily into the presence of his Sovereign when luckily one of the officials at the entrance saw him, and, with a well-directed ktek, headed him back into the ante-room. He retired with a yelp which was audible to all the Drawing Room, including the Queen, who looked towards the sound. Then he dlaap* peared just aa he had come, without anyone seeing how he got in and out of the palace. ■ Many ludiorous and undignified accidents have occurred at Drawing Rooms. One lady of the highest rank, considerable age and equal vanity, as she bent over the Queen's hand, had the misery of feeling the golden wig whioh she was in the habit of .wearing slip down over her eyes, completely blinding her for a time. On another occasion two ladies thought that they would diminish the penance of waiting outside the palace, and did not stark till 4 o'clock, thinking that by the time of their arrival the rush would be over and they would be able to pass straight to THE THRONE EOOM. Unluckily their clocks were slow, and the Drawing Room waa an unusually small one. When they arrived at the park they bad the misery of seeing the procession whioh escorts the Prince and Princess of Wales emerging from the palace yard. The Drawing Room waa over, and they had missed it. Another instance of ill-luck happened last year. A girl's parents put her down for the first Drawing Room, and arranged with three ladies to present her, so that if one was incapacitated by illness the girl might be presented all the same. When the day oame all three chaperones were laid up with influenza. The parents tried to put the girl down for tha second Drawing Room, and found that they were too late— the list waa full, they put her down for the first May Drawing Room, and a few days before the event she waa taken ill with typhoid, and when she had recovered all the Drawing Rooms of the year were over. Formerly the ladies had to get their carriages as best they could, whioh generally meant waiting perhaps for an hour in the draughts of the great hall while the servant brought the carriage up, with the possibility of its being sent buck if the owner did not answer as soon as ib was announced. Now, when the ladies arrive at the grand landing, . after leaving the throne room, they give their names, which are telephoned to the hall, and the carriage is sent for. When they have resumed their wraps and descended to tha great hall, they find their carriage waiting. Under the old system many all but