LADIES' GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2674, 14 June 1905, Page 66

LADIES' GOSSIP.

-—The wearing of orange-blossom at a Wedding is accounted for in various ways. Among other stories is the following popular legend from Spain : An African King .presented a Spanish King with a magni° ficent orange-tree, whose creamy, waxy blossoms and wonderful fragrance excited tho admiration of the whole Conrt. Many begged in vain for a branch of the plant, and a foreign Ambassador was toranented by the desire to introduce so great a curiosity to his native land. He »sed every possible means to accomplish Jhis purpose, but, all his efforts coming <fco_ naught, he gave up in despair. The fair daughter of the Court gardener was ioved by a young artisan, but she lacked the dowry which the family considered necessary to a bride. One day, chancing to break off a spray of orange-blossom, the gardener thoughtlessly gave it to his daughter. Seeing the coveted prize in !the girl's hair, the wily Ambassador offered her a sum sufficient for the dowry, provided she gave him a branch and said nothing about it. Her marriage was soon celebrated, and on her way to the altar, 5n grateful remembrance of the source of •all her happiness, she secretly broke off another bit of the lucky tree to adorn 'her hair. Whether the poor Court gardener lost his head in consequence of his daughter's treachery the legend dees not state, but many lands now ]cno"v the ■wonderful tree, and ever since that wed-ding-day orange-blossom has been considered a fitting adornment for a bride. - — Many - of the Russian Empress's jewels are unique. On one occasion the Emperor gave her an ornament in the shape of a spray of tea-ioses, all executed in yellow diamonds. The spray consists of a full-blown i-ose with four or five buds and leaves, all life-size. Her rubies and emeralds are very fine, and, of course, her diamonds are famous. The Grand Duchess Serge, sister to the Empress, is possasstd of what are considered the finest snpphircs in th« world. — The Dowager Duchess of HamiUoUj j

who has just died at the great age of ninety-three, was the mother of " the handsome Hamiltons " — a numerous family i of sons and daughters noted for their ! good looks. The ' present Duke of Abercorn and his younger brothers, Lord George & Lord Claud Hamilton, have the family characteristics, but the Marchioness of Blandford (mother of the present Duke of Marlborough), the Duchess of Buccleuch, the Marchioness of Lansdowne, and the Countess of Mount-Edg-combe were all of them striking types of female beauty. The venerable lady who has passed away was the grandmother of the present Duke of Marlborough, of the Earl of Durham, the Earl of Dalkeitb, the Earl of Lichfield, and the Earl of Kerry; whilst her grand-children in the female line have extended the family connections in numerous directions. —Of Lady Caroline Lamb the original of Lady Kitty in Mrs Humphry Ward's new novel, " The Marriage of William Ashe," Bulwer-Lytton wrote : — "Lady Caroline had to a surpassing degree the attribute of charm, and never failed to

please if she chose to do so. Her powers of conversation were remarkable. In one of Byron's letters which she showed to me, he said, 'You are the only woman I know who has never bored me.' On one occasion Lady Caroline sent her page the round of her guests at 3 o T clock in the morning with a message that she was playing the organ that stood on the staircase at Brocket, and begged the favour .of their company to hear her. Strange to say, it was a summons generally obeyed, and those who obeyed did not regret the- loss of their sleep, for when the audience had assembled she soon relinquished the solemn keys of the organ, and her talk would be so brilliant and amusing that the dawn still found one listening spell-bound, -witihoTit a thought of bed/ Byron said of her — "She played the devil, and then wrote a novel." A little' later, in a manuscript poem widely circulated, he wrote of Tier as " false to him, a fiend to me." It was in consequence of this last attack that Lady Caroline, in a fit of bittei resentment, burnt manuscripts, of the poet and a copy of the miniature he had given her, while white-robed maidens danced around the pyre, solemnly chanting verses composed for the occasion by the lady herself. — Sketch. — Sybil of the Sketch saw the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Coburg on her, arrival at the Nice Station from Moscow, where she had been to attend the funeral of " her brother, the Grand Duke Sergius. Looking at the inflexibility of expression and the pride which -reflect themselves on her features, one realised (she says) how far divided are tlie sympathies and feelings ~t +!,„ ,1 1 14 1 J.X.* C J_™

of the ducal parties and the serfs, for such the people of Russia still to all intents and purposes remain. —As the greatest parfi in the peerage (though Lord Howard de Walden, his f senior by a year, doubtless runs a close second to him), the young Marquis of Bute has been, ever since he attained his majority, and, indeed, since he succeed-ed to his great position in 1900, the object of many interesting and interested matrimonial speculations. Those who know him best — and there is certainly no great peer who is less known to the outside World — have always been pretty confident of two or three things, one being that he would in all likelihood marry early ; a,nother, that he would, beyond any question, choose a bride of his. own iaith ; and the third, that the future Marchioness would not be selected out of the smart set or the gay world, in which Lord Bute mixes as little, and is as profoundly uninterested, as was his father before him. The event has entirely justified his friends' prognostications who augur every prospect of happiness from the choice which he has made. Lord Bute and his bride-elect (who is within a few months of his own age) are quite old friends, and indeed connections, though not blood relations. Miss Bellingham's mother was born Lady Consiance Noel, a daughter of the second Earl of Gainsborough, but she died, deeply lamented, a good many years igo ; and Sir Henry Bellingham's second wife, step-mother to the future Marchioness, is a daughter of the late Baroness Grey de Ruthyn in her own right, and nearly related to Lord Bute through his grandmother. Lady Sophia Hastings.. Miss Augusta Bellingham has often been the guest of the Marchioness of Bute and her son at one or other of his palatial seats in Scotland, and the engagement recently announced was concladed at the last of these visits, towards the end of last year. Lord Bute is at jrr-esent in the heart of Africa, while Miss Bellingham is staving with an uncle near Genoa, and nothing is yet settled as to the date of the marriage. A pretty brunette, small of stature (like her future lord), and gifted with charming manners and a lively disposition, the new Lady Bute will be fully

qualified to take the high place as a hostess to which her great position wil' entitle her. Whether or not St. John's, Lodge, the delightful rus in urbe so long occupied by the late Marquis, will be a social centre under the new regime remains to be seen. — The question '"Should there be women jurors?" was answered in the negative at a meeting of the Hardwicke Society in Gray's Inn Hall, on Wednesday evening, March 29. The leading advocate of women jurors was Mr G. F. Mortimer, who complained that ladies were to be found in every part of a law court but where they ought to be — the jury box. How different would be the results of breach of promise cases if a woman were on the jury! She would not be taken in by the good looks of a lady plaintiff ;r the bad appearance of the male defendant. But why in such cases not also have women judges? Mrs Craigie ('' John Oliver Hobbes") answered this question. Women, she said, were by nature unfair. Their nature did not contain the first element of justice, and tins unfairness \v.\s in some instances a source of fascinitior. Justice was shown in art as a, woman blindfolded, because she cannot be trusted, as Americans say, to "see straight." Mr Justice Darling thought if women interfered in law, the administration of justice would soon be iiu chaos — or in Chancery. All j the pleading was special, intensely piejudiced, in fact. If justice is represented j in art as a blindfolded woman, is that a j tribute to the justice of men? Law and J justice have never in the world's history been synonymous, and law is the special creation of the masculine mind. — The German Emperor's four sisters are very near and dear to the Imperial heart. With one exception — that of the Crown Prir>ce«3 of Greece — they have each and all ever treated their powerful brother as one whose will must never be gainsaid. The eldest of the quartette, Charlotte, Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen, resembles in a striking decree her -aunt, the piesent Duchess of Argyll. She is clever and artistic, a really good artist. Ber marriage to the future ruler of Saxe-Mein- t ingen took place when she was only 18. Princess Victoiia of Prussia is the wife ot Prince Adolphus of Schaumburg Lippe.

The Prince and Princess live at Bonn, where they are much liked, and where they play a considerable social role. Princess Frederick Charles of Hesse, who was her parents' favourite daughter, and to whom the Empress Frederick left her splendid estate of Friedrichshof, has been married 12 years. Her attachment to Prince Frederick Charles was of long standing, ana their marriage (as the Sketch recalls) was delayed for some time because she was unwilling to leave her widowed mother. The German Ivmper or's third sister is the only one of the quartette who may be said to lave made a really brilliant match. The future Queen of Greece is a woman of strong 'individuality. * ■^-The late Dowager Duchess of Abercorn, who died on April 1 at Coates Castle, in her ninety-tlurd year, has lived in tlie reigns of five British Sovereigns, and nursed her grandchild's grandchild. Married five years before the ascension of i Queen Victoria, this venerable grande ! dame became one of the closest friends of her late Majesty, -who had io yield precedence to the duchess in the number of their respective descendants. It is said that nearly half of the peerage will go into mourning in consequence of the Dowager Duchess's death. Her Grace narrowly escaped a terrible fate when travelling by the Irish mail train in August, 1868. " To- ! gether with five of her children she entered ' the front carriage of the train at Euston, but at Chester three more carriages were placed between the engine and the compartment occupied by the Duchess and her family. At Abergele the express dashed into a number of trucks containing petro-

leum casks, and the three leading carriages were immediately enveloped in flames. Tbedr 33 occupants, among whom were Lord and Lady Faroham, were burnt to death before assistance could be obtained, but the Duchess of Abercorn and her party just managed to escape befor the firfe reached their carriage. Her eldest son, the present Duke, who has a vivid recollection of the catastrophe, is 67 years of age. — The gentle art of match-making is certainly not to be despised. Were it possible to leach, every mother should take out its highest degrees. More so than in anything else, however, a little knowledge or an inaccurate knowledge is dangerous in match-making. The subjects are human lives, and without instinctive and far-seeing faculties, it is better not to meddle with them. Yet how many women fail to think of this. With the best intentions in the world, they go blundering on, always on a wrong scent, and always obviously undiplomatic in the manner in which they follow it. The most good-natured of mothers at times seem to forget that the first principle of match-making is not the bringing about of a proposal, but the bringing about of a happy marriage. Outside of the objects of blundering good nature, two classes of girls seem equally to be pitied in the match-making arena : those who have mothers who pounce on every man who comes within their reach as a possible son-in-law, and those who have to submit to what may be called the glass ; case treatment. They are on exhibition,' but are considered so precious by their parents that any man who shows a disposition to admire is banished at once from the domestic precincts. A big percentage of such girls remain unmarried ; in the former case they generally become hard, unsympathetic, anJ shrewish women ; in the latter they sink into the colourless maiden ladies with corkscrew curls who knit mittens for " ma " and mufflers for "pa," and almost faint at the thought of the modern girls' " goings on. — Frances, in T. P.'s Weekly. — The Bishop of London, at Bridgewater House, in the second address of lua West End Mission^ referred to the

difficulty in which girls often found themselves when asked to play bridge. His advice was that any girl so asked should say that she makes it a rule never to play cards for money. Dr Ingram had spoken, he said, to several well-known hostesses on this subject, and more than one of them had assured him that even when playing for money was going on, j they always had at least one or two tables , reserved for players who did not wish to | do so. | —Dr Lillias Hamilton, who has been j lecturing at the Ladies' Empire Club, has many interesting things to relate of her ( three years as Court physician to the Amir of Afghanistan. It was while 'in charge of the Dufferin Hospital at Calcutta that Abdur Rahman heard of the j ■ wonderful success of the white lady doctor, and engaged her as his medical attendant at a high salary. Soon after arrival, Dr Hamilton, who was the only Englishwoman in the kingdom, nursed the Ameer through a severe attack of gout, j and so won Ms confidence that she woulcl I be roused from sleep in the dead of night i j to know if he might take a peppermint ! I 1 " You treat me like^- a dog," said the I tyrant to her one day. " Just come into ' the harems, and you will see how oiir women treat me!" The Sultana said to Dr Hamilton — who is most skilful with the knife — "You are a butcher, not a doctor!" and her presence was at first so i resented by the ladies of the harems that , site never dared eat without first testing the food for poisons. But the country people nocked to consult her — as many , as seven hundred in one day — and by skill 1 and knowledge of human nature she , finally turned even the Sultana into an admiring patient. Miss Hamilton, who speaks Persian like a native, hails from Ayr, and now practises in Queen Anne Street, London. — A little thing is a little thing (remarks the Edinburgh lady reporter of the Glasgow Weekly Citizen), but it often means a very great thing. Witness the "crease" which is the fashionable craze of the moment in manly modes. How it is obtained and why is a mystery to us i women, but, like most acquired tastes, ' we have rather come to like it. Only it must be in the right place. Nothing

makes a man look so out-of-drawing as i a crease in the wrong place. It must be j an added care to the lives of "valetkss" men to preserve the crease in its own peculiar place. Then we have been persuaded that it was only the gentler sex who have skirts which could vary in their fulness. Such ignorance ! A talk with a tailor the other day left me fairly bewildered as to whether it was my skills or — my brother's — he was talking about. At anyrate, the latter' 3 are to be fuller, and he is to be allowed to have his j pockets cut at whichever angle he pleases, j Happy man, to be allowed to have a j pocket at all ! j — The high emoluments paid to cmi ployees in the United States are not con- ' fined to the officials and managers of large manufacturing and commercial undertakings. Some governesses are- renmnerj ated in America on quite ;i colossal scale. ! Miss Beatrice Bend, governess to the chiJ|l dren of Mrs Whitney, receives a salary !of £4000 per annum. Miss Harriet Gale, companion to the widow of Mr Phillip Knox, the St. Louis millionaire, receives for her services 52000 a year. Miss Catherine White, nursery governess to a millionaire family of New York named Brown, is paid a salary which works out at the rate of £1800 a year, and the English governess in the Armour family | has the substantial salary of £1000 per annum. — Mme. Waddington, in a further instalment in Scribner's Magazine of her recollections of the Italian Couit, describes hxir first visit to the Queen. " She is tall, dark, with fine eyes and a pretty smile. We made our two curtseys — hadn't time for the third, as she advanced a step, shook hands, and made us sit down. The Queen talked very prettily and simply about her children, and the difficulty of keeping them natural and unspoiled ; said people gave them such beautiful presents — all sorts of wonderful mechanionl toys which they cotildn't appreciate. The pre- | sent they liked best was a rag doll." i — Queen Sophia has been for many years in bad health, and the Crown Princess 1 Victoria can live in Sweden only during the summer, so that the duties of representation at the Court of Stockholm have latterly been undertaken by Princess Charles of Sweden and Norway, the second daughter of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Denmark. When the present Crown Prince succeeds to the throne, and Prince Gustavus Adolphus becomes Crown Prince, the future Crown Princess (Princess Margaret of Connaught) will be the first lady of the Court in the absence of her mother-in-law, the future Queen Victoria. — When she reigned in Paris, the Empress Eugenic was the best-dressed lady in the world. At one time her wardrobe was ! estimated to be worth no less than £200,000. To-day she spends as little as , possible on herself and dresses invariably j in black.