A London Letter

Southland Times, Issue 21264, 10 December 1930, Page 18

A London Letter

(From Our Correspondent.) Mayfair, October '2O. As I motored up through the Southern Counties yesterday afternoon I thought the country had reached perfection in its autumn colourings. The Michaelmas daisies and dahlias in the cottage gardens are still a blaze of colour; the trees and shrubs and creepers are shaded from palest gold to deepest crimson; and the bracken is the colour of ripe corn. It is no wonder that so many members of the Royal Family who have married foreign kings and princes choose this time of the year above al others to visit their homeland. Apart altogether from the fact that the Little Season has none of the formalities of the Season proper, I hear that Queen Ena of Spain, Queen Maud of Norway and the Crown Princess of Sweden love the autumn here best. , , , It is, too, the season of country house parties, when big shoots arc. arranged, and cubbing, and later on hunting, is in full swing. And the putting back of the clock means the beginning of the long evenings, when house party guests become reminiscent over crackling log fires or enjoy games and gramophone dances in the halls of historic countrv mansions. A ' movie show, too, has become part of the country house ritual nowadays, when so many people have their own cinema cameras. The Queen of Spain is particularly fond of country house parties and usually spends the week-ends in this way during her holiday. Princess Ingrid of Sweden also enjoys this form of entertaining more than any other. . , , . Talking of Royalty, I am reminded that both the Prince of Wales and Princess Mary, who are patrons of the British Sailors Society, have promised not to make any other engagements for the night of December 1, when they hope to attend the Ice Carnival at Grosvenor House. This will be the most important social feature of the ice-skating boom that is undoubtedly to be maintained during the winter. All the keen young married women in society and debutantes who have taken up skating will take part in the gymkana, and many will come in fancy dress. Lady Linlithgow and Lady Marjorie Dal-rymple-Hamilton, both of them experts on the ice, are hoping to raise £25,000 for the extension of the Empire Memorial Hostel for Sailors in Dockland, and chose an -ice carnival rather than a ball, because they both believe that skating is now more popular than dancing with the younger set. On one committee are Lady Rachel Stuart, who learned to skate in Canada when her father, the Duke of Devonshire, was GovernorGeneral, Princess George Imeretinsky. Lady Balniel, and Lady Dashwood. On the girls’ committee are Miss Joan Madden, the Ladies Myrtle and Gwendolen Jellicoe, and Ladv Bridget Parsons. British women all over the world will be attracted by the scheme to admit them as residents, when the new building is completed for housing the Royal Empire Society in Northumberland-avenue. Sir Herbert Baker has made plans which now include the block of old houses in Craven-street, at the back of the present old building known to thousands all over the Empire as the Royal Colonial Institute. When 100 bed-rooms are made, a new suite of dining rooms to seat 300, two or three drawing rooms for women, bridge rooms and lounges, the old order of things will give place to the new. The present drawing room for women Fellows is a charming room with grey carpet, rose and grey cretonnes, and numerous dainty writing bureaux. Sunshine yellow is the prevailing colour in the dining room, but there will be far greater accommodation in the near future. And now for some news, a little more frivolous! The choice in lingerie, it was revealed at a recent display of the new

modes by a well-known wholesale firm in the West-end, lies between the new nightdress sets of three garments, nightie, slip, and threequarter or full-length coat, which are distinctly feminine in line and trimming, and the three-piece pyjama sets, including tuck-in-jumper, trousers, and long or short coat. All shades of green, from the palest almond to lime and jade, combined with lemon-yellow or peach-pink, are used for the pyjama sets, which are intended for sleeping or beach wear during the autumn. Some of the pyjamas are destined for Studio parties or cocktail parties, or for informal dinner wear at home. These have very full “godet trousers,” each of them the width of an ordinary skirt, and many of them longer behind than in front, and lined with a brilliant and contrasting material of satin beaute or georgette over crepe-de-chene. „ , iAll the trousers fit snugly on the hips with a shaped band, ; d two or three glass buttons at each side, and the sleeveless tuck-in blouses are cross-over. There is great variety about the cut of the coats, which are all of brilliant and patterned lame, with tight-fitting "bathing-cap" turbans to match. One model was so long that it trailed for six inches on the ground, another was cut like a man's white waistcoat, another was kept together by a huge “obi" sash in front,