ACTING BY PRECEDENT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 29, 19 September 1911, Page 6

ACTING BY PRECEDENT.

Monarchy even In minor matters if. j very conservative and acts by precedent. . So no surprise need bo felt when we are told that King George has presented a jewelled snuff-box to tho Earl of Aberdeen on the occasion of the Royal visit to Ireland. An ordinary mortal would never dreapi, at the present time, of giving such a gift to a friend. But with a king it is different, and when tho occasion requires him to give a present which is at once costly and of a personal nature ho still sticks to tho custom of a hundred years ago and presents a highly finished specimen of the goldsmith’s ! a¥£ t iu"’ ;i S!(? fdfftV dF : a; Murff-Jiox. Only compositors take snuff nowadays—and not all of them. The. habit became common in England in the seventeenth century, and in the eighteenth century silversmiths began to elaborate tho snuff-box. The lids often bore highly finished miniature* surrounded with settings of pearls and diamonds. A snuff-box with his own portrait on the lid, painted by some famous artist, was a favourite gift of Napoleon’s.