THE QUEEN AS HOUSEKEEPER

Stratford Evening Post, Volume III, Issue 201, 14 November 1934, Page 2

THE QUEEN AS HOUSEKEEPER

Few women in society practised housekeeping so young as did .the Queen, stated the Hon. Mrs Fraser Lascelles, in a recent article. As a girl she often bore more than her | fair share of family responsibilities— I not officially, of course, but because her orderly mind could not bear to see domestic matters go wrong. The Duchess of Tcck, the Queen's mother, was one of the most delight j ful women England has ever known. I But she was so absorbed in other people's troubles that she quite often l'orgot her own home affairs.. Often she, woud generously give .to others to find she had given more then she could really afford. The young Princess Mary, living her happy, busy life at the White Lodge; discovered as she advanced in her teens that affairs at home needed more control than they were getting. When she found that the household accounts were muddled she tore herself away from her books and B<H to work to put them right. She had an extra ordinary love for her mother, but she registered the conv jt:On that charity must be exercised Y/hh restraint, and ; that the woman win can best help j others is the one who has her house-

keeping books in good order. York Cottage, where the Queen first lived as a young wife, was a comparatively small and unpretentious house, so she was able to start her career as a housewife on a moderate scale. This was a distinct advantage to her. A mother is apt to be, perhaps, unconsciously critical of her daughter's housekeeping after that daughter has once started her own home. The Duchess of Fife was, however, honestly eulogistic about the Queen's home life. On December 1, 1893, she

wrote when staying with her (laugh ter at York Cottage, Sandringham, "This is the perfection of an ideal cottage; each room is charming m its way. and everything in perfect taste and most cosy and comfortable. The Queen is a perfect housewife because she is quite frankly interested in domestic details. When she visits a home exhibition or a large

shop, as she delights in doing, she becomes honestly enthusiastic over some new good line in kitchen cab inets or anything in that nature that is going to benefit the woman who doe« the work. But she criticises as well as praises, and the woman whose duty it is to display these domestic appliances finds she has her work set to answer intelligently all the questions the Queen puts about tier speciality-