A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1928, Page 19

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. 2 ROYAL BIRTHDAY. ("From Our Lady Correspondent.) London, Aug. 23. A very important little person celebrated his fourth birthday this week. He is Master Gerald Laseelles, the King’s younger grandson and Princess Mary's “baby.” He celebrated it in excellent company, too, for his paternal grandfather, Lord Harewood, had a birthday on the same day. As they were both up in Yorkshire, and Goldsborough and Harewood are but a motor run apart, the old gentleman of eightytwo and the fair-haired child of four spent part of their anniversary together. Lord and Lady Harewood are devoted to their little grandsons, and, while the elder one, George, has been his “Granny's” favourite ever since he was old enough to stay alone with her at Harewood, Gerald and his grandfather have more than a little in common. Both children are very like their mother, but the younger one bears a specially notable resemblance to the Princess. HIS MOTHER'S BOY. Gerald is one of those shy, lovable children who often in later years astonish their friends with some artistic attainment. As a small baby he was the sweetest, most placid mite imaginable. He still appears to be much more ealm and quiet than his elder brother, but that calmness covers a tremendous fund of nervous energy. He is full of imagination, and, where the elder boy must have some immediate outlet for the excitement which new things create in him, the younger one ie. content to sit and ponder and to store up experiences and sensations in his mind. A long time afterwards he amazes those around him by showing how he has worked things out for himself. He clings very much to his mother who, because of the agony of shyness from which she herself has suffered all her life, seems to have special sympathy and understanding for him. MOST PAINTED LADY. Someone asked the other day how many portraits of Queen Mary are in existence. There must be quite r gallery of them by now, for Her Majesty has rarely been absent from the line at any Royal Academy, not to mention minor picture shows, since she became chatelaine of Buckingham Palace. But the wonderful charm of the little Duchess of York, whom all the artists are keen on painting now, may soon make her a good second even to the Queen. Viscountess Curzon’s portrait has probably been painted as many times as any Mayfair dame's, but the leading painters no longer follow the Stuart and Georgian fashion of taking stage beauties as their subjects. Perhaps because we have no very outstanding actresses to-day. Probably no lady’s features have been more often immortalised on canvas in our day than Lady Lavery's. Sir John Laverv usually paints her several times a year, and has just put her stately head on the Irish Free State’s new stamp. ‘TAINTED FABRICS.” Princess Mary has a most interesting engagement in Yorkshire next week. She is going to .Sheffield for a series of functions, and when the visit was arranged she asked specially that time might bo allowed for her to motor to a little colony which has been established on the outskirts of the city for disabled ex-service men. It is known as "Painted Fabrics Village,” and the men who occupy it are engaged on the loveliest of decoration work. They take the finest of silks and chiffons and stenciKhem in artistic colours and patterns, and they are then made up into frocks and cloaks, scarves aud dressinggowns, and other items of the feminine wardrobe. Princess Mary ‘ has visited it before, and she possesses several pretty garments decorated by the men and made in the work-rooms. Lady Fitzwilliam is the fairy godmother of “Painted Fabrics,” and so keen was she that her friends should see how beautiful the work done in the little colony ig that she had made there the gown which she wore at one of the Royal Courts this year. IRELAND'S FIRST LADY. Social doings in Ireland since the end of the London season have brought tho beautiful hostess at the Vice-Regal Lodge, Mrs. Mac Neill, into contact with a great mar.y of the Englishwomen who have been in the houseparties round Dublin. All of them are impressed by the way in which Mrs. Mac Neill has made the Vice-Regal Lodge the centre once more of the country’s social life, and also by the delightful personality of its chatelaine. Not only is she an ideal hostess, bnt she has culture and intellect whieh enable her to talk brilliantly to her husband’s associates in office, and amusingly to the many charming women in the Irish social set. Mrs. MacNeil], who is in the early thirties, belongs to (fork. She is a graduate of Dublin University, interested in the woman’s movement, in the cultivation of friendship between nations, and in music and art. A SPORTING SCOTSWOMAN. Lady Mar and Kellie has gone up to Alloa House for the Highland season, She is a very keen sportswoman, interested, as most. Scotswomen who go in for sport are, in several branches of it. Horse-racing has a big appeal for her, and when the shooting season is on she likes to handle a gun herself as -.veil as to go out to the butts with tho other ‘shots.” A great personal friend of the King and Queen, Lady Mar sees a good leal of Their Majesties while they are it Balmoral. Last year, when the Court vas at Holyrood for ten days, she was i constant visitor to the Palace, and the •’rinee of Wales, as well as the King ■nd Queen, went to see a wonderful lageant of Scottish history in which he was interested, and which was taged not far from Edinburgh during 1 • heir stay in the Scottish capital.

A DUKE'S SISTER. Among those who will help tire Duke and Duchess of Roxburghs ta celebrate their silver wedding a little later in the autumn is Lady Evelyn Collins, the Duke’s sister. She is a neighbour of Princess Mary, and has a lovely home at Knaresborough, where she spends a great deal of her time. She hunts and takes part in the social life of her neighbourhood, but she is also very keen about local government, and takes an active part in the work of the Knaresborough Board of Guardians and the Council. Lady Evelyn was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her war work. Harrogate Infirmary, in which Lord Lascelles and his family have always taken much interest, claims a good deal of Lady Evelyn’s time, and she shares with Princess Mary an official part in the operations of the Girl Guides in their particular part of Yorkshire. PLEASURE AND CHARITY. Lady Alexandra Metcalfe’s friends are all admiring the way in which she works for the children’s charity of which she was made chairman a few months ago. It used to be said of Lady Titchfield and Lady Carlisle, both indefatigable organisers for philanthropic causes, that they carried their pet schemes everywhere with them, and Lady Alexandra seems to be following their example. She is at Deauville just now with her husband, Major "Fruity” Metcalfe, and whenever an opportunity offers she keeps before her little set the fact that she and her Save the Children Fund Committee are hoping to raise £lOO,OOO

by appeal. Lady Alexandra is the youngest of tho late Marquis Curzon’s three daughters. She is in the early twenties but is a most accomplished hostess, talks well, and is proving herself a very good business woman and organiser. The little season programme is likely to contain some very interesting items by whieh her pet charity will benefit. GROWING UP. Princess Arthur of Connaught will bo losing her manly little son, Lord MaeDuff, towards the end of next month. He is going to Eton then —he was entered ; very shortly after he was born-—and , is looking forward very much, I hear, to leaving ‘‘prep, school” days behind. Lord Mac Duff has made up his mind ali (ready that he “wants to be a soldier,” and it is very likely that in a year or ■ two lie will go into the army class at Eton to be prepared for the entrance examination to Sandhurst. Stories of , the military careers of his grandfather, ’ the grand old Duke of Connaught, and hie father, Prince Arthur, have always thrilled Lord Mac Duff, and no boy, probably, has played more games of-soldiers from the time he was old enough to carry a tiny wooden sword in his baby hands. He should carry on the traditions of the family gallantly. MANY RELATIVES. The little son who has just been born to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Fitzroy has a wonderful array of cousins and uncles and aunts. And if he follows in tho footsteps of his father, and his grandfather, Lord Southampton, lie will be a keen rider, aud follower of bounds. On the paternal side lie is related to Lord and Lady Zetland, who are his grandgrandparents, and to Lord and Lady Roualdshay and their family of three girls and a boy. All the Fitzwilliams are .his cousins, as well as Lord and Lady Wharncliffe and their children, and Lady Donatia Gething and her small boy. The family is a very sporting one, and one of Mr. Fitzroy’s greatest interests in life is hqpscmansbip. LADY WARWICK'S DAUGHTER. The beautiful Countess of Warwick, a well-known figure in society in Edwardian days, passed her good looks on to her two daughters, Lady Marjorie Beckett and Lady Mercy Dean. Lady Mercy went on the stage almost as

soon as she was well out of the. schoolroom, and then married Mr. Basil Dean, tho clever producer. She is appearing in London just now in Galsworthy’s “Loyalties,” and I do not think there is a more fascinating feminine figure to be seen at a London show at tho moment. She has not only pretty features but beautiful large grey eyes, and she has chosen for her part as.' Nancy Parsons a frock and a hat which suit her to perfection. The frock is of black satin, the two tiered skirt finished at the waist-line with a narrow buckled belt, and the sleeves are long and tight, with cuffs of ivory ninon. Her hat. is black, too, with ribbon bows drooping nearly to her shoulder at one side. LOOKING AHEAD. These are early days, perhaps, to be thinking of next season’s debutantes, but within six weeks or so the girls who are to make their curtseys to the King and Queen in 1929 will be feeling their feet in tho social world, They go with their mothers to small dances and afternoon parties during the autumn little season and often have their formal coming-out at a hunt ball in their own country neighbourhood. A very charming girl who will be going about very shortly with her mother and elder sister is Lady Margaret Stewart, Lord and Lady Londonderry’s second daughter. There is such a lot of difference between her age and that that of Lady Maureen Stanley, the eldest daughter of tho house, that Lady Londonderry must have forgotten, almost, what it feels like to chaperone a debutante. But both mother and daughter are look* .ng forward to tho experience.