A MAID IN MAVFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 6 November 1930, Page 14

A MAID IN MAVFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. PRINCE AND BUENOS AIRES. (From Our Lady Correspondent). i London, Sept. 11. Nothing has yet been settled, I understand, as to the route by which the Prince of Wales will travel when he visits the Argentine next March for the opening of the Trade Exhibition at Buenos Aires. It is thought that he may take the opportunity to travel via Canada and the United States. This would enable him to visit his ranch, which he has never had the opportunity of seeing under winter conditions. From all accounts, the Prince is looking forward with genuine pleasure to his coming trip. His first visit to the Argentine was prompted by. a. personal invitation extended to him by some South Americans whom he met in London. He thoroughly enjoyed his first stay in the country, and when he left he promised to repeat his visit at the earliest possible opportunity.

QUEEN MARY’S ACUMEN.

A rather striking illustration of the discretion with which Queen Mary makes her art purchases has just been brought to li"ht. Six years or so ago the Queen went 5 to one of the smaller London galleries and bought a little potteiy figuie of Henry VIII. modelled by Miss Gwendolii a Parnell. She obtained it for the modest price of 12s 6d. The artist was then relatively unknown. She had taken io art when the Government was urging people to take up the arts and crafts in° which Germany formerly enjoyed a monopoly. To-day fame has come to her.. She'has. a pottery establishment of bcr own down at Chelsea and so high’ ly is her work esteemed that an Ameiican firm has contracted to take over the whole of her output. Early in die present year Miss Parnell held' an exhibition of her work. The smallest and least ambitious of the exhibits, was priced at a'figure' SO times’ that which Queen Mary paid for her little purchase seven years ago.

MR. MACDONALD INCOGNITO.

■ There is a good deal- of amusement at the clubs and in social circles generally over Mr. Ramsay MacDonalds movements in Scotland during the last few days. The Prime' Minister has actual! v been trying to travel incognito on -liis own native heath. The .story with the rather mysterious intimation that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald had left Lossiemouth for an unknown destination. It is suggested that even his daughter knew nothing about his movements. But the secret is out at last. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald has been paying a round of social visits. After stayin" with the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Dunrobin Castle he went on to visit Lord and Lady Londonderry. The Reds and the Extremists of his partv will regard this as an unpaidonable* offence, which probably explains why the Prime Minister was not too anxious to advertise his movements.

THE COTTAGE BY THE SEA.

Her many friends are sympathising with Mrs. Dudley Ward in the. annoyance she has sustained during hei; temporary absence from town. During the week-end burglars broke into her place at St. John’s, Woqd,. and although the extent of her losses may not be senous. a good deal of inconvenience .is always occasioned. Mrs. Dudley Ward does not sepnd vast suras on antiques. But she is always on the look-out for period, furniture -and collects wisely and with good taste. Some, time ago I remember, she had a- delightful ojd cottage at Sandwich, not far from the palatial "cottage’’ which Lady Astor has since built for herself in the vicin itv of the golf links. The cottage rented bv Mrs. Dudley Ward was originally, I believe, an old coastguard look-out. In its way it was every bit as quaint as some of the old windmills which are being converted into dwelling houses. Mis. Dudley Ward had furnished it throughout with exquisite taste. The furniture of every room seemed appropriate to the surroundings, and all this was achieved- without any sacrifice of com£<Ut’ A "WOMAN OF TALENTS.

Lady Horne, who met such a tragic death by drowning in the Scheldt, was a woman of many gifts. Besides wytii>rf poems and short plays she had a talent for' bolour-blcnding, which she used very effectively in arranging her home. The beautiful drawing-room of her Grosvenor Street house had a charming 1 blue colour scheme, and there the rare specimens of old Chinese porcelain collected by Sir Allan. Horne, who travelled.a, great deal tn the East were displayed to great advantage. In her new St. John's Wood home Lady Holme had had the nursery devoted to the use of her little son .Alistair painted a soft peach colour, with hangings of chinablue Hazed cretonne patterned with

rosebuds. Lady Horne, whose mother was Lord Qreville’s sister, and her father a great-uncle of Lord Kinnoull’s, boro the unusual names of “Auriol"’ and “Sharlie.”

PRINCESS LICHNOWSKY’S PET.

I am not surprised that Princess Lichnowsky, the wife of Prince Lichnowsky, whe was German Ambassador in London in 1014, has written a book, about dogs. She was a great lover of them as pets, but looking through her book “On the Leash” I was disappointed to •find no reference to the terrier from Which/she sought consolation and sympathy' on the morning that the British Government sent the passport of her husband and herself to the Embassy in Carlton House Terrace. It was an official indication to them that they were to leave the country at the earliest possible moment. I happened to call on. the Princess on that memorable morning and. sought- her on the terrace, overlooking' St, James’ Park. She was z alone except for her pet long-haired terrier, which she (was caressing between her tears; “He will always remind me of your England,” the Princess remarked to me, “for he is English born and bred.” She was nursing her pet when the train, which took her from London, steamed tout of the railway station

AMERICAN SHOPPERS.

By no one is Royal patronage more keenly sought after than by the proprietors of antique shops, both in London and in the Provinces. The explanation is not far to seek. When a paragraph gets into the newspapers that the Queen has visited certain premises and made purchases in which she was interested, the. establishment obtains a certain cachet, whether it happens to he situated in Bond Street, in the Isle of Wight or in Princes Street, Edinburgh. The Americans especially love to follow in the footsteps of Royalty. But thcii visits are sometimes disappointing. The proprietor of one of these antique shops was telling me of his own experience. The day after Queen Mary visited his premises two magnificent limousine cars drove up to his door. Half-a-dozen Americans trooped ir.tc hi?, shop and went into rhapsodies about everything they saw. Priceless bits of old china, and bric-a-brac of different kinds were shown to them, and the. visitors were most anxious to hear all. the details about the Queen's recent visit'. When they left, after spending the best part of an hour in the shop, they took away with them a couple of trifles, the totzjl cost of which was 5s fid.

NEW PYJAMA LAND.

St. Juan Les Pins seems to have had all the other resorts badly beaten during the Riviera summer season now drawing to a. close. It has been brighter and gayer than Cannes, less expensive than Biarritz, and has drawn crowds of well-known propio to the Cotes d’Azur. 1 am afraid the pictures which have appeared in the illustrated newspapers of the wonderful pyjama effects to bo Been both on the bench and even in tlm Casino convey rather, a. hectic ■and wholly mislciidiiig idea of what life nt. St. Jinin l.es Pins really is. As a matter of fuel, the heat is so excessive that everyone wears pyjamas from early morning till Into at night. It is really the. only form of dress that makes life bearable on the Mediterranean at this tjino of the year. Many visitors this

summer have actually taken a. pile of cushions with them down on to the sands and slept out in the open all tl.uough the night. The same dress is more or less de rigueur even when a game of baccarat is in progress. Women wear pyjamas and the men the “evening dress” of the tropics—white trousers, U-ith white shirts open at the neck.

HIGH STAKES AT THE TABLES.

It is a fact, I hear, that some very high play has taken place at the tables. On one occasion a well-known young British officer put in with his (yachting party, and lost £7,000 before he left at the end of the evening. As, at one time, he was playing for stakes of 200,000 francs a. time it would not take him long to lose this amount —small fortune though it was. Happily he is a millionaire and could afford it; but there was a suspicion that some of the gamblers were risking far more than they could afford to lose. Two or three years ago St. Juan Les Pins was a, deplorable place with new buildings springing up in every direction. It has settled down now’ as one of the most popular places on the Mediterranean, with well-made streets which no longer shake you to death as you speed along in a car. But the night is still made a little raucous by the tooting of motor horn*, and it is not a place to recommend -or a rest-cure.

UNTITLED PEERESS.

Mrs. Svdney Webb, as she prefers to be is, I am told, experiencing a good deal of inconvenience from tier insistence not to assume the title w ic.i is her due now that her husband has been raised to the peerage. M hilst staying with the Governor-General and Mi . McNeill at the Vice-regal Lodge in Dublin, evervone insisted on calling hei ■ a > Passfield. “Lord Passfield and Mrs. Svdney Webb” are a. most devoted couple' and they go about a. great deal together in virtue of their public duties. Even in these advanced days it is sometimes a little embarrassing for-a husband and his wife to go about together under different names. There are still a number of unsophisticated people up and down the country who have not heard of the idiosyncracies of Mrs. Sydney Webb where titles arg concwned.

GOLDEN WEDDING SURPRISE.-

Anyone who knows anything about Press photography knows how keen people are at a wedding to get a Press photograph of the occasion' to carry away with them as a memento. Some Press photographers seem to make their living out of this sori of thing. They’ take a photograph of the brid< and* bridegroorp leaving the church, dash away to develop it, and in a few min utes are back offering the prints for sale at the wedding reception. Some brides, however, have hit upon a means Of . obtaining a more complete record of the happy day.. They arrange for pne of the film firms to take a “movie oi the whole scene. At Miss Monica bansburv’s wedding this month the film is to lie actually shown at the wedding reception before the guests depart. .The main object is, of course, to obtain a record which will endure for all time. Fifty vears hence some of the brides and* bridegrooms of to-day may be showing one of these, films to guests at