A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1931, Page 11

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. AT THE PLAY (From Our Lady Correspondent.) London, November 20. There has rarely been a “Little Season” so crowded and animated as that we are experiencing this autumn. Even the weather seems to have conspired to make it a success, for London has enjoyed more sunshine probably during the opening fortnight of November than this month of fogs has ever given us before. Even a visit to the theatre gives something to talk about, for if you visit any of the popular plays you find yourself mingling in the stalls with Dominion Prime Ministers and Maharajahs and Maharanees, bent on seeing the sights of London in the intervals of the serious business of the Indian Conference. The Queen of Spain is also working steadily through a list of all the principal plays. Queen Victoria Eugenie is very catholic in her tastes and sees everything. But it is noticed that when she goes to an "advanced” play she rarely has her daughters withher. On other occasions she is invariably accompanied by the Infantas. Daughters in Spain, it would seem, are somewhat less sophisticated than flappers in England. THE WESTERN INFLUENCE. Our Indian women visitors, even more than the men, seem to be very susceptible to Western influences. This is especially noticeable in their dress, for, although they wear their own beautiful and graceful saris, they have adopted many little European touches ..Inch are almost incongruous with their picturesque Indian attire. I saw a smart buttonhole of silk flowers, for instance, I •imtuiiHit it mi ih uni ii» him »»n i ini

pinned to the corsage folds of a sari. Nearly all the women, too, wear the most beautiful of Parisian shoes, generally in an artistic colour, and for evening wear in gold and silver. It was a little saddening, really, to see one of the most beautiful of these dark-skin-ned women so proud, at an evening reception recently, of her sari made of velvet-embossed chiffon, which obviously belonged to the West. Their Eastern materials are so exquisite—the handembroidered muslins, the delicate gauzes and the rich soft silks—that it seems a pity they should substitute, for them these more sophisticated fabrics of European character. BABY BETTY’S BIOGRAPHY. It is, I think, a matter of congratulation to readers in general, and to babies in particular, that it is not usual to writ® a biography of a little lady before she arrives at the age of five. This, however, is the fortune or misfortune of Princess Elizabeth, the story of whose “life” is told, with the sanction of her parents, by Anne Ring, formerly attached'to the Duchess of, York’s household. This book, published this week by John Murray, is delightfully illustrated with photographs, for it seems that the little Princess was then "snapped” regularly once a month when the parents were absent from home and wanted to know how she ■was progressing. But the letterpress leaves one a little bored. It is not easy to fill 125 pages with infantile doings. It is true that the young lady once fell down stairs, but this exciting incident is slurred over in a few lines as scarcely worth recording. The impression you get from the book is that Princess Elizabeth irs a perfectly normal healthy child, who has really not done anything to deserve that a book should be written about her before she has learnt her A.B.C. THE SPANISH (PRINCESSES. Princess Ingrid of Sweden has the reputation of being one of the most simple and"unaffected of our younger European Royalties. But I think I have never met two more friendly, charming girls than the Spanish Infantas, Beatriz and Maria Cristina, who are having a pleasant time

in London just now. They were at a sale of work with Princess Beatrice, their grandmother, one day last week, and it was most interesting to watch them and listen to their artless conversation. In between serving their custo-. [mers. they chattered away to “Grannie”, as they called her, quite openly, no matter who was at the stall, and eeemed to be telling her all their experiences at the dances and parties they have been to lately. Princess Beatrice listened with a smile, putting in a .word now and again, but seeming content to just sit and watch them. They are fascinating girls, and their slightly Southern accent is most attractive. They often relapse into little Spanish phrases and odd words while they are talking in English., 'LADY BYNG OF VIMY. I was very glad to hear from Lady Byng of Vimy that Lord Byng is really very much stronger, and that they are off to the South of France only because a recent cold has left him with a troublesome cough. Both of them are delighted at' the idea of doing the journey by road. In a senee it is rather an adventure, for the chauffeur they are taking has never motored to the Riviera before and they are going to depend on a young friend of Lady Byng’s, who will travel with them and “keep the driver right.” Lady Byng is a charming woman —'broad-minded, full of interesting and amusing stories, and very handsome. Her house in Bryanston Square is full now of the beautiful treasures she inherited, with a fortune, from her uncle some time ago. But although there is a policeman always on duty outside Lord Byng’s house, Lady Byng does not intend to run the risk of losing the priceless things to burglars. “Those I treasure most,” she told me, “have gone to the bank for safe keeping/’ THE POPE IN IRELAND. Dublin Society, I hear, entertains the lively hope that ere long the Pope will pay a visit to the capital of the Free State. No doubt such a visit would be highly popular amongst the Irish Roman Catholics, though it is difficult to imagine anything more calculated to occasion restlessness, not only in many parts of Ireland itself, but in London as well. Such advices as one hears from Rome, moreover, do not afford much encouragement to this Irish rumour; on the contrary, it is being constantly and authoritatively stated that the Pope’s health does not permit him to entertain the idea of any long journey, either by land or by sea. For hie Holiness to travel from Rome to Dublin would, moreover, occasion many difficulties, diplomatic and otherwise, unless a special vessel were chartered to take him all the way 'by sea. COLOURED DINNER JACKETS. Although I have not yet met any coloured velvet dinner jackets for men "in the life,” it is a fact,' I believe, that are now considered the thing in Savile Row and elsewhere in St. James.’ Mr. Ford once declared that motorists could have their cars any colour they liked—so long as it was black. Of these dinner jackets it might almost be said that you can have them in any colour youlike so long as it isn’t black. They are intended, of course, for home wear rather than for formal occasions. They are cut rather more loosely than the ordinary dinner jacket, and the colours most favoured are those which our forebears wore a hundred years or so ago. Whether the idea will catch on remains to be seen. If the Prince of Wales takes it up it is sure to have a generous following, and the Prince has never displayed any inherent prejudice against bright colours. DOMESTIC SERV'TOE. The efforts which certain women in the Labour movement are making to popularise domestic service will earn the commendation of every housewife. The problem, however, is one which has baffled us for too long for it to be swept aside as 'by a fairy wand. An elaborate questionnaire is 'being sent out to social workers making pertinent enquiries both as to the cause and as to the remedy for the unpopularity of domestic service. It will astonish many people to leara that, much as the work is disliked, there are still more than a million domestic workers in the country. The work employs more women than there are men in the mines, and nearly twice as many women as are at work in the textile trades. It seems to be thought by the reformers that there is something in the conditions of the work which renders it so unpalatable to young girls. There is much reason to fear, however, that the root cause lies deeper than this. It is work which is commonly felt to constitute ‘ loss of social status — a, feeling probably not unconnected with the fact that in ancient times household tasks were always relegated to slaves. THE ELECTRIC FLAT. An electric toaster that puts itself out the moment one’s toast is deliciously crisp, a fan that will blow either hot or cold just as one needs, and a hairdryer in the bathroom—these are a few of the devices that are making bachelor girls long for an electric flat like the one at their exhibition in the New Horticultural Hall. (Built-in wardrobes, sideboards and cupboards of every kind, and cunning lighting arrangements, combined with charming colour schemes, help to make the flat so cosy a home that it would 'be a positive wrench for any business girl to tear herself out of it for her morning rush to work. Having been designed by a woman, Miss Edna Moseley, women’s needs and fancies have been understood and planned for in it—the kitchen alone is a housewife’s ideal —with satisfying results. THE YOUNGER GENERATION. Mothers and daughters in Mayfair who have their separate social lives do not always see eye to eye on every subject. This probably explains why a number of smart young women have set up their own small establishments in the last year or two. The Dowager Lady Swaythling was telling me yesterday that she got over the difficulty of I “fitting in” with her daughter, the Hon. Joyce Montagu, by .giving her her own suite of rooms in their house, her own maid, telephone and car. Miss Montagu lives a very busy life, giving up much of her time to social service, and Lady Swaythling is on probably more

committees than any woman in public life. Their interests are entirely different, but they live in the same house, and as her daughter is only twenty-one, Lady Swaythling feels that she is letting’ her live her own life and yet having her at. home with her. 'PROVERB PARTIES. London is suffering at the moment from an epidemic of what the despairing debutante calls “clever parties.” These are parties at which the host and hostess ruthlessly produce pencils and paper, and their guests are required to go through tests of intelligence that are often embarrassingly revealing. Young -women, who had trustingly believed that a svelte appearance was the sole passport to success, are asked to produce impromptu doggerel, or to compose elaborate literary jokes. One of the most popular of these after-dinner games requires each guest to create a new proverb by murdering an old one. At a party this week the prize was awarded to a member of a wellknown literary family, who evolved the profound apothegm: ‘‘A bee and his bonnet are soon parted.” THE MONKEY CLUB. Perhaps the most exclusive feminine club in London is the Monkey Club, which has premises in the heart of Mayfair and a membership of only 59. All the members are young society girls under the leadership of the Hon. Griselda Joynson-Hicks, Lord Brentford’s daughter, and the proceedings are serious rather than frivolous. Everything is discussed from Greek philosophy to cooking, and some remarkably highbrow plays are occasionally produced. The Hon. Mrs. C. Fremantle, whose recent marriage was the event of the autumn season, is an active member, and gave her wedding reception at the club. TO RUSSIA AGAIN. ' Lady Muriel Paget, who has probably travelled more in Russia than any Englishwoman of her time, is again on her way to that country, to help elderly and needy English people resident there.

for whom a hostel is to be built. Lady Muriel is greatly interested in nursing and holds Russian and Rumanian Orders, of which one is of the Russian Red Cross. A cousin of Lord Winchelsea, she is the wife of Sir Richard Paget, the specialist in town planning, and has a family of three daughters and a son in his teens. Her youngest girl, now Mrs. Debenham, has artistic talent; she designed the wonderful wedding of her sister, Lady Glenconnor, in 1925, and three years later set the fashion at her own of wearing green in defiance of wedding superstition. Lady Muriel’s gift seems to be for organisation, andduring her work in Russia she has faced hardships and risks with courageous patience. SPECIALISTS IN SPORT. Our frequent reverses in the sporting championships of the world threaten to have one rather deplorable conse- ' quence. All our sportsmen and sportswomen are being urged nowadays to devote themselves to one game and to one game only, whether it be golf or lawn tennis, cricket or athletics. No doubt some such concentration is almost essential if the player wants to secure the highest any game or form of sport. The career of Mlle. Suzanne Lenglen emphasised this very-strongly. Nevertheless,' we are all rather proud of our all-round sportsmen and sportswoman. Miss Joyce Wethered is still the finest woman golfer in the world, despite the fact that she spends much of her time at lawn tennis and fishing; whilst Mrs. L. G. Owen, whose name appears in the ranking list of the Lawn Tennis Association, is not only magnifi-