A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1931, Page 13

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. RING OUT THE OLD. (From Our Lady Correspondent.) ■ London, January 1. Christmas is over and the New Year has dawned, and I am bound to say that everyone seems thoroughly glad, to speed the past and welcome the coming guest. ' Look at it as you may, 1930 was a black year. Even the Chrismas festivities, which we have all but half forgotten, were scarcely | any festivities at all. We all of us sought to emulate the Mark Tapley spirit, but for most of us Christmas seemed like an extra Sunday mysteriously compressed into the month. The big hotels made a gallant effort to be festive, and the usual stacks of holly and mistletoe made their appearance at Covent Garden. But there was far more genuine gaiety'at the Christmas “shows.” Every one seems to have a feeling that whatever 19.31 may have in store for us, it must be something better, and cannot be worse, than the annus miserable of 1930. THE DISAPPEARING WAITS. One thing to be noted about the past Yuletide was the gradual disappearance of many of our time-honoured customs and observances. There is no doubt that as the years roll on the climate, in the southern portion of our islands, at least, grows milder and milder, and to some extent may be responsible for changing customs. We actually read in our newspapers last week-end that on the south coast the weather was so warm and sunny that people were hayino- a dip in the sea. What wonder, in these circumstances, if our old friends the waits no longer entertain us by street renderings of “Good King Wencelas” and “Noel.” During the whole of Christmas week I heard not a single carol singer. The cynics suggest that the dole makes it no longer neceseaiy for them to collect pennies in the street. A more probable explanation, I think, is the fact that lor several evenings there was an excellent programme of Christmas carols broadcast bv the 8.8. C. Nevertheless I am old-fashioned enough to prefer the real thing—cracked and out-of-tune though it might be. HULLO AND GOOD-BYE. f No sooner has the Duke of Gloucester returned than the Prince of .Wales and Prince George are off for their tour in South America. The Duke comes back to a full programme of public v ork. Prince George has been undertaking a great many engagements lately, with the idea of relieving both the King and the Prince of Wales, an<l while he is away with his elder brother the extra duties will fall, to a large extent, upon the Duke of Gloucester. The Duke of York already lias a full diary in connection with various industrial interests, and Princess Mary will take on many purely social functions. The Queen herself also expects to take a share of the burden. The Prince of Wales, by. the way, has already made engagements for next summer- to be fulfilled on his return from his tour. THE CH APM OF THE CHEQUERS. People commiserated with the Prime Minister and his family because they could not spend Christmas at Lossiemouth. But why? Chequers is one of the loveliest spots in England at any time, and at Christmas it is the oldfashioned corner of the countryside at its very best. Trees, so marvellous recently in their russet, red and orange dress, may now be bare of leaves, but they still stand tall and dignified to outline the glorious Chilterns. Then there are Beacon Hill, wind-swept and open, for a morning’s tramp, and the park for a stroll after dinner. The house itself is as full of wonderful old memories and as beautiful as Lord and Lady Lee of Farcham could make it. There is more solitude at Chequers than Mr. MacDonald would have found even It Lossiemouth. The place is carefully shut off so that nobody win spy upon its . occupants, and there , is . a sense of peace about it all which is indescribable. ANOTHER JELLICOE DEBUTANTE. The fourth of Lord and Lady Jellieoe’s daughters, Lady Prudence Jellicoe, lias just arrived home from school in Paris, and is to be among the debutantes of the season. She will be going about with her mother during the next°few months prior to her presentar tibn in the Summer, and Lord and Lady Jellicoe will give a dance for her a little later on. She promises' to be as attractive a dancer as her elder sisters, and is looking forward very much to the gaieties of her first London season. Lord and Lafly Jellicoe are particularly delightful parents, as devoted to their girls as their girls are devoted to them. They do everything together, which is very charming in days when so many young folk seem to prefer to seek their pleasures apart from dheir parents. The whole family get a fair share of interesting foreign travel. MABEL LUCIE’S BABIES.

Mabel Lqcie Attwell, who has converted her basement into a studio and uses the kitchen upstairs to the mutual content both of herself and of her maid, takes the majority of her inimitable child -tudies fiirect from life. Her methods are as unconventional as those of the Ijite Phil May, who thought nothing of sitting for hours oh a high stool in a third-rate public house in Covent Garden Market in order that he might get the real market “types for his sketches. Mabel Lucie Attwell persuades all sorts of people, from clidrwomen upwards, to bring their babies to her studio, where they are free to disport themselves to their utmost bent. If the mood seizes her, she sketches them; if it does not, she plays with them. Her husband, who is also an artist of exceptional genius, suffered a blow wjiich would have crushed many men. He lost His . right arm in the war. Coming back from France, he attempted to draw with his left hand, and met with such success that the first sketch he made when he was crossing the Channel was duly accepted and published in one of the London journals.

“DEBS.” WHO DISAPPEAR. Mrs. Neville Chamberlain is sending her only daughter, Miss Dorothy Chamberlain, who came out two seasons ago, to Paris for some months. Her cousin, Diane, who is Sir Austen and Lady Chamberlain’s only girl, has also spent a great deal of time abroad, and the brothers are firmly of opinion that foreign travel and residence on the Continent is the finest education for young people. Neither of the girls has been a great deal in the public eye since her debut. Another “political” debutante of a season or two ago, Mies Diana Churchill, has also lived life very quietly since she was presented by her mother, Mrs. Winston Churchill. Sir | Arthur Steel Maitland’s girl, who came out about the same time, has likewise found her interest in things outside the social whirl. THE COST OF TRAVEL.

We are' not so used as the Americans to spending huge sums of money each year on travel alone. Our trips to the Continent, perhaps to Egypt, or to North Africa, are affairs, of weeks, and the money laid out on them is looked upon as a round sum for the year’s holiday. So it is a shock to some, of us to "find that many of the charming American women who come over to England have spent, for the voyage across alone, a matter of £5OO. This, of course, is for a luxury suite on the biggest trans-Atlantic steamers; but for a room and bath as much as £72 is quite frequently paid. During the last tew months, however, a great many luxury suites have been unoccupied on the journey to and from New York, and, from all accounts, they arc likely to be ; even less in demand this year. So the steamship companies . are making reductions in their prices, the £l5O berth having dropped to £l2O, and so on, in proportion. The American women who confided these figures to me, told me also that she has a passage booked on the Homeric for £49 10s. WINTER SPORTS HOLIDAYS. A great many merry parties left London last week-end for Switzerland. I find, however, that the enthusiastic skiers, who have no use for what they term' the social side of the winter sports holiday, are holding back for at least three weeks or a month. The actual Christmas period is a popular time for members of the teaching and kindred professions, who are more and more inclined to brace themselves up for the rest of the winter and the early spring by taking a Swiss holiday. The hotels, indeed, make a point of catering for them by arranging indoor gaieties, which incidentally use up much energy. The expert skier and skater and those who set out to break and create records, can do well without a social programme. When they arrive at St. Moritz and one of the other sports centres towards the end of January, they find not only an abundance of snow, but a more or less free field for their exploits. CHAPEL ROYAL CHORISTERS. I was interested to hear ove’r Christmas time that the Chapel Royal, St. James’, has a great many interesting little customs which are kept up with tii; utmost faithfulness by those associated with it. . ust as the .bojs of Westminster School have certain privi-. leges owing o. their connection with Westminster Abbey, so the boys anfi old boys of the choir of the Chapel Royal are entitled to be present at any Royal function held in London. Seats in a prominent position in the Abbey were reserved for them at the weddings of both Princess Mary and the Duchess of York, for instance, as well as for the wives of old boys who have married. Whenever a function at'which either the King or the Queen is to be present is being arranged, application is at once made for invitations for all those who wish to attend it. The number of old boy£ is not large, bub they keep in touch, with each other by means of a yearly reunion, at which the Precentor, Canon Percival, is always present. NINTH OF - A MILE. It must be rather heartbreaking to be dress designer to, some big West End theatrical success. He or she ■ dedicates ap infinity of imaginative genius and critical pains to “creating” the wonderfuf costumes for all the ladies in. the cast, and eventually reads in the firstnight critiques how beautiful the chorus wirls were, perhaps with a casual addendum that they also wore some pretty dresses. A supreme artist in silks and chiffons figures with about the same importance in the show as does the bridegroom at a fashionable wedding, and hardly even that. I am, impelled to this moralising by having inspected some of the sumptuous dresses that bouncing or slim young women from Lower Tooting wear in Drury Lane s “Song of the Drums.” One costume includes 172 yards of tulle. That makes the Scots Guards kilt of 10 yards look like a short cut. A DICKENS PARTY. Book parties are becoming popular in London again- ' Hostesses are sending out invitations to a “Dicken?” party, a “modern novel” party, and so on. The cards for them are appropriate to the function, those for the Dickens afternoon having tiny drawings of a place mentioned in one of the novels, tricked out with old English lettering, and a red ?eal. The ,?tip-Jlotion for acceptance is that the guest shall go drfessed as a favourite character, and people who have been invited to the Dicken? party are finding plenty of fun in preparing costumes which will fit the part of Betsy Trotwood, Little Dorrit, Sairey Gamp, and so on. The modern novel party does not provide so much picturesque interest, but It gives the intelligentsia scope for expressing itself in the character it admires most in recent literature. ■