A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1932, Page 14

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. “THE MUSHROOM FIELD.” (From Our Lady Correspondent.) London, Jan. 28. Miss Mabel L. Tyrrell, whose oddlynamed book, “The Mushroom Field, is exciting something more than passing attention in literary circles was, 1 believe, one of the first women ever to fly in an aeroplane. She saw Farman make his first flight along a given course between two poles erected in a field. She recalls, too, that when Latham flew his monoplane, Antoinette, the spectators were so delirious with delight that they broke the windows in the train which carried them back to Paris. When Miss Tyrrell made her first flight in a Farman biplane, with a fe rless pilot who had just broken both his legs, she was cramped into a sort of box, wholly unprotected from ‘vind or rain, with nothing whatever to prevent her from falling out if she leaned over too far. There were straps of course, but, disliking the feel of them, she always undid them when they reached the tree-tops. She describes the planes of those days as looking like a bundle of sticks, pram wheels and canvas. And that was only twenty years ago.

ABYSSINIAN GUESTS. There seems to be some conflict of fact about Princess Tanagre, the elder and married sister of the Crown. Prince of Abyssinia, recently on a visit her© with her brother. It is stated that she speaks no English, but I understood she had been for some time at a school in this country. She i 8 > however, a very charming Princess, anxious to please and to like everything. I he Abyssinian visitors put up at one of the most luxurious West End hotels, but the hotel staff discovered, to their astonishment, that very few « the Ethiopians sleep in their beds. Though these are marvels of somnolent ease, they prefer to couch on the floor, well wrapped up in blankets and eiderdowns. But I know at least one ex-service fuend •who has the same penchant, contracted during his campaigning days. PALACE PHONES. When the Court returns to London, just before the opening of the new Parliamentary session, King George and other members of the Royal Family will find a change has been carried out at Buckingham palace during their absence at Sandringham. The new automatic telephones have been installed all through the Palace. I imagine the innovation will not. be very popular at first. Not only do automatic telephones take a goo' 1 deal of knowing, but it is an entire mistake to imagine that, even when you dock it correctly, ypu will necessarily get the right number when you lift the receiver. You are still at the mercy of the “Hello” girls at the exchange. It is a popular supposition that, when Queen Mary or the Prince of Wales wants to get someone on the telephone someone in attendance gets the required number. A friend of mine in the country, who lives in the near vicinity if one of the Royal Princesses, has been frequently surprised when her telephone rang, to find she has been called up either by the Prince or by Queen Mary. They announce thennames immediately, and seem quite unruffled when they find they have once more got the wrong number. YOUTHFUL “DEBS.” • If the London society gossips could be credited, all the prospective debutantes for the 1932 Courts are at present earnestly engaged either at slimming exercises or in practising the famous curtsey which is such a transient incident of a presentation. That. a good deal of trouble is taken to acquire the correct deportment for the occasion cannot be challenged, but the talk about slimming must be taken, more or less, with the proverbial grain of salt. The most interesting thing about the coining Courts is the extreme youth ot many of the “debs.” Some of them are literally of the school girl age. Lady Pamela Smith, who hopes to be piesented, with her bosom friend, Miss’, Penelope Dudley Ward, is a case in point. She is only just over 17. Like her sister, I hear, she shows a disposition to take up writing as a career. As a school girl she was almost idolised by her father, the late Lord Birkenhead. . , ON THE RIVIERA. • A friend in close topch with things on the Riviera tells me it is a mistake to describe the place as literally deserted. At Nice in particular hotels are fairly well filled, and though there is a marked absence of English and American visitors, a great number of French people have been attracted by the lower prices now ruling. On the Italian Riviera, too,-San Remo, Rapallo, Portofino, and other beauty spots along the coaSt are attracting as usual a substantial number of German visitors. The villas also are fairly well tenanted. English people dislike the idea of let' ting them, and, since they have them >n their hands, feel they may as well use them. But they are not dining out at the local hotels or frequenting the tables at Monte Carlo to anything like the usual extent. They have gone to the Riviera in search of sunshine, but are spending less money. LUCKY DODIE. Dodie Smith, authoress of “Autumn Crocus,” which is going to the Savoy next week, will consider herself luckier” than ever at the continued mn of her play. For Dodie is a modest little lady, and her invariable reply to congratulations is: “Yes, I’ve been very lucky.” Small, slim, with hair bobbed like a mediaeval page’s, she has a way with her in after-dinner speech-making. She just stands up, smiles all round rather appealingly, and proceeds to chat as quietly as though she were discussing domestic problems over the teacups. I remember Ik? telling me of the time when, attired in “hiking” kP, she tramped into a big Continental city, fell in love with a French hat, and bought it. But the hat was too precious to pack into her kit-bag. So she wore it —and arrived home in kneelength skirt, jumper, good strong boots, with a knapsack over her shoulder and a Paris creation on her head. “OLD MAC.” The retirement of “Old Mac ’ —or Macintosh, to give him his full name from the post of library steward on the Aquitauia will excite regret in the minds of many travellers. “Old Mac” with those who travelled frequently across the Atlantic, was almost a national institution.. No one ever accused him of loquaciousness, but in some mysterious way he knew the literary tastes of every actress and film star ot . land and America. You never saw him read, and yet he was extremely well read. He belongs to that rapidly dwindling class of ship stewards who used to attract passengers to particular boats just as famous skippers still do on certain liners. I knew one old skipper who was asked, as a special favour, to give up his own cabin to Sarah Bern-

hardt. The old gentleman gave a reluctant assent, not because he lacked gallantry, but because he had an oldfashioned dislike to all “actress, women.” He yielded on condition that there were “no men hanging about.” Poor Sarah Bernhardt! She was then a very old woman, and had a wooden leg. THAT SCHOOL-BOY GRIN. Prince George has made himself very popular while he has been in Scotland. His unassuming geniality has caused, the hard-headed Scottish business men to take him to their hearts at once, and the Prince’s “schoolboy griu” has made him a prime favourite amongst the Scottish lassies. When he visited, the “Pals’ Clubs,” which Sir John Anthony started for unemployed lads of the Glasgow street corners, the Prince joined in the community singing with the best of them. He was unfeignedly interested, also, in the story of Carron works,- where the workers nowadays are much more occupied iu turning out plough-shares than swords. It was these Carron works ■which turned out most of the cannon for Wellington in the struggle against Napoleon. Nowadays they manufacture gas stoves and kitchen sinks instead. The Prince has shown himself extraordinarily keen to learn all there is to learn about the industrial areas of Scotland. But he asks for information outright. He does not disguise ignorance under a cloud of vapid comments. LINK WITH THE GEORGES. It sounds well-night incredible that there should be living in post-war years a lady whose husband was born when George HI. was on the throne. Yet this was true until a few days ago, when Mrs. Fleming Crooks, usually known as Edith Lady Playfair, passed away at a great age at Twickenham. She was, the third wife of the distinguished Victorian scientist, Lyon Playfair, who was given a peerage. Lord Playfair was 60 at the time of his third wedding, and his widow has survived till the 22nd year of the reign of, George V., thus, linking up five reigns within two intimate lifetimes. Her late husband was actually born before Queen Victoria arrived on the scene at all—truly an amazing historical retrospect. ' UP TO DATE. . I am told that several M.’sP. in the present House of Commons are in the habit regularly of travelling. from their constituencies to London by air. Amongst them is Mr. W. L. Everard, the Leicesteishire M.P., whose private plane is piloted by no less famous an airwoman than Miss Spooner. Undaunted by her narrow escape when she was picked up from the Atlantic after a mishap that might have ended her career in tragedy, Miss Winifred Spooner is now an air chauffeuse. Her brother, Captain Frank Spooner,, by the way, is to marry in the spring, his bride being charming Miss Iris Ford, daughter of the famous blotting paper magnate. 1 do not know whether she is keen on flying, like her future sister-in-law, but she is a real Di Vernon of the Belvoir and Quorn, and horses are her pet hobby. HUNT BALL HOAX. Society is still chuckling over the little joke' played at last week’s hunt dance, at which the charming hostess, Mrs. Cecil Wills, dressed up 'as her own housemaid in most demure fashion and, assisted by her solemn-visaged butler and footmen, served the guests behind the supper buffet. Nobody penetrated the disguise, even when the dainty little housemaid walked through the ballroom with refreshments for the band. I wonder if we shall have an extension of this merry hoax, and find our Mayfair host masquerading as his own butler in. charge of the cocktail department? It might be extremely awkward if one did not perceive the ruse and allowed some candid criticism to escape one about the bouquet of the vintages or the potency of the shaker mixtures. PIRATES IN PETTICOATS. Paris lias decided that the fashion pirates who steal models at the dress shows shall be made to walk the plank. None can question that the great houses in the Rue de la Paix have a very real grievance. Not only are their ideas stolen and exploited abroad, but there is actually quite a big traffic in faked dress labels, which are sent to America and affixed in due course to pirated models. To stop this mean kind of fraud a close watch will be kept in future on people who attend dress shows. Some are bona fide fashion journalists, others are there as potential buyers. The pirates, of course, are to be looked for amongst the latter , class. If they attend a show and make no purchase they will be required to pay a fee of 2500 francs when next they, present themselves for admission. This fee will be forfeited if for the second time they make no purchase of models. JVhether

these precautions will succeed remains to be seefi. The pirates are very clever people. At one time, they made rough sketches of the particular model that appealed to them. Nowadays they carry everything in their heads, and turn out reproductions which would almost de J ceive the original designers. CHIROPODISTS IN CLOVER. Despite the rather cruel comment of a certain noble marquis, that the adoption of the toeless sandal vogue by. a well-known sociel'y lady was. too reminiscent of Gandhi, the mode is becoming quite, a craze. Chiropodists’ salons were never so eagerly patronised. Feet are “made-up” with as much assiduity as faces. Toes visible beneath co.bweb-like silk stockings must be exercised, and massaged with skin-food, bleached with a special bleaching pack, and the nails trimmed according to the shape of the foot. As the typical Englishwoman’s foot is long and narrow, the life of those gossamer stockings seems to be rather jeopardised by long and narrow toenails. As a. finishing touch, the nails are lacquered a violent red or a. bright coral pink, and the varnish used is warranted not to come off in the process of the daily ablutions. ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

There is every prospect of a satisfactory response to' the appeal for exhibits, for the celebration next July, of the centenary of Lbwis Carroll’s birth. An extraordinary number of whimsical letters and amusing drawings sgems to have , been preserved, and the original manuscript of “Alice” , is still in existence, though it was sold by Mrs. Reginald Hargreaves, the original ■ Alice of the Wonderland book, for the big sum of £15,000 three or four years ago. The hope is expressed that the July celebration of the anniversary may follow on the lines of .those which took place in Copenhagen recently, when the Danes paid tribute to the memory of Hans Christian Anderson. At Copenhagen 100,000 children took part in the celebration, and there was a striking series of tableaux illustrating scenes from Hans. Anderson Fairy Tales. KEEPING THEM TURNED. I am told that round about Christmas florists and their assistants were work-

ihg literally night and day, planting, out hyacinths and other bulbs in the dainty ornamental bowls which prove such acceptable Yuletide presents for flower lovers. But the ignorance of the average Londoner on matters appertaining to floriculture is amazing. One florist sold a glorious bowl of tulips to a customer, who inquired anxiously about tending and watering the bulbs. He advised her, amongst other things to keep the bowl turned, so that any sunshine would be equally distributed, and so prevent,, the plants growing over towards the li<-ht. “Turn them round every second day,” was his final injunction. Unfortunately the lady took him too literally. She turned not the bowl, but the bulbs, returning in a month’s time with the acrid complaint that the "things won’t grow at all.”