A MAID 1N MAVFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 14

A MAID 1N MAVFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOW. THE KING’S JOURNEY. (From Our Lady Correspondent.) London, September 29. When the King and Queen travel from Ballater to London the journey is made by the famous old train built specially for royal travel during King Edward’s ■reign. It is the same train’ that King George was in the habit of using when he made his tours of the industrial areas during the war. The King and Queen dine on the train shortly after leaving Ballater, the meal being cooked by the company’s staff though the actual attendance is done by the royal servants. A few guests and members of the suite usually travel on the train, and everyone turns into bed just as soon as they get tired of a round of -bridge. Tea and biscuits are served to everyone who requires them in the early morning, but as a rule'the King and Queen do not breakfast until they reach the Palace. The train is fitted with wireless receiving sets and it is noticed that the King almost invariably, listens to the news bulletin. PRINCE MICHAEL’S STAY. Little Prince Michael of Roumania is expected to prolong his stay in London. He will probably leave some time in the centre of next week, and though his plans are not. finally settled, it is very likely he will make a short stay in Italy before returning to Roumania. The Prince is staying at an hotel in St. James’‘•place, which has always been

jiiiiiiuiiiHtittiiHiiiiiiiiiuiiiinitiiHtriiffMiitiiioiiiiHHniiin* popular with members of the Roumanian Royal Family. It is one of those quiet, aristocratic little hotels which always make , an appeal to royalists travelling incognito. Prince Michael has been industriously doing the sights during his stay in London. He has. visited nearly all the museums, has done several theatres, and, in a schoolboyish way, is having a thoroughly good ti^ie. ; , A HUNTING LOSS. A very picturesque figure will disappear from the hunting field consequent on Lord Beatty’s decision to sell his horses and ‘presumably close down his hunting boxes, at Market Har borough and Melton. His decision is largely ascribed to. the recent death of his wife. Whatever the cause he will be missed for he has always been a keen horseman. Lord Beatty has always been a very brilliant figure in Society with splendid means to support it. He has a fine place at Reigate and another in Regent’s Park. He hunted the fox habitually, belongs to all the best clubs, including the Athenaeum arid the Turf, and looks as superb on . ceremonial and State occasions as he does in the saddle. A greater personal contrast to Jellicoe would be difficult to imagine; but it takes all sorts to make up this little world. FILM FIRST NIGHTS Who would have imagined a few years ago that'all London Society would crowd to attend a “first night”—at a cinema! That miracle is happening now whenever there is a really big “release.” Patrons of “the legitimate” are a trifle contemptuous, but, after all, some of these films have cost five and ten times as much money to produce as Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree or Sir Henry Irving ever dreamt of putting into the most lavish of their Shakespearean revivals. At the first night of “Grand Hotel”, everybody was there. There was. actually an applauding mob outside to acclaim the arrival of distinguished film stars. By way of additional innovation, everyone had to sign his name in the foyer, with no less a person than Mr. Leslie Henson acting in the role of hotel clerk. AIR TRAVEL. ' ' More and more people are travelling by air. That much is demonstrated by the figures issued by the Imperial Airways for the past twelve months. Receipts have gone up by nearly one-third, and that despite the restrictions on travel imposed on most of us by the urge for economy. The traffic between London and Paris, however, is increasing by leaps and bounds. It is quite a common thing to meet women at restaurants in the evening who tell you they have just come back from a day’s shopping in the French capital. They start off immediately after breakfast, spend a few hours at their favourite shops, and are bacK in London in time to change for dinner. MOONLIGHT BATHING. With the passing of the warm weather one set of young people in Mayfair have been robbed of their favourite diversion. On fine moonlight nights nothing delighted them more than to jump into a car, speed down to the coast, and have i a moonlight dip in the sea—all between I the interval of rising from dinner and going to bed at midnight. They changed their clothes in their own cars and contrived to spend half an hour in the water i and be back in London in the space of three or four hours. Even this achieve-

ment is beaten by a certain group of Bright Young Things. They motor out to Croydon in the early evening, hop across the Channel by aeroplane to Le Touquet, and are back in Town by the small hours of the morning. GRANDMAMA’S GESTURE. A lady of 75, who had never been up in an aeroplane in her life, and who cheerfully flies from London to Clacton for a seaside holiday, strikes me as

being rather wonderful. This is what the mother of a Fleet-street friend has 1 just lately done, and her son, who was 2 also making his first flight, tells me f the old lady went without a single 3 tremor. What mainly inspired her, how- ’ ever, I gather, was a desire to take the 1 wind out of the sails of young grand--5 children who accuse her of being “old1 fashioned.” By rail from London to ’ Clacton takes two hours and costs 9s. ! By road it takes longer and costs 6s 6d. " By air it costs 12s. 6d. and takes exactly L half-an-hour from landing to landing. 2 My. friend hired a plane from the North ‘ London aerodrome which lets out fourf seaters at Is. a mile for a full party, 1 or less than the London taxi rate. > t TU QUOQUE. t • The masculine gibe about women’s • habit of travelling about with an im- ’ mense amount of impedimenta is prob- ’ ably as old as the now almost extinct mother-in-law joke. Some of the sting has been taken out of it in latter years by the Spartan economy practised among modern women in the matter of under3 clothes, and presumably the up-to-date • female hiker ought eventually to kill it 5 entirely. But' the most . extravagant 3 daughter of Eve, who still journeys with r stacks of suit cases and hat boxes, may r take heart of grace. A woman joumal- : ist assures me that, when it comes to • mountainous luggage, the male diplomat 1 eclipses anything even the. Victorian dame dreamt of. This lady witnessed, she tells me, the embarkation for Geneva of the luggage required by our disarmament delegation. It took an outsize in pantechnicons to contain all the boxes, cases, and hold-alls. Her deduction is that either we are sending too many diplomatic cooks to Geneva, or they anticipate being an intolerably long time abolishing war. ?' GOLF IN SWEDEN. The Prince of Wales has already been out on the golf links at Copenhagen, where the links, of course, are not up to the English standard, but are quite interesting in a spotting way. He is expecting to get more play in Sweden where the game is coming on very rapidly. Quite recently an English team of lady golfers, captained by Miss Molly Gourlay, paid a visit to Stockholm in order to play exhibition matches, and participate in the Sweden Ladies Golf Champion--1 ship. Their visit has given a fillip to the I interest the monied classes take in the game. For golf in Sweden is rather an expensive business. You get the services of a caddie for an amazingly small sum, and each youth comes smartly to salute when you hand him a tip. But club subscriptions and other expenses are heavy. There are four courses in and about Stockholm, the most lovely one being on the Island of i Lidingo about half-an-hour’s run by car . from the British Legation. FEELING THE DRAUGHT. It is not alone the men’s clubs that are experiencing a ,bad time in the West End of London. The women’s clubs have also been hard hit by the financial blizzard and two of them have decided to amalgamate and join forces under one roof. The decision has occasioned surprise in some quarters because there was an impression that women’s clubs were not feeling the draught very seriously. But there has been a serious drop in membership in some instances, and the clubs have only survived because they have never been dependent on the sale of wines and spirits and are conducted accordingly. Women do not drink wine to any extent when they take meals at their own club. But they must have cocktails! The consumption of these tends to increase rather than diminish—very much to the advantage of the club’s balance sheet. ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. Has there ever been quite such a romance as that of the age-old peas that were discovered in Tutankhamen’s tomb? They must be at last three thousand years old, for they were placed in the tomb nearly one thousand years before Christ. Yet it appears they are now blooming in a little .garden on the south coast of Sweden. Some of them were secured by the Danish professor who assisted in the excavation of the tomb, and they were planted in 1930. The first crop was not very satisfactory, but a Swedish farmer obtained some of the seeds, planted them in his own garden at Ronneby, and this summer they threw up stalks as high as his head, with clusters of red and whit? flowers. The wonder of it excels even the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. POWDER AND PATCHES. A Parisian elegante has set a charming new-old fashion, which promises to become the rage in Society. She loves the long and clinging Princess gown, and is devoted to black and rich winecoloured velvets. A slight sprinkling of powder over her beautifully-dressed hair would, she thought, Improve the general effect of her get-up. It did! So she went and set a small black patch on her chin and another on her cheek. The result was so fascinating that other women in her “set” followed her lead. Now there is quite a boom in powder and patches. The patch, by the way, is supposed to have originated with a young nun who was cursed with a bad complexion. One day she stuck a scrap of black plaster over the worst of her spots and she didn’t look like a nun any more. The story df the patch spread outside the convent, women of the world tried the expedient, and, from being merely a means to cover a blemish, the patch soon became a first-aid to beauty. THE YO-YO DANCE. Before the winter is over the Yo-Yo ; dapce will doubtlessly make its appear- • lance in London; but it Is extremely j I doubtful if it will “catch on” in the . ballroom. The modem Society Eve , would doubtless be only too pleased to < capture the infinite grace of some of the little gamins who pirouette on the pavement, and assume poses of classic beauty as they swing their bobbins in t

the street. But the Yo-Yo dance, as introduced in Paris, is a very elaborate affair, and calls for a vast amount of practice. So the Yo-Yo dance is not likely to capture the town. The modern Miss likes a new dance, the steps of which can be learnt in half-an-hour. BRIMS FOR FLAPPERS. Judging by the latest models displayed in the leading West End modistes establishments, feminine hats are now going to have brims again. Out of scores of models I saw at one big shop the other day, two only were without these adjuncts. A feature of the winter hat models is the way in which mackiii- | tosh or waterproof materials are utilised under ingenious camouflage. All manner of shades are supplied in this serviceable ' wet-weather material, and one might deduce, from the extent of this innovation, that modistes have been consulting the Meteorological Office, and received the most pessimistic reports about the kind of winter we must expect this year. It also looks as though we might, in the near future, have in hats something of the same warfare that was waged between long and short skirts. The small brims now being given to women’s hats are merely tentative ventures, the ultimate ambition of the designers, I hear, being to popularise cartwheel hats again. ' WOMEN’S GOLF. Some -of the competitors in the Women’s Championship at Ashdown Forest are expressing the hope that the date of this annual event may be altered next year. There seems no reason whatever why the fixture should take, place at the end of September. When the arrangement was originally made the L.G.U. were probably influenced by the fear that if an earlier date were selected many competitors would be away on holiday. This objection would be met if the championship were held some time

during the month of July and this would prevent the “clash” with the American Women’s championship. As it is our interest at the moment is divided between the fortunes of Miss Wanda Morgan and Miss Diana Fishwick at Ashdown Forest and the fortunes of Miss Enid Wilson in the United States. But for the clashing of ’ dates it is. probable that Miss Enid Wilson would not be the lone challenger on , the other side. And even Miss Enid Wilson is threatening to give up championship golf if she brings back the American title—as she well may do now that long-hitting Helen Hicks has surprisingly failed to qualify. “EGG-DIET” HINTS. If you have to tend a convalescent who has been put on “egg and diet, you may find these hints helpful, from the point of view of digestibility. A couple of raw eggs ’take about two and a-quarter hours to digest. Lightly boiled or scrambled, they will be digested in half an hour less. At the same time, raw eggs are less irritating than any cooked ones, so. they are recommended more'frequently. Two poached eggs are digested in about two and a-half hours. A twoegg omelette takes half an hour longer, so do two hard-boiled eggs. If chopped finely, hard-boiled eggs digest as easily as soft-boiled, though they take longer.. These are useful facts to remember in planning meals, so that the patient may have a chance of digesting food in between times of sleep. CHOCOLATE TARTLETS. Ingredients: About Jib. flaky, pastry, 2 teaspoonsful cocoa, 2Joz. castor sugar, loz. margarine, 3oz. ground almonds, vanilla flavouring, 1 egg, jam. Method: Roll out the pastry thinly, cut into rounds, and line some tartlet tins. Put a little jam in the bottom of each. Beat the sugar and fat to a cream. Add the egg, stir it inquickly, and beat the mixture for a few minutes. Mix the cocoa and ground almonds together and stir in, with a few drops of vanilla. Put into the prepared tins, and about three parts fill them. Place on a bak-ing-sheet and bake in a hot oven for about 15 to 20 minutes. Leave on a sieve until cold, then dust with sieved castor' sugar.