Renewing Hats.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

Renewing Hats.

For white or light-coloured soft felts, petrol is the best cleaning agent to use. Rub the hat gently with petrol contain-, ing a little dissolved soap, using a pad of soft material or a soft-bristled nailbrush (states a correspondent). Rinse in clean petrol, press as much of the petrol out of the hat as possible with a piece of clean, dry flannel. Hang out-of-doors to dry. When quite dry, rub gently with a little French chalk, powdered calcined magnesia or ordinary plain household flour. Remove the powder with a soft brush or pad of material, when the hat will look like new.

Drab or fawn-coloured soft felts can be dry-cleaned with hot, dry powdered fuller’s earth. Rub the powder in with a soft pad of material, allow it to remain on the hat for some time, then brush thoroughly to remove all the loose powder and dust. If the hat is very dirty, the petrol method can be employed. Another method is to clean the felt with powdered pipe-clay (to match the colour of the hat if possible). Leave the powder on for few hours, then brush thoroughly. To clean a hard white felt, cover it with powdered calcined magnesia, leave for two or three hours, then rub with a soft white cloth or use a soft clean brush to remove the powder. For a coloured hard-felt, common salt can be used as a cleaning agent Island of Romance.

The island of Skye, where the Duke and Duchess of York recently spent a holiday, is the largest and most prosperous of the -xebrides, and the home of the MacLeods and the Macdonalds, the. present owner being Mr Reginald MacLeod, of MacLeod (states a London correspondent). A few years ago it became the centre of Harris crofters, who were encouraged to carry on their industry of weaving “Harris tweels” there. In another district, at Kilmuir, the “Highland Home Industries, Limited,” a philanthropic association, revived the industry a few years ago. The Duchess of York is patroness of the association.

The building as it is now seen is really two castles, which have been joined. The oldest part has external features of the 13th century, and internal work of the eleventh. In the second castle a door in the east wall opens in good medieval style by a spring, and exposes a narrow, winding stone stair by which the top of the building is reached. One of the rooms approached by it is the famous “Fairy Room,” to which a quaint legend is attached.

The legend says that a chief had married a fairy wife. But a fairy wife must return to her people after a definite period—in/this case it was 20 years. The summons home came to the wife at “The Fairy Bridge,” three miles north-west of the castle. As she flew away she dropped her silken robe, which the chief preserved. And that is “The Fairy Flag of Dunvegan.” The flag was to be used in crises of the family to summon fairy help, but it was to lose its power after the third call. Two calls have already been made —once in battle with the Macdonalds, and once to cure an eldest son of a deadly disease.

The “Fairy Flag” is kept in the dining room, in which are also a sideboard with the date 1603, Rory Mor’s horn, his gourd, and the “Dunvegan Cup.” Rory Mor was one of the great chiefs. The cup is a most interesting object, celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in “The Lord of the Isles.” . ■