A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 19 April 1934, Page 14

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN PRINCE OF WALES VISITS BELGIUM. LATE MONARCH NOT A GOLFER. (From Our Own Correspondent.) London, Feb. 22. As was fully expected when the terrible news reached us from Belgnun, the Prince of Wales has crossed over to Brussels for Kang Alberts funeral K his doctors would have permitted it, King George would, I believe, have attended in person. But the new Belgian Sovereign will appreciate the presence of the Prilce of Wales by his side. His greatest friend amongst our royalists is, of course, the Duke of Gloucester, who was with him at Eton, and with whom he struck up a close friendship, which has endured through the intervening years. But he’is on terms of close intimacy also with the Prince of Wales, who has more than once sought to convert him to hrs own love of golf. In this.he has been only partly successful for, though t e new King plays the game a little, he has never caught the real golfing fever. The Prince’s Parties. The Prince' of Wales will shortly be resuming the pleasant little private dinner parties which have become such a feature of the social life of Marlborough House. The company is always a very small one, and no invitations are more eagerly sought after and, incidentally, more difficult to obtain. The list of guests rarely exceeds a score, but the Prince seizes these opportunities of Setting into personal contact with leaders of thought and captains of industry in many phases

of life. In some instances, visitors come far afield from the provinces—men his Royal Highness has met .on one of his industrial tours who receive, in the first instance, an oral invitation to dine—the oral suggestion being invariably followed up later by a formal written invitation. There is nothing the least formal about the dinners, and the Prince makes .a point of conversing with all his guests in turn. Duchess of York.

Though, like the other members of the Royal Family, the Duchess of York has to refuse far more invitations than she accepts, she found herself unable to resist the suggestion that she should attend the jubilee gathering of the London Angus Assoiation. She is a native of Forfarshire, and never misses at least one visit a year to Glamis Castle, where she spent her girlhood. Besides, her father, the Earl of Strathmore, is president of the association. He presided over the dinner, and the Duchess, accompanied by the Duke, arrived in time for the dancing. About 300 guests attended. Lady Griselda Cheape.

Lady Griselda Cheape, whose sudden death is announced, was the aunt of the present Earl of Airlie, and also of Mrs. Winston Churchill. As a young woman she underwent a full course of training as a nurse in Dundee Royal Infirmary. After her marriage to a Fifeshire landowner, it was her annual practice to entertain her old colleagues at a garden party at her country home near St. Andrews. On the morning of one of these gatherings she learned that her brother, the late Earl of Airlie, had been killed, in the South African war, but, rather than disappoint her guests, she kept the information to herself, and it was' only when they returned home that those to whom she had given a delightful day knew that she had entertained them under the shadow of a heavy bereavement. Lady Maureen Stanley.

Much sympathy is expressed for Lady Maureen Stanley at having to undergo an operation for appendicitis. The threat of the operation has been hanging over her for some time, and it is unfortunate that she should have to go on the sick list just when we are nearing the opening of the London Season., As the wife of the Minister of Transport she does a good deal of entertaining. _ All the Londonderrys seem to inherit the family tradition of hospitality, and Lady Maureen Stanley has a reputation as a hostess second only to tnat of her mother. The latest information is that she is going on well. But the convalescent stage after appendicitis is always trying, and generally involves, as in the case of the Princess Royal, a lengthy holiday and rest before complete recovery is effected. Village Weddings.

There is a probability, I hear, that the coming season will see an increasing number of .what tapy®

as “Village Weddings.” Sometimes they are dictated by sentiment, as happens when the ancestral home of the bride is in the near vicinity of the. selected church. But more often than not they are dictated by the call for economy. A wedding at one of the fashionable London churches with its attendant crowded reception afterwards, may cost anything from £l,OOO to £2,000. People simply cannot afford this huge expenditure nowadays unless they are very wealthy. If they incur such an outlay it often means that they “feel the pinch” afterwards, while the bride and bridegroom also are denied many little luxuries which, ordinarily, would come their way. A village wedding is a different matter altogether, the cost being small compared with the expense that would be incurred in London. Business and Pleasure.

There will be no lack of entertainment for the business men who come over the seas to the British Industries Fair. One of the most interesting gatherings will be the dinner and ball at the Dorchester under the patronage of Prince Arthur of Connaught. Lady Bertha Dawkins is to be hostess, and to Lord Derby will fall the duty of proposing the toast of the guests. At midnight a ’’Pageant of British Industries” is to be staged, under the chairmanship of the Marchioness of Douro, the pageant master being Gwen Lally, who is working so hard for the coming Runnymede Pageant. The Countess of Derby, Lady Melchett, the Countess Cave, the Countess of Dalkeigh, the Countess of Northbrook, Earl Beatty, and Lord Queenborough are among the jvell-known people who are interested in the ball and pageant, so the evening should go merrily enough. Woman Traveller.

The modem woman is becoming just as subject to wanderlust as any extinct Victorian caveman. In fact one is driven to the belief nowadays that it is the erstwhile softer sex that has the real zest for a hard life, and hungers after strange lands and high adventure. A remarkable instance is Miss Ada Boyland, an Irish lady, who has found her way into the most off-the-map places. And has so far not even written a book about her Odyssey. She has canoed down the Niger to Timbuctoo, that ancient name for -outlandishness, caravanned through the mountains north of the Red Sea, and travelled across unfrequented Persia with a picturesque escort of native centaurs. By way of a rest she is now ski-ing in the Austrian Tyrol, but intends later to sample the Sardinian mountains. She holds that one may get on anywhere and with -anybody quite nicely by being polite and admiring the small babies. Ski-ing Casualties.

It has been a magnificent season for the, winter sports devotees, and the favourite Swiss resorts are reaping a fine harvest from visitors. The British element is now much more expert than it used to be at ski-ing and skating as well as tobogganing, but there has been the usual crop of minor casualties. Mr. Eddie Sackville-West, Lord Sackville’s heir, who has broken a leg in three places whilst ski-ing, is only one of quite a number who have come to grief, though most of the casualties are less serious than his. Ski-ing is one of the most exciting and exhilarating outdoor sports, but it is not so easy as it looks by any means, and bad falls„are frequently encountered by all but the seasoned experts. Still, in these days of motor speeding on our roads at home, ski-ing is perhaps as safe as driving a car in England. It might rank wity hard rugger. Herbs the Fashion.

The herbalist is coming back into his own. Or should I say “her” own ? All over the country women are running herb farms, sending their output to other women who own herbalists’ shops where people flock to obtain Nature’s “beauty aids.” The herb cure for all sorts of complaints is quite the craze in Town, and men as well as women are enthusiastic about the preparations made from lime-blossom, camomile, vervain, alderflowers, mint, and similar garden products. The claim is that they help to relieve minor complaints like indigestion, nervous disorders and insomnia. A lavender-stuffed pillow is supposed to be excellent for sufferers from the last named. Round Regent-street way is a “hair doctor” who does marvellous things for falling, greying, and straggling hair simply by- compounding lotions and washes from various herbs for each individual case.