A MAID IN MAYFAIR

Taranaki Daily News, 11 April 1935, Page 14

A MAID IN MAYFAIR

LONDON TOWN GOSSIP ENORMOUS INFLUX EXPECTED. JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS. (Special Correspondent.) London, February 21. Everyone seems to be expecting an enormous influx of people into London for the Silver Jubilee celebrations. Already the hotels are booking up rapidly, and people with flats are being offered extravagant prices for a let of two or three, weeks if they will consent to give up their accommodation for this period in the spring. The caterers, the theatres, and all other places of entertainment are also expecting record bookings. It is surprising, too, the number of Americans who are making arrangements to come over. Our friends across the water have always taken an affectionate interest in the doings of our Royal Family, and a friend who was over in .the States during the King’s illness, was telling me to-day that the anxiety expressed over there could; not have been greater if the King’s sovereignty had extened to the United States itself. And Hostesses.

There is to be nothing haphazard about the official entertaining in connection with the Silver Jubilee. Already leading London hostesses are getting together, and forming committees, so that arrangements may be made well in advance, and there may be no vexatious clashing of dates when the time comes. Mrs. Baldwin, Lady Londonderry, Lady Reading, and a few other will be what are known as official hostesses for the Government, and not the least pleasant part of their task will be tq ensure a good time for women guests from the Ddminions and abroad. Apart from State receptions and balls, there will probably be more than one Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. Since Devonshire House , ceased to be one of the palatial homes of the West End, there are few great houses in Mayfair or Belgravia with gardens and lawns adequate for functions of this kind. But at the Astors place up the river, oversea guests are pretty certain to have an opportunity of viewing the far-famed beauties of the Clevedon Reach. Sunderland House. Social London would get on badly now without Sunderland House the beautiful mansion in Curzon Street, built by the Vanderbilt family as a town house for their daughter, Consuelo, when many years ago she became the bride of the late Duke of Marlborough. After standing empty for a long time, it was taken over a season or two ago, and furnished and appointed for semi-public entertaining. More than half the debutantes’ dances are to take place within its walls this year instead of being held in hotels. Hostesses who come to town merely to pilot daughters or nieces through their first season find it a' tremendous saving to be able to take quite a small • house, or even a service flat, do a little quiet entertaining there, and then hand over all the arrangements for a coming-out dance to those responsible for Sunderland House. Apart from expense, the saving in actual labour and anxiety is tremendous. For a Royal Household.

The Duke and Duchess of Kent will come back from, their honeymoon to quite a large establishment at their house in Belgrave square. Before they left for the West Indies the Duke asked Mr. J. A. Lowther to act. as his Private Secretary, and Lord Herbert to be an Equerry to him, and the two appointments have just been confirmed. Lord Herbert, who Is the son and heir of Lord and Lady Pembroke, is very popular in society. Tall, fair, and good looking, he is a bachelor, and has a flair for the tactful management of affairs, and' so should be the ideal equerry. His only sister is Lady Hambleden, who lives on the opposite side of Belgrave square from that on which the Duke of Kent’s house stands.

Sandringham Innovation. The practical interest the King takes in the welfare of his house staff has just peen shown by the gift of a recreation room for their use at Sandringham. It is situated quite near the house and the King took keen interest In its construction. It is in reality a large hut, and is equipped with comfortable chairs and eard tables, and with a special dance floor. The King paid daily visits whilst the work of construction was in progress and spent a considerable time chatting with the workmen and getting information from them regarding conditions of labour in that part of the country. When it was completed the King inaugurated the room by a personal visit. When the Court is not resident at Sandringham the room will be available to employers on the estate. Women Inventors. One hundred and thirty-four inventors —twelve of them women —have their gadgets on show at British Industries Fair at Olympia. There are rubber pads to counteract the distressing complaint of housemaid’s knee, and a most ingenious kettle-cum-saucepan apparatus in which the kettle is boiled by the steam from the saucepan. Then there is a window-fastener especially designed to let in fresh air but keep out burglars. A novel gadget, which is certain of immediate .popularity, is a mustard-squirt-er which avoids the laborious process of spreading mustard on sandwiches with a knife. Then there is a fire-screen with a cut-out cenre to catch the draught for a dying fire. One would think that every possible source of variety had already be&n tapped in the production of ladies’ handbags, but in the fancy leatherwafe section of the fair, there are bags of still

greater novelty of design. Ladies who have suffered from the general suffocation created in the house, when a' male member tries out a new pipe, will be interested in a robot device which smpkes new pipes for the owner until they are properly broken in.

G.ILS. and Ellen Terry. The last issue of the British Museum official journal contains some interesting particulars of how the letters written by Miss Ellen Terry to George Bernard Shaw came to be preserved and handed over as a gift to the nation. According to Mr. Shaw’s own statement, the: letters owe their preservation primarily to their unique handwriting—so unique that no one could have had the heart to destroy them. But apart, from the beauty of the

handwriting, G.B.S. could not withstand the “frankness and impetuosity with which she flung her thoughts and feelings on paper.” Incidentally, G.B.S. tells us that he holds with Charles Dickens that most correspondence is “pregnant with incalculable mischief.” Acting on Dickens’ advice, therefore he has destroyed all the letters that have come to him “except when there was some quite unsentimental reason for preserving them.” Re-Union in America. Members of the smart set are apparently not satisfied eyen with the host of gaieties promised them during the Silver Jubilee Season. Thirsting for other entertainment before the English programme begins, they are going off in

little groups to Palm' Beach to get in a few weeks of social life there by way of a preliminary to royal Courts and other important Jubilee functions. Th® Duke and Duchess of Marlborough have already arrived “over there,” and are sharing their entertaining with the Duke’s mother, Madame Balsan, who was one of the Vanderbilts. Lady Warwick is also staying at Palm Beach with friends, and Lord and Lady Brownlow, who are among the most-sought-after hosts and hostesses in ' the younger set, and leaving to-day. Lord and Lady Granard’s elder daughter is spending the second part of her honeymoon there, arid another recent bride, who has just arrived for a wedding holiday is King Alfonso’s daughter, the Princess Betrix of Spain. . - ~ ■ - - - - -