FEMININE INTERESTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18610, 4 July 1930, Page 4

FEMININE INTERESTS.

PERSONAL AND FASHION NOTES. The Queen’s Deputy At Holyro.nl: “Wull ye no sit doon beside the fire?” said the quiet, silver-haired woman who was to be the Queen's deputy in Scotland. In four days Mr and Mrs James Brown would leave their “we but and ben” —their tiny two-roomed house—in the mining village of Annbank, Ayrshrie for the magnificence of Holyrood Palace, where for almost a fortnight the miners’ M.P for South Ayrshire, carried out his duties as the King's High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In the midst of all her preparations for her departure to Edinburgh, Mrs Brown got on with her work. The wives of neighbouring miners would drop in to chat about the great event, and Mrs Brown, in her gentle Lowland tongue, would tell them about her engagements during the week when she would be the first lady In Scotland. “Jimmy is in London,” she said, “and he’ll no’ be hame till the week end. I’ve had a very busy week preparing for Holyrood. I've had to go to Edinburgh to see about my dresses. One is being made in Ayr and the others in Edinburgh, and beautiful drijsses they are. Aye, they are the sort of dresses that make a woman feel young—but I'm no’ getting any younger for all that.” Mrs Brown's eyes twinkled. “Oh, yes, I'm a bit excited about it. It was very pleasant last time (Mr Brown was High Commissioner during the Socialist Government of 19241. “But I’m no’ worrying about it. and neither is , Jimmy. Ya couldna’ worry Jimmy wi’

anything. I am looking forward to the garden parties. There are two this year “I shall be sleeping in the royal bedchamber. It is a magnificent room and the hangings and draperies are all so quiet and tasteful. “My granddaughters will be coming to Holyrood with me,” said Mrs Brown, “and one of my sons is acting as secretary to his father. The girls-are terribly excited about it.” When St. George Shirked His Duty: An interesting cocktail party was given by Mrs McCorquodale, in order that Lord Jellicoe might inspect the dress she designed for the pageant of “Britain and Her Industries,” which the Prince of Wales is to see at the Albert Hall Empire Ball. Lord Elmley. too, whose duties as Junior Liberal Whip seldom allow him relaxation, hr d torn himself away from the House for a brief look at these modern wonder frocks of shiny American cloth and silk and cotton of every shade of the rainbow. They were so cleverly thought out that even at a first glance it was possible to tell the industries they symbolised. Miss Lily Elsie, who is to be Britain.

vas about the only principal not in •ostume. But then she may be for- , .liven for not wanting to wear her i ess oftener than is absolutely necesary, as it is as heavy and unwieldy as < ' it is magnificent. The long frock is 1 -ntirely made of diamante, the Union 1 ack train is ten yards long, the high i ewelled headdress is topped with red, 1 white, and blue plumes, and in addi- i • ion to all this she has the responsibil- I ty of wearing £IO,OOO worth of real I ewels. f St. George, in the person of Captain J ul Bennett, V.C., had also shirked i •s duty on the plea that it was too £ lot a day to don mediaeval armour. \ Dame Barnett: f A woman who has attracted a good deal of attention lately in England is 1 Dame Henrietta Barnett, who celebrat- 1 ed her 79th birthday, recently. A list 1 of all Dame Henrietta’s achievements £ would be too long to insert here, but first and foremost she was, with her 1 husband, the late Canon Barnett, the founder of the Toynbee Hall Educa- I • tional Settlement at Whitechapel, s Toynbee Hall now has branches in many places. Dame Henrietta is also t J the founder and honorary manager of

the Hampstead Garden Suburb, the president of the International Federation of University Settlements, the honorary secretary of the State Children’s Association, and the chairwoman of the countryside committee ! of the Children’s Country Holiday Fund, which she also founded. Dame Henrietta says she has no time to realise that she is getting old; she and her secretaries are always at work, and people are constantly going to see her about one or other of her schemes. She still does a great deal of public speaking; winter and summer she gets up at half-past 5 in the morning, and she works eight or nine hours a day. She says “the secret of growing old gracefully is to eat very little, think on things that are beautiful, and look ahead and not behind.” Certainly these rules of life have succeeded well with Dame Henrietta, for she is still as energetic and as charming as ever. Princess in a Convent: Princess Mary Louise, cousin of the King, is living a life of simplicity and austerity in the quiet seclusion of a Yorkshire convent, her life the life of the nuns, we are told. - Her room is a simply-furnished

; | apartment in the convent hospital. »j She rises in the early morning when » the nuns ries, she eats the same simple - food that is provided for them, and ■ with them she shares in the daily : routine of the convent. r She ceases to be a princess for the * duration of her stay, and becomes, to > all intents and purposes, a member of [ the order. [ The mother-superior is a personal • friend of the princess. The routine of the convent begins in the early hours of the morning with ■ the ringing of the bell for matins. The princess answers the bell with the nuns and attends the services in the little chapel before partaking of a frugal breakfast.