KING EDWARD IS AN ENTERTAINER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7923, 30 January 1904, Page 6

KING EDWARD IS AN ENTERTAINER.

WHEN GUEST HE IS HOST. (London Correspondent American Paper.) King Edward tbe Seventh, who is not as hard U P llow ' as ne I(Vas ' wnen l* e ' wa ? mfrely a prince, would be poor, indeed, if ho had-' tb live on the salary allowed him, by hb people. Not that ifc is a small salary, for, it is a very considerable one, of £110,000 a year, aside from housekeeping expenses, with the purse strings pulled tight by a speoial keeper, .the Right Hon Sir Dighton Macnaghton Probyn. But it is estimated that his Majesty spends not less than half this great amount in private entertaining and gifts, and that leaves a small proportion for the various other expenses oievolving upon him in the capacity of English gentleman. Fortunately, however, Queen Victoria, Baron Hirsch and others haye left King Edward nicely "fixed." His revenues, apart from the Crown, are enormous and are derived from innumerable sources, including mining stock and rent money paid in at the rate of as. little as £10 a year by modest cottagers in the country. In aIL his Majesty's income is about £600,000 a' year. But his cwn share of his actual salary does not even approach the total cost of the King's private entertaining, begaufie his subjects do so much of it for him. The King is practically host at every house party he attends. # It is considered th^t he pays* back his social obligations ' when he asks his hostess to include certain guests in the list 'of those bidden to meet him. , WHEBB OI7EST IS* HOST. In all the great English houses the King is practically afc home. His own servants attend him. His own waiter hands him his food, as the same waiter does, for the matter of that, at every dinner his Majesty • attends in town or country. When the King dines out, so also does his chief waiter. At the country houses his MSajesly simply takes possession and has all meals except dinner there in private. The guests are his and so are the servants, the horses and everything else about the place so long as he remains. The Duchess of Marlborough aad the Countess, of Craven have frequent opportunities of assisting King Edward to pay off his social duties by acting as hostess for him, and they could testify, if they would, how completely he takes possession of their, houses whenever he deigns to honour them with his presence. For this and several other reasons,, number of the English nobility, notably the Dukes of Devonshire, Westminster and Sutherland, are said to spend much more on lavish entertaining than does the King himself. He has, at least, no King to entertain, save on rare occasions when one visits him privately. For certain- distinguished foreign. guests his /Majesty has sjient as much as £1000 a week for a' house. A. cosy dinner at his club, the Marlborough —an organisation strictly controlled by the King and whose members, are mostly prances— costs his Mijesty or fbeyeabouts, and when he and the Queen enttr-

tain "afc home" the cost of fc_e dinner freI quently runs up into the four figures! His Majesty pays out of his own pocket, figuratively speaking, for the special trains which take his guests to and from Windsor and Sandringham. When -there are "command" performances, while actors and .'actresses are. not paid anything, the .leading lady always receives 'a costly . present, an J the leading men souvenirs of. some*. kmd„ all at the personal expense of the? E_ng. He also hires tbe train that -carries bhe company to him. As " command " performances are reported to be his Majesy's pet diversion, and as .they are certainly the diversion most frequently provided for -- his house parties, the money he spends on theatre trains and theatre people is not ___• considerable. - ' Thus, although the State allows the King iand Queen an additional sum "of nearly. \ £200,000 to pay the ladies and gentlemen, of their households, nearly £40,000 to spend ■in charity and an extra £5000 for "sundries," the necessity for ".keeping up appearances" keeps the King's income easily, spent. j BOYAL ECONOMIES. . • So it is not to he wondered at thafc' economy is practised in the royal- household. For example, "ticket of permission" is necessary' if any person employed on the royal estates would entertain his friends at tea. This is, obviously, when the employee is fed, and so many are, out of the family flour bin. ' Queen Victoria introduced this careful system and King Edward has adhered to it rigorously. But King Edward alone is* responsible for reducing the time of his own dinner eating to one hour by eliminating innumerable petty courses. The private dinner at Buckingham Palace costs less to-day than- it' did 1 even in the days of Queen Victoria, simply because it is not thought necessary to have . so many things to eat. The King's example in this , instance has affected ' every dinner table in polite London. Even -at Sandringham, sometimes, when the famous gold plate is used and the King's favourite table flower, the Malmaison eainatiori, is the- decoration, the menu is short and simple. The Prince and Princess of Wales, who spent over £1000 on their house-warm-ine ball at Marlborough House recently, take, like the King -and Queen, their opportunities to' save a little., When -thev go to York Cottage, ' on the King's Sandringham Estate, the .Prince and Princess live almost plainly. The Princess shares .her drawing-room with her favourite lady-in-waitipg, Lady Eva Dugdale,, sister-in-law of the Countess of Warwick. The Princess and the Lady have a common, writingdesk, a piece of "fine Chippendale. , The line between State and privaite enter* taining by the Royal family is easily enough drawn so far as the letter of the law is con-i corned. State entertainments are those; given for State reasons and paid for out» : of the State pocket-book. Private entertaining is what the royalties do' on their! own account, and -pay for out of their pri-i vate incomes. -.'. :- '..-'-. •'.-".-. -< ._ .>' ' ■'■ THE S^CnCAIT' SECKETABXES. .-, The formal private entertaining of botKt the King and Queen and the Prince and' ; Princess of Wales is far too big a thing toj be arranged by themselves. They signify) who shall be invited, and then they can goi about their affairs, and not trouble them-j selves further to remember the list. Lord] Knollys, the King's secretary, is his aid-in-| > chief. Lord Knollys's ' principal duty in! connection with the Ejng's entertaining isto tell his Majesty whom he is ahout to en-' I tertain. Princess Charles of Denmark saidj !• once that if Lord Knollys were wakehedl suddenly in the night, and told to repeat] off-hand the names of all the people the' King had invited to dinner for three months] to come, he could do it without a moment's] hesitation. The Lord Chamberlain, com-j mander-in-chief of State functions, has! little to do with the private parties. The! Groom-in-waiting, Lord Edward WiUia-mj Pelham-Clinton, uncle of Lord Francis! Hope, is a highly important person when it! comes to the King's entertaining, as he wasi in the reign of Queen Victoria. No ser-j vant of his Majesty may approach, the pre-; sence without first approaching Lord Ed-j ward. All details, when the King feels i_j_ clined to Veduce his wishes to detail, are 1 * submitted to Lord Edward, who in turn] places them in the hands of . lesser au-; thority. Lord Edward Pelham-Clinton isi said to be the most obliging person in the; Royal households. He is an amiable gen-, tteman — tall and grey-moustached— who! never refuses to see anybody. ' "Sir Brighton Probyn, who lives at Buckingham Palace, and who has an apartment in the Mornam ' Tower, Windsor, and a; house at Sandringham, stands between the' King and his bank-book. It is his duty to ; let his Majesty know when funds are' run-; ning low. The consequence is he knows more nearly than anyone else the exacb amount the King spends on dinner parties,- ■ luncheons, and the amount spent on neces-. sary presents for aristocratic brides and* % bridegroopis.