A SPLENDID FUNCTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10236, 19 August 1911, Page 4

A SPLENDID FUNCTION.

Th.9 Duoliess of Sut&srlaa&'a Recaption, [Fkom Or/it Ladt Correspondent.] LONDON, June 30 One of the most popular entertainments of this gay season was given on Monday idtenunm by the Duchess of Sutherland at Stafford House, when several hundred guests assembled to meot the Prime Ministers of tho overseas dominions, and when H.R.H. Princess Louise and the Duke of Argyll wig-Holstein were present. Stafford House is so famous and historic a place that at certain times the public is allowed to inspect some of the rooms and, not excepting Buckingham Palace, it Is probable that no entertainment so far held cculd have been given in so splendid a mansion. " I have come from my house to your palace," Queen Victoria once said to a Duchess of Sutherland when visiting Stafford House. It is a little reminiscent of the Palace at Versailles with its highly.polished floors and long galleries of wonderful pictures. Certainly from the windows of Stafford House there is to be seen no long sweep of elaborate gardens and fountains as at Versailles, but there are green lawns and gardens, great grey stone steps and small fountains that aro rare and effective in the very heart of the West End. Indoors there is abundant beauty in absolute perfection. One goes from one priceless specimen of art or statuary to another, through lefty rooms that are themselves specimens of unusually beautiful architecture. The visit to Stafford House with its lovely tapestries and carpets, rich furniture and manifold ornaments, its pahitiiiga by Reynolds and other great masters of ancestors and ancestresses of the present house will, it is safe to predict, remain iong in the memory of those visitors from abroad, who have been dragged tho usual dreary round through musty palaces abroad and at home, full of melauchoiy memories and dropping to pieces.

Brightly uniformed sentries paced up and down in front of tho house with its extraordinarily wide steps and great stone columns, and from four o'clock onwards a constant stream of guests arrived. Through a marble hall of great Size tho visitors passed down long corridors full of statuary and into a great central hall also of marble, with a grand staircase branching to. right ana loft and leading to a gallery overlooking tho hail. Here at the foot of the stnlrcxso tho Duke and Duchess and their young daughter, Lady Rosemary Leveson-Gowei, who "came out" only this season, received the guests, who then passed up into the galleries, drawing-rooms, etc., and wandered where they would. Various entertainment's—a Neapolitan troupe, the full band of the Royal Life Guards, etc.— were provided, and refreshments were dispensed all tho afternoon. Among tho New Zealanders present in the great crowd I noticed Mr T. Chamberlm Chamberlin and Mr P. P. Chamberlin (Dunedin), Mr and Mrs ■lames Buckland, Mr and Mrs James Ivirker (Auckland), Mr and Mrs A. L. Barker (Canterbury), Mr and Mrs A. G. Jarrett (Auckland), Mr and Mrs Gilbert Anderson, Mr and Mrs 11. Reynolds (Auckland), Mr and Mrs J. A. Burt (Dunedin.), the Primate of NewZealand and Mrs Nevill (Dunedin), Mr J. C. Ponsonby (Dunedin), Sir Joseph, Lady and Miss Ward, Mrs Carr Rollett (Auckland), Mrs and the Missea Rutherford (Mendip Hills), Mr and Mrs Caccia Birch, Mr and Mrs A. J. Hawdon and Miss Hawdon, Mr and Mrs Robert Rhodes (Canterbury), Mr and Mrs J. M'Georgc (late of Wellington), l)r and Mrs Batehelor (Dunedin), Mrs R. C. and. Miss Horton (Auckland), tho Misse* Hall-Jones (2), Professor and Misa Bicßorton (Christchurch), Dr and lira Colquhoun (Dunedin), Sir Charles and Lady Bowen and Miss Boweh (Christchurch), Dr and Mrs B'ergusou (Dunedin), Mr and Mr 3 J. F. Studliolme (Wellington), Mr and Mrs R. I-leaton Rhodes (Canterbury), Judge and Mrs Jackson Palmer (Wellington), Lieutenant-Colonel and Miss Snow (Canterbury). Mr and Mrs Arthur E. G. Rhodes (Christchurch), Sir William and Lady Russell (Hawke's Bay), Prolessor and Mrs Coleridge Farr (Christchurch), Mr and Miss Alexander Michie ('Dunedim, Mr and Mrs Alfred Kidd (Auckland), Mr and Mrs R. Barker (Gisborne). Lieutenant-Colonel and Mrs D'\rev Chavtor (Blenheim), Mr and Mr.-. W. R. Barker. Mr and Mrs H. H. Wall, Mr M. A. Clark and the Misses Clark (3) (Auckland), Dr and Mrs Donald. Mr and Mrs David Crewe (Wellington), Mr Robert Donald and Mrs Donald (Dunedin), Mr and Mrs Allan Hopkins (Christchurch), Mr J. Hectol M'Kav Mr Mrs and Miss Dolamore (Mataura), Mr A. N. Armit (Wellington), Mr and Mrs George Beetham (Mnsterton), Mr Adam and Miss M'Crackcn (Christchurch). Mr and Mrs Barker and Mr E. C. Mills.