MAYFAIR JOTTINGS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19240, 29 November 1930, Page 20 (Supplement)

MAYFAIR JOTTINGS.

QUEEN MARY CHOOSES ART TREASURES WISELY. PRINCESS LICHNOWSKY’S PET. (From -On* London Lady Correspondent.) A rather etriking illustration of the discretion with which Queen Mary makes her art purchases has just been brought to light. Six years or eo ago the Queen went to one of* the smaller , London galleries and bought a little pottery figure of Henry VIII., modelled by Miss Gwendoline Parnell. She obtained it for the modest price of 12/G. The artist was then relatively unknown. She had taken to art when the Government was urging people to take up the arts and crafts- in which Germany formerly enjoyed a monopoly. To-day fame has come to her. She has a pottery establishment of her own down at Chelsea, and so highly is her work esteemed that an American firm has contracted to take over the whole of her output. Early in the present year Miss Parnell held an exhibition of her work. The smallest and least ambitious of the exhibits was priced at a figure exactly 80 times that which Queen Mary paid for her little purchase seven years ago. ET TIT, BRUTE! There is a good deal of amusement at the clubs and in social circles generally over Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s movements in Scotland during the last few days. The Prime Minister has actually been trying to travel incognito on his own native heath! The fcjrfPT began with the rather mysterious 4htimation that Mr. Ramsay MacDonald had left Lossiemouth for an unknown destination. It is suggested that even his daughter knew nothing about his movements. But the secret is out at last. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald has been paying a round of social visits. After staying with the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Dunrobin Castle he went on to visit Lord and Lady Londonderry. The Rede and the extremists of his party will regard this as an unpardonable offence, which probably explains why the Prime Minister was not too anxious to advertise his movements. PRINCESS LICHNOWSKY’S PET. I am not surprised that Princess Lichnowsky, the wife of Prince Lichnowsky, who was German Ambassador in London in 1914, has written a book about dogs. Slie was a great lover of them as pets, but looking through .her book “On the Leash” I was disappointed to find no reference to the terrier from whom she sought consolation and sympathy on the morning that the British Government sent the passport of her husband and herself to the Embassy in Carlton House Terrace. It was an official indication to them that they were to leave the country at the earliest possible moment. I happened to call on the princess on that memorable morning and sought her on the Terrace, overlooking St. James’ Park. She was alone except for her pet longhaired terrier, whom she was caressing between, her tOars. “He will always remind me of your England/’ the princess remarked to me, “for he is English born She was nursing her pet when the train, which took her from London, steamed out of the railway station. AMERICAN SHOPPERS. By no one is Royal patronage more keenly sought after than bj' the proprietors of antique shops, both in London and in the provinces. The explanation is not far to seek. When a paragraph gets into the newspapers that the Queen has visited certain premises and made purchases in which she was interested. the establishment obtains a certain cachet, whether it happens to be situated in Bond Street, in the Isle of Wight or in Princes Street, Edinburgh. The Americans especially love to follow in the footsteps of Royalty. But their visits arc sometimes disappointing. The proprietor of one of these antique shops was telling me of his own experience. The day after Queen Mary visited his premises two magnificent limousine cars drove up to his door. Half a-dozen Americans trooped into his shop and went into rhapsodies about everything they saw. Priceless bits of old china and bric-a brae of different kinds were shown to them and the visitors were most anxious to hear all the details about the Queen’s recent visit. When they left, after 'spending the best part of an hour in the shop, they took away with them a couple of trifles, the total cost of which was 5/G. UNTITLED PEERESS. Mrs. Sydney Webb, as she prefers to be called]! is, I am told, experiencing a good deal of inconvenience from lier insistence not to assume the title which is her due now that her husband has been raised to the peerage. Whilst staying with the Governor-General and Mrs. McNeill at the Viceregal Lodge in Dublin, everyone insisted on calling her Lady Passfteld. “Lord Passfield and Mrrs. Sydney Webb” (pace the “Court Circular”) are a most devoted couple and they go about a great deal together in virtue of their public duties. Even in these advanced days it is sometimes a little embarrassing for a husband and his wife to go about under different names. There are still a number of unsophisticated people up and down the country who have not heard of the idiosyncraeies of Mrs. Sydney Webb where titles are concerned. OLDEN LONDON. The ghosts of storied London must surely be growing restless these days. For, by a curious chance, the site of two of the great medieval palaces, which used to grace the waters of the Thames, are now engaging the attention of the house-breakers. There are very few reminders nowadays of these magnificent palaces. liut the gateway of York House built for “Stennie/* the first Duke of Buckingham, the old Chapel of Savoy, and the quaint Essex House “Watergate” at the end of Essex Street still remain. But there were others: Here, Essex’ stately pile adorned the shore ; There, Cecil’s, Bedford’s, Villlers’—now no It is often forgotten that the Hotel Cecil, now in the process of demolition, occupies very much the site of what was once Salisbury House. And a few yards away the old Queen Aune houses in Lancaster Place are being razed to the ground, revealing the almost forgotten glories of the Savoy Chapel —all that is left to remind us of the Palace of Savoy, where John of Gaunt lived and where John of France was brought a prisoner from Poictiers by the Black Prince.