MAYFAIR JOTTINGS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 563, 17 September 1932, Page 20 (Supplement)

MAYFAIR JOTTINGS.

Clothing Problem of the Flying Woman. THE HATPIN RETURNS. (From Our London Lady correspondent.) It was Queen Mary who urged the change in Court arrangements that obviates cars waiting in the Mall. Hitherto every Court has witnessed long queues of cars filled with distinguished and fashionable folks, lining up outside Buckingham Palace courtyard. But at the last Court of this 'season that was done away with by admitting cars freely to the courtyard, and allowing them to wait there, instead of outside in St. James’ Park, whilst taking their turn to set down their occupants. This arrangement is certainly more efficient, and no doubt more seemly; but it is a blow to the Cockney sightseers, who delighted to assemble down the Mall on Court nights and admire or criticise the society people in their cars. This had become a recognised institution of the Loudon season in certain suburban circles. MEGAN’S WHIM. Although it is a lovely old Tudor place her friends are not surprised at Miss Megan Lloyd George’s decision to give up her little farm near her father’s place at Churt. She has, of course, always been a welcome visitor to her ! father's home, and when she took Green Farm it was more or less a passing whim. She thought she would like to take up farming on a small scale on her own account, and as the place has several acres of land, it seemed ideal for the purpose. It has the wide open fireplaces and great massive oak beams we associate with a genuine Tudor cottage, and its outstanding feature is one great room which goes up to the rafters. But the place was really too big for a “bachelor girl.” It has seven or eight bedrooms and is rather expensive to keep up. Mr. Lloyd George and Megan have probably both been constrained to recognise by now that farming does not pay. NOT THE FIRST. One cannot in general accuse 8.8. C. announcers of exaggeration; but in broadcasting the news that a Conservative M.P. wore a boater in the House on Tuesday for the first time in history, something had gone off the rails somewhere. Possibly it was the first time in history that Major Despencer-Robert-son, the wearer, had appeared under such a “cover,” but it was certainly not the first time such a headgear has been worn in the Chamber. In fact in the past boaters I -should think have been quit© as frequently seen inside the Chamber as the cloth caps of the proletariat. The last occasion I recollect having seen a boater in the Chamber was one evening when Miss Ellen Wilkinson desired to raise a point of order during a division. In such circumstances procedure demands that members shall be “seated and covered.” Miss Wilkinson had nothing with which to cover her flaming tresses, but the difficulty was overcome by a member passing to her the hat of a colleague, Mr. Harry Day. It was a boater. EVE REARMS. An authority on these matters calls my attention to an interesting and perhaps momentous fact. The obsolete feminine hatpin is experiencing a revival. Its return to favour is, of course, the : sequel to the sudden feminine passion for 6traw hats. These natty little diminutive boaters require come such fastening, and hat pins are once more, accordingly, a marketable commodity. I am told that milliners lament the fact whilst admitting it. For them the hatpin is an atrocity, necessary may be. but ruinous to their greatest confections. The new hatpins are not celebrating their revival by any outstanding originality of design. They are just like, and may even actually 'be. the old hatpins our mothers wore 40 years ago. The momentous fact, however, is that, for the first time since sex equality and the vote arrived, women are lethallv armed again. PEACE AND WAR. A friend of mine just home from the Far East, fresh from the trouble at Shanghai, astonished me by tlie contrast slic drew between China and London. It seemed so strange, she said, to exchange the peace and quiet of the Far East for the ceaseless rush and noise of London Town. She had not been home for several years and noticed a tremendous change in the traffic problem. Incidentally she told me rather an amusing tale of a German steamer which’ran on the rocks in the Hankow River. The skipper was below in hie cabin reading, and had just put his spectacles in their case when the crash came. He rushed on deck, was rescued by a Chinese junk and taken down river some 50 miles. When he landed he noticed somethin" bobbing up and down in the water. He leant over and picked it up. It was hi? spectacle case with his glasses inside all intact. MISS 1932. People who were asking 10 or 15 years ago into what sort of woman the postwar flapper would develop are getting their answer to-day. Passing by the Serpentine I saw a youthful mother go down to the boathouse and hire a skiff from the attendant. She was accompanied by her baby girl, who was just old enough to toddle into the boat beside her. Mamma had the rudder unshipped, bent to her sculls with athletic strength, and sped out over the water. Passing on up the Row I chanced upon another little scene. A girl, immaculately dressed for the saddle, had reined up her horse alongside the railing. Seated on the railing and chatting to her was another girl, still dripping wet, and attired only in the bathing dress in which she had been having a dip in London's Lido.