PEERS AND THEIR ROBES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 210, 5 September 1934, Page 8

PEERS AND THEIR ROBES

In one o£ the Earl of Oxford and Asquith’s recently published letters he records a “noble offer” from Lady BreadaJbane —a widow —who proposed to him him her late husband’s robes as a present. He adds: “I shall jump at this, as it will save me a lot of money.” This is reminiscent of the fact that the late Lord Pontypridd left his personal belongings to the corporation of Cardiff. These included this peer’s robes. When the corporation heard that the late Archbishop of Canterbury had been made a lay peer they telegraphed offering him the robes, which he gladly accepted. Lord Pontypridd had been one of the Church of England’s most vigorous opponents. The robes worn by the Lord Chancellor, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer are very expensive. It is the practice for the outgoing Minister to sell his robes to has successor. Sometimes, however, these dealings are distasteful to the newcomer. Mr. Gladstone refused Disraeli’s and Mr. Goschen, a Chancellor in the “eighties,” declined Lord Randolph Churchill*, which led the latter to exclaim, “Think of him, of all people, declining to buy old clothes’” Mr. Goschen was a Jew.