PRESENTATION AT COURT.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue VII, 18 August 1894, Page 161

PRESENTATION AT COURT.

WHAT IT COSTS TO KISS THE QUEEN’S HAND.

A HIGH PRICED FUNCTION THAT MUST BE CARRIED OUT

REGARDLESS OF EXPENSE

‘I should say,’ remarked the woman in the white wicker armchair, as she deftly dropped two extra lumps into her tea and knitted her brows thoughtfully, ‘ that a presentation at Queen Victoria’s court requires an outlay of all of £9O. I have been to Buckingham Palace for three such functions, and I never did it for less, which is more than my wedding finery cost. There sre women who have done it for less, but it’s a pinch and I shouldn’t like to try. ‘ Yon see, you simply can’t go in a gown that has ever been worn before, nor in a costume that is not made of the very best materials. You can’t, because you will perish of shame when you stand in line with women who are in the richest and freshest that Lyons looms and French dress makers can turn out. Any woman has sense enough to rec’gnise that it is better not to go at all than go inadequately, to stand in the fierce light rellected from the throne. CHOICE AND COST OF THE GOWN. • Having this conviction firmly fastened in your mind, consult some French dressmaker of note in London. Trot yourself round to White and Allenby, the smartest of the smart English modistes, and look over samples of brocade satin, velvet, and silk, ranging in prices from 15s to 301 a yard. If you are an unmarried woman, anywhere on the sunny side of sixty, you wear white. Debutantes look at tulle and silk and lace and wreaths of French Howers, silver

embroidery, pearls, and ribbons ; and middle-aged matrons ponder over velvet, purple, red, black, etc ; young married persons go in for the heavy white brocades, or brocades with coloured flowerings. * Now, the result of long hours of solemn consideration among billows of splendid fabrics sends you contemplatively off—you wonder in what humour one’s obliging papa or generous husband will accept the news that one cannot be made decent for court on less that £6O. One must appear as well as the other women, the Queen exacts that one’s train lie for three yards on the floor, and the end of expense is not yet. The order for the gown is given a full month beforehand, and that is well, considering the rush at the dressmakers'. From White and Allenby's one goes to give one’s order for a bouquet. Only a leading florist can supply the huge shower bouquet of white Howers that costs £5. HIGH PRICED-DETAILS. ‘ One never sees such bouquets in this country—beautiful cascades of Howers built on a frail foundation of chiffon and trailing from one’s hand to the floor. In London women always carry huge bouquets to every function during all seasons, so that bouquet building has become a great art with them. ‘ At the glover’s one must have a vastly long pair of one guinea gloves, lovely things to wrinklelup tojone’s shoulders nearly. To a French bootmaker a sufficient piece of one’s gown material must be taken to make one's slippers that cost at least two guineas. ‘ Lastly, one makes an appointment with a court hairdresser, who charges about 15s. Thirty-five shillings covers the cost of the three feathers and veil. A good public stable is sought out and arrangements are perfected to have a very big carriage sent one by nine o’clock the morning of the Drawing Room. Because he is expected to send one of his very and because the carriage, both delivering one at and taking one from the palace, must stand in line for hours, the stablekeeper asks not less than two pounds for the service. WHAT IT ALL COSTS. ‘Reckon all those amounts up, and the result is approximate to try first statement, is it not ? There are few loopholes for economy, for certain things you must have, or you will never kiss the Queen’s hand. One’s train must fall from the shoulders, so that its spread on the floor includes a vast stretch of costly goods five yards long by two wide. The gown must be cut out below the point of the shoulders. Have you never noticed, in all pictures of royalty in evening dress, that the women invariably wore their bodicescut so? The fashion of 1830 in that lespect has never changed, and though we ordinary persons wear straps, shoulder puffs, square neck, and the rest of it, full dress for any European court means literally bare shoulders. ‘ Another exaction is the placing of feathers and veil. Only a court hairdresser knows how to accomplish it to the Queen's taste, and the Queen, though her taste may not be good, demands that her ideas be followed to the last letter. Only a physician’s certificate entitles one to appear at a Drawing Room with covered shoulders. The certificate must be procured in advance and sent to the Lord Chamberlain, who asks the Queen’s consent. Often enough she refuses. It does seem petty, doesn’t it ? A STALWART SCOTCH PEERESS. ‘ Please give me another cup of tea, and I’ll tell you how an old Scotch Countess outwitted Her Majesty. The Countess was sixty, a tall, thin old grenadier of a Scotchwoman, very dignified, and in London with a pretty granddaughter under her wing to present. She begged leave to wear a high necked gown. The Court Chamberlain asked if she was too ill to wear a low-necked one.

‘ “ Certainly not,” said the old lady, “ but I don’t want to exhibit my venerable throat to a critical world, and imperil my good health by coming out on a raw March day with bare shoulders.”

‘ Nevertheless the Queen forbade her to come in a highnecked frock. So what did the Countess do but have made an unusually splendid gown, cut after the approved fashion, under the decollete bodice of which was seen the warm neck and sleeves of a stout, honest, knitted Merino undershirt. A gorgeous necklace of diamonds glittered on the old lady’s Merino shirted bosom, and heavy bracelets on her long, well covered arms. The Queen’s open astonishment and anger over the odd spectacle never abashed the Countess for a second, and so delighted was the Prince of Wales with the old Scotchwoman’s calm courage that he asked an introduction at the next royal ball and led her out in a stately quadrille.

‘ There is one last item of expense very often included in a debutante's list. I mean the cost of instruction in making the curtsey. You know, there are women who guarantee to teach one how, in a very few lessons; they charge a pound or two for that, and in the spring are well employed. It is best that they should, as otherwise great errors would be made—for example, by the well-meaning woman who believed it her duty to actually kiss Queen Victoria’s hand. In reality, you know, the Queen's band is never kissed. One does it so : Extend your hand. I lay mine this way across your fingertips and lightly touch my lips to the back of my own hand.’