Royal Chidren’s Toys.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 69

Royal Chidren’s Toys.

The relatives of a rich American child have just expended a sum of £3OO on purchasing for him an elaborate toy railway. It is said that this child already possesses so many toys that they have been insured for £5,000 against all ills save death. Many of his playthings have been specially made for him, and are richly engraved and finished in gold and silver. Nothing that he may ask for, however eostly. is denied him; wherein he has the advantage over children of Royal birth, whose early toys are chiefly leaden soldiers, dolls, and plain wooden bricks. THE YACHT “CORISANDE.” The perfect little brig which was the gift of the King to the Princes Edward and Henry of Wales is a practical toy which has served the double purpose of affording keen enjoyment to the Royal children and also enabling them to master all the details of the construction of the vessel. The brig was originally

a 42ft. steam launch, and was converted to its present design by command of the King, who had it launched on Virginia' Water and manned by petty officers of the Navy. The yacht Corisande was the Prince of Wales's gift to his eldest son, and it has taken the place of the toy battleships and other model craft which delighted his boyish heart in the nursery and on the ornamental waters in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. The Corisande is a boat of 1(10 tons register, and is Prince Edward’s first real seagoing vessel. It has been purchased for the young Prince with a view of enabling him to go sailing in the Solent ■luring the summer months. QUEEN VICTORIA’S DOLLS. Princess Mary of Wales is allowed on special occasions to play with the late Queen Victoria’s dolls, of which no fewer than 132 are still in a good state of preservation. A copy-book, yellow with age. has been preserved along with the dolls, and in it is entered in Queen Victoria’s own bandwriting a record of each doll’s history, with particulars of who it was supposed to represent, and by whom it was dressed. Another doll which Princess Mary is permitted to nurse was once the favourite of Queen Alexandra, and was sent over from her Majesty’s former home in Denmark in accordance with the desire of King Edward, who some years ago had it included in the collection of Royal playthings stored in Buckingham Palace. The doll is clad in garments made entirely by Que.en Alexandra when she was quite w little girl, and is one of the best-prized articles in the collection. Whenever Princess Mary plays with this precious object a nurse is in constant attendance to see. that no harm may befall it. OLD TOYS MOST FAVOURED. The Royal children seem to find their chief delight in the toys which were, played with by the children of a generation ago. A few of the mechanical animals at Buckingham Palace, new and rare in the fifties, ean still be made to work, and endless amusement is caused when an ancient looking woolly dog ambles placidly along, or a skin elephant jerks his trunk up and down. Princess Alexander of Tepk sometimes brings out for her young relatives the Punch and Judy show which used to delight her and Prince Leopold at Claremont. MERE SHAVINGS. There is nothing very ingenious or eostly in any of these toys, which tends to show that costliness and grandeur have nothing to do with the eharm which they exercise in the minds of their Royal possessors. Prince Olaf of Norway. however, favours toys which are models of mechanical ingenuity, as well as some small boxes which contain what look like mere shavings; but throw them into water, and these shavings quickly resolve themselves into something more than mere bits of wood. They gradually expand as they absorb the moisture, and take definite shapes. One piece of stick

develops into a rose bush in full Hoorn; another becomes a mandarin carrying an umbrella; another takes the form of a notable person rjding in a motor-car; • and yet another, perfect as regards facial resemblance, is a king or a queen seated upon a throne. How they are made and compressed is a secret jealously guarded by the persons engaged in their manu facture.