GORGEOUS PAGEANT.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1806, 19 July 1913, Page 11

GORGEOUS PAGEANT.

THE BRILLIANT DAYS OP 1680. From midnight to down all the vanished glories of tlio Court of _ tlio Koi Soleil we.se evoked at tho Versailles Fete at the Roy,;'.' Albert Hall in aid of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Help Society (wrote the special correspondent of the ' Daily Mail" of last month). Nothing ivas wanting to make the ball a sucoess, though at midnigh; it did not seem so crowded as last year's. Tho Queen came with a brilliant retinue, which included tho Duke of Connaught and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of Sweden. The greatest families of England and the Continent were .represented in the gorgeous processions in which the different Courts of the Europe of 1680 defiled past King Louis XIV seated on a. dais of blue and gold. The splendid enclosure of the Albert Hall had received a sober and chaste decoration of white and gold, with the royal Louis monogram and the fleur-de-lys of Fxanoe surmounted by the French banner, served as an admirable background for a picture of loveliness, wealth, and magnificence, the like of which has never before been seen in London. , ,The Coming of the Courts. The Queen,'most becomingly gowned in pale blue satin with a diamond tiara and other magnificent jewellery, arrived at a Quarter past eleven, and, with the , Royalties accompanying her Majesty, was esoorted to tho Royal box, a bower of orchids, by Princess Christian, Lord Cheylesmoro, and other members of the ■ organising committee. Half an hour later - a fanfare of trumpets signalled 'the approach of the French Court, a file of tho Swiss Guard in blue and gold uniforms with halberds in their hands cleared the dancing floor, hnd a pageant of beauty, splendour, and wealth began to unfold itself. Into the open space of the floor fringed with a multi-coloured border of brilliantly costumed groups, a sea of , sparkling jewels and tossing , plumes, emerged a dream cortege of lovely women and stately men garbed in the costliest of silks and brocades and moving with a . dignity of inien which recalled as in one glimpse all'tho glories of a vanished age. A Master of Ceremonies in cloth of gold and flowing wig, followed by the guard, led the way for. a group of exquisitely attired courtiers walking backwards with hats sweeping the floor, before the King and Queen of France. The King (the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) was a blaze of gold, with the pale blue. ' riband of the Holy Ghost across his breast. He led Queen Mario Therese (Lady Dudley), a picture of beauty in lilac velvet powdered with fleur-de-lys with a superb train. . Beautiful Women. All tho far-famed beauty of the English aristocracy was to be seen in the vision of fair women following in the suite of the monarch—Lady Ingestre, Lady Lytton, Lady Curzon, and Lady Diana Manners. Mrs. Leeds had a wonderfully magnificent dress, and there was one exquisite robe of pale pink-flowered silk worn by a perfect picture of English blonde loveliness, over whose gleaming golden head a little blackamoor clothed in a leopard skin held a gorgeous umbrella. A splash of vivid scarlet marked the 'entry of the Papal Nuncio, whom the King, doffing his hat, helped to a seat on flie blue and gold dais beside him. To tho strains of an old German march the Court of Brandenburg entered, a goodly array of stalwart men and handsome women. There was the lovely Countess. Blucher as the Great Electress in a gorgeous brocade dress of black and gold ,witn. flowing train supported by ■ negro .pages, and Baroness ltuhlmann, of the German. Embassy, also a noted beauty, in coppery bronze satin. To the strains of tho Danish national anthem came the Court of Denmark and Norway, headed by huntsmen leading on the leash two splendid Danish hounds, a richly arrayed group in which Lord Norbury and the Infante Don Louis Ferdinand of Spain were stately figures. As each group reached the dais it paused while' the women curtsied and the men 'bowed lowwith'sweeping gestures, a picture of grace'arid splendour that will long linger in the memory. Each oortege formed up on either side of the vast hall as Court after Court, that of the Great Mogul, a blaze of Oriental colour, of Holland, of the Holy Roman Empire, of Poland, in (juajnt old national dresses, and of Russia, in magnificent Russian costumes ablaze with jewels,' marched into the hall. Thore was an Embassy from China with ' 'a> palanquin and a weird escort of painted Chinese braves, in which Mr. George Grossmith, jun., figuired, and q, glittering croup representing tho Court of Spain in .Velasquez -costumes, Count Ramirez do 'Arellano in a gorgeous ccstume as ChaTles II of Spain, tho Duke of Somerset as the Dulse of Medinacelli, and the Duchess as the Queen Mother. Finishing with Pavlova. . The Court of Sweden was a picturesque band of young people, almost all blonde, including a bevy of society belles in exquisite dresses. There followed the Court of Mohammed IV of Tmkey, led by a banner flannftng the crescent, the' Court of the Doge of Venice (Mr. de Comcy Forbes) and lastly the Court of England, probably the most splendid of tlilem all. There was tho living impersonation of our Merry Monarch in the person of Captain Harry Lindsay with a brilliant array of the fair women of the Court of the second Charles, Nell Gwyn. (Mrs. Hemy Lindsay), the Duchess of Portsmouth (Lady Bvfclyn Cotterell), and Lady Castlemaine (Mrs. do Winton), with Samuel Pepys and Judge Jeffreys in the brilliant throng of courtiers. / In the simple setting of white and gold tho scene presented by thje different Courts grouped around the dais and along the ■ tall, each rivalling tho other in the beauty of the women and the splendour of the costumes, was truly superb,; and could not have >beon witnessed anywhere els 9 than in London, which such fetes as these > are rapidly establishing as the social centre of Europe. Pt : Thaps by comparison with the Hundred Years Ball of last year there seemed rather more room for dancing than usual and a certain laxity of costume was noticeable among those who were not taking part in tho procession. But individual costumss were oxecuted wi(:h a sense of tho artistic and a disregard of cost which' was Temarkable. ' It was'long past-midnight before the processions closed and the Courts of ■Europe a.waited breathlessly the coming of. the incomparable Pavlova to dance in costume of thb period with her partner, , M. Novikoff, after which the Queen was to retire to the King's room for suipper and general dancing was to begin.