LADIES' GOSSIP.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2976, 8 January 1881, Page 5 (Supplement)

LADIES' GOSSIP.

The first bridesmaid holds the bride's bouquet and gloves ; the best man has to hold the bridegroom's hat and gloves. The Princess Louise, witk a very modest retinue, is still at the German spas. Her Royal Highness has only two attendants and three servants. She travels as Lady Sandridge.

A lady traveller remarks that the cleanliness and order on board ship, where all the work is done by men, including that of the kitchen and the care of cabins, almost convinces her that woman has mistaken her vocation in attempting to grapple with housework.

It is pleasant to hear that the memory of poor Queen Mercedes has been honored by having the young Infanta christened after her.

A peculiar custom prevails at Norham, Durham, that if the banns of marriage be thrice published, and the marriage does not take place, the refusing party, whether male or female, pays a penalty of 40s to the vicar as a penalty for " scorning tbe church." The doctors say that sealskin is unhealthy. Bless them! Now, if they can be induced to say the same thing of six button kids, point lace, and a few such trifles, coming generations of married men will rise up and call them blessed.

Lady Cropper, one of the beautiful ladies of London, was a Miss Minnie Thornburg, of San Francisco. She is about twentythree yeare of age ; is tall, stately, slender, and a blonde. One journal puts her height at six feet three. Her features are perfect.

Silk cuirasses, white and black, are made in crochet, with white or black beads on each stitch. They are bordered at the neck, arm-holes, and round the edge with handsome bead gimp, and fringe, being perfectly elastic to the figure.

The hair harvest in France is in full activity, and dealers are attending the different fairs, and persuading the young women to part with their tresses. In certain districts the young girls regularly cultivate their hair for the market, the crop being ready for cutting every three years.

Helen of Troy was over forty when she perpetrated the most famous elopement on record ; and as the siege of Troy lasted a decade she could not have been very juvenile when the ill-fortune of Paris restored her to her husband, who is reported to have received her with unquestioned love and gratitude.

Lord Newark, son of Earl Manvers, was married last September to Miss ShawStewarb, daughter of Sir Michael Shaw Stewart. Among the wedding presents given to the bride were 16 jewelled bracelets, 13 rings, and 7 lockets. Among the bridegroom's presents were four flasks.

The ring in a bride cake means that the person who gets it will marry for love; the crooked sixpence will marry for money 5 while the button, or generally the thimble, as ladies take more interest in marriage than gentlemen, means old maid or bachelor.

Among the many beautiful presents given to the young Queen of Spain on the birth, of the Infanta was a beautiful white fan in. whito satin, exquisitely painted —on one side a goddess in the Boucher style, and on the ether the name of the Princess in forget-me-nots, surmounted by a royal crown, also composed of forget.me-nota in turquoises.

Fans are of cretonne in three panels, if we may so express it, the centre one being plain and of a neutral tint, on which is hand-painted some amusing design, such as a couple of mice, lady and gentleman gravely bowing to each other, or a pair of robins on a bough holding an umbrella over their heads.—Melbourne Bulletin.

The best way of keeping a riding hat securely on is to have a double elastic sewn at each side; five cord clastic is the best. Two of these make it very firm, provided it is tight enough and not too tight. Be quite sure that the hat fits perfectly ; if not, and it has a tendency to come off, a slight pad, back and front, under the head lining, will make it all right.

Tiny gold and silver moons are fashionable in Paris at present, vice the miniature pig which lately has been suspended to nearly every bracelet or watch chain, and is now only used for a shoe-buckle. The cock ia also a favorite emblem, and large fans are painted with ehantileers' heads in natural colors, and the English salutation " Q-ood Morning."

A quantity of lace ruche is worn round the necks of morning dresses, necklets are seen on dark dressess bordering the ruche, and contrast well with the dress fabric. These necklets are sometimes of medium sized pearls, sometimes of gold ribbon with a small lamb in either gold or enamel suspended from the centre—a symbol of the Golden Fleece. The tiny pig affected in the spring has disappeared.—Melbourne Bulletin.

Maria Theresa of Austria was proud of her golden hair, which hung around her like a robe touching the gi-ound. She loved, but her lovo was tempered with hard, stern, unflinching justice. The woman and the mother were entirely merged in the Q,ueen, and yet, when her husband died, she cut off her flowing locks and buried them in his coffin as the greatest token of her love.

Frank AY. Bichardsou, aged 35, and described as an accountant, and " the son of a veterinary surgeon," has married Charlotte Gordon, aged 4i, at the Register Office, Yarmouth. The aforosaid Frank is the lad who figured as a correspondent in the Newman Hall divorce case, and the aforesaid Charlotte is the respondent in that case, where counsel described her as twenty years older than Frank, and whom she was in the habit of kissing "in a motherly way.'