Gossip from Court

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 7, 23 January 1937, Page 18

Gossip from Court

i Our Own Correspondent)

Royal Friendships

(Fron

liondon, Dec. 24. There is much talk "in Mayfair, naturally, of the new Court circle; The new Queen has always had maify friehds and been the centre of a particularly large family group, Sinee her marriage she and her husband have surrounded themselves with cbarming young married folk of their own age, possessing similar tastes and inclinations. A delightful Irish couple of wJiom they see a great deal are Lord and Lady Plunket, while Viscount and Yiseountess Allendale, their next-door neighbours in ; Piceadilly, . are ^ also counted among their friends. Lady Doris Vyner, a sister of the Duke of Richmond, is " regarded as the Duchess's special personal friend, and Lady Katherine Seymour, a daUghter of the Duke of Abercorn, and before her marri-, age a lady-in-waiting to Queen Mary, with her sister-in-law, the young Marehioness of Hamilton, are others with whom she is on terms of friendship. Lady Raehel Stewart, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, may also be inoluded in the list. "Ntunber Ten.M No numbered residence in the world is so fainous in« history as 10, Downing Street. It stands, in fact, from Kamskatka to Peru, as synonymous with Great Britain. The ramshackle dld house eelebrated its seeond centenary last September twelve months, hut its not unattractive back garden will not have its 200th birthday till next month. It was Waipole, most eynical of British statesmCn, who petitioned the King, two eenturies ago, to grant the Prime Minister the amenities of a garden to his official residence by allowing a strip of St. James* Park tobe walled in round the plaee. That garden has heard many sscrets and witnessed some thriHs. One of the latter was in the seventies of last century, when two worthy knights, great experts on explosive, demonstrated there how to fell a tree with guncotton, and blew in all the windows in the back of the house. . Yet another, and more reeent, was during the police strike, when bobbies in mufti sat on the back wai! and sang songs to a merry accordion obligato. Unwanted Majesty. Those who followed closely the Duke of Windsor 's caiseer sinee the War are persuaded that he profoundly disliked the prospect of ever coming to the throne. This fact may not be important now, but it helps to soften the tragedy of his abdication from his own standpoint. In innumerable ways as Prince of Wales he displayed a dislike of State ritual and publie ceremony. Royal Ascot was almost his bete noir. His tastes Awere opposed to publicity, and favoured simplicity - and even geclusion. There were times, when he was takhig strenuous p 'ar fc in steeplechases and also when he took to the- air,' when mahy people wondered whether there might not be. some sombre impulse bekind an apparent recklessness. His one public assoeiation that did not irk him was when he was attending some military or exservice funetion. He feft at home with the Guards and attended some merry N.C.O. mess celebrations at Wellington barracks. Rumour has it that he was thwarted in an early attachmenf to a beautiful .English girl of l»gh title. A Beautiful Veteran. Frances Countess of \\ m »viek was 75 last Friday, incredible a it may seein. She was a reigning toast when grandfathers of today were in their cradles. She is the grandmother of two earls, Lords Warwick and Feversham, the former of whom has recently undertaken the conquest of Hollywood, and the latter a prqmising junior Minister^ Lady Warwick was an intimate friend of King Edward VII. and Queen Alexandra, and now takes a 11 /ely in- * terest in the doings of all the Royal family. As grand Jaughter of the last Viscount ¥ aynard she inherited . the Ea?' m Lodge property in Essext. and some years ago she- placed che Lodge at the disposal of the Labour Party, of whieh she is an aetive member. fWben Mr. Anthony Eden won his first eleetion at Warwick and Leamington Lady" Warwick was Ma Socialist opponent, a piquant situation, for Mrs. Eden is a stepdaughter of Lady Warwick 's own daughter, Lady Marjorie Beckett, while the mother oi the present Earl of Warwick is Mr. Eden's sister.