Royalty At Home

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 98, 12 May 1937, Page 14

Royalty At Home

PREPARING FOR THE CORONATION

CFrom Our Own Cor»spondent.) London, Aprih- 8. For the first .time slnce King George V.'i death the Royal Court has gone into residence at Windsor Castle. The interior of that historic pile has been undergoing .extensive alterations and redecorations, hut it was ready by Monday, when the King and Queen, with their children, xnoved over from the Windsor Park royal lodge, where they spent Easter. Except for occasional day visits to London, which will be made by car, their Majesties will remain at the Castle until the beginning of May, when they will retum to Buckingham Palace for the Coronation. Amongst the engagements the King will fulfil in London before then is the unveiling of the Guards* memorial to his father in Wellington Barracks. Buckingham Palace will remain closed until the Court comes to town for the Coronation. It is no secret that King George himself will not be sorry when the latter is over and done with. Prime Mimster's Guests. The King and Queen will dine at No. 10 after the Coronation as the guests of the Prime Minister and Mrs. Baldwin. This will be the first time the King has been there. Queen Elizabeth has, however, attended one or two concerts there. Lady Oxford a few days ago related her experienceS as hostess to King George and Queen Mary when they dined at No. 10 after their Coronation 26 years ago. With pardonable pride she spoke of the tremendous interest Queen Mary displaycd in the Cabinet Room, and in the 'seating arrangements for Cabinet Mirusters whose «names were familiar to her. That was the first time a sovereign and his Consort had honoured the Prime Minister at dinner in No. 10, but King Edward VII. called on Sir Henry Campbell Bannerman when that Prime Minister lay ill there. Mrs. Baldwin is cogitating as to the after-dinner entertainment for her royal guests. Lady Oxford, 1 recall, put on two short plays for King George and Queen Mary. Emblem Day. King George, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary are taking personal interest in Emblem Day, something between a Queen Alexandra Rose Day and Remembrance Day, which has been planned to take place in London on May 10 and elsewhere on May 8. Millions of pretty red, white and blue emblems have been made by disabled ex-service men from all British mate.mls, and they are to be sold in the streets, restaurants, hotels, railway stations and all places where there are likely to be sympathetic buyers. The proceeds of the sale are to be divided between King George's Jubilee Trust Fund and the British Legion Pensxon -fiund. Among the 3000 organisihg committees preparing for the sale, 200 %»• ansut plao»s as far °way a*

the Falkland Islands, Copenhagen, Helsingfors, Ascension Island, Seychelles, Jerusalem, Belgian Congo, Pekin, Afghanistan, Bucharest, Persia and Java. No price is placed on the emblems, which will be sold by bands of voluntary workers, but fla^s for motor-cars cost half a crown each. Queen of Norway. Queen Maud of Norway, who arrived in England last week, has come to do Coronation shopping and then to have a quiet holiday at her Norfolk home near Sandringham before the ceremony at Westminster Abbey on May 12. The Queen is lookihg very well, and is full of interesting news of her small grandson, of whom the whole of Norway is proud. The baby was christened just before Queen Maud left for her jouniey across the North Sea. Now she is concerned with choosing her gowif for the Coronation, and will doubtless confer with Queen Mary before finally deciding upon colour, material and style. This will be the third Coronation she has attended in the Abbey— the first, her father, King Edward's; the second, her brother, King George V.'s; and now her nephew's, King George. VI. Gone to Brighton. Princess Beatrice, great-aunt or the King, does not often leave her charming suite of rooms in Kensington Palace except to go at the height of summer to the Isle of Wight, of which she is Governor. She has been persuaded, however, to spend a week or *so at Brighton, and is there now, thoroughly enjoying the sunshine and the company of a little group of friends with whom she is staying. Although she is 80 this month the Princess still possesses a great zest for life. She would be very disappointed if her personal friends felt that she was too old or too frail to be invited to the functions she has been in the habit of attending, and she is as fond as ever of music and of embroidery. Best of all, however, she enjoys. long talks with her contemporaries about old times, but she is never heard to regret the past or to compare it with the present to the disparagement of the latter. Soyal Treasures. ®!fhe number of gifts and loans for the Blyal Treasures Exhibition that is to ^jttn on Monday exceeds all expectations. t^lny relics, the very existence of which' wifc unsuspectcd. have been unearthed from old country mansions all over the country. Scotland, -in particular, has shown herself particularly rich in treasures of the Stuart period, the relics ranging from a dirk that belonged to Prince Okarae lo a lovely single pearl worn by the unfortunate Charles 1. M.embers of the present Royal family have also given sp^ndid support to the exhibition. Queen Elizabeth has tent a miniatur* of Princese Elizabeth which

has never before Itfl the table by her bed-side. It shows the Princess leaning out of a window. a pose so happily expressed in the delightful series of photographs which were talcen of the two little girls at the front of the miniature cottage given to them by the Welsh people. King George has sent an antique clock given by Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn, while the Princess Royal will be pleasantly represented by a magnificent fan of jay's feathers, initialled with diamonds, which Queen Alexandra carried on many official occasions. Duke of Gloucester — 37. The Duke of Gloucester was 37 years of age la£t week. To a friend the other day he remarked that he would have good reason to remember his 37th year. It had produced a totally unexpected change in his life, and former ambitions as to a career had been completely "lulocked over." This is absolutely true, for twelve months ago the Duke was concentrating on an Army career, with the command of his own regiment, the 10th Hussars, -in the probably near future. These hopes have been abandoned. Certain military titles have been conferred upon him, but he would have preferred qualifying for them by another route. As the King's right hand man the Duke will have important duties to perform during the Coronation. He is making himself responsible, so far as possible, for receiving the royal guests on their arrival in London. He discharged the first of these missions on Sunday when Prince Chicliibu and the Japanese Princess arrived here. It was not inappropriate that the Duke should welcome the Prince, for he headed the Garter Mission to Japan several years ago, and spent some time in the Prince's company in his own country. His birthday was a purely family affair. Coronation Shadows. The Coronation casts its shadow before in many odd directions. It has probably occurred to very few people that the present absurd price we are paying for salmon is directly due tc the tremendous invasion of visitors that is looked for in the . month of May. The retail traders make no secret of the fact. They tell customers that the reason for the shortage is that the fish are being kept "in the water' in anticipation of a huge demand for Coronation lunches and banquets. That is the reason why Scotch salmon is now fetching anything from five to six shillings a pound. It will be interesting to see if in this, as in other respects, Coronation expectations are actually realised. Though we hear of fabulous rents being paid for flats, and ot hotels alrendy turning visitors away, it is a fact, i believe, that seats to view the procc-sion are not selling as rapidly as was expected. The government seats are the cheapest of all. but there is a possibility that there may be bare spols ovm on the official standa,