AT THE DRAWING-ROOM.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 979, 17 September 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

AT THE DRAWING-ROOM.

MR. LABOUCHERE TAKES NOTES AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE. DESCRIBES THE DRESSES, AND PEEPS INTO THE CARRIAGES. The show of beauty at the drawingrooms, especially on Thursday, was remarkable (says the London Truth), but certain married ladies were considered to bear off the palm. The animadversion of the Queen on the extreme lowness of the dresses worn last year has borne fruit, as there was hardly one during the week to which any objection could have been taken. A fashion has lately sprung up of ladies coming to the Palace with gloves of every sort of color. Of this the Queen strongly disapproves, and it is expected that a hint will be given that only white gloves are to be worn in future. Most of the carriages were fearfully shabby. There were not more 'thi.au that would have befen considered eligible for a progress to the Palace thirty years ago. There was a thoroughly slovenly appearance about horses, carriages, and

servants in the majority of cases. The Queen refused to receive a peeress who became a widow not very long ago, and who has since contracted a second, marriage. It is amusing to watch the different demeanor of the ladies who wait for such long houria in their carriages on the Mall. Some are, or artfully appear to be, utterly unconscious of the gaze of the crowd ; others almost court it; while a few are distressingly self-conscious. Various are the devices for whiling away the time. In one brougham I observed a lady and gentleman playing cards. In another a young girl was threading beads. In several the perusal of a novel was going on. In a few, fact, in newspaper form, was preferred to fiction. In one brougham were two lovely girls and a still beautiful mother. Each held an enormous bouquet of such flowers as stephanotis, gardenia, and yellow rosebuds, the whole framed and shaded with maidenhair. The coachman and footman had bunches of similar flowers in their coats, and even the carriage lamp had its complement

of blossoms. One of the debutantes carried a large and tasteful bouquet of ox-eye daisies and maidenhair. Another bouquet, of daisies only, was less successful ; and a third, a signal failure, was a limp group of forget-me-nots. A bouquet of pansies, dark and yellow, with yellow roses and maidenhair, was one of the. loveliest I saw. One young girl carried a flower fan instead of a bouquet. The frame was covered with moss on either side, and in this were fastened ox-eye daisies and wood anemones.- I observed a dress on which lilac sunflowers were displayed. Is this meant to be an improvement on nature ? The British rough delights in puffing rank tobacco smoke in at the carriage windows, and is by no means reluctant to cast rude remarks in the same direction. At the same time one can but wonder that the ladies who have to face such a battery of glances do not wear some kind of veiling drapery over the arms and shoulders which the exigencies of Court dress display so freely. Only in two instances had this been done on Thursday last, and one of these was in the case of the two Indian ladies presented to Her Majesty.