A LADY'S LETTER FROM LONDON

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 246, 14 March 1888, Page 6

A LADY'S LETTER FROM LONDON

(By Elisk. }

fFor the San Francisco Mail of January 23.)

Precis. AFORrvmi 1 ' or Voa— WiiA'nr.V) Hm/nt'slm pki-oxmisxt-A Foolish Don Qmxoru— Tii.tinc; v\ iniijiim,> — Kktkjng William Ofßimc\»Tiu:Quttt;N'sSAi>MisHAV--l\\O f Bimc\»Tiu:Quttt;N'sSAi>MisHAV--l\\U f nAT, T! PKAKLS-iCijOO KOK TjiKKIJ-IIOW HKK MAJE-STV ACCIDK\T\LI.V J^UKNI' TjIKM A, RdYAL ROW-'I'IIK QUUKN'K JI'HILKi: PlU> skn^vo Tin; Poi'K-— Tui: Ma/.vkix JMhli:— TUX LIUKVKIAVS ]ti:Sl'AlK - AIUM-.AJ. TO Louo SAMSMUiiY-Lucicu.v Crown Pk >- .€IO,OJO-TllK GOLI> Vv\SKB SvLviui Gilt, xot Uold-Awicwahd Di><> vjovkuy — A Social scandal ~ a Lonna .SiiCKKT Mauumui;— .■» SL'i'i'o^]:^ Hachklok AViril A Wll'K AND sl:\'i:il\l. (JUILDItf ,N — Mrss SYUih D)hKAKLi'rf Makhiack-— Lady UUKGLAKS— DaUINO KoHREKY OK Alii Wh.KON ii VKN'KIT— I'II!; TAPIOS 1 C'Ol'K'l' Al-'KAUt — A Good I>i. n: (< n\ r. 6i'ouv--N'l\v ISdii'iox —a Pi'HLisnr.u'h Covi<'i<^ioN's.-f »j:iAJ»iia ■CorVlilttHT -A LUHi\KY fc?AOHII>ICi;D.

London", January 23. Diur Mr Enrrott, — For the greater part of tho last fortnight we have been wiapped In the impenetrable gloom of a dorjse fog, and felt thoroughly miserable. The iirst day or so people don't mind the muddy, dun, dank atmosphere. By contiasr, it mukes one's «>ittiag-room look the coMer, and one'f easy chair by the tiro tho moie comfortable. When, however, morning follows morning without there being any cluing^ m the muggy, fuliginous obscurity and d.tnk, raw cold, tbe cheeriest spirits become dep'es^cd, and the sweetest temper somed. Thank Providence you know nothing of fog in New Zealand. We are all so soiry for Mr Blunt and hi? •wife. Mr Baltour, lam told, is sorrier than anyone. Everybody knows Unit Wilfred Blunt is a superlative Don Quixote, who has been tilting at windmills for the last twenty years, and really ought not to be taken seiiously. Tho (.tovemment, Tom says, honestly tried then-best not to lock himuj>. Airahi and again mutual friends intervened in the hope of modifying the extravagance of the old fellow's proceeding ; but it was no use. Pose as patriot and martyr he nould, and now lie ib in gaol. By-the-by, we are to have great rejoicings in London ne\D week, when Mr CBneu comes home fiom dointr his " bit of time.'" Many Radicals have, I am glad to say, refused to join in the ill-ad \u>eu proceedings*, and it is earnestly hoped amongst us the Grand Old Man won't com-promise himself in any way ■with regard to. them. View O'Brien's .conduct as you will, he deliberately broke the law of the land, and one surely ought not to congratulate a man on doing that. What may be termed the inner circle At Osbotnehave been having a terrible time 1 lteiy owing to an expensive mishap which befell the Queen personally, and for which (this was doubtless the exasperating part of the affair) no one- else . could possibly be blamed. Her Majesty, you must know, has a womanly weakness for pearls. All the b^st that come into the, London market are submitted to .her,. and when the stones prove good she buys rather freely, l'.ach ot the Panccfse- have matchless neeklacee, the' stones for which have been collected by the Queen hoi «elf. When the Princess Royal was born Her Majesty commenced a necklace for her, and when Pi incests Beatrice arrived on tne scene, one for her. When complete these necklaces have generally been made wedding presents. Well, the Queen has now a superb parure in hand for her eldest granddaughter, and shortly before Christmas spent .£4BO on three magnificent pearls. These were kept twisted up in a piece of tissue paper (such as jewellers use) upon a tray on the Queen's private wtiting-table, which no one but Her Majesty ever touches. One morning, •when busy writing, the Queen absently wiped her pen on the tissue paper and flung it into the fire. The pearls went with it, Half an hour later the catastrophe was discovered, and— wdl, perhaps Yd better leave the rest to imagination. Suffice it to say the merchant who fold the gems was startled by a telegraphic message from Osborne asking whether pearls would burn. Much mystified, he replied : " Why certiinly," upon which the royal S3rvants gave up grumbling among.«t the issue. The Queen's jubilee present to the Pope has also been the cause of much heart-burn-,r>g at Court, Her Majesty's first motion was to present tiie rare and curioug *' Mazarin Bible " from the library at Windsor to His Holiness. There are four' Mazarin Bibles* in existence, and the one at Windsor is incomparably the finest copy. ' the librarian was horrified at the idea of its being given away. He remon- ' stra ted, however, quite fruitlessly. The Queen ■aid&he had already mentioned her intonded present to the Pope, and could not draw back. Upon this* the librarian appealed to the Cabinet (or, rafcher, to Lord Salisbury), ! who at once vetoed the gift, on the ground that the Bible was Crown property, and not 4he Queen's at all. Her Majesty, in a fit of temper, thereupon sent oft' a " gold vase and ewer " — so, at least, the gifts were described in the papers. These had barely gone before a letter came from the Vatican thanking the Queen.effusively for her magnificent present (the Bible), which, the writer said, seemed almost too regal a gift under the circumstances, being valued, His Holiness' understood, at ten thousand pound*. The' vase and ewer, upon arrival at Rome, wcroj found to be silver-gilt, and worth, per.- 1 ' hap 3, £150. The Pope's major domo naturally came to the conclusion that the Queen had been swindled, and thought it right to state to tbe Duke of Norfolk that the ornaments were not (as described) gold. His Grace also imagined a mistake had been made, and communicated with 5 Sir H. Ponsonby on the subject. What the Queen said, I haven't heard, but the .silver-gilt articles were promptly replaced by ornaments in the genuine metal. A large reward has been offered by the ] Savage Club for any information that will *cad to the apprehension of poor Mr McNeil's murderer. McNeil was a groat friend of Mr Edward Christie Murray, who &as a memoir in hand, he tells me, for one of the February magazines. London society is in a great s,tate over the discovery that a wealthy and iallueotjal nobleman whom everyone believed to be a bachelor is in reality a married man* and : moreover has several children. Tho gentleman vrbo fondly imagined himself Jaeir-pre sumptive let the cat out of the bag. He had just been told the truth by his relative, and declared furiously that he didn't believe a word of the story. Ib seems that lord ■ - — ' } when a young man, fell in love with his sister's governess. The affair was found out and reported to his mother, the , then Countess, a very strong-minded woman and an autocrat in her, own family. She dismissed the young woman promptly, and, as she fondly thought, pttb- an <end to '-the* business. The young codple, however, ■were too many for her. They waited 1 till' suspicion' passed away and then jrot quiBtly married. 1 Their uni6n was kept a. secret; till the dowager died, the otlier'day.' Tho late heir-at-law professes to entirely disbelieve in the legality of the 'oeremOnyj and the case ib pretty- sure to > come before the Courts. The first fashionable * marriage f of '.fcbe. coming., season -wilUbe that' •'o^Misa- Sybil i Disraeli,, daughter of the, late LordrEiea<joiJij' c ;

field's younger brother, to a popular Scotch laird. Miss Bybil is said to bo very clover and very charming. Her younger sister, Vonetia, will also create a considerable btiv when she comes out. All Mr R-nlph Disraeli's cliildren are named after diameters in Lord Beaeonslifld's novels. Mr (Joningsby Disraeli will stand for the lirsfc suit«bio Conservative borough available, but vwy little is expected of him at the Cavlton. There are lady - doctors, lady ■ tradeswomen, lady- professors, and lady gymnasts •— why not lady-burglais too? This question appears to have suggested itself to and boon aflinuatively answered by a Miss Jane Harding, who was* committed for trial nfc I'ockham yesteulay. In api>caranee Miss Hardmir is tali, distingue, and remarkably well-dieted, yot the evidence clearly implicated her in fully half-a-do^esi deliber- ! ato buighuies. In one case she calmly I broke into an elderly solicitor's villa, ami lobbol him of plate" money, and a pair of gaiters. The old fellow was so staggered by the proceeding thnt he had no nerve to-lomon-tialo. much le^s gi\e the alarm. Perhaps the coolest of recent lobbcries, houewr, was that committed la-jt week upon Mr Wilson Bairett, the actor. Whilst his iurnituio and bric-a-biac wcie being moved in vans from Xoith Dank to anew hou^o ho luib ju&t taken, a s-piing cart drove up containing two men. They piotofcsod to coino from Mr Bauetfc hiif^ult, who, they said, felt anxious with regard to the moving of certain \nhiable bno-a-biac in the biL r vans, ami hadinttiuotcd them to convey all such goods -icius* London in their cart. The two thieve* *utnt two honrb loading up with approved valuables, the innocent van men helping them, and then dro\e oft", leasing not a clue behind them. I Equally successful was the burglary at ' Tuplow Couit, Mr Grenfe-ll's beautiful \ eountiy house on the Thames. Thou Mrs. ! CJrcn fell's. Ledroom was entered whil.^fc the J servants weie at supper and the hou-se party m t!ic billiaid-r00..i, and £4,000 worth ot jewellery (neaily all wedding prcnenti) cairied oIK E\ciy precaution Jiad been taken to hinder puisuit should the thieves be disco\eied. All door& and windows we're fastened up from the outside, and tripping-up wiies tpiev.d ac:os-s> the lawn and drive. j If you care for a good stirring detective stoiy full of incident, and not dc\cul of probability, read "The Pabtenger tiom | Scotland Yard," just issued iv onu volume at. 6^. by Chatto. The alleged author is a Mr H. F. Wood, oi whom no one ever heard, but the style and method of mirra- | tion are Mr Grant Allen's. " One Maid's j Mischief," by George Manville Fenn, id another readable, it not specially note- ; worthy, novel. The action takt.s place. in British Burma!), and a leading incident of the plot describes the kidnapping of a pretty girl by an Indian Ra3ah, who manages to carry her oti without attiacting suspicion to himself . The hibtoiy of the poor girl's captivity, persecution, and final escape aie admirably told. The cheap 5s 6d edition of Mis Henry Wood's novels has been 1 initiated with the publication of " JEatt Lynne," of which, it is stated, no less than 40,000 copies have been sold in Great Britain alone. The type and printing, etc., of the new i^ueare all that could be wished, the neat red binding being specially attractive. Some rather mteiesting facts were stated at a complimentary dinnei given to Mr Edmund Koutledge, the vctcian publisher, the other day. Routledge's firm ha\c done some big things in their time, and with most of them the old man (now ret Ling .from business.) has been intimately associated. In an interesting speech, he recalled how he had worked and thi ived for .50 years, beginning at Carlyle, when parcels came down by mail coach fiom Lone. on. Then he spoke of Koufcledge's successes, , how they sold 100,000 copies of James ' Grant's " Romance of War ' when that enthralling novel jusjb came out, and got rid of 60,000 copies of Guffin's " Collegians " ! during the initial run at the Adelphi oi "Colleen Bawn." "■Uncle Tom's Cabin" was of course a prodigious hit, selling at one time at the rate of 10>000 a day, and of "Queechy" 60,000 were sold, Miv Sto^e recehing a loyalty at the rate of 2d a copy. Thirty-nve years ago Routledge's engaged to pay Lord Lytton £20,000 for a term of ten years, and at the end of that time they bought hi 3 copyrightstraightout for another £20,000. The Staunton Shakspere cost the film £12,000, and other famous publications were equally expensive to initiate. 11 Wo publish 100 bcoks a year,"' wound up Mr Koutiedge, "two a week.'' Uoutledge s are now the principal purveyors of cheap standard works, in which the copyright has run out. The copyrights of Carlyle'b " Sator Besartus " and " French Revolution' expire next month, when we shall be deluged with cheap reprints. I doubt though whether for durability and clear printiug ifc will be possible to excel XJhapman and Hall's recent shilling issue Their cloth edition at Is 6d a volnme is certainly all the most tastidious economist could desire. Poor Mr Wyndham Carter's library was sold at Sotheby's last Wednesday. Some of the prices were most surprising. An exquisite edition in 60 volumes of "BentJoy's Miscellany," which originally cost £70, \ went for £27, and valuable first editions of ; Carlyle and Dr. Doran about a tenth of their ! market value. On the other hand, certain j modern works attracted tip-top bids. Thus 1 a decidedly worn Green's " History, of England/ whioh can be sot new anywhere for two guineas, realised 375, and a "Greville 1 Memoirs in calf, for which Tom would Ja»y« .thought £5 dear, £8. We left a bid of 15s for a first edition of Harry Lorrequer, and fully expected to get it, but the book was not knocked down till 27s was offered.