WOMAN’S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1926, Page 19

WOMAN’S WORLD

A MAID IN MAYFAIR.

GOSSIP FROM LONDON TOWN. MR. BRUCE AND THE DUCHESS, (From Our Tauly Correspondent.) London, Oct. 21. The Duchess of York was hostess the other day to the Australian Prime Minister and Mrs. Bruce, whom she and the Duke entertained at luncheon in the red and gold dining-room of Lady Strathmore’e house in Brufon-street. The Duchess hae done very little entertaining on her own account since her marriage, because she and the Duke have so far no town house. This particular little function gave her a good deal ot pleasure, especially because, in the absence in Scotland of . her father and mother, the little party was entirely her own. She was able also to discuss with Mr. Bruce her impending visit, to Australia. She makes a charming hostess, has a gift of interesting conversation. and the art of putting guests at once at their ease, and the luncheon was a pleasantly informal affair, thanks to her. Mrs. Bruce, who is still young, vivacious, and keenly interested in hei Husband's work and career, was charmed by her hostess, and she and the Premier much enjoyed what was their first official social function since arrival. They will have opportunities of becoming better acquainted .with the Duke and Duchess when ..they visit Australia next year. ATPROAU3IING PARTINGS. It is not only the Duehess of York Jierself who will be leaving a treasured nursery . behind her when Her Royal Highness sails for Australia. Among the entourage which has been already •arranged for the royal tour is Lady Cavan, who will be accompanying hei husband. And she also will be temporarily parted from the two little daughters to whem she is devoted. The elder Miss Daphne Mulholland, is the posthumous child of her first maiviage. As Lady Joan Mulholland, Lady Cavan will be remembered as formr lady-in-wating to Princess Mary, Vieouiitess La seelies. A half-sister of Lord feti afford, she is also a niece of Lord Byng, so her relationship with the ex-Gov-ernor-General of Canada establishes m advance, as it were, a personal link wita the Colonics. FOR THE PRINCE.

One of the most cherished possessions of the Prince of Wales is the first por-trait-other than a camera —that hae yet been made of the Princess Elizabeth. His Royal Highness’s small nieco “sat” for a pencil drawing, during her stay at Glanris, to a young artist who has so happily captured the baby's most wideawake mood, not to mention the smile, she has inherited from hex mother, that it would really seen the tiny maid knew all about it! I am told this recent gift to the Prince is much envied by many of. his relatives. One of the prettiest incidents, by the way, of that little' sojourn at the Duchess’s Scottish home occurred on a day when an excited little crowd wae gathered beneath the windows, hoping for a glimpse of mother and babe. Presently the smiling “little Duehess” appeared in full view, took one dimpled baby hand in her own, and blew kisses with it to the delighted spectators. NOT FOR PUBLICATION. Nothing will persuade Queen Maud of Norway (now on a Visit to England) to follow the example of some of . her royal contemporaries whose writings have been given to the world. “Not for publication”, .is Her Majesty's unswerving ■ decree. Yet some of her friends could bear witness that, if she liked, she could' write a fine drama. Her love of the theatre is well known, and particularly her keen appreciation of plays in the cpigrammatically witty category. Her Majesty’s own wit, incidentally! is - the delight of her inti; mates. But when she puts pen to paper it is for the entertainment only of her friends. Her English visits nre characteristically devoid of publicity and “fuss.” She likes nothing better than to stroll oft' on a. shopping expedition in London, and has a special liking for London modes, as displayed at the saloons whose owners are personally known to Her Majesty. At present she is staying at Appleton House preparatory to the royal re-oceupation of Sandringham,- but Loudon will see her before Christniis time. MRS. PIHLLIP SNOWDEN. > If the report of Mrs. Philip'Snowden's appointment aa a member of the Broadcasting Commission proves to be true, the will be complimented on a shrewd selection. The general public will probably be more cordial than the Socialists with whom Airs. Snowden’s . frankness, especially about Russia, has lost her some favour. But that distiurbs her iittle, for site is well able to take care of herself and her opinions. Formerly a school teacher,, she Jias retained her interest in education, and she is an enthusiastic user of the wireless, having a set in her country cottage in Surrey. She holds. I believe, a high opinion of its possibilities as an educational medium. In spite of tlie great amount of public work she does, she is a devoted wife, and is one of the most frequent visitors to the House, of Commons. Hex friendships are not ■ limited to her parly though she has a sharp Yorkshire tongue, slie has a warm heart.

COUNTRY WEDDINGS. A mother of three charming daughters was bewailing to me to-day the fashion for country rather than town weddings, which entail so mueh more expense for the bride’s family. If the wedding is at a fashionable West End elnireh the reception afterwards need not be at all an expensive function, and certainly need not last mote than a couple of hours. In the country a .wedding, is a far more formidable affair, because everyone with whom the bride’s family is even - distantly, acquainted must be asked, and 300 guests are not at all unusual. In addition,. .there are relations who must. either be put up in the house or bedded cut in the nearest

hotels. In any case, additional domestic help will have to be engaged. “My eldest daughter was married in town,” said the lady, “and the actual wedding day cost me'£7s, My second daughter is being married in our own village next week, and I shall bo lucky if 1 escape under £3fio.” ANIMALS’ SPA. I was talking the other day to a friend from the North who said that the thing that always impressed him in London was the general kindliness to animals. The cats are sleeker and more numerous than in any provincial city, the pigeons are overfed, and there is a bird sanctuary in Hyde Park. London is the only city where there is a free dispensary for the animals of the pool. Recently I met Mrs. M. F. Dickin, the founder of this dispensary, and she told me that there will soon be a hospital and sanatorium fox poor people’s pets. It is going to bo erected at Ilford, and will serve the whole of London. There are to be cat wards and dog wards, isolation houses, an X ray equipment, everything a modern hospital hae; even lecture rooms for students. The patients Will.' be collected in animal ambulances from the dispensaries, and a telephone message will bring an ambulance immediately to any part of London.

TOBACCO AND LADIES. Lady Eleanor Smith has emulated Mr. Baldwin Ivy smoking a long day churchwarden at lunch in the Cheshire Cheese. Lord Birkenhead’s clever daughter, who much resembles her father, might almost claim, young as she still is, to be a pioneer of feminine devotion to My Lady Nicotine. She was one of the first of “the best people” to smoke publicly ill America, where not so long a<ro Mrs. Pat Campbell was asked to leave a hotel because she lit a cigarette in the lounge. The present century was six years old when I saw a charming ladv, dining at Gatti's with hex husband and friends, ordered to put out her cigarette by the manager. And, to to show the state of public opinion then, the latter had been summoned by a bonified waiter. Quite nice ladies now light up on the tbps of buses. But there is no great demand for these fancy pipes for women that the West End shops, displayed after the War. THE ÜBIQUITOUS GASPER. The big tobacco firms must have added immensely to their revenue since smoking became a feminine habit. Because nowadays the woman who does not smoke is alfiiost as great an exception as one who wears long hair. And most ]ady smokers are prone to indulge to excess. But they seem to eschew the pipe or the cigar, and favour the gasper, smoked now by the smartest women through long coloured holders a la Prince of Wales. Yet there were women cigar smokers before George Sands, and, apart from quaint old Irish women who nursed nose-warmers, some women smoked pipes a generation ago. I recall one who was an inveterate clay p-ipe smoker. She was in other respects an ultra-conventional L.C.C. school mann. Respectable Victorians with whom she stayed use to wink at the smell of pipe tobacco in her room, and regard her as just a little mad.

‘'TOUCHING!” It is useless to elose one's eyes to self-evident facts apart from smoking our eyes inform us that Quite Nice ladies imbibe cocktails with imperturbable nonchalance and travel habitually in first-class smokers. They have also, as a later development, involved themselves deeply and darkly in the mysteries of the Turf. One intrepid tempter of the equestrian Fates—a self-con-fessed “incurable”—confided to me over the tea cups that she had had an “awful yean” So bad. in fact, that even her bookie, with whom she conducts breathless transactions over the telephone, was moved to tears. Or if not quite to tears, to a profoundly sympathetic appreciation of the probable effect on her nerves. For he sent her a Gargantuan flask of eau-de-cologne, handsomely encased in a satin-lined box and lavishly beribboned, as an ultimate touch of delicacy, with the half-mourning hue of mauve. - “ORIGINAL” WEDDINGS. Conventional white .satin is rapidly becoming the exception rather than the rule for Mayfair wedding's. The Bright. Young People about to approach the altar are all for originality, and no modern Mayfair bride has any use for the old practice of “leaving it to the dressmaker.” One well-known designer, in .fact, assured me; she. was sometimes harrassed to dentil by "in-structions.” Mayfair maids breeze in on her like miniature whirlwinds? with their own patterns and their own ideas. A ery definite ideas, too; as didactic as they are unorthodox. And to add to the poor dressmaker's woes,. it is by no ■means an unheard of thing, when all the' details have been arranged at last, to find the bride-to-be rushing in again with the news that she hail changed her mind about (Ac sartorial setting for the Great Day.

AN ACTRESS'S FARM. Theatregoers who happen also to be lovers of animals will have a specially “soft spot” for Miss Fay Compton. Every now ami then, at her beautiful old farm near Godalming, she boards some workworn horse that neede a change, and ensures that everything is done for its comfort .luring its little holiday. Miss tMmpton is kept supplied with pensioners by the Peoples’ Dispensary for Sick Animals, who would doubtless like to see this humanitarian example copied by others who are in a a position to help with the good work. One of tub most - charming aspects of the actress’s farmyard, by the way, Is the old-world ' dovecote that is her special delight. And to see Fay Compton surrounded by her doves is to realise how prefectly ' they are in the picture with her gentle beauty.