PRINCESS LOUISE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1938, Page 4

PRINCESS LOUISE

DAUGHTER OF QUEEN VICTORIA, i : ONE WHO' SET A PRECEDENT. Few people realise that in the seclusion of Kensington Palace there lives a daughter of Queen Victoria who has celebrated her ninetieth birthday. She is Princess Louise, the old Queen’s eldest surviving child and the oldest member of the Royal Family. She; herself, was one of the few babies born at Buckingham Palace (says a “Sunday Express” representative). Her brother is the 88-year-old Duke of Connaught. Princess Louise was a beauty in her youth, 'and is still one of the bestlooking members of the Royal Family. She has sat for her portrait to famous artists, including Winterhalter, yet she hates being photographed and boasts that she is the Princess who is never recognised. Formerly she would travel the Continent as Mrs Campbell, unattended and unknown.

Born in ’4B, “the year of European revolt,” she was a pioneer among rebel daughters. Again and again she has been the first Royal lady to make some particularly democratic gesture. She was the first Princess of the Blood for many genel'ations to marry out of the Royal circle.

It was with great reluctance that Queen Victoria gave her consent to her daughter’s marriage with a commoner, the Marquis of Lome, afterwards Duke of Argyll. It was this marriage which set the precedent which has been followed as recently as the wedding ’of the present Duke of Gloucester.

“Dear Mamma’s” wishes are still respected in many small matters at Kensington Palace. There has never been a more staunch upholder of the dignity of the Crown than Princess Louise, though she is the most unconventional member of her family.

“May I summon your car, ma’am?” she was asked one day.

“No, thanks,” she replied, “I’ll take a taxi. You see, on Saturdays the car goes to Frogmore to fetch the weekend vegetables, so I just manage without.” She has always composed her own speeches, writes many letters herself, and gives personal attention to all those which she receives.

It has been her pleasure to maintain a vast correspondence with overseas friends and to send seasonal greetings to the various regiments of which she is colonel-in-chief.

Even regular visitors to Kensington Gardens seldom know that the statue of Queen Victoria which stands there is the work of Princess Louise, who is also an accomplished painter. She has often exhibited at Scottish exhibitions, and has until recently been engaged in completing water colours in her studio. The Princess has always taken an interest in domestic affairs, and had a habit of drawing little designs to show the cook how a dish was to look when finished.

One of her greatest distinctions is that she is among the few women living or dead who were admired by Carlyle, who thought her “uncommonly pretty, and clever, too. v