LADY BOWEN'S RECEPTIONS.
A facetious gentleman in Auckland, writing to a friend in Dunedin, gives the following fancy description of the receptions at Government House : - Lady B is a Greek—she is—and " receives" every Saturday, a proceeding which she announces in the papers,no doubt having good precedent for it—yet it appears to me somewhat in the form of the Marylebone Workhouse, " Soup between 12 and 1— Paupers must bring their cans!" Perhaps you have never been in the neighborhood of a workus, and can't enjoy the associative idea. I don't envy you. As you may some day have the felicity of being in a place where there is a governor, it may not seem intrusive, impertinent, or self-inflated—-(Happy thought: vol. 19, chap, xxxy, " On thetendencyof Man tobounee "), to give you an idea of the programme. On entering you shake hands with the butler, and enquire if the " Old un " is about —this is a Greek term expressing exalted rank, and was first used by Alexander the Great in speaking of his father Philip of Macedon, who took Byzantium.— (Vide Plutarch's lives—cheap edition as you can get.) When you have entered and looked admiringly at the twenty or thirty pilloried victims sitting in uncomfortable positions, you are expected to pull a front lock—scrape the foot backwards (have you ever seen T. P. Cooke ?) and hitch up behind—above all things, hitch up behind. She adores the sea, and you mus'n't forget to hitch up behind. There are plenty subjects of conversation. If it's hot weather, talk about the sewer—it's so palpable, and everybody can talk about it; or a little bantering facctiousness about the Governor's allowance. If their little boy comes in, give him a penny ! There are always snug little sinecures about a Court, and who knows ? The most effective dress for visiting is corduroy trousers tied at the knee, a plush weskit with mother o'pearl buttons, a cut-away claret coloured coat, and a comforter. Js T ever omit a comforter. It seems to indicate a family man, and it looks airy, particularly in hot weather.
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Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 599, 28 December 1869, Page 2
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344LADY BOWEN'S RECEPTIONS. Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 599, 28 December 1869, Page 2
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