"The Distaff."

Waikato Times, Volume 2188, Issue XXVII, 17 July 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

"The Distaff. "

'M ifttIMROSE DAY IN LONDON. 'primrose Day," however one'i political? sentiments may have inclined, was a very pretty spectacle in the fashionable districts of London. It happened to be Che firsi (lay on which the sun had shone, and although a keen east wind was still blowing, ♦verything looked bright, and the young, tender, green shoots made visible progress between morning and 'evening. Primroses were everywhere, in baskets at the edges of the pavement, in vases and receptacles of every dimension, from the fine old talad bowl of family tradition to the nursery mug, or even the familiar teacup, on window-sills. The park was gay with carriages, which were really moving bowers of primroses ; tufts in the horses' heads, bouquets in the servants' breasts, little bunches ranged along the front of the glasses, and the fair occupants carrying great nosegays of the once humble flower and wearing them in profusion set upright in the marvellous bonnets made by Madame Isabel, the "GirtonGirl." Houses in the aristocratic quarters were decorated with masses of primroses, strings of them festooning windows and doors, and before the house df tiady ' Dorothy Nevill, in Charles strtefc, Berkeley square, a trophy was erected which was % triumph of floral combination. A " primrose dance* was given on the same evening by a lady whom I know ; but it was not rery successful as a demonstration, though it Went' off very well as a dance. Primrose yellow is not Hked as an eveuinp colour, and the young ladies will not sacrifice " the becoming" to their political proclivities. Two very young 1 , newly married ladies, sisters, b*th foreigners, and very dark, looked wonderfully *elj in primrose' satin, covered with black lace, and sprinkled all over with richly-fed Hungarian garnets. Fans made of primroses, both real and artificial, placed in the lightest framework, were to be seen in scores, and shoes of the mauve primrose satin, embroidered with the yellow primrose, were quite a successful fautasie. Primrose jewellery is bscoming a speciality, and primrose buttons are so pretty, and form such a delicate finish to a dress that they "are largely adopted without anyarriere pensee aHout Lord Beaconsfield on the part of tlje fair wearers. In fact, the flower i» fast losing 1 its late imposed political ■gntficance ftom the fact of its being much too pretty to be made | a monopoly. The pale yellow flowers were very freely worn in the House of Commons on Primrose Day liy Liberals and Radicals. I did not hear if any Irish members sported a primrose. Madame Isabel displayed a windowful of beautifully-made primroses, and real bunches mingled with them were only to be recognised by the touch. The French flowers were bought up so rapidly for sash-bouquets that Madame Isabel had to fill the window in the afternoon with real ones, which were greatly praised by passers-by as being " wonderfully natural." — From a Lady Correspondent.