The World.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2215, 18 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

The World.

[The following paragraphs are extracted from the London society papers and other journals.] The garden-party at Marlboroughhouxe on Saturday afternoon was very well done iudeed, and although tho number of guests far exceeded anything ever attempted before, there was u commendable absence of in oonvenient overorowding. The weather watt splendid, and the arriral of the Queen some time before she was expected led to a very creditable display of agility on the part of the Priuco of Wales, who ran to receive her, and conducted her to a seat before the nouudiug board erected for the use of the Russian Choir. The guests formed a dense semicircle behind her : the Comtesse do Paris sat between Her Majesty and the Princess of Wales, who looked charming in a dress of striped mauve and white. Her daughters wore simple cream-coloured gowns. After the performance was over Her Majesty congratulated M. d' A«reneff and his wife and then walked about the grounds, leaning on the arm of the Prince, the visitors forming alleys to let them pass.^ The Duke of Cambridge escorted the Princess of Wales. The West Indian band saluted her Majesty somewhat inauapiciously with '• Dowu amongst the Dead Men. ' Mr Goschen was the political lion of the hour. Mr Francis Knollyi wis much congratulated by the ladies. The Duke of Teck, as usual, deserted the Royal circb for more congenial society. The Colonial ladies appeared in the most charming summer costumes. The refreshments were excellent. The Prince and the Princess did their utmost to please their guests ; and at half-past six the departure of the Queen, who went over to S. James's Palace to see the Duchess of Cambridge, was the signal for a general exodus, which partook somewhat of the nature of a stampede. The Princess of Wales looked charming in a dress of gray in two shades opening over panels of white. Her daughters in white cr6pe made a pretty group with Princess Victoria of Teck in pink. The Comtesse de Paris wore deep red. The Duchess of Westminster looked well in white, which was also worn by Lady Airlie and Lord Mayo. Lady Archibald Campbell appeared in one of those eccentricities in dress which only she dare wear, and was a great contrast to Lady Walter Campbell in her very Parisienne dress. Lady Cynthia Dunoombe shone among all the beauties of this season ; Lady Mandeville among the Transatlantic beauties, though Miss Winslow claimed sorao admiration. The pilgrimage of tho " Indians " to see the great Mother at Windsor on Thur*. day afternoon will live long in the memory of the inhabitants of the Royal borough. Dr. Tyler's natives of Hindustan, from B'ikshi Ram.f aged 1 2, to Rum Lai, aged 9, donned their Sunday best ; Mr Hawtayne's Red; Indians were made presentable by a timely supply of blankets ; the Hong-Kong bazaar contributed six of, its inmates ; Messrs King sent down their Goa buys ; South Africa was represented by Hadji Meah, his family, and four Kaffirs ; and the Australian bushraan brought down the wife of his bosom with a baby on her back. State carriages awaited their arriral. The proceedings at the Castle commenced appropriately with refreshment. The Red Indians did noc disdain the meat and wine, while the more scrupulous Hindoos and Moslems were fed tenderly on fruit, innocuous jellies, and nherbet. The reception took place in the Waterloo Gallery, which certainly never witnessed a more striking spectacle. The Hindustanees knelt, offered their nuzzars, and kissed the Queen's feet, who endeavoured in vain to htay the demonstrative loyalty of the venerable Bakshi Ram ; Shahban, the corpulent kinkab weaver, charmed her Majesty with the popular song of "Bulbnl Bulbul;" scholarly Nazir ' Hus«en, the miniaturepainter, intoned the Uidu ode which ho nad wiitten in houour of the occasion ; the Goa boys knelt as if they were at confession ; the Kaffirs played on some barbarous instrument ; the Red ludian blowpipe mau missed the'target ; and the Bushman twanged pitilessly on his oste-stringed haro. The Queen's Jubilee is to be celebrated by one sensible step, at any rate. The Royal portrait on the coinage is to be brought down to date, and the Queen has given Mr Boebra a sitting for the purpose. Though the formal celebration of the Queen's Jubilee has been postponed until next year, the items of the celebration are being already discussed. That the general programme will depend to some extent on the Ministry that will be in power may be taken for granted ; but certain features will, in any case, mark the auspicious event. One of these will be the conferring of a profusion of honours, which will be chronicled in a special Jubilee number of the Gazette. If rumour is to be relied on, two Royal dukedoms will be created for the Queen's sons-in-law, and Prince Christian and Prince Henry of Battenberg will be included in the list. Prince Albert Victor will also be created a duke, and the discussion in Royal circles as to what his title shall be is already said to be most animated. An Imperial complexion will be given to the Jubilee Gazette by the inclusion of an unusual number of Indian and Colonial celebrities. I am glad to hear that Sir William Gull, who has been very seriously ill indeed, is now rapidly recovering. Prince Bisraark was asked by a friend what Germany contemplated to do in regard to Batoura. He replied, " Geimany will have nothing to do with English cats and English chepnuta." The Quakers in Ireland have nearly all declared for the Union, and proved a Society of Friends to the Conservative cause. A large number of Quakers, who by business aptitude and industry made fortunes in Ireland a few generations npro, invested some of their superfluous capital in land and joined the legion of landlords, leavening that body with much shrewdness and common sense. There is to be no Holloway baronetcy after all. The Queen merely directed Sir Henry Ponsonby to express her ♦ ' approval " of the arrangements, and there the master ends. Mr Martin Holloway is officially announced to be suffering from a severe "chill." Instead of having recourse to those simple remedies which we live assurred are " a boon and blessing to every family," he has gone away to recruit his health in the breezy retirements of Lowestoft. One of the shrewdect of Her Majesty's judges is as remarkablo for the quickness of his eyes and ears as for the keenness of his intellect. The other day a stranger in court, espying a friend, addressed him in a stage whisper with "Hallo, old feller ! I haven't seen you lately. Are you all right?" The remark was hardly heard beyond the nearest bystanders, and there was, consequently, considerable bewilderment among those engaged in the case before the court, when the judge, looking up from bis notes, observed, "If the old feller is all right, he had better go outside and say so." It is asserted in the Morning News, an American paper that is published in Paris, that the engagement between Lord Cairns and Miss Grant was broken off because "My Lord " insisted on Mr and Mrs Grant settling an income of £2,000 a year on their daughter from the day of the wedding ; and further that they were required to purchase and furnish a London home for the couple. The same journal states that when tho rupture took place Lord Cairns intimated his intention or sending in the bills for all the jewellery he had given Miss Grant to her parents, whereupon the young lady at once packed up everything she had received from him, and dispatched the parcel to his rooms. Lord Cairns would do well to put foith a public and peremptory denial of such scandalous allegations. Monsignor Parfitt, of Clifton, who died a, few days ago, obtained an extensive

notoriety in 1872, in consequence of the litigation which took place concerning 1 the will of Mr» Connolly, of Midford Cattle, who bequeathed him her large and valuable estates in Somersetshire. Monnignor Parfitt had beon her confessor for many years, and her natural heirs disputed the Will, the case ending in a compromise, under whioh the fortunate and pious legatee got the bulk of the property. He subsequently took up his residence at Midford Castle, where he died. An incident of much interest arose out of Mr Irving's visit to Oxford. In Mm address at the University he opoka of the last days of Edmund Kean, who died without a ten-pound note. A few days after, Mr Irving received a letter from Mr Robert Browning endowing the purse —of slightly faded green silk— found iv the pookot of the groat actor after his death, " without a sixponoe therein." It was given by Charles Kean to John Foreter, and by him to the poet, who now sends it to the actor in due succession. "JJow oan I more worthily place it," gracefully Writes Mr Browning, *• than in your hands, if they will do me the honour to take it, along with all respect and recrard ?" I understand that the new Gilbert and Sullivan opera will be placed in rehearsal during the next month. This does not, of course, in any way imply that the work will be produced immediately afterwards. It is quite possible that 44 The Mikado" may run for some time yet ; but as Sir Arthur Sullivan will during half of September and nearly all October be busily occupied at the Leeds Festival, it is only prudent to be ready for eventualities. Of course the subject of the new opera ii kept a profound secret. It is, however, a fact that the authors communicated to their American representatives the suggestion that the plot should be laid in Egypt. It is possible this plan has since been changed, and it is indeed all the more probable as the idea has leaked out. It is understood that the story of the forthcoming work will be based upon Mr Gilbert's sketoh 4< Ages Ago," written for the German Reeds, and now out of print. Whether the scene will be laid in Egypt or in England in the Gregorian era is only a detail-