THE QUEEN AND THE NECKLACES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2459, 14 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE QUEEN AND THE NECKLACES.

Tut: Queen has (says a London correspondent) taken groat care that all her daughters shall have fine pearl necklaces for their shapely nocks. She has looked after them in that respect from their very babyhood. One of her first purchases after tho birth of each has been two or three pearls (of which jewel the Queen ia very fond) ; and every year until their marriage she has added a pearl or two to her stock, until the necklace she required was ready. In this quiet economical way she has been enabled to make up a rope of pearls for each of the Princesses; and those who have seen the necklaces at Court will boar me out in saying that the Queen's daughters arc, so far as pearls go, well supplied with jewellery. Thereby hangs a tale, for which tho correspondent can vouch. Some years ago Her Majesty bought from a well-known Loudon pearl merchant three very beautiful pearls, the united cost; of which was not far short of £-300. Four hundred and eighty pounds is the nox t sum mentioned. They pleased Royalty greatly, and were paid for without demur. A little while after the purchase had been made the merchant was surprised to receive a letter from a lady at Court saying l , " Tho Queen wants very much to know whether pearls will burn." The reply to this somewhat startling scientific inquiry was an assurance that if Her Majesty wished to oxygonise pearls for her amusement she would find that they would burn in an ordinary fire. This rejoinder produced the secret. The Queen had placed ths pearls on her writing-desk in a piece of the tissue paper which jewellers use. As she was writing - one morning she used the tissue paper to wipe her pen, and threw it into the fire. Tho pearls, all unobserved, wont with it. Tho ashes of the grate were searched for them in vain. They had been destroyed so utterly as to leave no trace. The Queen with her own hand had cast throe splendid jewels, worth more than the average income of her middle-class subjects, into tho blaze. Pearls have not since been kept ou tho Royal writing-table.