THE DUKE AND DUCHESS AT HOME.--THE DUCHESS AS PRINCESS BOUNTIFUL.--THE
DUCHESS AT COURT
Christmas is usually spent by the Duke and Duchess at Welbeck, and one
of the events of the season is the Household Ball to celebrate the
Duke's birthday, which falls on December 28th. It is held in the vast
underground picture-gallery, with the subjects of the old painters
looking down from their canvases upon the gay dancers.
Choice exotics, stately palms and seasonable shrubs add to the variety
of the decorations. The band is almost hidden in a bower of foliage in
the centre of the great saloon, and there are 500 guests of all ranks of
society from peers and peeresses to the humblest domestic servant.
About ten o'olock the Duke and Duchess appear with their house party,
and dancing commences with a Circassion Circle. The Duke has the
housekeeper for partner and the Duchess the house-steward, while the
aristocratic guests find partners among other chiefs of departments in
the Welbeck household.
With midnight comes supper, served in two adjacent underground rooms,
that owe their excavation to the grim hobby of the old Duke. All the
festive party sit down to supper at the same time, the Duke's French
chef providing the menu. The house-steward presides and proposes the
health of the ducal family. This is welcomed in the manner it deserves
and then dancing is resumed in the picture-gallery.
On another evening the children on the Welbeck estate are invited to a
party when the head of a giant Christmas-tree is reared in the centre of
the ball-room, laden with toys for distribution to them, and the
pleasures of the entertainment are varied with the tricks of a conjurer
and ventriloquist. Thus is afforded a glimpse of the happy relations
existing between the Portland family and their retainers.
In the neighbourhood of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Cresswell, and the mining
district between Mansfield and Worksop the Duchess is regarded as a
Princess Bountiful in reality, rather than a creation of fairyland. Her
visits to some of the homes of the miners are generally unexpected; for
instance one Monday morning in the late autumn she rode up to the
unpretending dwelling of a collier to enquire about "an old friend," as
she called him, who had worked in Cresswell pits. A few years before he
had met with an accident and injured his spine. The occurrence came to
the ears of her Grace, who arranged for the patient to visit London to
undergo an operation, which he did, with favourable results. A
bath-chair was obtained for him and since then she had evinced
sympathetic interest in his condition.
As may well be imagined appeals to the Duchess's sympathies are made
from all quarters. One day she is taking the chair at the annual meeting
of the Children's Hospital at Nottingham. On another day the Nottingham
Samaritan Hospital for Women is having her support in the opening of a
bazaar in its aid.
Not only suffering humanity, but suffering brute creation has found in
her a sympathetic chord. The Bev. H. Russell, who is well known in the
county for his efforts on behalf of the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals, told two interesting stories of her Grace in her
presence at the opening of the bazaar.
A show of cab-horses and costermongers' donkeys was being held in
Nottingham, when Mr. Russell called the attention of the Duchess to an
old rag-and-bone dealer, who had won no prize, but who was known to
treat his donkey humanely.
"What shall I give him?" asked the Duchess.
"Half a sovereign will be enough, I should think," replied the
clergyman.
She then handed the money to the man, but she had to borrow it though,
"and," added Mr. Russell, "I do not know whether she ever paid it back
but the result was the same."
When in Scotland once she found that a man with a cart-load of herrings
had been using a piece of barbed wire to flog his horse with.
He was taxed with the barbarity, but denied it.
The Duchess thereupon walked back and found the wire. She and the Duke
then bought up the horse, cart, harness, and herrings, rejecting the
only worthless part of the lot--the man.
Sandy's greed and Sandy's conscience were most likely on a par in their
flinty qualities, and the dour Scot would be glad to bargain with the
Duchess again on similar terms, eliminating the factor of
humanitarianism.
On another occasion she is presiding at the annual meeting of the local
branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals at
Grantham. "Such meetings as these," she told her audience, "are valuable
because they call attention to the cruelty which exists in such forms
as the decrepit horse traffic, of which the general public has little or
no knowledge. To be ignorant may save trouble; but if it makes us
indifferent and lethargic with regard to suffering, when we ought to be
helpers in the cause of humanity, the sooner we increase our knowledge
the better we shall be able to stop this great evil and rouse public
opinion on the valuable work done by the officers of the Society."
Again she is a visitor at Mansfield to distribute the prizes in
connection with singing, needlework, and other competitions organized by
the girls' clubs in the district. She spoke of these competitions as
promoting a healthy spirit of rivalry, and promised to give a silver
shield for proficiency in physical drill among girls.
Her catholic spirit was evinced on her attendance one day early in
February, 1907, at the Mikado Café, Nottingham, when the members of a
Sunday afternoon Wesleyan Bible Class, numbering ninety men, assembled
for dinner. She expressed her interest in the aims of the Bible Class
and in all efforts for the encouragement of right living. A bouquet was
presented to her from the members.
The Duchess as a flower-seller was a delightful attraction at a Church
bazaar at Sutton-in-Ashfield, a town where there is considerable ducal
property. In a graceful little speech declaring the bazaar open she
said: "I know you are all tired of bazaars and desirous of adopting some
better method of collecting money, if such could be devised, but until
some brilliant or practical mind finds such a way, you are forced to
move in the old groove and repeat the same efforts."
The story of borrowing half a sovereign is not the only
well-authenticated instance of her Grace having to negotiate a loan in
consequence of her liberal instincts having prompted her to outrun the
resources of her pocket.
After opening a bazaar for the Newark Hospital she passed round the
stalls and made purchases freely, so that by the time she had made the
round she had completely exhausted her purse. It was necessary that she
should have enough to pay her railway fare to London, whither she wished
to travel, and the honour of tending her the amount she wanted, fell to
one of the stewards. The loan, I believe, was promptly repaid.
A Court of exceptional, splendour was held by the King and Queen at
Buckingham Palace in May, 1905, and as the then Mistress of the Robes,
the Duchess of Buccleugh, was unable to attend through being in
mourning, her place was taken by the Duchess of Portland, none eclipsing
her in that brilliant throng of English nobility. She wore a gown of
ivory velvet, brocaded round the skirt with bouquets of flowers and
trimmed with Italian lace and cream chiffon; the train of superb
Brussels lace belonged to Marie Antoinette. Her jewels were diamonds,
pearls and emeralds.
A brilliant Chapter of the Garter was held in November, 1906, and was
followed by a banquet. The regal appearance of the Duchess may be
gathered from a description of her dress of cloudy white, embroidered
with mother-of-pearl, a high diamond tiara on her dark hair and a
magnificent bouquet of flowers, surrounded with a wealth of glittering
diamonds on her corsage.
Miss May Cavendish-Bentinck was married to Mr. John Ford on November
3rd, 1906, when Lady Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck made her appearance for
the first time as a bridesmaid. Mr. Ford was secretary of the British
Legation at Copenhagen and the bride was one of the Duke's cousins. Lady
Victoria Cavendish-Bentinck, the Duke's only daughter, will probably be
presented at Court next season.