Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883-1900Waddington, Mary King
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Letters of a Diplomat's Wife, 1883-1900
Waddington, Mary King
Europe -- Social life and customs
This afternoon all the swells went to Ranelagh to see a polo match, but
I thought I would reserve myself for the Palace Ball. The Queen didn't
appear, but we had two others, the Queen of the Belgians, and always
Kapiolani. It was badly managed at first, the result being that when the
Court came we had a crowd of people, officers, pages, etc., about four
deep in front of us, so that we could neither see nor be seen, nor
hardly move. When the first "quadrille d'honneur" was being danced we
saw nothing, so after a consultation we all left the ball-room. Then
there were various "pourparlers," and they finally did what they should
have done at first, enlarged the circle, so that we were out of the
crowd and near the Court. There was also a great rush at supper, so that
they had to shut one door for a moment. I didn't see many people to talk
to, but of course it was very difficult. The Grand Duchess Serge looked
beautiful, with splendid emeralds (she is the daughter of Princess
Alice), and the Duchesse de Braganza (daughter of the Comte de Paris)
was charming, so very high-bred, tall and slight, with a pretty little
dark head. I always find the Princess of Wales the most distinguished
looking. She stands out everywhere. Our "Doyenne," Countess Karolyi, was
superb--also with magnificent jewels. The Indian Princes made a great
show, of course, with their silk, heavily embroidered tuniques, and the
quantities of jewels, but they are not often well cut, nor well set, and
they themselves are certainly off color--they look barbarians, and have
such false faces--I wouldn't trust one of them.
#London#,
July 3, 1887.
It is delicious summer weather now, and yesterday we went to Buckingham
Palace to see the Queen review the Volunteers. I wore for the first time
my Jubilee Medal. It came Friday with a note from the Duchess of
Roxburghe saying the Queen hoped I would wear it as a souvenir of her
Jubilee. It is a plain little silver medal about the size of a
two-shilling piece, with the Queen's head on one side and an inscription
on the other, fastened to a bow of blue and white ribbon. We three
Ambassadresses are the only women of the Corps Diplomatique that have
it. All the Queen's household have it, Duchesses of Bedford, Buccleuch,
Roxburghe, etc. The Princesses, also, of course, but theirs are in gold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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