The woman and the car : $b a chatty little handbook for all women who motor or who want to motor — John Shaqi
The woman and the car : $b a chatty little handbook for all women who motor or who want to motorLevitt, Dorothy
History
The woman and the car : $b a chatty little handbook for all women who motor or who want to motor
Levitt, Dorothy
Women automobile drivers; Women automobile drivers -- History
Miss Levitt has been offered many enticing professional engagements on
the Continent and in the United States but prefers to remain at home and
an amateur.
In appearance Dorothy Levitt looks partly French, partly Irish, with a
_soupçon_ of American. Yet she is wholly English. Of medium height, her
figure is slim and very graceful. She has a very girlish but expressive
face, large eyes that are brown and grey and green in varying lights,
brown hair that curls, a straight nose that has the bare inclination of
a saucy upward tip and a mouth which is too large. It is a charming,
winning face.
The one fault of Dorothy Levitt is her modesty, almost amounting to
bashfulness. One cannot get her to tell much of her many exciting
adventures, particularly those of which she is the heroine. She is
immensely popular, has been toasted by Royalty at German motor banquets,
elected honorary member of many of the first automobile clubs in this
country and on the Continent, and has a host of friends, some in the
sacred circles of society, others distinguished men and women of the
more Bohemian circles of art and literature, music and the drama. She is
an inveterate first-nighter, wears simple but ravishing clothes and, to
those who do not know her, passes as a bright butterfly of fashion.
In a flat in a quiet but fashionable neighbourhood in the West-end of
London, Miss Levitt lives the life of a bachelor girl. There she has a
housekeeper and maid and a tiny Pomeranian, one “Dodo,” to keep her
company. The flat contains, as its feature rooms, a Louis XIV.
drawing-room and a Flemish dining-room, the latter the scene of many
little luncheon parties for which Miss Levitt is also famous.
Hers is a busy life, involving many thousands of miles of travel in the
year. She is to be seen at Ascot, Goodwood, Cowes, at Henley, at
Ranelagh. To-day she may be in London. Next week you may hear of her as
in France or Germany taking part in a motor competition; the week
following she may be in Scotland or of a house-party in the Shires or
botoring in the blue waters off the Riviera coast.
It is little wonder that her ambition is to leave the gay whirl and to
settle down quietly in the country, with her motor, her dogs and a
fishing-rod and a gun.
Of her public records I can do no better than quote extracts from her
diary, for Miss Levitt, unlike the generality of women, is most careful
in keeping a very businesslike diary. Here are the extracts:
_April 1903._--First Englishwoman to take part in public motor-car
competition. Did not win. Will do better next time.
_May 13, 1903._--Glasgow to London Non-stop Run. Drove 16 horse-power
Gladiator. Gained 994 marks out of possible 1000. Marks deducted for
tyre troubles.
_August 1903._--Won Gaston Menier Cup at Trouville, France. Value of
cup, 350 guineas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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