The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-09

Adnn, even near LOnuOUs lntI dIS
scarcely known at all Gin the American
ssusel except in connection with golf.
London has it's Nottingham, its Rane-
Iagn, its Roehampton-bu these clubs
are simply pleasant summer retreats
where one goes for afternoon tea and
croquet with, perhaps, tennis and in
one or two instances, polo, but mem
bership is very expensive and difficult
to obtain. These club are nonresi-
Dental and they certainly do not play
a strong card as far as the cooking
End serving of meals is concerned
Now, however, we have acquired q
country club and it looks as it, even
during the winter, Londoners with
time on their hands will be able to
enjoy themselves after a fashion that
is familiar to New Workers and citi-
zens of other American cities who
manage to make their leisure hours
both hea1thful and attractive.
The London Flying club is London's
latest sensation. 1t has just been
formed close to the Grahame-W White
aerodrome and it will apparently be
the Mecca of society. delightful
clubhouse has been built which con-
tains ballroom and concert hall, bill
Hard rooms, cardrooms, DINING rooms
!
essary for the comfort of members.
There are also 80 bedrooms, as well as
wonderful swimming baths, and a big
space has been set aside for use an
ice skating rink during the winter.
There is also a private club aero
drome-of about so acres. Here the al
together up-to-date member of either
sex can keep his or her own private
airplane, which is surely sufficiently
adjunct to make any club conspicuous.
Many of the peerage are on the list
Jof officers and members of the London
Flying club. The Earl of Lonsdale,
that most celebrated of all English
sportsmen with whom, by the way, the
King and Queen spent the night when
they recently motored down from
Scotland to London during the strike)
is its president and vice presidents in
clude Mrs Winston Churchill, the Mar
quis of Cholmondeley, Princess Hatz-
feldt, the Princess of Monaco, the
Duchess of Westminster, and many
others. 1t is quite the thing nowadays
for parties to motor out to Hendon
!. for dinner, and then to dance after
wards in the beautiful ballroom,
where Hawaiian orchestra plays
strange rhythms to which Londoners
are only now accustoming themselves
By the way, Mr.. Grahame-White,
who is the founder of the club is
= SdlAy dSSlSltu III Us BeH6fdi make
up and arrangements by his wife, who
is Well known to most theatregoers in
the United States as Ethel Levey, who
was once upon a time Mrs. George NJ
Cohan. Her daughter, the daughter
of her first husband, is with her here
-.s in London She is a very pretty girl
" and is named ''Georgine," after her
father. She is to make her debut next
spring, I am told.
i really think that the racept rail
way strike, which almost came to civil
war of a kind, has taught us useful
lessons in industrial self help and uni
.versal good temper. Everybody (who
was not ION strikeD was helping ev-
erybody else during the trouble and
81 there was a tremendous outburst of
Khaki everywhere
~ Women who had been demobilized
put on their uniforms again, and Off
GERS and men who thought that they
had seen the last. for time at any
rate, of khaki, once more put on their
equipment London became again
most martial city.
=. 1t was interesting and instructive to
see the manner in which people who GER
tainly have never had occasion to do
such things before 'buckled to" at all
sorts of mental work At the big rail-
way stabilize it seemed as if most of the
members of the peerage had established
rious jobs usually performed by horny
handed sons of toll" Lord Montague of
iBeaul1eu please pronounce this Dew
ley if you wish to be correct, for in
stance, drove an express train from
Southampton to London and back again
Tor several days. Lord Cholmondeley
pronounce this "Chumley') shoveled coat
at Paddington. Lord Grimthorpe did
stable duty at Kings Cross. Lord Por-
darlington pushed milk carts at Euston.
Sir Frederick Banbury, member of Par
lament and chairman of the Great North
ern railway, worked in the stables at
St Pancras, and Mr. Hansell, who used
to be the Prince of Wales tutor Joined
batch of jockeys and outside stable
Il men who looked after the horses at
another big railway depot. In fact, every
where one went during the strike days
and nights in London one saw weli-known
men and women doing yeoman service in
most CHEEKY and useful fashion
Lady Juliet Trevor (who used to be
Lady Juliet Duff. and who is the daugh-
ter of the late Warehouses of Ripon,
was hard at work at canteen duty near
tie milk dump in Hyde Park, while
the Marchioness of Londonderry was
.iequally hard at it with the .Wrens"
serving in another useful capacity in
Regents Park. Lady Drogheda was driv-
ing lorry full of milk cans, and saw
Viscountess Curzon sitting at the wheel
of a food car that was going at great
pace past Buckingham palace the other
day. In fact, so. very much did we'll
known people with handles to their names
work in order to ameliorate very Sc
rious situation, that this fact was used
as sort of weapon by many of the
setrike agitators who talked lot of
nonsense about it's being "class war;
BY the way, I wonder if many people
remember that some 10 or IS years ago
it used to be rather the fashion for men
of wealth and position to learn to drive
a railway engine as a sort Of hobby Just
as nowadays most people are learning to
steer and drive aeroplanes. I think 1t
was the eccentric Duke of Portland
predecessor to the present duke) who
had his own railway track constructed
around the borders of his great estate.
Welbeck abbey. The miniature railway
system was furnished with a rolling stock
consisting of a beautiful little engine and
couple of coaches. In this perfect
copy of big engine and train the old
duke would have his guests driven
round the outskirts of his splendid do
| Tnain. This was, of course, in the days
before automobiles had arrived VI
I was told the other day, apropos of
the Dukes of Portland that actually the
present holder of the title has never been
so rich as people imagine. At the death
Of his predecessor the eccentric Duke of
Portland, which took place about 40
years ago, nearly all the London property
went to his sister and co-heiress the
wife Of the sixth Lord Howard de Wal