LAND A N D W A T K K . 
December ii, 1915. 
Tlio Kiuf, lias at last made visible progress towards recovery, 
'and is ROW able to walk about; though' slowly. 1 His 
.Majesty's lirst attempt, in this direction was, last Thurs- 
day When with the Queen he" went to luncheon wifh 
tiie Queen-Mother on her birthday. Birthdays , are 
always celebrated in the. Royal Faniilv with, a certain 
;;onip and ritual. One feels this to be entirely right. ! It 
is good for tije human soul, whetlier it be housened in the 
day of king or coalheaver, of (jueen or seamstress, to 
leel that one day in the year is all its own, and that, during 
tiiosc brief hours it may' rightly accept the Iiomage of' 
the household and receive the small tributes of domestic ; 
affection. To neglect birthdays implies the presence of 
a dull and selfish spirit. , 
By the death of Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, another . link 
is broken with the mid- Victorian era -that is, the:period 
that stretches from the death of Prince Consort in . 
December 1861 onwards.' Whatever faults this period 
may have had, it was on the whole a singularly happy 
time for officials in th- Royal Household. Never have, 
they had less interference with their patronage or per- ' 
quisites, and death alone removed them from their places. 
In 1857 Sir Spencer Ponsonby was appointed Comptroller 
of the Lord Chamberlain's office ; here lie practically 
reigned supreme, his authority undisputed, until Oueen 
Victoria died in January igo'i. Then his reign ended 
and henceforward other influences abounded. 
Sir Spencer only hyplienated his mother's surname to his 
father's in 1875, when he was fifty-one. Sir Henry 
Ponsonby, the Queen's Private Secretary for so many 
years, was his cousin, a circumstance which further 
increased his power and influence. For many years he 
was despotic in the Stable Yard of St. James's Palace, 
where the Lord Chambedain's offices are, and no human 
being could have enjoyed more whole heartedly the 
dignity and reflected glory of his office.' ; It vis curious' 
that so many newspapers should have applied to him 
the word " courtier " as a compliment. One may doubt 
whether, in his prime, he would have gladly accepted the 
term even in its restricted sense, as one in attendance at 
a Court ; he lived above the Court rather than in it, was 
more its protecting Archangel than a mere member of it. 
The Aga Khan was among the company at the wedding of 
the Prime Minister's daughter last week.- There is no 
Prince in India who has done better work for the Empire. 
, Apd often it has been really hard work. . He is one of the 
Great Powers in the Mahommedan worid ; among his 
own followers no one disputes his authority! Aga is a 
title, not a name, as so many people think. One of the 
^ best-known Serbian poems is entitled " The Wife of 
HassanAga." The Aga Khan's single name is'Mahomed., 
Business took me to the India Office the other day, and having 
a little time to wait, Iwas shown into the Council Chamber. 
. . I sat me down with a blazing coil lire at my back and 
• - Warren Hastings in front of me. Outside, in the dripping 
quadrangle, I caught glimpses of tlie graven images of 
lesser Indian administrators. The quiet footfalls of those 
masters of courtesy— the attendants— echoed occasionally 
along the corridors. But it seemed as if they who had sat 
in -assembly at this hollow square of polished mahogany 
had left behind them in that noble room something of 
the mystery and the silent peace of the East. 
There came back to the remembrance the Golden Temple of 
Amritsar on a certain Christmas Day, eighteen years ago, 
and still further back, on a blazing April noontide, the 
cool courts of the great temple at Madura. TJie only 
modern note was the click of a typewriter which a tyjiis't 
worked before the canvas of Sir Eyre Coote. Tiie (jjd 
warrior seemed to be gazing on the young woman with an 
envious air that such inventions were not when he wrott; 
his despatches. The minutes spent in this Council 
Chamber were .'a rest cure. Britons vviil never under 
: ; stand 'tJie [methods of jjublic administration until they 
realise the atmosphere in whicli the work is done. 
Talking of India, did you notice when the Roll of Honour 
of the ofliccrs fallen in Mesopotamia was published, how 
, thej;reat majority were sons of Anglo-Indians. Tlie call 
of the East is as strong as ever. " If a year of life be 
lent -her — if her temple's shrine we enter, the door is shut 
— wt may not look behind." 
One wanders into the .Louis Quatorze restaurant of the 
*" Piccadilly hotel nowadays, certain of always finding some- 
r\ ^. one one knows there. Mr. Frank Curzon seems to have 
deserted the Carlton and come back to his old love ; he 
• was entertaining his brother, Mr. Mallaby Deeley, at 
tlie table in the far corner. Ov \\zs\i vice versa} In the 
foyer, afterwards, I had a pleasant chat with Mr. Arthur 
Pearson.- He is as enthusiastic as ever over his blind 
. soldiers ; they have now 1.50 at St. Dunstan's. But that 
institution is well organised, and his energies are largely 
devoted towards arranging for work for the men after 
they leave, and what is still more important, for making 
certain of a good and well-paid market for their handi- 
work directly it is finished. 
It is fourteen years this very week since I had my first talk 
with Mr. Pearson ; notwithstanding all the disappoint- 
ments and suffering through which he has passed, no man 
has changed less. He has been through the fiery furnace 
and the smell of fire has not passed on him. Bright, 
cheerful and impulsive as ever speech with him is "a 
tonic. Personally, when talking I cannot behsve him to 
be blind ; his mind is so active and alert, and his per- 
ception just as quick as in those distant days. 
Mr. Leo Maxse has brought out another Potsdam Diary for 
1916. Here, ' on each day, do we find recorded that 
terribly mistaken faith in Germany's intentions which has 
obsessed so many public men. This diary will serve a 
good purpose, if it- keeps before the public mind both the 
folly and the danger of putting faith in tiie spoken or 
written words of Germany, after all that has happened. 
Thank goodness we may still smoke tobacco in peace, and need 
not pull out our watches every five minutes to see the 
■laVt moment when we may order cigars for ourselves or 
our friends. Will the restriction of alcoholic stimulants 
lead to an enhanced demand for nicotine ? I should not 
be at all surprised. Probably we shall witness a. great 
increase of smoking among women. Only I do implore 
those who indulge in it to get their baccy pure. This is 
quite as important as where liquor is concerned. A woman 
when she starts out after dinner to create, in a few sen- 
tences, a new heaven and a new earth, may smoke a 
score of more of "Savory cigarettes and be none the worse 
.. ^for them in the morning ; whereas half a score of a lesser 
brand may caiise her .to wake in the small hours, believing 
she is with Dives in torment. Good tcbac:o cannot be 
too good, and no man knows that better than Mr. Savory 
himself, wherefore I commend his w?res. 
News, has. been received that Lieutenant N. M. Vibart, R.E., 
son, of Colonel . and Mrs. Edward Vibart, of Hazcldene, 
Blackheath, has been severely wounded in the North of 
Inance. Mr. \'ibart, who is twenty-one years of age, was 
'■ educated at Cheltenham, and after passing through 
\\'bolwich, received a commission in the Roynl Engineer's 
in April, 1914, He has. been at the Front since October 
of that year, and this is- his third wound. He was given 
the Military Cross for gallantry at Ypres a year' ago. . 
The I'cstival of ^'lav Music to take place next Thursday is 
paiticulariy ap])roj)riate at the present time. There will 
l)e Czech music, Polisli music, Russian and .SerLian 
music.wliile a choir, will sing some old Serbian folk songs 
arranged for the occasion. Hekmes. 
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