In one corner cabinet stands a quaint old tea service, the cups being made without handles. This is watched over by a most eccentric-looking cow, which has flowers painted all over her body. On a small whatnot is the afternoon tea-service presented by the Queen, a fine specimen of modern work, printed with orchids enclosing views of Balmoral and Windsor.
The large round table is covered by a piece of Indian embroidery, and bears yet more china, an album of dried New Zealand ferns, and another of orchids. The ebony-framed screen, which encloses the table was another present, and is painted with a design of birds and flowers. The curtains and hangings of the room are of similar material to that with which the furniture is covered. A cuckoo clock hangs by the side of the fireplace.
A narrow corridor leads from the tea-room to the garden, and its entrance is known as the Princess’s door. This corridor has for ornament some fine Indian blue-and-white china, and some old Chinese vases. The rustic seats under the verandah front of the dairy are the favourite resting-places of the Princess and her daughters in the summer weather.
The tea-room and the dairy are in constant use when the family are in residence at Sandringham. About four o’clock (all Sandringham clocks are kept thirty minutes in advance of London time) the Princess and her guests make their way on foot or by pony carriage usually along the pleasant road through the fruit gardens to the rendezvous. Should the Prince arrive before the Princess, he invariably awaits her arrival before entering.
A BULL CALF AT SANDRINGHAM.
Of whatever number the party may be composed the services of one attendant (a footman) only are utilised.
Fruit having been sent from the neighbouring garden, tea is served at half-past five o’clock, the party rarely separating until it is time to dress for dinner at seven-thirty. But not to Royalty and its guests alone go all the niceties produced at the dairy. When one hears that some hundreds of persons are employed on the estate, that there are workmen’s clubs, schools, almshouses, and cottage hospitals, all erected and cared for by the Royal owners, that there are no unemployed, work being found for everyone, that the fortnightly bill for wages alone is some six hundred pounds, it is easy to see that in a colony of this size there must always be a proportion of ailing and delicate. And with such a Princess as ours, having the able assistance of Miss Knollys and Sir Dighton Probyn, it is equally certain that no call is neglected and no want left unsatisfied.
Ernest M. Jessop.