"Mrs. Eckstein and Miss Eckstein have returned to London from Scotland, and they are leaving London immediately for London."--_Brighton Standard and Fashionable Visitors' List_.
"The Irish farmers are confident that the Food Controller's declared intention to fix the price of cattle at 6s. per cwt. for next January will not be carried into effect. They believe that Lord Rhondda must realise the necessity of making a substantial increase on this figure."--_Saturday Herald (Dublin)_.
Lord RHONDDA, we understand, has already met the Irish farmers more than halfway by fixing the price at 60s.
* * * * * "The Apia Blacksmiths, Ltd., will undertake contracts for the building of houses, with or without material."--_Samoa Times_.
"And gives to airy nothing A local habitation."--_Shakspeare_.
A correspondent informs us that the playbill of IBSEN'S _Ghosts_ at the Pavilion Theatre bears the following words: "Mr. Neville Chamberlain says, 'It is essential there should be provided amusements and recreations which can take people for an hour or so out of themselves and return them to their work refreshed and reinvigorated.'"
A promising young poet of my acquaintance, who in the midst of war's obsessions still finds time and taste for the exercise of his art (he is in a Government office), has allowed me to see the opening couplet of what I understand to be a very ambitious poem. It runs as follows:--
"Though overhead the Gothas buzz, Stands London where it did? It does."
Many good judges of poetry to whom I have quoted these lines think them very clever.
A witty friend of mine tells me that he is thinking of bringing out a handy and up-to-date edition of the _Almanach de Gotha_, special attention being paid to the changes of the Moon.
Society is always on the look-out for some new distraction from the tedium of War. The latest vogue with smart people is to get up little air-raid parties for the Tube, to be followed by auction or a small boy-and-girl dance. Sections of tunnel or platform can be engaged beforehand by arrangement with the Constabulary.
I hear that my friend, ARTHUR BOURCHIER, continues to draw crowds to the Oxford. I was dining the other day with a young and brilliant officer, who has seen two months' active service in the A.S.C. and won golden opinions at the Base, and he assured me that there is no "Better 'Ole" than the Oxford during an air-raid.