 | Lady Layard’s Journal Go to a Date Search the Journal |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |
2 September 1901 — Aboard Alert, Newport, Rhode Island | |
Monday. 2nd September [1901]. Lovely weather again. We were all invited to go on board Mr Pierpont Morgan’s steam yacht the “ ” to witness a trial race between the “Constitution” & the “Columbia” yachts out at sea– There was a good deal of wind & I was not feeling very well so I concluded to remain with Mrs Griscom & let Mr G., Nellie & Sister Bettle go without me. While sitting on deck talking to Mrs G. we had a visit from a Mrs Burwind in her great steam launch, who said she had been a friend of my brother Arthur’s & inviting me to go to the Horseshow with her this afternoon. I tried to escape it but she was so kind & pressing that I said if Pansie Griscom whom we expected by lunch time would come with me I would accept her invitations. Mrs Burwind said she wd leave tickets for Pansie & me at the door of the Club where the horseshow took place & we would join her there in her box. Mrs Griscom & I went on shore to look at the shops & found most of them were open till 2 after wh they would close as it was a general holiday called “Labour Day.” Mrs G. went into several shops in search of things she did not find & we returned to the yacht to lunch & to Pansie who had arrived from a visit to a relation at Watch Hill. As we were sailing past Watch Hill on Saturday & were quite out at sea Mrs Griscom suddenly said “Why there’s Pansie’s voice calling.” We laughed at her—but she insisted “there it is again. I hear her canoe call”—& sure enough we soon saw her in a canoe with her brother Rod—both in bathing costumes. They had seen the “Alert” while they were out bathing—had seized a small canoe & come out to speak to us—& then returned to shore. After lunch Pansie & I went off in our best gowns in the steam launch to go to the Horseshow. We did not find our tickets of admittance waiting for us so after waiting about a little while we paid the fee & went in. A large oval space was enclosed with a raised stand filled with chairs divided into boxes & we found Mrs Burwind’s & settled ourselves in it till she joined us. The stand was crowded with splendidly dressed women—in costumes wh seemed to me to be fit for a grand ball– Mrs Burwind kindly pointed out to me the most interesting people amongst them Mrs Belmont, who was Mrs Vanderbilt, mother of the Dss of Marlboro’ who had been divorced by Mr V. & who had then married the man who had been the cause of the divorce. I was constantly told about this lady & how her behaviour with Mr Belmont had been so outrageous that Mr Vanderbilt had insisted on a divorce. In order to save his wife’s name he had agreed with her that he should apparently give her cause to divorce him & he succeeded in this artifice—thus gaining the applause of the world as “a most gallant man”– He also settled on her an immense sum of money. To my mind this seemed to me a most disgusting immoral comedy but it was no use my saying what I thought. At 5 oclock Mrs Burwind kindly drove me in her carriage back to the yacht landing stage & I was taken back to the Alert & had tea with Mrs Griscom. The Corsair returned to Newport abt 7 the race not having been carried through– We dressed & went off on the steam launch to the landing place of a villa in the bay where we had been invited to dine with a Mr & Mrs French—friends of Mr Griscom’s. Mr French, an elderly gentleman met us where we landed & had a man with a lighted lantern to show us the way up to the house. Mrs French a young pretty woman received us kindly & also her mother Mrs who is staying with her. Mr Wyndham, & Mr Owens 2 English secretaries of Embassy dined there & a Mr Waeters Belgian Chargé d’Affaires besides one or two American gentlemen. During dinner a serenade of negros sang their own songs outside the windows on the verandah which added to the talking inside made the noise almost bewildering. It was not until after dinner when we retired to the drawing room that we could listen & appreciate the charm of the music and hear the words. There were 4 men & one woman—a banjo & a mandoline– Some of the plantation songs that we heard were most pathetic & well sung. The view over the harbour from the drawing room window looking down on the numerous lights on the yachts & ships & those of the distant houses along the shore of the bay was most enchanting– Mrs French asked me if it did not remind me of Venice but nothing is like Venice & it is no use comparing any place with it. We left the Frenchs at abt 11 & returned to the Alert & sat for a little while on deck talking over our various experiences of the past day then Mr Griscom took leave of us & went on board Mr P. Morgan’s yacht which starts tonight for N. York & will get Mr G. there by tomorrow morning in time for him to attend the funeral of Genl Ludlow the father of Mrs Griscom Jr. | |
|
Previous Entry
|
Following Entry
| |