Birth Royal

Encompassed by a certain block on Bruton Street, Mayfair, stand The Coach and Horses (a public house), the business establishments of a tailor, corsetiere, photographer, beautifier, decorator, and the residence of Claud George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore.

Last week his daughter, Elizabeth, often affectionately addressed as "Queen Elizabeth" by her brother-in-law, Edward of Wales, lay abed in her father's house at 17 Bruton Street, while hundreds of wellwishers drank to her health at The Coach and Horses.

As Elizabeth, Duchess of York, lay thus abed, the Duke, second son to George V., R. I., awaited anxiously the opinion of Sir Henry Simpson, husband of famed actress Lena Ash well, and accoucheur to royalty. Sir Henry Simpson had previously allowed it to become noised about that the Duchess would not be delivered for another fortnight. When he stated last week, that the royal birth was imminent, and that "a certain form of treatment"* had been resorted to after, consultation with other physicians, excitement and anxiety were rife among Britons.

Shortly after midnight on the following morning Sir William ("Jix") Joynson-Hicks, the Home Secretary, was roused from his bed and summoned to the house in which the Duchess lay, according to immemorial royal custom./- At 2:40 a. m. a daughter was born. Her first act, according to witnesses, was to yawn at Sir William Joynson-Hicks.

"Elizabeth II"? The cheering crowds in Bruton Street were by no means certain that they were not cheering their future sovereign. The royal babe, although she is the King's third grandchild, outranks His Majesty's two grandsons, the sons of Princess Mary. This baby will ascend the throne in the event that she outlives George V, Edward of Wales and her father--providing of course that the Prince of Wales dies without issue and that a son is not born to her father. She thus ranks, at present, third in the line of succession; and only three women in England outrank her in official precedence: Queen Mary, Princess Mary and the Duchess of York, her mother.

Despatches reported semi-officially that the infant will be christened Mary Victoria Elizabeth--after Queen Mary, Queen Victoria and her mother. To the throngs seething in Bruton Street occurred an inescapable question: "Will she ascend the throne as Elizabeth II?"

Students of probability guessed "No," but recalled that Victoria received the crown upon the death of her father, fourth son of George III, although two of her father's younger brothers were then living.

Royalty Stirred. When His Majesty was awakened at Windsor by the telephone message which announced the birth of his first granddaughter, pleasurable excitement definitely ended his slumbers. Unable to doze off again, he rose and brewed himself a cozy pot of tea. As the sun peeped above the Windsor Hills, he went ahorseback riding. Soon he and Queen Mary motored to Bruton Street.

When the two royal grandaunts, Queen Maud of Norway and Louise, Princess Royal, both sisters of the King, rode out to see the newborn unchristened Duchess, ill luck attended them. Their motor car collided with a taxi near Knightsbridge, and only a quick swerve by their chauffeur prevented a serious accident.

* Sir Henry is an advocate of "twilight sleep."

/- The theory that numerous witnesses should be present at royal births came to its perfect flower in the France of Louis XVI. Marie Therese Charlotte, the first child born to that King and Marie Antoinette entered the world in the presence of everyone who could squeeze into her bedroom at the moment of delivery (at least 40). Servants valiantly ejected by the collar many a burly fellow, no longer privileged to remain after the event.