Ishbel's Inn, Edith's Inkpot

The two women who have done most for James Ramsay MacDonald since the deaths of his mother and his wife were recovering in their own ways last week from the shock of his losing his seat in the House of Commons, though he retains a sinecure in the Cabinet (see above).

Daughter Ishbel decided to buy and run the 300-year-old Plow Inn hard by the official country home of the Prime Minister, Chequers--a piece of Scottish shrewdness which practically ensures her a steady clientele of statesmen just below the grade of those invited to sleep or eat at Chequers, but who must go there and will be delighted to patronize Boniface Ishbel.

For Edith. Marchioness of Londonderry, a fresh start was not to be made so easily as by buying an old inn with raftered ceilings and picturesque narrow stairs. One of the noblest mansions in all London is historic Londonderry House. There Mr. MacDonald, after he was considered by the Labor Party to have betrayed it and gone over to Pride & Privilege, found a new home so warm and bright with the glamor of Mayfair that the least he could do in return as Prime Minister, was to take Edith's husband into the Cabinet (TIME, Nov. 16, 1931).

Out of it the Marquess of Londonderry was resoundingly dropped last week by solid, bourgeois Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, who then proceeded to accentuate the crash. What honest Stanley did to friendly Edith the insulted peeress herself revealed with an icy statement from Londonderry House that it will not be the scene this year of Mayfair's swankest ball on the eve of Parliament's reopening Dec. 3. Concluded the irate Marchioness of Londonderry: "The Lord and Lady Londonderry offered their house as usual to the Prime Minister but Mr. Baldwin considered the present moment not opportune."

In consternation London dressmakers estimated that 1,000 of the richest women in the realm will fail to buy the new gowns they would have worn to Londonderry House, with a consequent loss "to the trade" which they set roundly at $500,000. Baffled by Baldwin, Lady Londonderry was expected to return to her pen which has already produced such dainty books as The Magic Inkpot.

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