19 APRIL 1935, Page 6

* * * * The Assembly of the Church of

Scotland next month should be a notable affair with the Duke of Kent as High Commissioner. The presence of royalty will add a more than usually festive note to the occasion, and I hear that in defiance of all precedent a ball is to be given at Holy- roodhouse during the actual period of the Assembly sit- tings. The King and Queen, of course, held some Drawing-rooms at Holyrood last summer, but it must be long since a royal ball has been held, in the ancient palace, and it denotes a striking breadth of mind on the part of the Church authorities to lend their approval to what many of their predecessors would have regarded as so carnal a fixture in the week of their spiritual transactions.