A FURTHER insight into the social lives of the well-to-do in Edwardian London was offered in the "Ladies Column," written a century ago this week by the Journal's correspondent in the metropolis - "Aurora."

The uncertainty of the climatic conditions is affecting the social arrangements for the winter season. No one knows, though there is no dearth of weather prophets, what the clouds have in store for the next three months.

Christmas is within measurable distance, and the woman would be endowed with abnormal courage who would make up her mind to be hospitable this winter.

Each year sees the residential suburbs extending further and further from the centres of London - from those old streets where the houses have large reception rooms and staffs of servants, making hospitality really possible.

The distant suburbs are learning reluctantly to make the social conditions of their own neighbourhoods suffice for their families, at least during the winter months. Cab fares mount up, and half-a-dozen Christmas parties indulged in, with late hours of returning home, cause wrinkles - those that come with discontent upon the paternal brows.

The afternoon reception seems likely to be more popular than ever. It meets the convenience of those guests who come from a distance, and yet enables them to return to the domestic hearth in time for dinner, late tea or comfortable supper."