The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1884-01-29 00:00:00

BOYALTTS HOSTS.

The round of visits with which the Prince of Wales
prepares himself for the Session arid the season con-
tinuo. His Royal Highness was the gaud of Mr.
Alfred de Rothschild last week; to-day he le with
Lord Alingtdo ; a few day. hence he will he Atoning
the sweets of its graceful hospitslity In • mansion wine
miles furth-r west. Even thus the prorracome will
not have been exhausted, ant many are the rural
palaces whose doors will ay open to the Heir-Apparent
between the present time and Easter. It is usual to
credit his Royal Highoso with all the hereditary
tastes of the British equirrr. 00ce, it is said, irt his.
get to Sao 1.-Inbar°, among his farm, and his coverts,
his poultry ant hi. shorthorn', his family and his
friends of the country-side, stud you will not easily
induce him to chow, that sustenad of dignified and
manly pleasure. It is an cirreable fancy, and ever
since the epoch of " Farmer George' the English
imagination has liked to recognise in its monarchs,
actual or potential, a spoke ut glorified agriculturists.
How far the reality corresponds t i the idea is another
question. It woad be strange if • personage, whose
p *Woo compels him to palm his days in a whirl of
excitement and • vortex of locomotion for nine .r ten
months out of the twelve, could, for the ewe of three
weeks together, settle down to the unbroken enjoy-
ment of riding to hound or destroying game. In
London itself, at the very height of the season, the
Pace is not always quick ("dough to suit Royalty, and
the Seine is polo nosily edict upon t i supply the
excitement which the Thames denies. Leo (centred
and highly privilege! mortebt, when they commence—
we will not 'ay to doom I into the vale of years, but
to draw near to the threshold of middle age—are
salons of • desire for intervals of rest; for &quiet week
now and again; for an ormoionsl relief from the high-
pressure existence; a sort of foretaste, as It may be
called, of. wordly Nirvana. H ,yalty is exempt from
any of these weaknesses. There is absolutely no
break in the eerie. of annual eotertainmeota.

As the role which, in hi, esoaeity of "nest, his
Royal M.:hoses pen-Tilt-a to himself is exacting, so
are the duties imp .sed upon his ti ..n r .u•.
hoisp nano Viet the Prince deizne t aczept are con-
ventionally supposed t be of high constitutional
utility, and to moment the &Dialog between the aris-
tocracy and the Throne. Thar' may, pens" be
something in this ; but it is difficult to see bow such
• the wy can apply with unanswerable force, where the
host is • Semitic financier, or the be • se chiefly exist.
on the tradition, of the Sec tad Empire. Roughly
sPenklita. Royalty's hosts may be divided into two
heals ; those who ank the honortr of Ming the Prince
with a definite object in view, and those who have
nothing to gran from the distinction which his
presume confers. To till I.tter class the great
nobles—such men as Is ,rd Loolond-rry and even
as L.rd Alington—belonst They, and others
like them, have no interest in entertaining
Royalty. Their position is not improved by It;
they incur considerable expense ; they and their
household, are
_put to extreme inconvenience. The
terms on which Royalty visite them are as newly as
possible, for practical purp wee, those of equality.
The Great Penjandrum must always t neer above the
Piccaninnies, but the biggest of the Piccaninnies is
not.,, very much inf. rior to the Great Panjendrum.
With hoots of the other kind the case is different
Here it Is amply • question of the end to he
accomplished, and the Heir-Apparent is preend to
pars • few nights under • citizen's roof for the IMMO
reams that h. Is asked to plant trees, or lay founda-
tion-stop n or preside over committen--that he may
glorify his entertainers. Ilia own good nature, and
the insatiable thint for novelty implanted in the
human bream, are enough to account for his willingsees
to acquiesce in this arrangement. T. have entertained
the Prince is to have acquired a csrt an diploma, and
to hare opened up ti the sanguine imagination • vista
of sooial promotion oommencing at Marlborough House
and ending, it may be, at Windsor Castle. To
have induced Royalty to eat one's salt and drink
out of ones cup appears to the hopeful
tooperameot equivalent to having formed • social
Intimacy which will ensure for one, and one's belong-
ings, admission to the Royal home and membership
of the Royal clubs. But there belongs Is princes a
NOSS of, and attitude for, irony al keen as that which
I. pommeled by the Duke of Bedford himself. Thus It
ii that explanations are raised which are never
realised. Such, however, is the devotion of beset
goileless Arcadians t the principle of monarchy, and
the person of the monarchy's next inheritor, that,
however effectually they may be disillusioned, the
aridity of their attention does not abate. And, after
all, even 'opposing their !dirtiest upirations are
unfulfilled, have they nothing to show for their
homage? It would be a grievous mistake to suppose
they have not. The cynic may smile at some of the
Royalty's busts; but tines Arida have their reward.
They may not be required to their full satisfaction, or
find that the bo•pinlity is reciprocal, lint th-y
excite the admiration and the envy of their less
favoured fellow,; soul they may at 1.-a.t mane th-m-
-selves with the ,stl.ction that ihey icc ono per. 'nage*
io tin ir ow. netzhhourh .1 and wi h their own oriel..
lidy let the meditstive mini in.piire how many
coirtiers there an who,e names would be tualcnown
to society save for the halo of distinction with which

their oourtiershlp has surrounded them. Notoriety at
least Is one I the eontrnmestioul for loyalty even la
Its most sr veitleg f rm. From It .yalty's
•hosts who
&wire snethlos more satiefelog owl ~li, it must be
said to Royal visits s, 13. c esi lof false phi)..
soohlorl msbol. tht they are Ilk, the Teets'
virgins, st.elles sklpirieeg.rhe World.