The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-02
PREMIER GLADSTONE AT
HOME"
The Parliamentary Leader as a Host.
London Letter to Boston Post

The Parliamentary Leader as a Host.
London Letter to Boston Post.
The very day after he was so fairly
beaten in the House of Commons, Mr..
Gladstone had great dinner-party at
his residence in Carlton house terrace,
and afterward one of those select, arts
tocratic receptions known here as cat
homes" The right honorable gentle
man could hardly have left the House
on Wednesday morning before three
o'clock; and at six p. m. he had to be
eady to receive under his hospitable
roof no less parsonage than Prince Al
fed, Duke of Edinburgh, the second
son of Queen Victoria. The premier
lives in a spacious, substantial and
rather ancient mansion, fronting the
Carlton house, where the prince regent
used to hold his orgies with his broth
ers of York and Cumberland, Beau
Brummell, and the rest of the court ia
vOrites of that dissolute period; patri-
clan repose now rests upon the quarter,
which is just aside from the hustle of
Pail Mall and ST. James; and Mr..
Gladstone may boast of having dukes
and earls on every side of him. A cabi-
net dinner is the ambition of every
young sprout of the aristocracy or of
the foreign legations who finds himself
involved in the gay whirlpool of Lon
don society; even to be invited to the
lat home" which always follow the
formal dinner in the upper circles, is a
distinction claimed by young ladies of
most respectable family and the most
finished education. The fashion of a
dinner, to which the select few are bid
den, followed by reception to which
from fifty to a hundred are invited, is
one, so far as / know, confined to Lon
don West, and is a shrewd device for
paying off social scores OF course
the dipner-party is the creme de la
creme the most distinguished guests
are honored by it. Then the reception
follows to clear off the account with
the world in general.
I don't know that a better impression
could be given of society among the
upper ten thousand, than by jotting
down few notes descriptive of these
at once eminently formal and eminently
social occasions. For it is fact which
extended observation only tends to con-
firm, that the English aristocracy are at
once the most punctiliOus and the least
ushered into my lords presence by q
toUtman six feet two high, with pOrten-
tons calves, head literally pasted with
astratum ofpowder, a livery which Idefy
any one to see for the first time withOuta
mingled sensation of awe and amuse-
ment, and with step as stately as the
biggest cathedral beadle q can't mag
inc a more striking cOmparison) in
France. But when this awful creature
has vanished and closed the door, and
you find yourself face to face with my
lord, you are surprised and refreshed
to observe that he is perfectly simple,
easy and amiable in manner, dressed
with an apparently studied piainness,
succeeds without effort in putting You
quite at ease, and enters as glibly into
conversation as if he were your brother
iu-law or your creditor. As the man
in " Hard Times would say, "there is
no biggod nonsense about him what
ever. It is much the same at dinner
parties that take place nightly at this
season, by the dozen, west of Trafalgar
square. There is very little difference,
too, between a dinner party given by
prime minister and one given by no.
lie earl or a right honorable barOnet;
" the former have an official color,
Il are almost always given with some
ublic am. Now it is to receive a roy
Il prince, now some iilustriOus foreign
atesman again to gather round the
gaming board the party chiefs for in
innate exchange of ideas then to the
atriarchs of the church. But the sal
mt characteristics of the aristocratic
Lndon dinner is much the same wheth-
or the host be cabinet minister or the
title dispenser of a private, substantial
and profuse feast.
Let me take it for granted that you
are a distinguished literary or a pOliti-
cal foreigner, who has gained the entree
into the upper social and to whom the
earl of A--desires to pay marked
attention. You receive accordingly a
large piece of very smooth pastebOard,
wherein you are hidden to dinner on a
certain day, usually at the hour of six
or half after. ALFRED in dress suit and
white neck-tie, you are expected to pre-
sent yourself at the front door at pre-
cisely the designated hour, when you
will probably find your modest cab
for voiture de remise even is not de-
handed by etiquette; indeed, I have
90 to a dinner-party in a hanson cab
mixed up with motley line of gor-
geous, emblazoned cabriOlets and heavy
family coaches. A stalwart corchman
in oppressive livery swings wide the
door and asyOu enter, another footman,
with equally oppressive livery, con-
ducts you to roOm-which is not sell
dom my lords library-where you leave
I l. !
a final brush to locks and whiskers. If
there be ladies of the party they are
usually provided with separate rooms
and, joining them on the staircase, you
ascend to the drawing-room, Just at the
door of which stands third foOtmon,
with a trebly oppressive livery. To
this august being you whisper your
name, to be shocked by hearing it re-
sOund-usually pronounced distressing
ly wrong, and twisted into something
unheard of-through the stately apart
mont, the vista of which opens through
the doorway to your view. Here is my
lord, faultlessly dressed, who advances
easily and naturally, grasps your hand
with brief word of welcome, and leads
you forward to balloon-like being, all
silk and lace, to whom he presents you
as to the countess of A.. She is
the central figure of bevy of ladies,
and you are in turn introduced, with
very little formality, to the lady Ange-
lima and the lady Gertrude and the lady
Constance, until the blooming family is
exhausted. Here and there in little
knots about the room the guests are
standing. chatting easily and quietly
together. You recognize the archbish-
op and ambassador, the eminent histo-
rian and the parliamentary. leader,
Judges and literati, and men@Snd wo-
men of fashion if prince of the blood
is present, he mingles freely with the
rest, although narrow observation de-
tects a trife more Difference paid to him
than to the other guests.
In very few minutes-for al is
promptness in the aristocratic house
hold-dinner is announced by the bur
~, rubicund, knee-breeched butler,
whose apploplectic Countenance looms
for an instant only in the doorway. As
easily and naturally as possible the COM
pany proceeds to the dining-room by
couples, the hostess and most distin-
guished guest leading the way. You
cannot but be struck by the apartment
into which you are thus introduced.