, 1877-06-22
The London "SeasOn." "

What is called the social season" &C.
ours in this country in the winter months.
1t is then that everybody is at home, aud
that the parties, receptions and other gay
eties of fashionable society takes place.
In London, the social season begins just
about the time when ours ends. During
a greater part of the winter London so
ciety is away in the country, or on the
continent, and the town, to fashionable
people, is dull enough. That is the time
when the nobility and wealthy gentlemen
have parties of guests at their counting
houses, and spend their time in such So
cial festivity as the fine old mansions of
the country and household full of peo-
pie afford.
The London season begins in April,
and ends when Parliament adjourns, late
in July or early in August 1t is during
this period that the great English metrop-
oils is best worth visiting. The weather
has by April become warm and genial.
The beautiful parks which stretch in a
continuous chain long distance through
the most fashionable quarters of the town,
are clothed in the richest, deepest green
the time of fogs has gone, and the sun
shines out brightly; the birds are singing
in the trees, and on every hand London
wears the aspect of gayety and social
pleasure.
The Queen and her family, who spend
the winter at the Isle of Wight, repair to
Windsor Castle early in the season, so as
to be near the town; and the brilliant
royal levees which then take place at St.
James Palace, and the drawing rooms"
and garden parties at Buckingham Pal
ace, set the example of hospitality and
entertainment to the fashionable world.
Even the common people have their
share of the pageantry of the court, for
they gather in good-natured crowds in
the parks, and see the great people going
in their stately carriages to the palace,
and may almost every day have chance
to see princes and princesses passing to
and fro in gorgeous array.
The "West End" of London, during
the season, presents, both in the daytime
and in the evening, an almost perpetually
enlivening scene. In the morning, Hyde
Park is full of people of all ranks, enjoy
ing the soft spring air, the flowers, the
pOuOS, anu Lut TlCu lOlldSos III AhOItOh
Row." you will see numbers of gentlemen
and ladies, many of them of high rank,
riding to and fro on thoroughbred and
very handsome horses, stopping to chat
with each other, or cantering along beside
open carriages, which are carrying hevy
of friends.
On the pleasant spring evenings, the
West End is fairly alive with carriages
rafting hither and thither, some of them
driven by fat coachmen, with white,
curled wigs, gold-laced cooked hats, knee
breeches and buckled shoes, while gor-
geously- dressed footmen, with powdered
hair, hang on behind; others, more sim
pie, yet bearing, perhaps, dukes and earls
to the balls and parties.
Many of the stately houses are bril-
liantly lighted, and very inviting is the
scene within, if you catch a glimpse Of
the gay throng through the open win
dows.
The season is scarcely less gay for the
middle and lower classes of London than
for the people of rank and fashion. 1t is
the time of excursions out of town to the
many places of interest within easy reach
of London.