Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-11-02
IFrom Our Regular Correspondent
Our EurODean Letter.
LONDON, Eng. October IS, 1881

ftrom our Regular OOtFesPouNeAh'N
Our European Letter.
LONDON, Eng, October IS, 1881.
On Tuesday night Queen Victoria visit
ed for the first time In twenty years a
theatrical performance given at the Aber-
geldic castle. Royalty seldom hears pub
lie opinion; but we believe. If her majesty
only knew how welcome her presence
would be at the theatres, she would set
aside all personal feelings, and again at
tend performances as Of old. The frequent
visits of the Prince and Princess of Wales
to our theatres has, know, helped to
raise the character of performances, and
also to stimulate the public taste in theat-
rical matters. Rigid puritanical people
who fancy all sorts of nonsensical stuff
about plays and actors, now say to them
selves and friends, a." What is good enough
for the Prince and Princess of Wales must
be good enough for u.s." Still better would
it be II we could hear people say 10 each
other, after a new play. "captal piece"
Large audience" 20 Teen was there"
etc. The opera has visihly suffered since
the palmy days WHEN her m .jssty and the
Prince Consort used to have great works
performed before them on special occa-
sions. We remember we'll the enthusia m
there was when the royal pair went to see
Meyerbeer's Huguepots first produced in
England. If only her majesty could be
| induced to visit the London theatres occa-
sionally during the season. she would |
am convinced. have such reception AS
would more than compensate for any
sacrifice of personal convenience.
That comprehensive tail to many t,sdes
called &C.," is a sort of commercial
charity and covereth multitude of sins in
"our old nobility" The offshoots Of
tottering titles and pauperized patrician
purses in this simple Go" manage to
keep up their monetary responsibility.
They are more or less /" keeping shop"
and very good thing it is for them, if
they do it honestly. To openly despise it
and privately enjoy it would be fuls'me
snobbery." AS rule, they rather talk
it out too much. and say. Well, you see
I am working noww This shows the
change in social current. The ptrvcnu
g snob" is shy of his work. The patrician
poverty stricken "swell is proud of it 1t
would be as hard now as in the First
Napoleon's time to find the absence of
shop in any family in England-from
Queen Victoria's farm produce sales To
Sir Samuelson Shoddy's stock jobbing. In
some shape or form "shop" rules the
court, the camp and the heaven of British
aristocracy as we'll as democracy. Look
where you will-from coal land, that Mr..
Lincoln said, els the best thing | KIN
of with which to commence an enterprise"
TO that land of more doubtful results
however flaming frequently the manor of
matrimony and the enterprise of misall-
ance. and "shop" prevails with prime or
parvenu in England. 1t is not dishonorable
to keep shop " if you keep it homes ".
Look at the signers of the Declaration
of Independence and the formula'ors of
Magma Charta; they kept shops, directly
and indirectly, after The fashion of their
day. Some of their signs had "bars
sinisters," aud were as mixed rs many o.
the modern trades have their wares and
also were marked with dry rot too. But
they never shirked the shop" and be-
came the "snob." They had the courage
of their opinions and callings, too. Mr..
Fraude pictures the coming period when
the old social hierarchy of English nobility
in name and domain will laoguish and
pass away. Why, surely that period has
already come to a great extent-is here
now, and its future is butsto morrow. 1t
is the inevitable in all countries. 1t is
manifest to-day.
In Rotten Row as we'll ..as in my
Ladies Mile" or that gossiping rendezvous
called Vanity FAIR of this Hyde Park.
There s an immense amount of this same
social " off heel" squirting AMI provoking
in this park by every nan and woman,
pedestrian or equestriane. All ages and
sexes are mounted in Rotten Row. A fat
lady of sixty, in a seventeen year-old hat
and habit, on n cob of the present, assumes
the air of the girl of the period, and riding
rapidly into her grave of the future. A
blossom of the female order. in the bread
and-butter odor of her teens, takes the
cloth trousers and high nettled steed most
manfully before she blooms into woman
hood. doubt if there are many men who
Can ride better than she. give the palm
to ladies of this type for horse-ridlng. In
Rotten Row there is a magnificent theme
for the moralist, the artist and the novel
list. All the mutability of taste and u grea
deal more than the fickleness Of fashion
are here. AUGUST.