The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-09-29
A London Levee.

i WO DallS anu TWO state cODceftS-alt OF
which are given at Buckingham Palace
comprise her Majesty's contribution to
London entertainments during every sea-
son.
The names of all the people who are
eligible guests at the state ball are put
down in the 'list" book at Buckingham
Palace This book is strickly supervised
by the queen, and no name remains upon
it without her acquiescence and none are
added without her command or specially
granted permission. Some people there
are who fondly imagine that their presen-
tation at court and constant attendance at
drawing-rooms will result in their names
going down in the list. They, however,
make great mistake; for going to draw
ing-room is one thing, being invited to
state ball quite another; and, while it is
true no one can be invited to a state ball
who has not been presented, presentation
per Sc will not lead to an invitation to
state ball. There must be some additional
reason or credential of rank or distinction
at home or abroad, besides the means to
pay for an elaborate court dress and su-
perabundance of recently purchased dia-
modds Money alone will not get person
asked to state ball, though its possession
may give to its possessor a sufficiently re-
spectacle standing to prevent the rejection
of his or her name by the lord chamberlain
when application is made to him for per-
mission to be presented to the queen at a
drawing-room. Thus it is that you will
see peoples names at levees and drawing
rooms nowadays who are never invited to
a state ball, and until you do see their
names as invited guests at the latter, you
may be sure they have not reached the
highest grade of London society, no matter
to what private balls and other entertain
ments they may be asked to swell the
crowd At drawing-room their presence
is permitted at court at state ball it is
requested, and therein lies the difference.
All the high officials, past and present,
with the great officers of state, their wives
and families, are of course invited. The
nobility-both heads of families and col
lateral branches-and such of the gentry
us have indisputable claims upon the SOW
ereign's consideration, are also included in
the list; likewise army and navy officers
whose social position is dependent on some
thing more stable than the uniforms they
wear OF course, many who are eligiblein
every way are seldom asked, and aside from
the officials, who have to be invited (and
always make sure to go), the majority of
the guests is composed of people who are
in the swim of high society during the
season.
Then considerable favoritism is shown to
the Prince and Princess of Wales special
friends and pets, who otherwise on state
ball night would not be able to get inside
the palace gates as spectators, let alone the
ballroom as guests. Yet there are some
people his royal highness could never get
his mother to accept. Try as he might
he never got Mrs. Langtry invited; and
thus far Miss Chamberlaine's successes in
England have occurred exclusively beyond
the precincts of the court. On the other
hand, Mrs. Corvallis West is a welcome
guest at Buckingham Palace. But Mrs.
Corvallis West has the pull on the others.
No matter how loud and boisterous may be
her behavior, how much rouge she may
apply to her cheeks, how decolIete she may
have her gowns cut, or how Indifferent she
may be as to the extent of hose-clad limb
she may display beneath her short skirts
when she dances an after-supper valse with
one of her ''pals, she has husband who is
not only man of position in Wales, and
rich, but who goes about with her himself,
and seems to notice nothing. eff he doesn't
mind, say people, ''why should any one
else? And he's got too much money to
have his wife cut, don't you know ?"
Many of the nobility are excluded, not
from caprice, but for cause. Fer instance,
Viscount Vaudeville, whose Incorporate
habits-as the Vanderbilts in New York,
[ have been told, have good reason to know
make him unfit for any society but the
lowest the Marquis of Blandford, who is
Stunned by all decent-minded people as a
libertine, liar, and wife-beater; the Hon.
Walter Harboard, Lord Sufields brother,
who, while major in the Seventh Hussars,
was caught cheating at cards one night in
the card-room of the Marlborough club,
and for which he was cashiered from the
army, expelled from his clubs, excluded
from court, and cut by everybody; the
Earl of Aylesford and the Marquis of
Huntly, whose exploits are of sufficiently
recent occurrence to preclude the necessity
of recapitulation. The names of tie Coun-
tesses of Stradbroke and Euston, Lady
Walsingham, Lady Edmont; and Lady Mary
Craven have also been either refused place
in or erased from the list of eligibles.
Though always too crowded for Others
than the members of the royal circles and
their immediate friends to dance, a state
ball is grand sight to behold, and an
event in the lives of ordinary individuals
There you will see the creme de Ia creme of
English society; the most magnificent and
costly dresses which Worth and his London
imitators can produce; diamonds in tiara
and stomacher, not fresh from the show
case of Bond street jewellers, but gems that
have been heirlooms for generations, that
never see the light of day, and only the
light of night on some great occasion, re-
posing meanwhile in the custody of the
family banker; all the great beauties the
day who have something more to recon-
mend them than mere comeliness of face
or perfection of figure, and all the notabil-
tiles of both home and foreign growth.
The musicians, too, dressed in scarlet uni
forms, and stationed in the gallery above
the ballroom, have most picturesque look.
But the greatest spectacle of the night is
the royal procession to the supper-room,
shortly after midnight. The band plays
the national anthem, and the royal party
pass down the room between the company
drawn up in two lines. Then follow the
foreign ambassadors and ministers, after
which everybody can go. In hesummer-
room is buffet built from floor to ceiling,
on which is placed the magnificent service
of gold plate belonging to the queen, re-
fecting in its bright surfaces the brilliant