Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-05
NOBILITY AT HOME.
Rules of Life Among the Titled Class
of the Queens Domain.
PLEASURE Is A SCIENCE THERE.
Contrast With the Grotesque Social Writh-
ings of Our Own Rich.
THE 1NFORMALITIEs OF A VISIT

CORRESPONDENTS TO THE DIsPATCH.l
LONDON, June 26.-English literature, or
rather that portion comprised in English
fiction, has certainly done injustice to
British nobility in at least one respect. 1t
has totally misinformed all of us who are
plebeian, and rather like remaining so, as
to the everyday life of the British aris-
tocracy.
Nobody loves this class. Nobody believes
in its hereditary rights and privileges, save
those clergy who hold '1ivings'' under
them and the other lackeys Enat serve them.
Nobody has any manly sympathy whatever
with its semi-regal pretensions and preroga-
tives. Nobody has the slightest confidence
that century hence any such class will
continue to exist in Great Britain. And
yet every one of us, notwithstanding our
foutings and scofings, has the keenest
interest in glimpses of its members daily
lives
Your British lord really believes in him
self. That is worth something to character,
and builds up on the lines of equable living
and true dignity with anybody. Your
American 1ordero knows he is an accident,
pretender, an irritating social misft. The
formers real pleasures are found in relax
alton from social duties which centuries of
custom have rendered obligatory. The
latter's pleasures are solely attainable
through the arrogant and offensive insistence
Of endless recognition of his money power.
The one is splendid nations permanent
excrescence. The other is another splendid
nations first growth of fungus.
The Season In London.
Many of the British nobility occupy their
establishments the year round These
would scorn to do else. Their ethics are
exclusively evolved from their fondest
dreams to which they cling, that they are
feudal lords. For such to reside in town
would be to descend to the utter debase-
ment of burghers. With great majority,
the London ''season" largely controls their
residence and its period at castle, seat. or
hall, or elsewhere. The season" is con-
trolled by Parliament, the annual closing
of which practically depends on sport. The
aristocratic fashionable world is formed and
its movements controlled almost exclusively
by those connected with the Houses of Lords
and Commons; these comprising largely the
nobility.
In other words, the intangible, awful
formulated thing known as the great fash
ionable world centering in London, is after
all simply the country nobility and aristoc-
racy congregated for a brief season in Lon
don. London does not make this fashion
able world. Those Of the country make it
in London. Their town houses, for the en-
tree to which fashionable toadies will resort
to ineonceivable humiliations, are the
merest temporary lodging houses of hated
city life This exclusive class, not far ex-
ceeding thousand heads of houses, prac-
tically own and derive the revenues from
the entire landed possessions of Great
Britain.
In and Out With Parliament
In the main, British castle life begins
with the grouse shooting season in August
and lasts until the following May. With
those Gin the world" the period is much re-
duced. Many forsake the estates in Febru-
ary for the ''irst swim" in the metropolis.
There is delightful though quiet social Pc
riod in London preceding Easter But just
Immediately before Easter Parliament ad-
journs, when back come the lords and
ladies, or a trip to the Continent is taken.
After Easter the full London tide sets in.
The park is thronged; Rotten Row is filled
with magnificent horsewomen and gallants;
luncheons, dinners and balls are innumer-
able; and the Queens drawing-rooms COM
mand nobility presence. Then comes Whit
suntide, when Parliament again takes a
short recess, and London is again deserted
by the aristocracy. But all the nobility of
England, Scotland and Ireland that make
any pretensions whatever to correct form
are back in London by the latter part of
May.
From this time late dinners and later
balls follow in bewildering succession. The
e De-
tinually breathed. Fashionable event and
affair, originated by the aristocracy, and to
which the aristocracy are truly slaves,
compel the limit of physical and financial
endurance.
Events That Mark the Close.
Derby day, for which Parliament always
adiourns, is followed by commencement at
Eaton, and these by the great cricket
matches between Lords and Commons,
Rugby, Harrow and Eaton, and Cambridge
and Oxford. Then come the wonderful
garden parties of Cheswick, the two great
breakfasts of the Prince of Wales, and the
distinguished parties by earls, dukes and
duchesses. followed by Ascot week, and the
court balls and great balls and banquets of
foreign embassies, with the splendid after
noon teas by the Queen in the gardens of
Buckingham Palace, until the military
1eteS ana Ine ldSJ Iele cllaupetre at w ILL.,
bledon have arrived; and the "done" and
iaded aristocracy seek the spas of the Con-
tinent in atonement for their sins. The
season is at an end The guns of the
titled sportsmen commence ringing in the
North, and the home life at the castles of
Britain begins
Usually large portion of the family
plate, some pictures, and much bric-a-brac
have done duty at the town-house, during
the "season." Every other movable arti-
Gle of value has been left at the castle un-
der the housekeeper's direct charge, and
the general charge of the steward, agent or
factor of the estate, who resides near The
housekeeper, and possibly half-dozen un-
der-servants have remained at the castle on
'board wages" that is, reduced wages, and
a certain weekly allowance with which to
provide their own food.
Not Picnic for the Servants.
They lead no life of ease under these cir
cumstances. Every habitable portion of
the place is inspected, busted and aired
daily. Every floor is waxed once each week.
At stated intervals every piece of furniture
the library opened, busted and aired, and
the plate and cutlery kept in constant readi-
ness for immediate use For, while the
probabilities are that milord and milady
will remain absent during the entire season,
they may return at any moment.
After arrival two or more weeks are de-
voted to absolute rest and quiet family re-
union. This period is the childrens' heaven
of the year. If they are young and the
governess and the tutor (often the village