The Portland daily press., 1896-04-10
COST OF ROYAL VISITS.
Earl of Lonsdale Paid 81 ZOO, 900 for En-
PERTAINING Emperor William.


United States is fully Ga good in every
way as prince of the blood, or even as
full-fedged sovereign of the old world,
that few, save those who have resided for
any length of time in the European
capitals, and who have been included in
what are known as the court circles, can
have any idea of the fuss, the trouble,
the formal etiquette, and above all, the
expense entailed by royal visits, which
are particular in this respect, that the
people to whom they are paid are thor
ough1y made to feel that they are being
accorded an altogether exceptional honor.
Royal visits may roughly be divided
into three classes, namely: Ordinary
calls, purely private visits, where the
illustrious guest is supposed to lay aside
to Il certain extent his lofty rank, and
semi-stabe and full state visits These
latter. above all, are a sour ce of frightful
expenditure on the part of the enter
tainer, and it is probable that within the
last four or five months several millions
of dollars have been spent by the English
aristocraoy and gentry in welcoming
to their abodes In suitable manner the
children and grandchildren of their SOW
ereign.
The Earl of Lonsdale is known to have
spent close upon million dollars in con.
nection with the four days. visit which
Emperor William paid him at Lowther
Castle last autumn. They say that Lady
"Bill' Beresford paid $50, 900 of her
Hammersley dollars to entertain the
Prince from Saturday to Monday at Deep
dene; while, according to all accounts
the recent stay of the Primes of Wales al
Higholere Castle with young Lord and
Lady Carnarvon must have cost in the
neighborhood of million dollars, if not
more. Not only was the grand old place
refurnished at immense expense from
cellar to garrett, the apartments destined
for the Prince being even paneled and
tapestried anew, but there were even ad-
ditional stables and accommodations for
the servants built for the occasion. the
number of horses and carriages being
likewise largely increased. Then, too,
Lord CarparvOn had taken the precau-
ton to stock his coverts with some 90, 600
artitcially reared pheasants, purchased at
heavy cost from the great Hampshire
game farm which makes speciality OF
pheasant breeding,
On the three days that the Prince and
his party were able to get out after the
birds during his stay at Higholere, he and
his party succeeded in Strengthening no
less than II 200 birds, and had not the
heavy rain kept the guests indoors during
the remainder OF the Princes visit, it is
probable that the size Of the bag would
have been doubled.
In spite of the bad weather the Prince
cannot have been bored, 30 varied were
the indoor amusements. Lord Carnar
Won had engaged the services of the lead
ing and champion professional billiard
players to exhibit their skill at the tables
Then there were Indian iugg1ers, Eng
lish conjUrers, songstresses of the Yvette
Guilbert type from Paris, dramauio
troupe from London, and the famous
Gottlieb Band to discourse sweet music,
Lord Carnarvon having no permanent
private string band of his own, as have
Lord Lonsdale and several other British
mobiles. Special trains carried the guests
to and from London, as well as to the
agricultural show in the neighboring
town, while the wants of the inner man
we're attended TO by no less than nine
additional first-class chefs from Paris,
London, and Vienna, engaged in addition
to Lord Carnarvon's own private staff of
four chefs. his cuisine being famed as one
of the most perfectly organized in LON
don.
Throughout the Princes stay the menu
proval, in compliance of the rules of ETH
quette. Though not gourmand, he is,
nevertheless, q gourmet, and as such pre-
fers small, choice dinners to elaborate
banquets In fact, there is nothing that
he abhors to such an extent Jas dinner
of many courses, and he declines to re-
main any longer at table than an hour.
He is waited on by his own servant, who
stands behind his chair and who takes
the dishes from the other servants. But
it is not true that he carries about with
him his own wines to private houses.
This is q rrecauEion which he only
adopts in the case of public banquets. A
popularity that is observed at table
when he is present is the absence of finger
other guest OF royal rank who might
happen to be present. The reason for
this is not that the Princes and Princes
SEES of the blood stand in more need of
olea nsing than ordinary mortals, nor yet
that the latter are prompted by senti-
meut of respect to leave the palm for
cleanliness to the ''anointed of the Lord, -
by themselves remaining unwashed but
the custom had it's origin in trick
which the Jaoobite mobiles were won't to
play in the last century, during the reign
of the first three King Georges. In those
good old times no one would dream of
rising from the dinner table without
toasting the sovereign. TO refrain from
doing so was equivalent to professionaof
disloyalty, and any refusal to take part
in the toast and to drain ones glass to
the monarch placed one in peril of the
many penalties in the way of forfeiture
of titles and estates, imprisonment, exile
and even death, that were reserved for
those who declined allegiance to King
George.
Now, during the last century consid-
cradle portion of the English arlstocraoy
were devoted to the cause Of the Stuarts,
and when called upon to join in drinking
the inevitable toast. The King" they
would make practice of holding their
wineglasses over the finger bowl when
responding thereto, so that. while appar-
emily drinking to King George. they were
in reality drinking to @ the King over
the water This is why finger bowls
XVara ia hnneIl N snniet1u I1ntil tho accnr-