HIGH JINKS IN HIGH LIFE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1468, 28 January 1887, Page 3

HIGH JINKS IN HIGH LIFE

Dhcoaalng a visit to an English noblerain's country house, General Badeau thus writta to tho New York Sun. -"After dinner m many houses the hostess rises at eleven, and this tho ladies know is their signal. v; ooc? -nights are exchanged, everybody shakes hands, se'tzjr, and brandy, and sherry are brought io for those who wish t^eoi, and the gentlemen light the bedroom candles for the ladies The whole company move out to the foot of the great staircase, and the procession of ladies ascends to the upper galleries, the graceful girls m pink and white, and the sumptuous matrons m velvet and diamonds, each currying her candle, while the portraits of vanished ancestors look down on the soene where they, too, oroe played a brilliant pare. The men linger for a while, but are soon invited to the emoking-room, For this they usually ohange their drees. Wheu I first went to England only a few wore era king -jack ets, but latterly m many houses the men came down towards midnight m gorgeous satin Buits, with variegated troweers and ops, and the effect is very picturesque. The last morning visit I paid m London i was to a \*om*n of the widest experience of high life the reputed mistress of two hundred thousand pounds a year, whose jewels aud pictures were renowned A literary man was also oilling wo wanted to writo an article on luxury for the Quarterly Review, and he oould think of no one so n't to i"form him as our hostess. . But she declared tbat for instances of the extreme luxury of tbe time the reviewer must go to the young men. She spoke particularly of the dresses they wear at night m the smoking room, and assured ua that they rival m expense the court-gowns of duobesses. The custom extends to palaoss. After diuuer at Windsor General Grant was invited tyPrince Leopold to the smokingroom, and tbe expression of the general when the young man came down m jioket and trousete of striped blue and yellow satin was conuoil to one who knew him we)), though oonoealed from the res', of the company. In some houses the ladies join the men, m Turkish trousers and embroidered jackets, with rakish o<ips and tasce's, and bit m tbe smokingroom till throe and four o'clock m the morniug. Some of thara, matrons and damsels, too, take their cigarettes, and even their brandy and aoda ; and th» tone of manners under these circumstances ia not apt to be as formal as at the dinner table. Stories are told of princesses and duchesses playing hide and seek afterwards, and finding their way, fn still lighter attire, into corners where I footman have stumbled on them un unawares ; and practical jokes m bathn and bed rooms are practiced, fitter for pot-houses than for palaces. Theao revels, however, are not universal. About onethird of tho TCnglish aristocracy indulge ia fashion? that rival tho moat dissolute orgies of any time j t^eir moraU are lik > theii deeoent, inherited direct from Charles II j but there is fully another third as pure and correct an any circle m any country m the world. The remaining third are like the maai of mankind everywhere, good or bad, according to temptation and opportunity. I once stayed ah a Highland house where tho 'party wa9 very young and very pay ; and after dinner ie wa9 agreed to pl»y at deerstalking In the dravring-room. Some of the nobility wer« to be shooters ; one was tha stag, and the two others were the dogs. Others were camt:k3ep9rs and gillie. The vouov fellows follow- d tie pray around from billiard room to library ; they would li^ m wait m their kilts, behind the chairs and under the tablet 1 ; the cues warj their guns, and they maJe game bags on of embroidered table-covers Tbe lad et kopk up with the chase, from room t> room, applauding the amateurs, who kn«w their parts well, for they had stalked irreality ali day. Finely the stag wa' bright to bay ; he was Bhot, and fell, •'nd Wa'ij placed on a marquis, for a pou» , whose b»ck was broad eiioogh to earn * nn ' Ttjen he wan taken to a boudoir fo tho larder, and weighed and divided ; hi blanches were counted, and his nge d«* cUr< d ; but the boras were not, hung on U»e wall."