A BOOK OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1693, 8 March 1913, Page 9

A BOOK OF THE DAY.

MORE GOSSIP FROM LADY DOROTHY , NEVILL. Lady Dorothy Nevill's amusing, arid, in its own way, instructive book of gossip, /uwter Five Rtr.'gns," made so decided a nit that the . author lias been tempted to draw still further upon her memories of by-gone times, men, women, lhanners, and customs._ 'The,Tesult is a handsome ' volunie, 'My Own Times" (Methuen and Co., perAVhitcombe nnd Tombs), which, ' though it may not contain so many bonnes histoires as its predecessor, still makes most entertaining reading. Lady Dorothy again indulges in some philosophical but good-natured comparisons upon the manners of society a 9 she knows it at-' the present day, and Society manners of the Victorian period. She is not given to any mournful regrets over the past, but she notes, nevertheless, not a fewfeatures, in present-day society' which ' 1 might very well have never made their .appearance. -The all-pervading., wealthworship is, slie thinks, largely responsible ■ ;for a ,decadence in tho habits,,and especi- ' ally, the .'manners, of society. Anything ■ : like brilliant conversation' has vanished. " People have more acquaintances; but fewer real frionds. Ostentatious . dinners ;at restaurants havo, too largely replaced the ,'v;.old-fashioned. dinner party in the home, with-its , simpler 'menu,: lhtiybe; but. its.' - pleasant .reflection of genuine., hospitality, • its'often witty conversation, and its gen',„eral air of.true friendliness. end: habit.deplored, arid. the mania; for ?.rusiWng',t6 fashionable, foreign " wateriri?- .. .'places also comes in for reproof. On thow:hole,:'however, the more wo dip into ' Lnfly Dorothy's'latest lucky-bag, and read' , ' her reminiscences' of the "gopd old times," the less are wo inclined..to any deep regret that they aro no more.

Soma Eccentrics. There was ju9t its much dissipation, just as muclrgambling in those much-vaunted .Early Victorian days as there is to-day, but, scandals were more easily hushed up. ' The .'.trail. of the society journalist was not then over the land. Especially, so it would 'appeal', were the ranks of the aris- , tocracy plentifully, garnished .with "eccentrics."' One ( cxueer character was old Lord Fitzwilliam, ' who was said to be the / greatest exponent; 'of impassiveness who v had'/ever existed. Sitting at lunch, one .day with his daughters, one of them suddenly said: "Take care, i>apa, there is a wasp crawling up your tie." Her father, without exhibiting the slightest symptom • of; alarnr, "having 'languidly raised his hand, turned'to one of the footmen, and in the most ; careless way in the world . remarked: "J'olm/removo the wasp." Another queer West End; character of the '■ past: was'old Lady Penrhyn, who, when , she died, '-'left an annuity to.her three 1 . little ugly pugs, which, dressed in. teat . scarlet cloaks and bonnets, were constant: ly to be" seeii: taking exerciso under'the care of a footman in a West End square." "Of a yet more eccentric aristocratic lover of animals, the last' Earl of Bridge water, Xady Xevill relates'that when' hv•ing in Paris he kept a house full of catsand'dogs dressed as ladies and gentlemen. All .his pets'were fed at table, .and taken out' in carriages, forvdrives. .' u The buchess r and"the'tiuhghifr. ; "'' 'j How far tho. spirit of: studied. rudeness . fc'ould .carx-y a lady, of very higli degree is told in "a story, figure in wliichj was the fifth Duchess of Queensberry. : This lady, when -in,' Scotland,. used • to dress in the garb 1 of a peasant girr ■ from the curious desire to humiliate .. certain of lier neighbours.'. She wished, it is.said, to ridicule and put. out • of countenance the stately dresses and ' demeanour of the Scottish gentlewomen who-visited her. One evening • . wine country ladies paid her a visit, ; dressed in their best brocades., She ■ ' ; proposed a'walk,-and they were," of. , v course, under: the disagreeable lieces•sity of trooping oif in. all the splen- " dour of . full dress, to the utter discomfiture of "their stfirched-up frills. , and flounces. Her Grace, pretending at last to be tired, sat dawn upon the',.. > dirtiest dunghill she could find, at tbe.:' 1 end. of .a farmhouse, and invited the ; poor, draggled fine'ladies to seat them- '. selves around lier. They stood so much ' in awe of "her that they, durst not refuse. ... \lf some of the great ladies of tlie past were cruelly .rude, some of. their : husbands were frightfully mean. One great nobleman, for instance, of whom it was said that it was "Lent all' the year round in his kitchen," when, driving in his brougham, rnajle it a practice, directly any rain fell, to make "his footman ancl coachman hand him in their hats to keep them -tarn getting wet. There., is ,here : auite, a of Thackeray's Sir Pitt Crawley. J-Old-time Politics, Lady Borothy is no great politician, although it is noticeable,that for onco she forgets her usual good nature when she -teularks, apropos to nothing in particular., that "robbing hen roosts is more to 'Mr. Lloyd-George's taste than thrift," but she confesses that in tho prt-Refonn Bill days there was a good deal of jobbery, at which some of tho old school were ex- . pate.; f- ; _ One pawky old Scotch member 1 , for instance, "who, mucli to his surprise and indignation, lost his seat after the passing of tho Bill,' used to'say ' that the right' time for pressing a Minister on a point of patronage was just before a critical division: A curi- . ' ous story uaxl to be told of his walk-

ing on such an occasion with' Canning '"■to the House, and when asked if hisvote might bo. depended 011, saying that his mind was at that moment, so much occupied with the uncertain position of a poor, fatherless bairn. ' who wanted a -clerkship in th'o Regis- ■ tor House for tho support of a widowed mother, that. he was really not in a condition to mnko up his mind how he'."would vote! Onco the old roguo made sijch strenuous efforts to provide for a certain Lauohlan-Macintosh that two simultaneous appointments came to the fortunate youth, one in the Customs, the other in the Excise. Neither of • these was to' be thrown away. It was. necessary, therefore, to send to Scotland for a duplicate ' Lauchlan Macintosh willing to accopt a Ciovernment appointment. , i . Little difficulty was found in procur- ' ing what, was wanted. Shoddy Titles,. Lady Dorothy may not spare the follies nnd' vices of somo of the old-time aristocracy, but she hold's in equal contempt the devices by which' some of the plutocrats of the present day endeavour, sometimes with success, to secure what the author calls ' "those shoddy new titles," which, she alleges, "aro almost* openly . cold for party purposes." One of the most amusing stories connectcd. with what Lady Dorothy calls "this iniquitous system of barter" relates' to a certain vendor of patent medicines, whose name she does not give, but who is, she says, well known by profuse advertising. This worthy, so the story goes, having been told that lie could procure a knighthood for ,£15,000 (to be paid into the war chest of one of the two gTeat political -parties) actually went so far as to attempt to enter into pourparlers with certain individuals well skilled in arranging such matters. His proposals, however, did not contemplate the payment of the, whole sum in cash. Ho was ready, he is supposed to have said, to pay down, tho rest of the sum to bo liquidated, by the delivery of his remedy up to tho value of the remaining ,£12,000! Needless to.say,-this amazing offer was not accepted. And Some Other Subjects, ■ The l'ango of Lady Dorothy's reminiscences is agreeably wide. All her gossip

is not of the peerage. Sho comments pleasantly, and often very shrewdly— sometimes quite wittily—upon ~the changes in the manners and customs' At' the peoplo at large; on the introduction of the railways and. the changes entailed thereby in the lives of the country folk; on London of sixty years ago as compared to ■ London of to-day; on the alteration'in the prices of tea and other commodities; on the change of tasto in dress and amusements. She has stories to tell of authors, actors, and painters, famous dancers, and famous • clergymen, stories'.of'the army, before the. abolition of the: purchase system, stories on all conceivable subjects. Some are old friends, others are.new; some are well authenticated; others, maybe, aro merely clever, concoctions,' but the vast majority aro .decidedly amusing; and some-indeed are not .without a wholesome moral. A good "dippable" book is this of Lady Dorothy's, which sonfe. day, it is to be hoped, may bp reprinted in cheaper form. A coloured portrait of the author, from a miniature executed ia 1846, forms a • suitable/frontispiece.