PRESENT-DAY MANNERS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2089, 25 May 1907, Page 1

PRESENT-DAY MANNERS

- Manners and customs in smart English society, says an authority, have not the stern quality of the laws of tlio Medes and Persians, and each year sees new ways of life and fresh departures from the beaten track. That “old times are gone and manners changed” is exemplified in nothing so much as in the,alteration in the matter of country-house visits. The middle years of Queen Victoria’s life saw the apotliesis of so-called family life and the exaltation of dullness. At that time husbands and wives always went about in couples, travelling was tedious and difficult, “week-ends” were unheard of, and a visit took the form of a solid seven days’ sojourn. Madame was content with one small trunk, containing some simple gowns of the,previous year, and monsieur looked mildly forward to his old port, his rubber of , whist, and a tramp after partridges. Those wero the days of early breakfasts and 7 o’clock dinners. Even afternoon teas were not invented. To-day all that is changed, and country-house parties provide the salt for the sooial banquet, and the shooting season is not considered the only proper season. Any time of the year serves the purpose of gathering together men and women of the “world.” Society women make these visits an excuse for wearing tlio newest and most up-to-date of London and Parisian costumes. A smart woman is oxpeeted to appear in a different dinner gown and tea frock each day, and would need several afternoon drosses, two or three “tailor-mades” for golf, walking, or rough motoring, besides such things as shirts, blouses, bridge coats, wraps, countless hats and toques, not forgetting a possible riding habit, and in the season a complete outfit for shooting and fishing. A woman’s luggage, of course, assumes tremendous proportions. Three or four boxes, a “kit hag,” a despatch box. a dressingcase, not to mention a “hold-all,” a luncheon basket, and perhaps a couple of dogs. General breakfast is unheard of in big country-houses, though the meal is set out in an appropriate room for any men ivlio, like to turn out early. Buf women as a rule take their .first meal in tlieir own apartments, and do not make their appearance until quito late in the day., ...i*..* . ..