A STATE BALL IN ENGLAND.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1222, 11 December 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

A STATE BALL IN ENGLAND.

The prettiest sight at the ball is the supper procession of the Royal family, followed by the Ambassadors and attended iby the great officers of the household. Shortly after midnight Lord Kenware waves his wand, and the band plays “ G od Save the Queen,” whereupon the company draw np in two lines down the room, and the great folks pass along between them, returning in about half an hour in the same manner; after which the great company go and refresh themselves. The summer room looks very fine with all the gold plate displayed, and, although you have to eat standing—what Theodore Hook describes as “ tables against the wall, covered with cold negus and warm ice ; where men, women, and children take perpendicular refreshment, like so many horses with their noses in the manger”—yet when once the first crush has subsided aud you can get to the table, you find that the meal is an excellent one. The champagne is dry. properly iced, and in all respects unexceptionable. The Queen in this sets an admirable example to the herd of ball-giving people, who too often do not scruple to half poison their guests with the filthy liquor they place before them. In “ Lothair” Lord Beaconsfield alludes to Lord St. Gerome’s “giving the same champagne at his balls that he gave at his dinners” as being a fact sufficient to stamp him at once as a host of the right sort.