ENGLISH NOBS AND SNOBS.

Southland Times, Volume VII, Issue 534, 6 August 1866, Page 2

ENGLISH NOBS AND SNOBS.

(From the Cosmopolitan) A well-born, thorough-bred, high-toned Englishman is the finest creature in the world, except a thorough-bred Englishwoman. These are the nobs or nobles of society, whose character and manners have made the British name respectable, admirable, throughout the world. Next to them we find a class the most disagreeable, the most ill-mannered, and the most intolerably vain and egotistical that it has been our misfortune to meet, although we have travelled much by land and sea, and "many lands and cities seen." They belong to that class so sharply and so justly portrayed by the great satirist, "Thackeray, as "snobs," and, wherever they go, make the name of Englishmen offensive in the nostrils of the nations. Rich or poor, cdicated and uneducated, your genuine snob betrays his brutality, not only in his look and manner, but in every we rd he utters. Tou will meet him on the continent as a " howling swell," cursing the " garcjons " of the hotel in execrable French, with a glass in one eye, turning up his nose at everything he sees, and affecting nil admirari in the midst of wonders and beauties he cannot appreciate. Everything is " beastly," from the weather to the waiter. Let us relate a little anecdote of one of these haw-haw fellows, and how the conceit- was taken out of him. In passing recently from Newhaven to Dieppe, the Channel being calm, we found ourselves seated at the dinner-table, with some fifteen or twenty passengers. The dinner seemed to give satisfaction to all but one burly-looking Englishman, who was evidently out for a tour on the Continent. Eor him, nothing was good enough ; even his favorite " ABittah-Beah " seemed to have lost its excellence since quitting Newhaven only an hour before. He found fault with every thing, and' monopolised all complaints. When the cheese appeared, he began * denounciug that also, and said he "always travelled with a few pounds of cheese in his box (nice perfume), for they had no cheese in France fit to eat." At this remark, a gentleman opposite mildly mentioned " Roquefort," as being an excellent cheese as good even as Stilton. " Not fit to eat," shouted Haw-haw, "I profess to be a judge of the article." " Perhaps, sir," was the ready reply, "you are a dealer in it." The gas bubble was effectively pricked. The thing wilted, vanished, and disappeared amidst the universal roar of Jhe table. Behold a fair specimen of an unmitigated English snob ! A few years ago, while making the rather wearisome voyage from Marseilles to Grenoa, we had the good fortune to meet an Englishman of a very different cast and character. He was quite young, very plainly but tastefully dressed, exceedingly affable in his manners, and on good terms, not only with the bill of fare ■■■nt with the servants who served it. He ■was " hail fellow well met" with all on uuard — captain, passengers, and erew — and had a " genuine Havana " for any one who enjoyed it. This gentleman did not boast of his country, of his wealth, of his title. He had no nedd to blow his own or his nations trumpet. He possessed all that rank and wealth could give. He was one of the genuine nobility of England. His title— the Earl of Seffcon.