THE DECLINE OF DANCING IN LONDON.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2080, 3 September 1875, Page 3

THE DECLINE OF DANCING IN LONDON.

Somehow London seems tired of dancing. When the Shah was here, no remark he made was pore relished than his quesiion to the Prince of Wales while tho dance was going on, 'Why do you not employ servants to do this for you ?' The perspiring Prince could hardly explain but society generally seems inclined to relegate daDcing to the corps de ballet. This has been especially the case this season, when the new fashionable skirts have gone to an extreme from the liberation of the ballet. A lady was recently heard to say with a sigh, ' W hat with being tied around above- and tied around below, I haven't liad a good square sit down for three months.' When a large ball is giveu there is an apology for dancing, a. few mincing steps ar3 taken, but presently the company falls to admiring each other's dresses, and it all ends in music and talk. Dancing bids fair to become a * survival,' as the antiquarians say. Even apart from any other entertainment, the great revolutions whichhave taken place in dress make the English drawing-room far more attractive than it formerly was. The room itself has become more beautiful and less flaring. Unobtrusive, quiet walls and stuffs rich, but of subdued tints, supply "good backgrounds for the superb and ariistic raiment in which the ladies are now habited. I feel quite sure tbat the English ladies are not only wiping out the stigma upon their taste of dress, but ■will ere long be noted as the best dressed people in -Europe.—M. D. Conway's London Letter to Cincinnati Commercial.