TIPPING ONE'S HOST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 139, 13 June 1908, Page 2

TIPPING ONE'S HOST.

EXPENSIVE WEEK-ENDS. LONDON, April 20. A remarkable statement is made by a correspondent who writes to The Times on the subject of tipping in private houses. "Surely," he says, "it is in,the power of those who have local habitation and a name in tne English countryside to prevent their house from degenerating into a kind of expensive hotel. "Ugly stories are current regarding some of these privately-owned hotels. It is said that the servants are not paid at all, tips constituting their entire wages. It has even been whispered that in the worst cases, the servants pay for the privilege of serving; so that a part of the guest's tips go into the host's pocket." The correspondent points out that chauffeurs and gamekeepers are responsible for the increased expense of a visit to a country house. "If," he says, "you tip the chauffeur who takes you from and to the station, on the same scale as on the occasion of previous visits before the motor-car arrived you tipped the groom who drove the dog-cart, his manner of acceptance is apt to be positively impertinent. "The chauffeur is still a spoilt darling of the servants' hall. "The impudence of under-tipped keepers sometimes passes all bounds," the correspondent writes. "A_ friend of mine who offered two sovereigns^ to a head keeper received the amazing answer of a hand placed behind the back—a most emphatic refusal to take the gift—and the significant words, "Sir, this is a paper house." That was to fay, nothing less than a £5 note should have been offered to this dignitary. "The standard of tipping at country houses has now become so exorbitant," says the correspondent, "that it is more economical to spend one's week-ends at a good hotel." Old Fink : I doubt if one man out of 20 can recall to memory the language he used in proposing. Young Stewpid : Probably not. But the girl can. Mine did. When the breach of promise suit came up she was able to repeat my proposal word for word.

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