SUNDAY CUSTOMS IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 767, 12 November 1886, Page 9

SUNDAY CUSTOMS IN ENGLAND.

A correspondent of London Truth writes :—You recently expressed gratification because Sunday parties are again coming into fashion. It is a curious fact that during the decorous rergn of George 111. the Cabinet dinners always took place on that day ; ladies of the highest fashion selected it for their smartest card-parties, and it was the lawyers’ favorite day for consultations. Down to the reign of William IV. the Sunday whist parties of the famous Lady Salisbury, Lady Tancred, and Mrs Beadon (widow of the Bishop of Bath and Wells) were among the best in Mayfair. Archbishop Cornwallis had a dinner and “ rout ” at Lambeth every Sunday until George 111. expressed a strong opinion that on that day prelates and dignitaries ought not to be seen either at convivial tables or under them (as was often the case in the days of Cornwallis) ; and after George IV. had come to the throne, the Bishop (Pelham) of Exeter usually dined at Carlton House on Sunday, and this exemplary prelate marked his reverence for the day by refusing to sit down to whist till after the clock had struck 12.

Then there came a reaction, and Prince Albert was violently assailed because he played chess on Sunday evenings. Now

the pendulum is going the other way again. When Lord Melbourne wae stay- 1 ing at Nuneham, his host, Archbishop Vernon Harcourt, asked him to come to evening service, he having already attended church in the morning. “No, my lord,” was the reply.; “once is orthodox, twice is Puritanical.”