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Discussion Groups / English Usage / July 2009In the Season
Hello: I guess "the Season" means "the social Season." Now, would that be the summer or the winter in England/London? --- 'I go to dances,' said Widmerpool; adding, rather grandly: 'in the Season, that is.' Anthony Powell, A Dance for the Music of Time, p. 95 ---- -- Thanks. Marius Hancu > I guess "the Season" means "the social Season." > Now, would that be the summer or the winter in England/London? [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Anthony Powell, A Dance for the Music of Time, p. 95 > ---- This meant the winter season (say October to May.) The high society dances most available to young Oxbridge graduates were debutantes' "coming out" parties, where acceptable men were relatively scarce (cf. also Evelyn Waugh's novels about fashionable society.)  SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) > > I guess "the Season" means "the social Season." > > Now, would that be the summer or the winter in England/London? [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Carlsbad Springs > (Ottawa, Canada) No, the London Season was, socially at least, Easter to sometime in July. Men in Parliament would usually go to London earlier than that (February, often) and might stay until very early August -- when Parliament was in session. http://www.literary-liaisons.com/article024.html Everybody who was anybody left London when the weather got "hot"; some came back in the fall for the Little Season. >No, the London Season was, socially at least, Easter to sometime in >July. Men in Parliament would usually go to London earlier than that >(February, often) and might stay until very early August -- when >Parliament was in session. http://www.literary-liaisons.com/article024.html >Everybody who was anybody left London when the weather got "hot"; some >came back in the fall for the Little Season. August the twelfth was (still is, AFAIK) the first day of the grouse shooting season in Scotland. I can't think that very many people actually shot, as a proportion of Society, but its imminence would have been a good excuse for fathers at last to call a halt to the expense and tedium of the London round. SignaturePaul > >No, the London Season was, socially at least, Easter to sometime in > >July. Men in Parliament would usually go to London earlier than that [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > -- > Paul And how long did it take to travel from London (which was, by their lights, sweltering by then) to Scotland before the days of the motorcar? The ladies, of course, and many of the gentlemen, would go to Bath, later Brighton, and then repair to their country estates. Anyway, the Social Season was from Easter into July; barely into July (if at all). >On Jul 16, 4:20 pm, Paul Wolff <bounc...@two.wolff.co.uk> wrote: >> [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] >lights, sweltering by then) to Scotland before the days of the >motorcar? The Flying Scotsman express from London was inaugurated on August 8, 1850, according to "World Railways of the Nineteenth Century" by Jim Harter, which I found in Google Books. I'm sure it could manage the journey between dawn and dusk. >The ladies, of course, and many of the gentlemen, would go >to Bath, later Brighton, and then repair to their country estates. This now looks like a commentary on Regency times. The Season in the book that triggered the question was one in the 1930s. >Anyway, the Social Season was from Easter into July; barely into July >(if at all). SignaturePaul > >On Jul 16, 4:20 pm, Paul Wolff <bounc...@two.wolff.co.uk> wrote: [...] > >> August the twelfth was (still is, AFAIK) the first day of the grouse > >> shooting season in Scotland. I can't think that very many people [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > Harter, which I found in Google Books. I'm sure it could manage the > journey between dawn and dusk. It certainly could. If I remember, there was a period in the later 20C during which the diesel rail journey was slower than the steam trip had been in 1905ish. The car journey is much slower, pace young Clarkson. I've done it by rail, car, motor-coach, and thumb; the last was fun, but the first is best. -- Mike. >Hello: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] >Anthony Powell, A Dance for the Music of Time, p. 95 >---- It was the social season. It began with Queen Charlotte's Ball, in the Spring, when the young ladies making their debuts at court 'came out', and ended with the general exodus from London to the country in August. So they tell me. I wasn't there, though an aunt or two were, in the 1930s. SignaturePaul > >'I go to dances,' said Widmerpool; adding, rather grandly: 'in the > >Season, that is.' > > It was the social season. It began with Queen Charlotte's Ball, in the > Spring, when the young ladies making their debuts at court 'came out', > and ended with the general exodus from London to the country in August. Thanks. Marius Hancu |
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