London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
PROVINCIALS, COLONIALS, AND ORIENTALS.
Years ago cattle-show week was an institution of far greater importance than it is at the present moment. The week in which it was held was considered by the theatrical proprietor and the lessees of the music halls as the carnival of the country cousin. Even at the close of the century, a large contingent of rosy-cheeked young men, wearing pot hats and leather gaiters, visit London at the end of October and in early November. But, thanks to the railways and their cheap excursions, provincials have grown so accustomed to our manners and customs that they nowadays attract little attention. The country bumpkin of old-fashioned melodrama is played out, at any rate, in the metropolis. Of late years nearly every county has its London dinner, whereat all the provincials settled in town enjoy a | |
19 | banquet and eloquence of a more or less excellent order. We have the festival of the Devonians in London, and the East Anglians in London, and many others. Taking the journalists belonging to the metropolitan district of the Institute, I believe country is in the majority to town. Indeed, it has occurred to me that if I wished to establish my name as an organizer, I could adopt no better course than founding a dinner to be exclusively reserved for Londoners in London. I believe that if I were to make the attempt, my chief difficulty would be to find sufficient possessing the necessary qualification. Until a provincial speaks it is difficult to distinguish him from a Londoner, but when he talks his accent betrays him. Strictly speaking, your true Londoner should be born within sound of Bow Bells, but this test will remain obsolete until the belfry of the famous City church has been sufficiently repaired to allow of the ringing of the chimes. |
