London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
NUPTIAL PRESENTS.
But to return to the subject of the keeping of a wedding holiday. The customary expressions of satisfaction on such occasions take the form of presents and illuminations. The list of the offerings to the Duke and Duchess of York was instructive. Some of them were of great intrinsic value, and others of a less costly character. Lord Salisbury gave the Duke and Duchess a complete set of his literary works, and I think another offering consisted of a few bundles of firewood. No doubt the will was taken for the deed in every case, and the cost was absolutely outside the region of consideration. Then there were any number of loyal addresses breathing a spirit of hearty goodwill, and bearing the signatures of many worthy and well-meaning individuals. I am glad to think that these messages of peace were presented in person by | |
72 | their authors, but were bound together in a handsome volume to be read hereafter. We have the authority of (confirmed by Mr. Henry Arthur Jones) that and no doubt Royal Princes and Royal Princesses are equally human. Accepting this theory, a betrothed couple on the eve of their wedding had something better to do than to listen to the pleasing platitudes of the representatives of public bodies. Of course, there were those who looked upon the presents as superfluous, but presumably they were either sour old bachelors or hypocrites. When young Brown leads to the altar the lovely Miss Smith, a must be particularly ungenial and possibly stingy who objects to sending a small for the good of the coming house. Many of us could say that most of the charming that adorn our reception rooms would never have found their way to their existing position had it not been for the kind attention of our wedding guests. Who would buy the clocks and the knick-knacks that are really so delightful in the and the in cold blood? |
John Leech years ago showed us the two wedding gifts of a happy husband. On the first anniversary of his marriage paterfamilias gave his wife a bouquet and a bracelet, but a decade later the same gentleman (now more a paterfamilias than ever) returned home with a double perambulator and a large bundle of | |
73 | asparagus. So it seems ungracious to grudge all the charming presents that the nation collectively and individually present to the bride and bridegroom when there is a wedding in the Royal Family. I have noticed that on these auspicious occasions a few fussy philanthropists invariably suggest the benefaction of some deserving institution as an appropriate method of helping the young couple to commence housekeeping. This seems to me to be rather a roundabout way of honouring the bride and bridegroom, and appears to deserve the title of Wedding presents, as a rule, are more numerous than select, and happy are the newly married who do not find themselves possessors of dozens of silver card-cases and grosses of carriage-clocks. But in the instance of a Royal wedding, when everybody tells everybody else what they are going to send, a greater choice of objects becomes possible. |
