November 20, ioi5- 
L A N D A N 1) \y A T E R . 
COUNTRY HOUSE PARTIES. 
By Scrutator. 
w 
"ILL tliin!,'s socially, as well as economically, be 
altogether different when the war is over ? " 
This question or something like it occurs to 
most of us from time to time, and its discus- 
?;ion seems so far to have resulted in no.satisfactory solution. 
Young people having dropped out of balls and dinners, 
race-meetings, and river parties, may well prefer to con- 
tinue being useful rather than return to a butterfly 
existence. There is sc ircely a young lady at the present 
time whose day is not devoted to war work of some kind, 
and it is surprising to everyone, including these girls 
themselves, how kindh' they take to occupations which 
fifteen or sixteen months ago would have seemed im- 
possibly dull and tedious. 
\\'hat is certain as regards social life after the war 
is that there will always be house parties in the autumn 
and winter in some shape or form. Such gatherings 
have a useful as well as an amusing side and are bound 
to continue as long as the terms Englishman and sports- 
man are synonymous. Even at the present moment 
game must be shot so there is a good deal of country 
house entertaining going on in a quiet way. There are, 
of course, no big house parties such as used to assemble 
at this time of j'ear for every week end and often during 
the inside of a week as well. Such would be voted un- 
suitable in war time, besides which most people are too 
busy and preoccupied, and most of the women, who 
really arc practising economy not only talking about it, 
have not invested in the smart tea gowns and evening 
frocks necessary for such gatherings. A house party 
just now consists, as a rule, of a few relations and intimate 
friends, asked quite in an informal sort of way, and eked 
out as regards guns by one or two country neighbours who 
may for one reason or another not be serving. 
Shoots for Brave Boys. 
Moreover parties are often made upexpresdyfor anv 
" brave boys " who may be at home on leave from the 
front. To amuse these fighting men and to give them 
a change of ideas during their brief respite from the 
trenches is reason sufficient, even if there were no 
others, for not allowing shooting parties to lapse altogether. 
Only a week or two ago a distinguished Brigadier— one 
who is perhaps doing his bit as well or better than anv 
General in France, although he has newly come to the 
job —was back in his native county for a week, and 
found a shoot with his neighbours on most of the days he 
was at home a welcome distraction, and one which en- 
abled him to go back with a lighter heart to the hard 
work that must be before him and his division. 
But apart from these altruistic motives for having 
war-time shooting parties, such gatherings are in many 
ways a good deal pleasanter than their more elaborate 
prototypes. As most of the guests are relations or 
intimate friends, there is none of that stiffness which 
often attended the social side of a big shoot ; and a 
small cosy party of eight is far less of an anxiety to the 
hostess than a crowd of sixteen or eighteen guests who 
perhaps do not mix up very well. Another advantage 
to host and hostess is that it is usually possible to get a 
few people together at fairly short "notice, instead of 
asking the really good shots months and months beforc- 
Jiand as used to be the case, only perhaps to be thrown 
over at the eleventh hour. 
There is still the problem of how to keep the thing 
going when days are short and shooting stops early. But 
this is a good deal easier for a hostess than when she had 
to amuse larger and more exigeant house parties. For 
instance to fix the points that should be paid at bridge 
at a price suitable to everyone was a matter of some 
anxiety, also to prevent a guest known to be impecunious 
from being unduly fleeced by a fellow guest " out " to 
make his or her expenses for the week. In these times 
war points of a shilling per hundred or at the outside 
a half-crown content everyone, and it is never the un- 
comfortable office of a hostess to speed the parting guest, 
knowing that he or she has had a bad week at bridge 
which could ill be afforded. In the same vvav much 
less is expected of a hostess in war time as regards the 
creature comforts of the guests she has to cater for. 
The Simple Life. 
We had travelled far from the days when men out 
shooting were content to sit under a hedge with a packet 
of sandwiches and a flask at mid-day. Elaborate luncheons 
in a tent or shooting lodge had become de rigucur with 
not only the inevitable Irish stew and cold meats, but 
even sweets and savouries, coffee, liqueurs and all the 
accompaniments of a smart luncheon in the dining room. 
War time has changed all this for the better. It is not only 
nowadays the sensible but even the smart thing to be 
economical, and elaborate food in country houses or at 
shooting parties displays quite as much bad taste as 
harbouring two or three si.x-feet footmen who might be 
and ought to be with the colours. Meals both indoors 
and out are much more frugal, and with the small house- 
parties tiiat are now universal, dinners of four courses 
are the rule, with luncheons similarly reduced. And, 
incidentally, people are quite surprised at discovering 
that sport is as good, society as pleasant shorn of the 
elaborate meats and drinks without which before the 
war no shooting party was considered complete. We 
have been brought b\- distress and taxation much 
nearer to the simple life. Conversation in country 
houses is a gocd deal more solid than it used to be. 
This is not to say that young people are priggish, or have 
grovvn serious beyond their years. But the boys have 
looked death in the face and will probably do so again; 
the girls have been brought into touch with the realities 
of life in hospital, in work for soldiers' families and a 
dozen different ways. Therefore the silly chatter and 
inane practical jokes of two or three years ago find no 
place in shoots of 1915. 
It always used to be said that few engagements 
resulted from young people meeting in ball-rooms during 
the season, but many from the shooting-parties of the 
autumn and winter. This one could quite understand 
because an acquaintance made in a country house was 
wont to ripen into intimacy more quickly in the three 
or four days of a shooting party than a friendship formed 
during six weeks of desultory meetings at balls, dances, 
and such like. Now of course there are no dances to meet 
at and young men from the front are only birds of passage. 
It seems, therefore, that a war-time shoot does not con- 
duce to matrimony in the same way as did a house-party 
in the country in days of peace. This would be a subject 
of much more regret than it is, but for the fact that war 
weddings are extraordinarily plentiful. 
A Change for the Better. 
It is no good trying to think that country-house enter- 
taining is what it used to be. A complete revolution has 
been wrought by the war in this as in all our other social 
amusements. Perhaps country house entertaining has not 
suffered so much as might have been expected by reason 
of the frequency with which those serving in France are 
able to run backwards and forwards. Still the house 
parties of 1915 bear very little resemblance to those of 
two years ago. This present time of storm and 
stress has advantages in showing up human nature 
in a good light. Those who go on country house 
visits for instance, spend much less on their own 
personal comfort ; they provide themselves with fewer 
and less elaborate toilettes, are content with just a maid 
and a man instead of the retinue people used to take about 
to country houses with them, and it has even been re- 
marked that guests often descend from a third class and 
not first class railway carriage on arrival. Xcvertheless they 
tip with as much generosity as ever they did, and nothing 
is heard of cutting down Christmas presents. On 
the contrary, there seems a disposition to lay in even 
a larger stock than usual against the time for Christ- 
mas visits ; so that those who have passed through 
a year of unusual anxiety and sorrow may at least begin 
the New Year with brighter and hap]iier feelings. 
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