Albert Smith

“ Like all Gents, he has a great notion of champagne, which at supper he drinks by himself from a tumbler as he would drink it at a night tavern, as aforesaid, from a tankard.
Very opposite to him is the joyous Gent, whom we may term the Perrot of private life. He always gives us the notion of a ballet-dancer spoiled, especially in Pastorale or the Polka ”

“ For a heavy one a Gent might be transported for fourteen days into good society, where he would be especially wretched; for a light one he might enter into heavy recognizances not to smoke cigars on omnibuses or steamers, not to wear any thing but quiet colours, not to say he knew actresses, and not to whistle when he entered a tavern, or, with his fellows, laugh loudly at nothing, when ensconced in his box there, for any time not 104exceeding the same period. A Court of Requests would be of no use; for it is of little avail requesting the Gents to do any thing. ”

“ For as Gentlemen usually dress after a walk, so do Gents dress before one: and if they do not appear in their “best” to walk up and down the pier—which at Ramsgate is the chief straw that the sinking ennuyés clutch at—and stare superciliously at all whom they do not know, they think they are snobs—the snob 84being to the Gent what the Gent is to the Gentleman.
The prevalence of Gents at Ramsgate, in such numbers that the fine weather brings them out like bluebottles, is easily accounted for. There is a certain class of families who go to Ramsgate every year, because they were there the last. ”

“ The Gent usually takes two chairs to rest upon, and stares hard at every body else, especially the females, the while he sketches feeble designs with his short stick, which he never by any means parts with, on the sand.
Going out sailing is also a slow business—slower than a few friends after a dinner-party for a carpet polka ”

“ Houses are shut up, blinds newspapered, and furniture tied up in bags: in fact, to make a wretched joke, whilst the family is on the Rhine, its lamps and ottomans are all in Holland. There are no more carriages whirling about the west-end streets: no more thundering knocks echoing all day, and night, too, for the matter of that, in the squares. ”

“ Frills of black satin down the front, or bands of the same fabric looking like an imitation of crimped skate; or studs of jet made like buttons, as if the Gent wore a cheap, black 20satin shirt, and that was where it fastened. And the white stocks are more fanciful still. They are not very popular in their simple form; for the Gents feel that they cannot help looking like waiters in them ”

“ For him the cheap Tailor announces the “Gent’s Vest”—which is the Hebrew for “Snob’s Waistcoat”—as patronised by the nobility. To catch his eye alone, are the representations of men of ton put at the side of the advertisements; and, for his inspection, do the dummies stand at the doors of the shops, invested in the splendour of an entire suit, with an impossible waist, “made to measure for the same terms.” ”

“ Yellow slippers may also be purchased in the town; and this circumstance induces the belief, that the neighbouring water is the sea; a delusion which appears common not only amongst the Gents, but most of the settlers. This, however, by the way: we were speaking of Rosherville, the paradise which mainly draws the Gents from town.
The costume of the Gent at Rosherville is analogous to the one he wears at the promenade concerts, with the exception, that he has a more airy cravat, of brighter hue, and smokes perpetually, except in the ball-room ”

“ Well, these good folks affect Ramsgate greatly, and so take their families with them. The girls of this class pass muster pretty well; Clapham or Chiswick academies teaching them certain school accomplishments, which pass current for 85a decent education amongst their equals—but the boys are always Gents. The same feeling which induces their parents to believe that the more showily they can set out their dinner-table the higher they rise in social life, makes these sons imagine that two or three dear and flashy articles of dress place them on a level with the well-born and well-bred Gentleman. ”

“ Presently getting disgusted at the want of respect shown to him by an old gentleman in front, who is watching the performance most intently, with his head reclining on his arms, which are again supported by the rail, and who requests that he will have the goodness to shut the door, the Gent walks grandly away, and goes round to the other side, evidently conceiving that his dignity has been hurt. Here the same process of observation is repeated; and, if the Gent sees a pretty girl in a private box, he stares unflinchingly at her, 28until he thinks he has made an impression. ”

“ The Gent who goes to the races must not be confounded with the Sporting Gent, of whom we may speak by-and-by. He knows nothing in the world about the running, nor indeed does he care much about 44it, beyond the manner in which it may affect a chance he has in a “Derby Sweep.” ”

“ Their 58strenuous attempts to ape gentility—a bad style of word, we admit, but one peculiarly adapted to our purpose—are to us more painful than ludicrous: and the labouring man, dressed in 59the usual costume of his class is, in our eyes, far more respectable than the Gent, in his dreary efforts to assume a style and tournure which he is so utterly incapable of carrying out. ”

“ The majority 34of them have evidently occupations, which keep them somewhere until four or five o’clock, so that they never come out in their full force until dusk, except on holidays; and then the short steamboats are the best places to find them. In fine weather, they discard the staring shawl for a blue handkerchief, with white spots; and then they provide themselves with a cigar (the cigar again!) , a bottle of stout, and a Sunday paper, and, from the edge of the paddle-box, or from the top of the cabin, defy the world. ”

“ And no true Gent, got up as we have described, ever entered the Casino but he did not firmly believe that he was the man of the assembly. Hence two Gents will always look savage at one another when they meet. ”

“ NOTES OF CERTAIN OTHER GENTS.
There is a species of Gent who, moving only in a third or fourth rate sphere, goes to a party in a white cravat and turned up wristbands, and carries his hat into the room because he had heard that Gentlemen do so. He is generally an immense card. ”

“ Accustomed in their own spheres to take the lead, they will not go where they meet men who attain very good stations in society without large studs or noisy-patterned cravats; and constantly associating, one with the other, they get lost beyond all redemption. And of these is the migratory young-man society of Ramsgate chiefly composed. ”

“ Elsewhere it would be confined to watching children bury one another in the sand, with small wooden spades—a performance which, like a pantomime, however interesting on first representation, somewhat flags in interest upon repetition. ”

“ They would think it necessary to “have a spree;” and could not exist ten minutes without surreptitiously lighting a cigar, for any consideration. He would think that he was not “nobby” if he did not have some wretched champagne: and this miserable mess, getting into his head, would lead him into all manner of offensive behaviour. For no Gent can stand much wine, at any time; and Gent’s wine in particular, such as Casino champagne, fearfully upsets them.
When we first heard that M. Laurent was 68going to start a shilling concert and dance we were much disquieted ”

“ The most popular lounging thoroughfares of the west-end, such as Regent Street, the Burlington Arcade, Bond Street, or Piccadilly, are not those in which the Gents are to be often encountered in the day-time. ”

“ But he thinks the fact of being seen there gives him a position in society, and he would not miss the races for any thing.
As the Gent who goes to the races is closely allied to the Gent we saw at the night taverns, we will describe him in the same fashion.
He buyeth a “D’Orsay blouse,” which he believeth to have been made under the Count’s own eye; a blue cravat, spotted with white wafers; a whip, and a pair of short patent boots, to produce an effect ”

“ You can speak so easily, so fluently, to a pretty grisette in the middle of a dance, and under the influence of a bottle of vin ordinaire, at twelve sous; it beats all the masters, believe 67us; and we speak from experience. But all this by the way. All have their hobbies, and pretty grisettes are ours.
Few have watched these agreeable dances without lamenting the absence of such things from our English festivals: we believe it is the Gents alone who have proved the obstacles to their proper introduction. For they would never keep quiet, and simply enjoy themselves. ”

“ For at Rosherville that great man is to be seen—actually, really to be seen—walking like an ordinary person, amongst ordinary fellow creatures. He is no longer a phantasy of mental conception—not that zephyr in pumps bounding amidst new-laid eggs and tea-things, or matchlessly performing his Marine Hornpipe in top-boots, or Chinese Fandango in handcuffs, or Milanese Fling in the double jack-chains ”

“ They come either from the Pancras-cum-Bloomsbury district of London, or having shops, or ware-rooms, or counting-houses in the City, live in suburban villas comfortably off, and believing greatly in all conventional rules of society, getting perhaps once a year to the Opera, thinking a great deal of Mansion-house balls, and believing to a great degree in fashion-books. ”

“ There are the Gents, also, who are afterwards seen in the theatres at half-price: in the slips during the performances, and in the saloon during the entr’acte—the class who, whilst they carry on brisk conversation and smart repartees (of a sort) with the least reputable in public life, form the vapid nonentities of private society when females are present. ”

“ Of the same family as these Gents, are the fashionable loungers in pantomimes, who walk about with the distinguished females in the scanty visites of pink glazed calico, trimmed with ermine; and the lovers in the blue coats and white trowsers on the sixpenny valentines, who direct the attention of the adored one to the distant village church. ”

“ And this is a strange lunatic notion with Gents of every degree: they believe they have powers to fascinate every female upon whom they cast their eyes, never thinking of the utter contempt always excited by such obtrusiveness on the part of an entire stranger. ”

“ Some, again, are represented as sportsmen, with pinched-in waists, that the shock of the first leap, or the kick of the first shot, would knock in half; and others are promenade Gents, in frock coats and corded trowsers, bowing to one another with much grace, or leading little Gents by the hand, who look like animated daguerreotypes of themselves. Well, then, 13these are Gents, pur sang. Observe, as the showman says, observe their fashionably-shaped hats, their Lilliputian boots, their tiny gloves. There is no deception. ”

“ They are in greater force at bals masqués, in and out of costume. Many Gents conceive that going in a scarlet coat and top-boots, and now and then shouting “Yoicks!” constitutes the fast thing: hence there is always one of this kind. Others adopt large noses, and false mustaches, which they think is “doing it—rather!” But you never see them in characteristic or original costumes; nor, lacking them, do they even adhere to a recognised evening 73toilet. They prefer their beloved railway trowsers, and flaring stocks and shawls, and centre all their notions of full-dress in a paletot. ”

“ He is evidently the result of a variety of our present condition of society—that constant wearing struggle to appear something more than we in reality are, which now characterizes every body, both in their public and private phases. ”

“ And this reminds us that the Lowther Arcade is a favourite 36lounge with the Gents: it is possible that, from the glittering stores here displayed, they acquire their taste for jewellery. The Lowther Arcade is to the men in the city chambers what the Burlington is to the denizens of the Albany. ”

“ You write letters, and get no answers: you make calls, and find nobody at home, but a servant on board wages, who runs out into the area to look at you before she answers the door, in great astonishment. ”

“ They are the great men at the night taverns, before alluded to. All that is, however, harmless in its way; for the majority of those houses are exceedingly well conducted: and, indeed, it is only the Gents of the lowest sphere who deem it spirited to mix themselves up, in other resorts, with the ruffians of the ring and the most degraded of either sex, in an atmosphere of oaths and odours, where indecency is mistaken for broad humour and dull slang for first-rate wit. ”

“ If you are accustomed to derive a little gratuitous amusement from shop windows, as you go along the streets, you will see in them the funniest things, meant for the Gents, that it is possible to conceive. ”

“ With respect to the refreshments, there is 66not the immense bar which we see at the Greenwich Fair and Moulsey Race-course dancing assemblies, covered with cold boiled-beef, ham, fowls, bottled-porter, pipes, and crockery; but then there is a small tent aside from the grand one, for lemonade, sirop de groseilles, wine, coffee, and Rheims biscuits, which has an air of refinement never met with in England at meetings of this kind. Dancing is the sole object of the company; and dance they do ”