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NEVER mind the dancing daffodils and fruitful autumns— in Regency Britain, the social Season was the only one that mattered and had Jane Austen’s Mrs Bennet squealing in anticipation. A relentless round of parties, it was defined by the Royal Family’s residence in London and climaxed with Queen Charlotte’s Ball, first held in honour of her birthday, May 19, in 1780.
Royal Ascot was long established by then —it had started in 1711, after Queen Anne remarked that Ascot Heath would make a rather good racecourse. The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition (this year, June 18 –August 18), begun in 1769, horse-racing at Goodwood (1802) —‘a garden party with racing tacked on,’ as Edward VII later described the event—and Cowes Week (1826) were all Georgian inventions; they knew how to enjoy themselves in style and simultaneously lift the mood of the nation after a dreary winter with explosions of vibrant colour and heroic sporting prowess.
The Victorian era ushered in the Henley Regatta (1839; it became ‘Royal’ in 1851), Wimbledon and Test match cricket (1877) and The Proms (1895). The RHS Chelsea Flower Show (1913) and Glyndebourne (1934) are relative johnny-come-latelys; the inaugural Glastonbury Festival, in 1970, offered free milk and cost £1; Elizabeth II presented the first Queen’s Cup at Guards Polo Club in 1960 (Town & Country, page 40).
So much has changed: it’s more relaxed on dress and etiquette (the rule that kept Wallis Simpson out of Ascot’s Royal Enclosure is long gone), yet more formal on eating, the cor porate lunch usurp
