ack breeches,
black silk stockings, shoes, silver buckles; black corded silk
three-cornered hat to be carried. White gloves are worn at all Court
functions. The academical habit should not be worn at Court except when
addresses are presented from the Universities.

When the Court is in mourning, gentlemen attending a levee are expected
to wear a band of black crape on the left arm above the elbow.

CHAPTER XII

BALLS AND STATE BALLS

=Balls= are given in town and country by society at large, and these
invitation balls include Hunt Balls, Military and Naval Balls, Yeomanry
and Territorial Balls, Bachelors' Balls, etc.

* * * * *

=Public Balls= are those balls for which tickets of admission can be
purchased, although for many of these balls it is necessary to obtain
vouchers from the committees or patronesses, when held in town or at
watering-places.

Public balls include County Balls, Charity Balls, and Subscription
Balls, etc.

* * * * *

=In Town, Ball-giving= is in a way a science, and an amusement upon
which large sums of money are frequently expended.

* * * * *

=A Crowded Ball= is not always pronounced a good ball by the guests,
often the contrary, but then, again, what is termed a thin ball is open
to the accusation of not going off well, and falling rather flat; of not
being kept up with spirit, and of being considered a stupid ball, and so
on.

To hit upon a happy medium with regard to the number of guests is an
achievement in ball-giving which is only arrived at by a careful study
of the map of the county, and a judicious selection of night. This
selection is of paramount importance to the success of a ball, as when a
smarter ball is given at a smarter house on the particular evening
chosen by the giver of a less brilliant ball, the grander ball
extinguishes the lesser ball, through the most fashionable people merely
looking in at the one, and remaining the rest of the evening at the
other. This putting out as it were of the lesser light, occurs very
frequently during the London season to ball-givers moving in the same
sets. The guests who have been expected to add lustre to the lesser
balls appear but for a few minutes, and usually arrive rather early,
uncomplimentarily early, at perhaps a little before eleven, and remain
hardly half an hour in the rooms, making their way to another ball of
t