How the Gilded Age Rich Spent Their Summer Holidays
When London became too hot, high society packed its trunks…
There is something wonderfully familiar about the idea of August in London.
The city empties, and the dinner invitations become scarce….and everyone seems to be either “just about to leave” or mysteriously already in the countryside. They’re somewhere with a tennis court, a rose garden, and a rather good cook.
For the wealthy families of the late Victorian and Edwardian world, however, summer holidays were on an entirely different scale.
This wasn’t just a quick week in Cornwall with a paperback and a hopeful weather forecast. No, summer was a grand migration. Families moved from London to country estates, sailed to the Isle of Wight, travelled north to Scotland, and, in America, established themselves in Newport’s extraordinary “cottages” for months at a time.
The Gilded Age elite may not have had Instagram stories of their beach clubs and picnic hampers, but they certainly understood the importance of being seen in the right place, with the right people, in the right outfit.
And one thing is clear: they did not leave society behind. They took it with them.
The Annual Escape from Town
The Argory Estate, County Armagh.
The London Season was a carefully choreographed whirl of presentations at court, balls, dinners, concerts, the theatre, Ascot, Henley, and Cowes. The summer calendar was closely connected to the royal court and its great sporting occasions, each with its own social rules and wardrobe requirements, as the Victoria and Albert Museum notes.
By late summer, the rhythm changed. Those fortunate enough to have a country house left town for estates where the days could be arranged around riding, tennis, fishing, garden parties and lengthy meals with house guests.
The country house was a stage to set.
