as it recognized that money alone was no passport to the revels of the aristocracy. But towards the end of the old _régime_ the barriers had been partially broken down, as one may gather from the verses in which the re-opening of the Assembly Rooms was duly and unsympathetically recorded:-- Sing for joy, superior classes, But, of course, in tones subdued, Do not bellow like the masses, Bawl not as the multitude; But your joy should be outpoured, For behold Almack's restored! There shall Beauty, in exclusive Circles, waltz again with Wealth, Sharing exercise, conducive More to pleasure than to health, Whilst the sun ascends the skies, And the common people rise. * * * * * Oh! ye Flunkeys, holloa louder, Than the rest, for rampant mirth, In the pride of plush and powder, You'll attend on Rank and Birth. How transported you must wax, Thinking on revived Almack's! [Footnote 23: Yet Sir Henry Holland, the distinguished physician, states in his _Reminiscences_ (1872) that he knew of cases, which had defied medicine, being cured by a ticket for Almack's.] [Sidenote: _Belgravian Manners and Maxims_] The jaded belles who appeared in Hyde Park after dancing till 4 a.m. at Willis's rooms are treated with scant respect, and when Cremorne Gardens were reserved for the Aristocratic Fête organized by Lord Ingestre, a certain malicious satisfaction is expressed that the entertainment was spoilt by the rain. _Punch_ admitted, in "The Cream at Cremorne," that some hundreds of pounds had been raised for charity, but he disapproved of the "exclusive" methods adopted. The craze for toy-dogs was already rampant. _Punch_ was always a lover of dogs and a good friend of animals, but he detested that form of feminine sentimentality which exalted caninity at the expense of humanity, and in 1858 turned one of Tennyson's lyrics to satiric use in the "Ballad of Poppetina":-- They came and told me where I lay, Poppetina, How that my pet had run away, Poppetina. With but a feather (as they say) You might have knocked me down that day, Poppetina; I almost fainted right away, Poppetina. Amongst the "Belgravian maxims" published in the same year we note two which have not yet entirely lost their force: "We make our money in London, but we spend it in Paris. England gives us meat, and France sends us cooks." Nowadays we still call them "_chefs_" no matter what their nationality may be. As I write these lines the January sales are in full swing, and the shops of London "ring to the roar of an angel onset." It is interesting, by way of comparison, to give the results of a day's shopping by a middle-class young lady as catalogued in the winter of 1858:-- A TREMENDOUS BAG