afflatus: Inspiration (Latin).
air-balls: Balloons.
antimacassar: Cloth covering the back of a chair, to prevent soiling by hair oil or as decoration.
bean feasts: Parties.
Belgravia: Prestigious neighbourhood situated between Green Park to the east and Hyde Park to the north, near Buckingham Palace.
bistre: Water-soluble brownish-yellow pigment made by boiling the soot of wood, used for pen-and-water drawings.
black letter: see Old German entry.
Bloomsbury: District of central London, contains the British Museum. Home of the Bloomsbury Group, a group of writers, artists and intellectuals in the early decades of the twentieth century.
blue-points: Small oysters.
Bond Street: Opulent shopping street in the centre of London.
bonnes ménagères: Happy housewives (French).
Bonté: Goodness (French).
bouts-rimés: Rhymed endings (French).
brougham: Four-wheeled horse-drawn closed carriage with a raised open driver’s seat in front. Named after Henry Peter, Lord Brougham (1788–1868).
Bufo vulgaris: European toad.
cestus: Girdle of Aphrodite (Venus) decorated to incite amorousness.
Cheapside: Street in the City, the oldest part of London, by St Paul’s. Originally a market (the name meant marketside), its development as a centre for gold- and silver-smiths was underway by the fourteenth century.
Chene: Abbreviation of chenapan, rascal, or scallywag (humorous, affectionate) (French).
cher maître: Good Lord! (French).
chiffonnier: Tall, elegant chest of drawers.
chiton: Ancient Greek tunic.
City: London’s financial city, home to the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange.
clairvoyante: Woman who claims to be able to foretell future events (French).
cochon de lait: Piglet (French).
Coleoptera: Beetles.
contadina: Woman of the fields (Italian).
corbeille: Wedding presents (French).
couleur de rose: Rose-coloured (French).
Court Circular: Daily record of the activities, engagements, etc., of the sovereign, Prince of Wales and the court generally, which were published in a national newspaper.
coûte que coûte: At all costs, no matter what (French).
Da: Now (in context on p. 361).
daguerreotype: One of the earliest types of photograph; the image was produced on iodine-sensitized silver and developed in mercury vapour.
‘devilled’: Practised underpaid ‘hack’ writing.
Dieu sait: God knows (French).
diggings: Lodgings.
Earl’s Court: Situated west of South Kensington. Its ‘Empire of India Exhibition’ opened in May 1895; a large ‘Ferris Wheel’ was inaugurated in July of that year, which turned for eleven years.
ewig weibliche: Eternal femininity (German).
famos: Splendid (Italian).
fast: Extravagant in habits; devoted to pleasure; usually implying some immorality.
Fauteuils de balcon: dress circle (French).
fiancé en titre: Officially betrothed (French).
fly: One-horse carriage.
Fraulein: Miss (Fräulein, German).
Freiherr: Baron (German).
frumps: Drab, old-fashioned women.
genre: Type (French).
‘gesegnete Mahlzeit’: Thanksgiving at mealtime, usually before the meal (German).
gladstone bag: Hand luggage consisting of two equal-sized hinged compartments (named after the British statesman, William Gladstone).
gnädige Frau: Lady, or madam (German).
gooseberry: Unwanted single person in a group of couples, especially a third person with a couple.
grand écart: The splits (French).
gutta percha: White rubbery substance derived from tropical trees, especially Palaquium gutta.
Hampstead: North London suburb, north of St John’s Wood.
hansom: Two-wheeled one-horse carriage with a fixed hood; the driver sits on a high outside seat at the rear. Typically used to provide a taxi service. Also called hansom cab. Named after J. A. Hansom (1803–1902).
Henry Clays: Brand of Cuban cigar, named after a US politician in the early nineteenth century.
Herr Gott: Good Lord (German, informal).
himation: Greek cloak.
hunter: Pocket watch enclosed in a metal case.
J’vous responds: I give you my word (French).
KC: King’s Counsel, a senior barrister.
layette: Baby’s clothing (French).
Levée: Public court reception for men, held in the early afternoon (French).
lieber Gott im Himmel: My goodness me (German; literally, dear God in Heaven).
Lord Henry, by the: Mild oath.
Loyalesque: Words formed with the suffix ‘esque’ are chiefly nonce-words of a jocular character (OED). The context suggests something that looks loyal but isn’t quite.
ma belle inconnue: My beautiful stranger (French).
Mahlsaal: Dining room (German).
Mais si: Yes, indeed (French).
Marylebone Road… Regent’s Park… Piccadilly: Marylebone Road is a broad, busy street running along the south side of Regent’s Park. Opened in 1841, the Park houses London Zoo. Piccadilly runs along the north side of Green Park, between Piccadilly Circus and Hyde Park.
mein lieber: My dear (German).
merveille: Wonderfully (French).
mezzotints: Type of print; copper-plate engravings.
mise en scène: Production, stage effect (French).
muliebre: Female; from Latin mulier: woman.
Na: Well (German).
Nu: Now, abbreviation of nun (German).
octoroon: Person of one-eighth African ancestry (French).
old German ( and black letter): Term (esp. British) for Gothic script, the family of heavy script typefaces in use from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries.
oleosaccharine: Distilled oil mixed with sugar.
Oxford Street: Major central London road running west to east. Its development as a major shopping centre began early in the twentieth century.
packet: Packet boat, vessel ferrying people and goods between two ports.
Park Lane: Joins Oxford Street in the north with Piccadilly in the south. With Hyde Park on its west side, and Mayfair to its east, it is one of London’s most fashionable addresses.
peignoir: Robe or dressing gown (French).
perk: To carry oneself in a smart, brisk or jaunty manner (OED).
permanent way: The fixed road-bed of a railway.
phthisis: Tuberculosis of the lungs.
Piccadilly: see Marylebone Road entry.
porte-monnaie: Purse (French).
quadroon: Person of one-quarter African ancestry (French).
rates: Taxes.
‘redding’: Cleaning.
Regent’s Park: see Marylebone Road entry.
Regent’s Street: Regent Street, broad avenue designed by John Nash as part of the Prince Regent’s early-nineteenth-century grand scheme to connect Regent’s Park in the north of the city with the Mall in the south.
Richmond Road: Prestigious neighbourhood, in Richmond, town in West Greater London, on the River Thames.
Rittersaal: Trophy room (see D’Arcy, ‘The Pleasure-Pilgrim’, section 5).
Row: Narrow street.
St George, Hanover Square: Massive baroque church designed by the architect John James, follower of Christopher Wren; built 1712–25.
St John’s Wood: North London suburb.
St Paul’s: Cathedral in central London, designed by Christopher Wren between 1675 and 1710 to replace an earlier cathedral destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666.
Seigneur Dieu: Lord God! (French).
Sèvres: Fine porcelain manufactured at Sèvres, near Paris, from 1756, characterized by the use of clear colours and elaborate decorative detail.
shirtwaist: A woman’s blouse or dress with details as in a man’s shirt (USA).
sorra: Dialect or colloquialism for sorry (OED).
South Kensington: At the centre of the Victorian cultural complex (including the Natural History and Victoria and Albert museums), funded from the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was held in Hyde Park.
sovereign: Former British gold coin worth one pound.
street arab: Child of the street.
Tableau Vivant: Representation of a scene, painting, sculpture, etc., by a person or group posed silent and motionless (nineteenth-century French; literally, living picture).
three-cent piece: Minted between 1851 and 1873, 14 mm in diameter.
tubercle-fiend: Tuberculosis.
under stoppages: Docking a soldier’s pay in order to buy necessary items or to pay off his debts.
Victoria: Light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a folding hood, two passenger seats and a seat in front for the driver.
vis inertiae: The force of inactivity (Latin).
viveur: Reveller (French).
waist: A bodice, blouse (chiefly USA).
Westbourne Grove: The roots of a cosmopolitan upper-middle-class community were established in this area of London from the mid nineteenth century. Located close to the West End and the Royal Parks, its developing wealth of shops led it to be seen by the close of the century as the Bond Street of the West.
windgalls: Soft swelling in the area of the fetlock joint of a horse.
Zum Beispiel: For example (German).