Of Carriages and Kings

John Singer Sargent, Duchess of Portland, 1902

By Frederick John Gorst with Beth Andrews, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1956

Memoir by an elderly royal footman, written during his retirement in the United States, of the elegance and splendor found in Edwardian high society.  Gorst puts a positive spin on his life story, but its possible to read between the lines and perceive the rigid cruelty inherent in a class system that the world wars swept away.  When Gorst's sister dies, the Duchess of Portland instantly whisks him to the train station by private car, but Gorst feels horrible guilt for ignoring his family.  He hasn't had a vacation in two years, and Gorst had achieved the very pinnacle of a career in service.  A gentle, romanticized view of Edwardian life in the great houses and the promise of equality once found in the States.  Ironic to read this now during what many commentators see as America's Second Gilded Age.