distinction in attitude, reflected not only in the sorts of things you would

hear fellow professionals express to each other, but in the way many of the most

able persons of our generation chose to leave one position for another. Such

decisions were no longer a matter simply of wages, the size of staff at one's

disposal or the splendour of a family name; for our generation, I think it fair

to say, professional prestige lay most significantly in the moral worth of one's

employer.

 

I believe I can best highlight the difference between the generations by

expressing myself figuratively. Butlers of my father's generation, I would say,

tended to see the world in terms of a ladder - the houses of royalty, dukes and

the lords from the oldest families placed at the top, those of 'new money' lower

down and so on, until one reached a point below which the hierarchy was

determined simply by wealth - or the lack of it. Any butler with ambition simply

did his best to climb as high up this ladder as possible, and by and large, the

higher he went, the greater was his professional prestige. Such are, of course,

precisely the values embodied in the Hayes Society's idea of a 'distinguished

household', and the fact that it was confidently making such pronouncements as

late as 1929 shows clearly why the demise of that society was inevitable, if not

long overdue. For by that time, such thinking was quite out of step with that of

the finest men emerging to the forefront of our profession. For our generation,

I believe it is accurate to say, viewed the world not as a ladder, but more as a

wheel. Perhaps I might explain this further.

 

It is my impression that our generation was the first to recognize something