generation did not consider the matter such a key one, and this is evidenced by

the fact that in those days, the butler of a household rarely supervised the

polishing of silver directly, being content to leave it to, say, the

under-butler's whims, carrying out inspections only intermittently" It was Mr

Marshall, it is generally agreed, who was the first to recognize the Nil

significance of silver - namely, that no other objects in the house were likely

to come under such intimate scrutiny from outsiders as was silver during a meal,

and as such, it served as a public index of a house's standards. And Mr Marshall

it was who first caused stupefaction amongst ladies and gentlemen visiting

Charleville House with displays of silver polished to previously unimagined

standards. Very soon, naturally, butlers up and down the country, under pressure

from their employers, were focusing their minds on the question of

silver-polishing. There quickly sprang up, I recall, various butlers, each

claiming to have discovered methods by which they could surpass Mr Marshall -

methods they made a great show of keeping secret, as though they were French

chefs guarding their recipes. But I am confident - as I was then - that the

sorts of elaborate and mysterious processes performed by someone like Mr Jack

Neighbours had little or no discernible effect on the end result. As far as I

was concerned, it was a simple enough matter: one used good polish, and one

supervised closely. Giffen's was the polish ordered by all discerning butlers of

the time, and if this product was used correctly, one had no fear of one's

silver being second best to anybody's.

 

I am glad to be able to recall numerous occasions when the silver at Darlington

Hall had a pleasing impact upon observers. For instance, I recall Lady Astor