Going to the Ball

The following is a very raw scan of some of the text of my grandmother's memoirs. I am posting it only because of the interest over on Caray Caray! in period costumes (and customs). She wrote all this down for us (her grandchildren) some time in the 1960s and was fortunate to have had her brother Charles Terlinden (the eminent Belgian historian and biographer of Charles V) still living to help edit and correct the historical information. My niece Maeve has very obligingly scanned all the pages of the typescript, but unfortunately no one has yet had the time to edit them and fix all the bad line breaks, typos etc. So I beg your forbearance until such time as I can present this material in a more finished form. My grandmother was born in 1881. The period she refers to here would have been mid 1890s until her marriage, at the extremely elderly age of 25, in 1906. Unfortunately all the photographs are in the hands of others. I will try to locate some and post them later when I can polish this up.

"My dear mother having only one daughter took great pleasure in 

in giving me the most elegant outfits. 

since the age of 13 

I had been squeezed into stiff corsets to give me the fashionable 

"wasp's waist" and it had been a success. 

I had managed to 

have a 17 inch waist line. 

I hated fittings and drove the "couturiere" to despair, 

saying: "When I select my own clothes,r shall have the same 

models reporduced over and over again: a black dress for 

day time, a white one for evening wear. 

No more fittings:" 

The couturiere selected the paris models appropriate to my 

age and size, buying larger models for a Mrs. Jacqumart, who 

lived in the small town of Louvain, and never wore her elegant 

finery, but collected it in closets. 

Our day time clothes had 'very' ,high.: necks held up with 

pieces of whalebone, or even with metal slats. 

When we were 

to wear evening clothes later on, we had to let down our 

neck covering in good time so as not to have red marks 

showing. 

The formal dresses of the period were very elaborate. 

You will see the styles in my photographs of the early 1900. 

You will be amazed to know that the price of the most elab

orate gown barely topped 100 francs, at the time $20. 

We 

needed a great many frocks, for the skirts were sweeping 

the floor and often got torn, esp~cially when dancing with 

officers who wore spurs with their uniforms. 

The social season was short, starting at New Year's and 

ending with Ash Wednesday. 

There would be four or five 

parties a week. 

The nicer ones took place in private homes, 

and were restricted to groups of one's own friends. 

The Club, called the "Concert Noble", gave four large balls 

each year. 

Families who had no residence in Brussels, 

rented the Club's large ball rooms for their parties. 

We had a few very successful parties in our own large 

family home, which offered plenty of room for entertainment. 

At all times when we went out, we were strictly 

chaperoned by our own mothers, or, in exceptional cases, by 

some other trusted woman friend. 

We danced only with young 

men who had been properly introduced. 

At large parties, when 

the figures of tbe cotillon happened to pair a young girl 

with an unknown cavalier, his first duty was to find a chap

erone who knew both families, and was able to perfmrm the 

ceremony. 

Each young lady was given a program, called a 

"Carnet de Bal" with the number of dances. 

The cavaliers 

listed their names in advance for each dance. 

Popular girls 

had not enough lines on;~their list, while the wall flowers 

waibed anxiously to fill theirs up. 

The favorite engagement was for the buffet, or supper. 

At some parties, this was served at tables seating two or 

three couples, at others, the cavaliers brought plates from 

the buffet to their partners. 

The popular dances at the time were the waltz, then 

called the "Boston", the polka, ,.and the mazurka. 

At very 

large parties, such as the Court Balls, quadrilles were 

organized. They were even rehearsed in advance by some specially 

selected group. 

These quadrilles resembled the dances you 

are now familiar with through television, as performed in 

the 17th and 18th centuries. 

There were generally two court balls each year. 

In 1901, 

there were no court balls due to the death of Queen Victoria. 

The Court went into mourning for a few weeks, and although 

we were permitted to attend other parties, we had to wear 

black evening dresses. 

Court balls were interesting experiences. 

Many Civil 

servants were invited, also the different groups of society 

in Brussels. 

The members of the Concert Noble would be 

there, and those of the Grande Harmonie, who were mostly 

business people. 

The Civil servants, and the Garde Civique 

were invited without their consorts. 

The Garde Civique were 

reputed to have metal linings fixed into their pockets so 

they could take home truffles, and other delicacies. 

This 

tale amused us. 

It is certain the Garde Civique took the 

buffet by storm: 

However large the palace rooms Were, they were very 

crowded, and whatever friends you had, were lost among 

strangers. 

Woe to you if you got s~uck with a boring 

cavalier: 

There was little chance of being rescued. 

Each year the boys and girls, making their debut, 

were lined up to be officially presented to the King. 

It 

was said that King Leopold II was not always gracious to 

the young people. 

Only to the children of very important 

or useful citizens did he utter a word of welcome. 

The 

Diplomatic Corps would be present, covered with ribbons and 

decorations. 

The attraction for us was the Chinese 

Diplomats. 

Everybody wanted to see them. 

They still wore 

their queues, richly embroidered silk robes, and a head gear 

with coral or jade buttons. 

Some "fast" young women made it 

a sport to flirt with the Chinese. 

These spoke French or 

perfectly good English. 

They were reputed to have said they 

found the European women gracious and elegant but resented 

their "smell". 

I never was near enough to have occasion to 

test their own. 

The instant the royal party had retired, there was a general 

rush to get home from the court ball. 

The horse carriages 

were lined up. 

If you were not in front of the door and ready 

to step in when the equipage drew up, the horses must move on 

and your carriages had to take their place at the end of the 

file, to come around again. 

You sometimes had to wait a 

very long time before your own carriage reappeared. 

We slept late the morning after a party; went to 11 

o'clock mass at the Church of Ste Gudule, and in the 

afternoon, welcomed a long drive in an open carriage, called 

a "Victoria",. 

Horses had to be exercised. 

Every afternoon, my 

mother and I went for a long ride. 

If the weather was clear, 

r we rode in an open carriage, called a '"Victoria". 

A large 

bear skin rug protected us from the cold, and we had, under

foot, a heater filled up with red coal. "