y with their Court or
cabinet, or who has been presented at their Court, to leave cards on
them and write their names in their visiting books. Persons still higher
in the social scale, give receptions in their honour, and invite them to
stay at their princely mansions.

When such visits are paid, the principal neighbours are usually invited
to meet the royal guests at dinner, ball, or reception, and on the
invitation card is written, "To meet H.R.H. the Crown Prince of ----,"
or "Her Serene Highness the Grand Duchess of ----," etc.; but a hostess
exercises her own discretion respecting the invitations she issues.

If a ball is in contemplation the county at large is invited to the
mansion, but if dinner invitations only are issued, then the circle is
necessarily restricted to a favoured few.

The neighbours who are not invited to a house where a royal guest is
staying should avoid calling on the hostess until the departure of the
royal visitors, even if calls are due.

The principal people of a county who happen to be present at an
entertainment, either dinner or dance, are usually presented to the
royal guests by the host or hostess, permission to do so having been
first solicited.

When the person to be presented is a person of rank or distinction, it
would only be necessary to say, "May I present Lord A., or General B.,
to you, Sir?" but if the person to be presented has no particular claim
to the honour beyond being popular in the county, the request should be
prefaced with a few words of explanation respecting the person to be
presented.

When the name or fame of those presented has reached the ears of the
royal guests, they usually shake hands on the presentation being made,
and enter into conversation with them; otherwise they merely bow, and
make one or two passing remarks.

A house-party is generally composed of those with whom a royal guest is
more or less acquainted. When the party includes any one who is a
stranger to the royal guests, he or she should be presented on the first
opportunity.

The members of the Royal Family have each, more or less, their
particular set, as have also the foreign princes who periodically visit
this country, and therefore house-parties are usually made up of those
moving in the set of the expected prince.

For the proper mode of addressing royal personages, see Chapter VI.

* * * * *

=As regards royal invitations=, all invitations fr