Patent ventilators are also much in use, and the substitution of electric lighting, on account of its emitting little heat, has become general.
Ball-goers appreciate these alterations as only those who have experienced the close, stifling atmosphere of an over-crowded ball-room can do, and as half the London ball-rooms are only average-sized drawing-rooms, the absurdity of excluding air from the ball-room with yards of thick canvas cannot be too severely criticised.
Ball-givers, too, frequently issue far more invitations than the size of their rooms authorises, under the mistaken idea that to have a great crowd in their rooms is to give a good ball.
But experienced ball-givers limit the number of their invitations to under two hundred, instead of expanding it to over three hundred.
The Country Ball Season ostensibly commences in November, reaches its zenith in January, and terminates early in February.
The stewards of these balls are, as a rule, the representatives of the various classes by whom they are attended; the members of the aristocracy residing in the county heading the list of stewards, and the members of the professional classes usually closing it.
The top of the ball-room is, as a rule, appropriated by the aristocratic element, head stewards and "lady patronesses."
The enjoyment derived from country balls depends upon a variety of circumstances, which do not influence in a like degree the ball-going world of London.