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Lord Alvanley's Visit
Previous page: 6 Grosvenor Square - Joseph Neeld
Gronow told a story of Joseph Neeld which would seem to show that he did not always carry his good fortune as gracefully as might have been expected. It appears that Lord Alvanley had been invited to dine with him, and before dinner his host was expatiating on the merits and beauty, and particularly the cost, of the many pictures and articles of quality with which the rooms were crowded.
This form of monologue was continued when the guests entered the dining room, and Neeld was just describing the gilding of the room and the money expended on it, when the mutton was brought in.
Lord Alvanley, who had been intensely bored for some time, then broke out with: "I care not what your gilding cost, but, what is more to the purpose, I am anxious to make a trial of your carving, Neeld, for I am exceedingly hungry!"
Gronow complacently adds that the nouveau riche was rather astonished, but that his anxiety to form a circle of aristocratic acquaintances obliged him to let it pass without notice. To the ordinary man it would seem a difficult matter to discriminate as to whether the host or his guest showed the greater want of taste.
Next page: 24 Grosvenor Square
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