THE LEXICON
The words the Court uses, and the ones it inherits.
Nobody arrives knowing all of this. That is what the page is for.
A
Achievement
The full armorial display: shield, helm, wreath, mantling, crest, supporters and compartment together. Most arms are shown as the shield alone; the achievement is the whole of what was granted.
Almanac, the
The Court’s written record of its two hundred and fifty engagements, one entry to each, set down month by month. An almanac was once the whole year in a single book: feast days, fairs, tides and the moon.
Antechamber, the
The room outside the one where the Court sits. A card left there is not an application; it is a request to be written to when the season opens.
Arrangement, an
The work the Court does around an engagement it does not host: passage sought, seating taken, rooms held, a table kept afterward. Six belong to every membership each year. A week counts as one arrangement, and so does an afternoon.
Attitude
The posture in which a heraldic beast is drawn: rampant, passant, sejant and the rest. The blazon names it, and the artist does not choose it.
Aula Regum
Latin for the court of kings, and the Court’s motto. Aula is the hall, and the court that gathers in it. Regum is plural: not one king’s court, but a court of many.
B
Besant
A flat gold roundel on a shield, named for the bezant, the gold coin of Byzantium. Crusaders brought both the coin and the charge back west, where it came to stand for wealth held rather than spent.
Black tie
A dinner jacket, black or midnight blue, with a black bow tie tied by hand. For women, an evening dress, long or of cocktail length, or evening separates; a dinner jacket is equally correct. It was devised in the 1860s as informal dress for dining at home, which is why it remains the lesser of the two evening codes.
Blazon
The written description of a coat of arms, in a fixed vocabulary and a fixed order. A blazon is the authority; any two artists working from the same words produce arms that differ in drawing but not in substance.
Box, the
A private enclosure at a racecourse, opera house or stadium, held for the day or the season. At the races it sits above the finish; at the opera it is judged by the sightline and the ease of leaving at the interval.
C
Card, the
Two customs share the word. A calling card, left at a house, said that one had called; the Antechamber keeps the custom. At the races, the card is the day’s list of races and runners.
Charge, a
Any figure set on a shield: a beast, a cross, a crown, a besant. The besants on the Court’s shield are charges; the lions either side of it are supporters.
Chukka, a
A period of play in polo, about seven minutes long. The word is Hindi, from chakkar, a circle; the British learned the game in India.
Code, the
What the Court asks of those who sit at its table: dress, punctuality, the camera, discretion, introductions, guests, withdrawal and standing. It is stated plainly and held to, and breaking it is grounds for withdrawal.
Committee, the
The body the Court appoints to decide on admission, conduct and the standing of members. It is not elected, its deliberations are not published, and its decisions are not appealed.
Compartment
The ground beneath an achievement on which the supporters stand. It is usually a grassy mount, and it is the one part of an achievement an artist may invent freely.
Concours d’elegance
A competition of elegance rather than speed, where motor cars are judged on originality, condition and correctness of restoration. It began in seventeenth-century Paris as a parade of carriages through the parks on a Sunday.
Country attire
Tweed or moleskin, a shirt and tie, stout shoes or boots. For women, the same cloth, as a tweed or moleskin jacket with trousers, breeches or a skirt, and boots. It is working dress before it is anything else, and it is judged by whether it would survive the day it is worn for.
Course, the
Golf, spoken of by its ground rather than its name. A course is judged by its routing and its condition, and a member who says they are on the course has said where they are and nothing more.
Crest
The device standing above the helm, not the arms as a whole. The word is misused constantly; a crest is one component of an achievement, and many arms have none.
D
Debutante, a
A young woman making her first formal appearance in society, from the French débuter, to lead off. At the Vienna Opera Ball the debutantes open the evening, and nobody else takes the floor until they have.
Derby, the
A flat race for three-year-olds, first run at Epsom in 1780 and named for the twelfth Earl of Derby, who by legend won the naming on the toss of a coin. Kentucky borrowed the name in 1875.
Driven shoot, a
A shoot in which beaters drive birds over a line of standing guns, rather than the guns walking the ground. The birds come high and fast, and the difficulty is entirely in the angle.
E
Enclosure, the
The reserved ground at a racecourse, entered by badge and governed by its own dress code. At Ascot a section was set aside for the Royal Family and its guests in 1807, and admission by election and sponsorship followed. The badge is worn on the coat all day.
Engagement
A date in the Court’s calendar, whether the Court hosts it or seeks places at it. The word is chosen for its second meaning: something one has undertaken to do, not something one has bought a ticket for.
Eventing
A three-part equestrian test of dressage, cross-country and show jumping, ridden by one horse and rider across several days. It began as a cavalry examination, which is why endurance is tested before precision.
F
Fascinator, a
A small ornament worn in the hair in place of a hat. The Royal Enclosure at Ascot has refused them since 2012: a headpiece there needs a solid base of at least four inches.
Field, the
Mounted sport taken as a whole, and also the riders out on a given day. To be out with the field is to ride with the company rather than ahead of it.
First call
The right of founding members to be asked first where an engagement has fewer places than members who want them. It settles the order of asking, not the outcome.
Founding place, a
Membership of the Court’s first cohort, carrying a one-time fee and exemption from annual dues for as long as the membership is held. The number is fixed at twenty-five and no more are issued. A founding place that ends is not offered again, which is the whole of its value.
G
Garden, the
The Court’s summer out of doors: the lawn, the picnic, the flower show, and the opera taken with a hamper. It is kept in the months when a room would be a waste.
Glorious Twelfth, the
The twelfth of August, on which the red grouse season opens in Britain. The date has been fixed by statute since 1831, and nothing about the shooting is glorious except the fact of it beginning.
Gun, a
A person shooting, not the weapon. A driven day is arranged around a fixed number of guns, usually eight or nine, who draw for pegs and move up the line between drives.
H
Haute couture
Clothing made to a client’s measure in a Paris house’s own workrooms. The name has been protected in France since 1945, and only houses on the official list may use it.
Helm
The helmet set above the shield, on which the crest rests. Its form once declared rank, and in several traditions still does: the degree to which the visor stands open is not a decision of the artist.
L
Lounge suit
A matched suit in a dark cloth, with a tie. For women, a tailored dress, or a suit with a skirt or trousers. The name survives from the nineteenth century, when the lounge suit was what a man wore anywhere he was not required to wear a frock coat.
M
Mansa
A Mandinka title, meaning king or emperor, borne by the rulers of Mali. It is a title of stewardship rather than conquest: a mansa held the trade routes, the courts and the gold on behalf of those who lived along them.
Mantling
The cloth falling from the helm, drawn slashed and ragged. It represents the sun-cloak worn over armour on crusade, and the tearing is meant to be read as damage taken in the field.
Morning dress
A morning coat with cutaway front, waistcoat, striped or grey trousers, and a top hat where the enclosure asks for one. For women, a day dress or tailored suit of modest length, with a hat on the same terms; in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, a hat rather than a fascinator. It is daytime formal dress, worn before six and not after.
P
Paddock, the
The ring where horses are walked and mounted before a race. It is where form is read in the flesh rather than on paper, and the walk there decides more wagers than the card does.
Parlour, the
A room kept for conversation, from the French parler, to speak. The Court’s Parlour Evenings keep the idea: a room open for the evening, with nothing scheduled in it.
Passage
Entry to an engagement the Court does not host, sought on a member’s behalf. The word is older than the ticket and covers what a ticket does not: the badge, the invitation, the name at the door.
Proposer, a
The member who puts a name before the Court. A proposal carries the weight of the member who makes it, and the name is reviewed as any other is.
Q
Quadrille, a
A dance for four couples set in a square, its figures called aloud. At the Vienna Opera Ball three are danced across the night, and missing a step is understood to be part of it.
R
Rampant
A beast shown rearing on one hind foot, in profile, forelegs raised. It is the default attitude for a lion in heraldry, to the point that a lion described without an attitude is assumed to be rampant.
Regatta, a
A series of boat races run over several days as one meeting. The word is Venetian, from the gondoliers’ contests on the Grand Canal, and it still carries the sense of an occasion rather than a single race.
Register, the
The Court’s own record of its members, opened by its founders and kept by the Secretary. A name appears in any published edition of it only with that member’s consent.
S
Season, the
The year as the Court keeps it, January to December. The word is older than the Court: the London Season ran while Parliament sat and ended, by tradition, on the Glorious Twelfth, when society left town for the moors.
Secretary, the
The officer who keeps the register, sends the invitations, and answers correspondence. Where the Court is written to, it is the Secretary who reads it.
Shoot, the
Shooting as the Court keeps it: the driven day, sporting clays and the shooting school. Instruction is given wherever it is wanted.
Smart casual
A jacket without a tie, trousers rather than jeans, and shoes rather than trainers. For women, tailored trousers or a skirt, with a jacket or a fine knit, and shoes rather than trainers. Nothing with a logo on it. The Court uses the code only where a suit would be wrong: a tennis stadium in forty degrees, a golf course, a race that runs through the night. It is the Court’s version of casual rather than the world’s, and the difference is visible.
Sport
What the Court keeps under no other heading: rugby, cycling, rowing, and the contests a city stops for. The word is used here for the sport itself rather than the ground it is played on.
Sporting clays
Clay targets thrown to imitate live quarry, over a course of varied stations. It is practice made into a competition, and the layout changes so that no shooter can learn a course by rote.
Stakes race, a
A race in which owners pay to enter and the entry fees are added to the prize. The name is literal: the stakes were the money put up, and the term long outlived the practice of putting it up in person.
Steeplechase, a
A horse race over fences. The first is said to have been run in County Cork in 1752, on a wager, four miles across country from one church steeple to the next.
Supporters
The figures standing either side of a shield and appearing to hold it up. In most heraldic traditions they are granted sparingly, which is why arms bearing them are read as a statement before the shield is read at all.
T
Table, the
The Court’s own dinners and luncheons, laid as one long table rather than many small ones. A room of small tables is a restaurant; one table is a company.
Tennis whites
White throughout, with trim in colour permitted only at some clubs and in some widths. The rule was written in the 1880s, when a visible sweat mark was thought improper, and white hid one better than colour did. It is enforced on the court rather than at the gate, and at the older clubs it is enforced absolutely.
Turf, the
Racing, flat and jump, spoken of as a single institution. The word covers the sport, its governance and the people who follow it, and it long predates the tracks now run on it.
V
Vernissage, a
The first sight of an exhibition before the public comes in. It takes its name from the varnishing days, when painters were let in to finish their pictures where they hung.
W
White tie
A black tailcoat, white piqué waistcoat, white bow tie and starched wing collar. For women, a full-length evening gown, with long gloves if she wishes. It is the highest evening code and the least negotiable; where an invitation names it, nothing else is dress.
Y
Yachting attire
Soft soles, white or navy, and nothing that will blow away. The rule about soles is not a matter of taste; a black sole marks a deck and the owner will notice.