Posted by Owen Roberts on May 31, 2007 at 22:01:57 from 80.189.125.115 user OwenRoberts.
In Reply to: Re: Kerwallop... posted by LaurenceMonkhouse on May 31, 2007 at 20:14:05:
I think the GA was often out. In SD she went to see the vicar at the head of the lake. She visited Mrs Walker. On her last afternoon she went round to pay her farewell calls.
Calls made after lunch were, with supreme logic, called morning calls. No properly bought up person would visit before lunch.
The GA would presumably present her visiting card, to be taken on a silver salver by a servant; to the person she was visiting. She would normally be invited in. She would write on the card p.p.c. (pour prendre conge) to take leave or say goodbye. If the person was not in, the card would be left to mark the call.
It was very discourteous to proffer a business card; it usually meant one had come to collect a bill.
Even today, I carry both business and personal cards in my wallet. However my personal cards are no longer die stamped in copperplate script.