179-466: Princess Katharina Alexandra Dorothea von Lieven ( Russian : Дарья Христофоровна Ливен , tr. Dar'ya Khristoforovna Liven ), née Freiin von Benckendorff , 17 December 1785 – 27 January 1857), was a Baltic German noblewoman and the wife of Prince Christoph Heinrich von Lieven , who served as the Russian ambassador to London between 1812 and 1834. She became an influential figure among many of
358-619: A constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. Starting in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities in Latvia, and in general instruction in Latvian public high schools. On 29 September 2022, Saeima passed in
537-519: A new education law which requires all schools to teach at least partially in Ukrainian, with provisions while allow indigenous languages and languages of national minorities to be used alongside the national language. The law faced criticism from officials in Russia and Hungary. The 2019 Law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" gives priority to
716-443: A 993-year lease of the ground to the west of these houses; this plot had a frontage of some sixty feet, and abutted King's Place (now Pall Mall Place) on the west side. The assembly rooms were erected on the site between May 1764 and February 1765; the architect was Robert Mylne , who also advised Almack on the 'bargain' which the latter struck with his aristocratic patrons. On 5 April 1764 Mrs. Elizabeth Harris wrote to her son (later
895-456: A balcony with a gilt trellised railing, but in a position it can hardly have occupied, and two-tiered crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling. In the Old and New London view, these have been replaced by huge lustres of cut glass, hanging from a flat ceiling with a shallow segmental cove, the general form of which was probably original. Not shown in the earlier illustration, but reported by sources at
1074-479: A confidence" with prominent men "until now unknown in the annals of England", wrote Russian foreign minister Count Nesselrode. Her friendships with King George IV , Prince Metternich, Lord Palmerston, the Duke of Wellington , George Canning , Count Nesselrode , Lord Grey , and François Guizot gave Dorothea Lieven the opportunity to exercise authority in the diplomatic councils of Great Britain, France, and Russia. She
1253-570: A contemporary Quarterly Review could find in Almack's "a clear proof that the palmy days of exclusiveness are gone by in England; and though it is obviously impossible to prevent any given number of persons from congregating and re-establishing an oligarchy, we are quite sure that the attempt would be ineffectual, and that the sense of their importance would extend little beyond the set." James Willis, junior, died on 2 January 1847. The two businesses at
1432-460: A formula with V standing for the nucleus (vowel) and C for each consonant, the maximal structure can be described as follows: (C)(C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C) Almack%27s Almack's was the name of a number of establishments and social clubs in London between the 18th and 20th centuries. Two of the social clubs would go on to fame as Brooks's and Boodle's . Almack's most famous establishment
1611-558: A hard or soft counterpart, and the distinction is a prominent feature of the language, which is usually shown in writing not by a change of the consonant but rather by changing the following vowel. Another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels . Stress , which is often unpredictable, is not normally indicated orthographically , though an optional acute accent may be used to mark stress – such as to distinguish between homographic words (e.g. замо́к [ zamók , 'lock'] and за́мок [ zámok , 'castle']), or to indicate
1790-564: A high position at the Romanov Court as senior lady-in-waiting and best friend of Empress Maria Feodorovna . Dorothea was the paternal granddaughter of Johann Michael von Benckendorff and wife Sophie von Löwenstern. Dorothea was the sister of the Russian generals Alexander and Konstantin von Benckendorff . Her sister Maria von Benckendorff ( Saint Petersburg , 1784 – 1841) married Ivan Georgievich Sevitsch. Educated at Saint Petersburg 's exclusive Smolny Convent Institute , Dorothea
1969-498: A host of intrigues, were set in motion to get an invitation to 'Almack's.' Very often persons whose rank and fortunes entitled them to the entrée anywhere, were excluded by the cliqueism of the lady patronesses; for the female government of 'Almack's' was a pure despotism, and subject to all the caprices of despotic rule: it is needless to add that, like every other despotism, it was not innocent of abuses. The fair ladies who ruled supreme over this little dancing and gossiping world, issued
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#17327767229592148-484: A language that "belongs to the European cultural space". The financing of Russian-language content by the state will cease, which the concept says create a "unified information space". However, one inevitable consequence would be the closure of public media broadcasts in Russian on LTV and Latvian Radio, as well as the closure of LSM's Russian-language service. In Lithuania , Russian has no official or legal status, but
2327-588: A lesser extent the languages to the south and the east: Uralic , Turkic , Persian , Arabic , and Hebrew . According to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , Russian is classified as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers, requiring approximately 1,100 hours of immersion instruction to achieve intermediate fluency. Feudal divisions and conflicts created obstacles between
2506-548: A letter dated 15 January 1768 George Selwyn refers to dancing 'in the new blue damask room, which by the way was intended for cards'. The Advertiser of 12 November 1768 carries the following notice:—"Mr. Almack humbly begs leave to acquaint the nobility and gentry, subscribers to the Assembly in King Street, St. James's, that the first meeting will be Thursday, 24th inst [this month]. N.B. Tickets are ready to be delivered at
2685-498: A licence 'to keep a common Alehouse or Victualling-house' at No. 49 Pall Mall and the rate books confirm that this tavern, which stood on the north side of Pall Mall, was opened by Almack in the latter part of 1759. Between September 1759 and January 1762 this establishment appears to have been an ordinary licensed house open to all comers. A letter from Horace Walpole to the Hon. Henry Seymour Conway , dated 10 April 1761, contains one of
2864-564: A member in 1776 and in a letter of that year he describes the use which he made of the club: 'Town grows empty and this house, where I have passed very agreable [sic] hours, is the only place which still unites the flower of the English youth. The style of living though somewhat expensive is exceedingly pleasant and notwithstanding the rage of play I have found more entertaining and even rational society here than in any other Club to which I belong.' In September 1777 Brooks acquired from Henry Holland
3043-401: A member of Brooks's from 1764 to 1813. Crewe was probably John Crewe , member of Parliament for many years after 1765 and a member of Brooks's from 1764 until his death in 1829; he was created Baron Crewe in 1806. On 30 September Mylne noted 'Gave a plan of Assembly Rooms in King Street for Duke of York to Mr. Almack.' On 14 November Mylne 'wrote an advert, for Mr. Almack' which was inserted by
3222-538: A minor diplomatic row concerning the choice of the new British Ambassador to Russia, was largely responsible for the tsar's decision to recall her husband. Soon after the Lievens returned to Russia, their two youngest sons suddenly died. This tragedy and her declining health caused the princess to leave her native land and settle in Paris against the wishes of her husband and the tsar. She never saw her husband again, but she
3401-622: A minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . 30% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 2% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Azerbaijan , Russian has no official status, but is a lingua franca of the country. 26% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 5% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. In Georgia , Russian has no official status, but it
3580-480: A notable contribution to the creation of the kingdom of Belgium . The appointment of Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary in 1830 is generally agreed to have been partly due to his friendship with Dorothea, who lobbied Lord Grey vigorously on his behalf. Her belief that Palmerston would be reliably pro-Russian turned out to be a mistake, however, since it was his quarrel with the tsar that ultimately led to her enforced departure from England. Her friendship with Palmerston
3759-432: A notorious romantic liaison. She was also reputed to have had an affair with Lord Palmerston , although there is no firm proof of this. She was a close friend of Lord Castlereagh , and was one of the first people to voice concerns about his increasingly strange behaviour in the weeks leading up to his suicide. Lord Grey confided in her, even sharing with her his intense grief on the death of his grandson Charles in 1831; on
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#17327767229593938-462: A number of fashionable patronesses provided Almack with the indispensable initial support which he needed for his venture; they therefore had some right to the despotic powers of admittance to the assemblies which they later exercised over the fashionable world. The assembly rooms were opened on 12 February 1765, although they were not finally completed until 1767. The tickets of admission were designed by Robert Mylne. Despite its aristocratic patronage,
4117-416: A number of years, and was subsequently demolished. The Macaroni Club appears to have been based at Almack's No. 49 premises between 1764 and 1773. From 1769 to 1771 Almack provided accommodation for a club composed of members of both sexes. The club, known as The Female Coterie , first met on 17 December 1769 and soon attracted a great deal of attention. On 6 May 1770 Horace Walpole recorded that "There
4296-427: A patroness of Almack's , London's most exclusive social club, where Lieven introduced the waltz to England. Despite her apparently frivolous nature, she had a deep religious faith, and seems to have disapproved of the death penalty far in advance of her time. She was something of a snob and made many enemies due to her haughty manner towards those she regarded as social inferiors. Indeed, she wrote to her brother, "It
4475-442: A performance; and in 1844 the rooms were taken by Charles Kemble , for the purpose of giving his readings from Shakespeare. In 1851, while The Great Exhibition was attracting its thousands, Thackeray appeared in public in the rooms as a lecturer, taking as his subject "The English Humorists". "Among the most conspicuous of the literary ladies at this gathering was Miss Brontë the authoress of 'Jane Eyre.' She had never before seen
4654-477: A public tavern but is to be set apart for the reception of a set of gentlemen, who are to meet after the manner of the minority at Wildman's. These societies, 'tis believed, will endeavour to distinguish themselves by their zeal for the public good.' One of these two societies would go on to become Brooks's. Until 1778 it met in Almack's former tavern (No. 49) in Pall Mall. During the whole of this period, Almack
4833-526: A qualitatively new entity can be said to emerge—the general language of the working class... capitalism has the tendency of creating the general urban language of a given society. In 2010, there were 259.8 million speakers of Russian in the world: in Russia – 137.5 million, in the CIS and Baltic countries – 93.7 million, in Eastern Europe – 12.9 million, Western Europe – 7.3 million, Asia – 2.7 million, in
5012-462: A reputation as a Tsarist secret agent . Princess Lieven's politically focused correspondence with luminaries across Europe has become primary source material for students of the period. Parts of the Princess's diary, her correspondence with Lords Aberdeen and Grey, with François Guizot, with Prince Metternich, and her letters from London to her brother Count Alexander von Benckendorff (head of
5191-656: A secret overture to the British government. "It is a pity Countess Lieven wears skirts", the tsar wrote to his foreign minister Count Karl von Nesselrode-Ehreshoven , "she would have made an excellent diplomat." In October 1825, when both were staying at the same resort in Brighton , Lieven in an "off-the-record" conversation with the British Foreign Secretary George Canning told him that Russia wanted bilateral Anglo-Russian mediation of
5370-579: A similar action on the part of M. Paul Emanuel is related.'" A political meeting of Whigs , Peelites and Radicals that took place on 6 June 1859, which saw the formation of the modern Liberal Party . On 4 March 1863 the first AGM of the National Rifle Association took place, chaired by the Duke of Cambridge . On 25 June 1865, the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) was founded at Willis's Rooms. The meeting
5549-412: A solemn proclamation that no gentleman should appear at the assemblies without being dressed in knee-breeches, white cravat, and chapeau-bras . On one occasion, the Duke of Wellington was about to ascend the staircase of the ball-room, dressed in black trousers, when the vigilant Mr. Willis, the guardian of the establishment, stepped forward and said, 'Your Grace cannot be admitted in trousers;' whereupon
Dorothea Lieven - Misplaced Pages Continue
5728-417: A ticket to Almack's. The proudest and most aristocratic family in the land are fain to bow down, and with cap in hand, to use a homely but expressive phrase, supplicate " a subscription" from this "coalition cabal." To be a member of Almack's is a sure passport to the very first society: it is to give either a lady or gentleman the highest status in the world of fashion to which human beings can attain." By 1840,
5907-472: A voucher for Almack's became the difference between society and Society. Not to have a voucher might mean simply that one had not applied, or that there were more applicants than space, but to lose one's voucher meant that one had been tried and found wanting, a social disaster for those dedicated to their position in the ton . When Lady Caroline Lamb satirised Lady Jersey in her novel Glenarvon , Lady Jersey took her revenge by barring Caroline from Almack's —
6086-854: A year of chamber music in the rooms. Hector Berlioz was on the podium at the rooms on 7 April 1848 when he conducted his "Hungarian March" from La damnation de Faust at a concert of the Amateur Musical Society. And the Quartet Association (which included the 'cellist Alfredo Piatti and the pianist/conductors Charles Hallé and Sterndale Bennett ) gave concerts at the Rooms between 1852 and 1855 in an attempt to popularise chamber music. Here, from 1808 to 1810, Mrs. Billington, Mr. Braham, and Signor Naldi gave concerts, in rivalry with Madame Catalini at Hanover Square Rooms . In 1839 Master Bassle, thirteen years old, appeared in
6265-408: A young supper without forgetting how much sand is run out of the hour-glass." The most important rules were that all members were admitted by ballot and 'the ladies shall ballot for men, and men for ladies'; thus 'no lady can exclude a lady, or gentleman a gentleman'. The subscription was five guineas; dinner was to be on the table at half past four in the afternoon, price eight shillings "exclusive of
6444-539: Is Belarusian, among ethnic Belarusians this share is 28.5%; the highest share of those who speak Belarusian at home is among ethnic Poles — 46.0%. In Estonia , Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook, and is officially considered a foreign language. School education in the Russian language is a very contentious point in Estonian politics, and in 2022,
6623-481: Is a co-official language per article 5 of the Constitution of Kyrgyzstan . The 2009 census states that 482,200 people speak Russian as a native language, or 8.99% of the population. Additionally, 1,854,700 residents of Kyrgyzstan aged 15 and above fluently speak Russian as a second language, or 49.6% of the population in the age group. In Tajikistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication under
6802-401: Is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian , and a moderate degree of it in all modern Slavic languages, at least at the conversational level. Russian is written using a Cyrillic alphabet. The Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters. The following table gives their forms, along with IPA values for each letter's typical sound: Older letters of
6981-451: Is a new institution that begins to make, and if it proceeds, will make a considerable noise. It is a club of both sexes to be erected at Almack's, on the model of that of the men of White's. Mrs. Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs. Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham, and Miss Lloyd, are the foundresses. I am ashamed to say I am of so young and fashionable a society; but as they are people I live with, I choose to be idle rather than morose. I can go to
7160-610: Is a post-posed definite article -to , -ta , -te similar to that existing in Bulgarian and Macedonian. In the Southern Russian dialects , instances of unstressed /e/ and /a/ following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to [ɪ] (as occurs in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced [a] in such positions (e.g. несл и is pronounced [nʲaˈslʲi] , not [nʲɪsˈlʲi] ) – this
7339-461: Is a vast flight of steps, and he was forced to rest two or three times.' Despite this unpropitious start the assembly rooms soon became firmly established. In a letter of 22 February 1765, Gilly Williams refers to the 'three very elegant new-built rooms' in which Almack provided the twelve weekly balls. There were already between three and four hundred subscribers; the ladies could lend their tickets, but 'The men's tickets are not transferable, so, if
Dorothea Lieven - Misplaced Pages Continue
7518-488: Is being used less frequently by Russian-speaking typists in favor of the extension of Unicode character encoding , which fully incorporates the Russian alphabet. Free programs are available offering this Unicode extension, which allow users to type Russian characters, even on Western 'QWERTY' keyboards. The Russian language was first introduced to computing after the M-1 , and MESM models were produced in 1951. According to
7697-624: Is called yakanye ( яканье ). Consonants include a fricative /ɣ/ , a semivowel /w⁓u̯/ and /x⁓xv⁓xw/ , whereas the Standard and Northern dialects have the consonants /ɡ/ , /v/ , and final /l/ and /f/ , respectively. The morphology features a palatalized final /tʲ/ in 3rd person forms of verbs (this is unpalatalized in the Standard and Northern dialects). During the Proto-Slavic (Common Slavic) times all Slavs spoke one mutually intelligible language or group of dialects. There
7876-573: Is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City , Philadelphia , Boston , Los Angeles , Nashville , San Francisco , Seattle , Spokane , Toronto , Calgary , Baltimore , Miami , Portland , Chicago , Denver , and Cleveland . In a number of locations they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially
8055-432: Is not fashionable where I am not". Dorothea von Lieven's position as the wife of the Russian ambassador, her friendships, and her political acumen established her as a major political force. Though outwardly deferential to her husband, she was by far the stronger character and soon completely eclipsed him: London society jokingly called them "the two Russian ambassadors". In 1825, Tsar Alexander I entrusted Dorothea with
8234-476: Is not known, but it may have been connected with members' differing political affiliations, or with the desire of some of them to gamble more heavily than the rules of 1762 permitted. So far as Almack himself was concerned, the change was clearly an important one, for in the autumn of 1764 he did not renew his tavern licence, and in August , The Gentleman's Magazine reported that 'Almack's is no longer to be used as
8413-564: Is odd") – чу́дно ( chúdno – "this is marvellous"), молоде́ц ( molodéts – "well done!") – мо́лодец ( mólodets – "fine young man"), узна́ю ( uznáyu – "I shall learn it") – узнаю́ ( uznayú – "I recognize it"), отреза́ть ( otrezát – "to be cutting") – отре́зать ( otrézat – "to have cut"); to indicate the proper pronunciation of uncommon words, especially personal and family names, like афе́ра ( aféra , "scandal, affair"), гу́ру ( gúru , "guru"), Гарси́я ( García ), Оле́ша ( Olésha ), Фе́рми ( Fermi ), and to show which
8592-762: Is one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station , one of the six official languages of the United Nations , as well as the fourth most widely used language on the Internet . Russian is written using the Russian alphabet of the Cyrillic script ; it distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without—the so-called "soft" and "hard" sounds. Almost every consonant has
8771-402: Is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language. In China , Russian has no official status, but it is spoken by the small Russian communities in the northeastern Heilongjiang and
8950-569: Is sometimes considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. Also, Russian has notable lexical similarities with Bulgarian due to a common Church Slavonic influence on both languages, but because of later interaction in the 19th and 20th centuries, Bulgarian grammar differs markedly from Russian. Over the course of centuries, the vocabulary and literary style of Russian have also been influenced by Western and Central European languages such as Greek, Latin , Polish , Dutch , German, French, Italian, and English, and to
9129-585: Is spoken by 14.2% of the population according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook. In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and was compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006. Around 1.5 million Israelis spoke Russian as of 2017. The Israeli press and websites regularly publish material in Russian and there are Russian newspapers, television stations, schools, and social media outlets based in
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#17327767229599308-518: Is the stressed word in a sentence, for example Ты́ съел печенье? ( Tý syel pechenye? – "Was it you who ate the cookie?") – Ты съе́л печенье? ( Ty syél pechenye? – "Did you eat the cookie?) – Ты съел пече́нье? ( Ty syel pechénye? "Was it the cookie you ate?"). Stress marks are mandatory in lexical dictionaries and books for children or Russian learners. The Russian syllable structure can be quite complex, with both initial and final consonant clusters of up to four consecutive sounds. Using
9487-470: The 2011 Lithuanian census , Russian was the native language for 7.2% of the population. In Moldova , Russian was considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law. On 21 January 2021, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the law unconstitutional and deprived Russian of the status of the language of interethnic communication. 50% of the population
9666-1000: The Apollo–Soyuz mission, which first flew in 1975. In March 2013, Russian was found to be the second-most used language on websites after English. Russian was the language of 5.9% of all websites, slightly ahead of German and far behind English (54.7%). Russian was used not only on 89.8% of .ru sites, but also on 88.7% of sites with the former Soviet Union domain .su . Websites in former Soviet Union member states also used high levels of Russian: 79.0% in Ukraine, 86.9% in Belarus, 84.0% in Kazakhstan, 79.6% in Uzbekistan, 75.9% in Kyrgyzstan and 81.8% in Tajikistan. However, Russian
9845-633: The Caucasus , Central Asia , and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel . Russian has over 258 million total speakers worldwide. It is the most spoken native language in Europe , the most spoken Slavic language , as well as the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia . It is the world's seventh-most spoken language by number of native speakers , and the world's ninth-most spoken language by total number of speakers . Russian
10024-413: The Constitution of Tajikistan and is permitted in official documentation. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business. In Turkmenistan , Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca in 1996. Among 12% of the population who grew up in
10203-646: The Greek War of Independence . She also spoke of the "barbarisation project" said to be planned for Greece by the Turkish government, which would have mandated the mass deportation of the Greek Christian population. Lieven passed on to Canning a note written in French as follows: "The Court of Russia has positive information that before Ibrahim Pasha’s army was put into motion, an agreement was entered into by
10382-665: The Indo-European language family . It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, and is the native language of the Russians . It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union . Russian has remained an official language of the Russian Federation , Belarus , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , and Tajikistan , and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine , Moldova ,
10561-508: The Protocol of St Petersburg of 1826 , in which Britain and Russia proposed to mediate, by force if necessary, the end of the Greek war. The tsar's mission marked Dorothea Lieven's debut as a diplomat in her own right. She at least equalled her husband in importance. During Prince Lieven's ambassadorship in England (1812–1834), the princess played a role in the birth of modern Greece and made
10740-503: The Regency romances of Georgette Heyer and many other authors of the genre. Heyer stresses the crucial importance to one's social standing of gaining admission to the club: "the right of entry (to Almack's) conferred on the recipient a greater distinction than a Court presentation, and was far more difficult to obtain". Despite the fact that the actual entertainment was notoriously dull and the refreshments inferior, exclusion from Almack's
10919-584: The Ukrainian language in more than 30 spheres of public life: in particular in public administration , media, education, science, culture, advertising, services . The law does not regulate private communication. A poll conducted in March 2022 by RATING in the territory controlled by Ukraine found that 83% of the respondents believe that Ukrainian should be the only state language of Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age and language groups. On
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#173277672295911098-641: The United States Census , in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States. Russian is one of the official languages (or has similar status and interpretation must be provided into Russian) of the following: The Russian language is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station – NASA astronauts who serve alongside Russian cosmonauts usually take Russian language courses. This practice goes back to
11277-591: The first Earl of Malmesbury ) that 'Almack is going to build some most magnificent rooms behind his house [in Pall Mall], one much larger than that at Carlisle House ' in Soho Square. On 30 May Mylne wrote in his diary 'Attended Mr. James and Crewe for Club in Kings Street. Attended Mr. Almack on bargain between him and club in Kings Street.' Mr. James was perhaps Haughton James, a West India proprietor and
11456-461: The war of 1939–45 ; the site is now occupied by a block of offices called Almack House (bearing a brass plaque commemorating the existence of Almack's on that spot), erected in 1949–50. A new social club named "Almack's" was founded in 1904, and was still in existence in 1911. The original building was constructed in the Palladian style , and located on the south side of King Street. Evidence of
11635-430: The "sons of commerce", who would readily be found at any other social event, would "never think of intruding on the sacred Wednesday evenings". On the other hand, Thomas Moore , a penniless Irish poet admired for his breeding and social graces, was a member. The ballroom was partitioned off for the dancers by crimson ropes. In the early 19th century, the orchestra was from Edinburgh, and conducted by Nathaniel Gow, son of
11814-519: The 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other countries that used to be satellites of the USSR. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high (20–40%) in some countries, in particular former Warsaw Pact countries. In Armenia , Russian has no official status, but it is recognized as
11993-536: The Assembly Room." William Almack died on 3 January 1781, bequeathing his house in Pall Mall to his widow and the residue of his property, including the assembly rooms, to his son William. On 28 February 1781 his only other surviving child, Elizabeth, married Dr. David Pitcairn , a Scottish physician. William Almack, the son, was a barrister; the short leases of part of the ground on which the assembly rooms stood were renewed to him and he appears to have managed
12172-514: The Badminton Library, in 1816. The introduction of the quadrille is strongly associated with Lady Jersey, and the waltz definitely linked to Countess de Lieven. As late as 1823, this could still lead to offence: "I went two nights ago to a costume ball at Almack's for a Welsh charity. It was very brilliant & there was a quadrille that was beautiful…The quadrille, however, gave great offence, for they danced together all night & took
12351-471: The Belarusian society the Russian language prevails, so according to the 2019 census 6,718,557 people (71.4% of the total population) stated that they speak Russian at home, for ethnic Belarusians this share is 61.4%, for Russians — 97.2%, for Ukrainians — 89.0%, for Poles — 52.4%, and for Jews — 96.6%; 2,447,764 people (26.0% of the total population) stated that the language they usually speak at home
12530-509: The Club in Pall [Mall], and Almack desires us to stay with him, but as there can be no reason for preferring a bad old house to a good new one, I imagine Brookes will be victorious.' This prophecy was fulfilled, for there are no references to Almack's club in Pall Mall after 1778. The new club in Pall Mall is to this day known by Brooks's name. The house in Pall Mall (No. 49) vacated by Brooks in 1778
12709-458: The Duke of Wellington, and a numerous circle of courtiers. "Whatever French taste, directed by a Grammont, could do," writes Mr. Rush in his Court of London , "to render the night agreeable, was witnessed. His suite of young gentlemen from Paris stood ready to receive the British fair on their approach to the rooms, and from baskets of flowers presented them with rich bouquets. Each lady thus entered
12888-455: The Duke, who had a great respect for orders and regulations, quietly walked away." These "fair arbiters" created a temple of exclusivity for the balls held on Wednesday nights (the only activity of the club) by allowing only those whom they approved to buy the non-transferable annual "vouchers," costing ten guineas . A voucher was printed on strong cardboard and measured around 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches (6.25 cm by 8.75 cm), and entitled
13067-532: The Great and developed from the Moscow ( Middle or Central Russian ) dialect substratum under the influence of some of the previous century's Russian chancery language. Prior to the Bolshevik Revolution , the spoken form of the Russian language was that of the nobility and the urban bourgeoisie. Russian peasants, the great majority of the population, continued to speak in their own dialects. However,
13246-400: The Hon. Mrs. Boscawen says that it met 'for the present, at certain rooms of Almack's, who for another year is to provide a private house...' By December 1771 it had moved to Albemarle Street ; it remained there under the management of Robert Sutton until 1775, when it moved to Arlington Street under the management of James Cullen. The last meeting of the club was held on 4 December 1777. Cullen
13425-590: The Institute of Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences, an optional acute accent ( знак ударения ) may, and sometimes should, be used to mark stress . For example, it is used to distinguish between otherwise identical words, especially when context does not make it obvious: замо́к ( zamók – "lock") – за́мок ( zámok – "castle"), сто́ящий ( stóyashchy – "worthwhile") – стоя́щий ( stoyáshchy – "standing"), чудно́ ( chudnó – "this
13604-526: The Middle East and North Africa – 1.3 million, Sub-Saharan Africa – 0.1 million, Latin America – 0.2 million, U.S., Canada , Australia, and New Zealand – 4.1 million speakers. Therefore, the Russian language is the seventh-largest in the world by the number of speakers , after English, Mandarin, Hindi -Urdu, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. Russian is one of the six official languages of
13783-514: The Number of Balls, which are to be given in the latter End of this Winter. Conscious of this Truth, I also beg leave to mention, that the work in Point of Strength, Convenience, and Elegance, is, and shall be executed in the best, most neat, and richest Manner.' The advertisement then described the rules of the new establishment. 'Seven ladies' had 'each of them opened a Subscription Book', each of which
13962-723: The Porte with the Pasha of Egypt that whatever part of Greece Ibrahim Pasha might conquer should be at his disposal; and that his plan of disposing of his conquest is (and was stated to the Porte to be and has been approved by the Porte) to remove whole Greek population, carrying them off to slavery in Egypt or elsewhere and to re-populate the country with Egyptians and others of the Mohammedan [Muslim] religion" . Lieven's talks with Canning led to
14141-794: The Proto-Brooks Club at No.50 was the predecessor of another London club, Boodle's. Edward Boodle is known to have been in partnership with William Almack, probably between 1764 and 1768. The present Boodle's Club in St. James's Street possesses two manuscript books, each containing a list of rules and names of subscribers, each virtually identical to each other, indicating Boodle to have taken over management of this society from 1764. The rules in Boodle's books are based on those contained in Almack's book dated 1 January 1762, and many of them are copied verbatim. This similarity makes it clear that Boodle's club
14320-807: The Russian alphabet include ⟨ ѣ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ е ⟩ ( /je/ or /ʲe/ ); ⟨ і ⟩ and ⟨ ѵ ⟩ , which both merged to ⟨ и ⟩ ( /i/ ); ⟨ ѳ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ф ⟩ ( /f/ ); ⟨ ѫ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ у ⟩ ( /u/ ); ⟨ ѭ ⟩ , which merged to ⟨ ю ⟩ ( /ju/ or /ʲu/ ); and ⟨ ѧ ⟩ and ⟨ ѩ ⟩ , which later were graphically reshaped into ⟨ я ⟩ and merged phonetically to /ja/ or /ʲa/ . While these older letters have been abandoned at one time or another, they may be used in this and related articles. The yers ⟨ ъ ⟩ and ⟨ ь ⟩ originally indicated
14499-481: The Russian government sensibly let the matter lie. Dorothea Lieven died peacefully at her home, 2 rue Saint-Florentin , Paris, aged 71, on 27 January 1857, with Guizot and Paul Lieven, one of her two surviving sons, beside her. She was buried, according to her wish, at the Lieven family estate of Mesothen (near Mitau ) next to her two young sons who had died in St. Petersburg. Princess Lieven "succeeded in inspiring
14678-458: The Russian principalities before and especially during Mongol rule. This strengthened dialectal differences, and for a while, prevented the emergence of a standardized national language. The formation of the unified and centralized Russian state in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the gradual re-emergence of a common political, economic, and cultural space created the need for a common standard language. The initial impulse for standardization came from
14857-455: The Russian secret police from 1826 to 1844) have been published. The British Library holds a vast trove of unpublished material, and several Continental archives have a scattering of unpublished correspondence. "She is a stateswoman", said the Austrian ambassador to France, "and a great lady in all the vicissitudes of life". She is a recurring minor figure in many historical novels about
15036-458: The Soviet era can speak Russian, other generations of citizens that do not have any knowledge of Russian. Primary and secondary education by Russian is almost non-existent. In Uzbekistan , Russian is the language of inter-ethnic communication. It has some official roles, being permitted in official documentation and is the lingua franca of the country and the language of the elite. Russian
15215-516: The Thatched House Tavern and the assembly rooms were then managed jointly by James Willis's son, Frederick, and William Willis's son, Charles. The Thatched House Tavern appears to have come to an end in 1861. The assembly rooms were managed by Frederick and Charles Willis until 1869, when Frederick appears to have become sole proprietor. The rooms were redecorated by Mr. Kuckuck in 1860, but it was already clear Almack's as an institution
15394-639: The Tsarevitch . Despite her residence in London, the princess had already been appointed senior lady-in-waiting to Alexandra Feodorovna as of 1829. After more than 20 years in England, the princess was horrified at the prospect of leaving her comfortable life and all her friends there; she had no wish to return to Russia, a country where she was no longer happy and whose harsh climate she now found difficult to endure. She never forgave her former friend Lord Palmerston, whose intransigence over what should have been
15573-403: The United Nations. Education in Russian is still a popular choice for both Russian as a second language (RSL) and native speakers in Russia, and in many former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics. In Belarus , Russian is a second state language alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus . 77% of
15752-406: The appearance of the building is limited. A water-colour view of the exterior indicates it to have been utilitarian, the front of plain brickwork, with the great room expressed by the six round-arched windows of the second storey, and the entrance dressed with a pedimented Ionic doorcase. Two passages penetrated the ground storey, in the east part of which were two shops with a mezzanine over, and at
15931-462: The applicant would only learn the result by calling on him for the answer. The small size of the rooms contributed to the air of exclusivity. Far smaller than the Pantheon, the average attendance at an Almack's ball was 500; "the largest attendance ever known on any one occasion was about 650; which is a number much too great for the size of the room." Accordingly, the number of members of Almack's
16110-609: The archaeology, topography, geography, manner and customs, geology, and natural history of the Holy Land. Another significant public meeting held at Willis's Rooms, on 4 August 1870, saw the foundation of the British Red Cross . Following the demolition of the Thatched House Tavern on St James's Street (between 1843 and 1863), the Dilettanti Society used the rooms for their regular meetings. The members of
16289-477: The august membership. Rejection of an application might be made on a temporary or permanent basis, depending on the reason. If an applicant was refused a ticket, the news was sent via a printed circular, with a blank left to be filled up with the name. No reason for the rejection would be given beyond "The ladies-patronesses' compliments to Mr. or Miss So-and-so, and are sorry they cannot comply with his or her request." The circular would then be left with Mr Willis, and
16468-633: The author of 'Vanity Fair,' though the second edition of her own celebrated novel was dedicated to him by her, with the assurance that she regarded him 'as the social regenerator of his day—as the very master of that working corps who would restore to rectitude the warped state of things.' Mrs. Gaskell tells us that, when the lecture was over, the lecturer descended from the platform, and making his way towards her, frankly asked her for her opinion. 'This,' adds Miss Brontë's biographer, 'she mentioned to me not many days afterwards, adding remarks almost identical with those which I subsequently read in "Villette," where
16647-466: The ballroom with one in her hand; and a thousand posies of sweet flowers displayed their hues, and exhaled their fragrance as the dancing commenced." Besides balls, the rooms were let for public meetings, dramatic readings, concerts, and for dinners. Saturday 11 February 1792 saw the first of Samuel Harrison and Charles Knyvett 's Vocal Concerts , a series that would continue until 1821. Between 1845 and 1858, John Ella's Musical Union gave eight concerts
16826-403: The broader sense of expanding the use of Russian alongside or in favour of other languages. The current standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language ( современный русский литературный язык – "sovremenny russky literaturny yazyk"). It arose at the beginning of the 18th century with the modernization reforms of the Russian state under the rule of Peter
17005-423: The building was occupied by a firm of auctioneers, Messrs. Robinson and Fisher, who later became Messrs Robinson and Foster Ltd and on the ground floor there were shops, often occupied by fine-art dealers. Other parts of the building were occupied by a restaurant and a succession of clubs; from 1915 to 1922 Horatio Bottomley , M.P., had rooms there. The building was destroyed by enemy action on 23 February 1944 in
17184-532: The business until 1792. By this time, the prosperity of the rooms was in decline (probably due to the opening of the Pantheon in Oxford Street in 1772) and William Almack was compelled to mortgage them. He died unmarried and intestate on 27 October 1806 and his property passed to his sister Elizabeth Pitcairn. Her husband, Dr. Pitcairn, paid off the mortgages, and died in 1809. Elizabeth Pitcairn appears as
17363-561: The celebrated Niel Gow ; later on, in the early Victorian era, Weippert and Collinet's band provided the music. To avoid any suggestion of impropriety, dances were initially limited to English country dances and Scotch reels . This changed some time after the declaration of the Regency, when first the quadrille and then the waltz , at that time more like the modern polka , were introduced. According to Raikes, these were first danced at Almack's in 1813, to Gronow in 1815, and to Dancing in
17542-476: The club, though for much of the club's lifetime, the rooms offered a variety of other entertainments with no connection to the club. The history of Almack's begins with its founder William Almack (the elder). One popular theory, circulated since 1811, supposes him to have been Scottish, his real name 'M'Caul', and that he had changed it because he found that in England a Scots name prejudiced his business. In fact, Almack appears to have been of Yorkshire origin, and
17721-572: The country. There is an Israeli TV channel mainly broadcasting in Russian with Israel Plus . See also Russian language in Israel . Russian is also spoken as a second language by a small number of people in Afghanistan . In Vietnam , Russian has been added in the elementary curriculum along with Chinese and Japanese and were named as "first foreign languages" for Vietnamese students to learn, on equal footing with English. The Russian language
17900-651: The diplomatic, political, and social circles of 19th-century Europe. Dorothea von Benckendorff was born into Baltic German nobility in Riga in what is now Latvia . She was the daughter of the General of the Imperial army Baron Christoph von Benckendorff (Friedrichsham, 12 January 1749 – 10 June 1823), who served as the military governor of Livonia , and his wife, Baroness Anna Juliane Charlotte Schilling von Canstatt ( Thalheim , 31 July 1744 – 11 March 1797), who held
18079-883: The doors were closed and no one else was admitted for the evening, regardless of rank or reputation. Once approved by the Lady Patronesses, a man or woman's social standing was guaranteed to soar. Fortunate young ladies making their first London Season and who'd been allowed to 'come out' at an Almack's ball had their dancing partners personally chosen by one of the Ladies. A passage from Lutrell's work "Advice to Julia" concerning Almack's reads: "All on that magic list depends; Fame, fortune, fashion, lovers, friends; 'Tis that which gratifies or vexes All ranks, all ages, all sexes. If once to Almack's you belong, Like monarchs, you can do no wrong; But banished thence on Wednesday night, By Jove you can do nothing right." Holding
18258-413: The factory and the industrial plant their local peasant dialects with their phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary, and the very process of recruiting workers from peasants and the mobility of the worker population generate another process: the liquidation of peasant inheritance by way of leveling the particulars of local dialects. On the ruins of peasant multilingual, in the context of developing heavy industry,
18437-420: The few contemporary references to Almack at this period, and indicates that he was already known for the dinners for which he and Edward Boodle later became famous: 'Poor Sir Harry Ballendene is dead; he made a great dinner at Almack's for the house of Drummond, drank very hard, caught a violent fever, and died in a very few days.' In January 1762 a private 'Society' was established in the house (No. 50) adjoining
18616-456: The final reading amendments that state that all schools and kindergartens in the country are to transition to education in Latvian . From 2025, all children will be taught in Latvian only. On 28 September 2023, Latvian deputies approved The National Security Concept, according to which from 1 January 2026, all content created by Latvian public media (including LSM ) should be only in Latvian or
18795-692: The generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union , the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to
18974-480: The government bureaucracy for the lack of a reliable tool of communication in administrative, legal, and judicial affairs became an obvious practical problem. The earliest attempts at standardizing Russian were made based on the so-called Moscow official or chancery language, during the 15th to 17th centuries. Since then, the trend of language policy in Russia has been standardization in both the restricted sense of reducing dialectical barriers between ethnic Russians, and
19153-537: The greatest, and perhaps only true, love of her life. During the Crimean War (1854–1856), Princess Lieven acted as an informal and trusted conduit between the belligerents. Much to her annoyance, all Russians were ordered to leave France at the outbreak of war, and she settled for a time in Brussels , which she detested. Eventually, she found life there so tedious that she returned to Paris without permission, and
19332-523: The highest social rank, and to network with others of the caste. For gentlemen seeking brides of suitable ton , it served as one of the marriage marts of Society. By 1790, being a debutante , one presented at court, carried very little weight, as the King's court was considered rather fusty. Instead, mothers sought éclat for a daughter newly presented to society by obtaining vouchers to Almack's. This reputation had been created by Almack's select committee of
19511-403: The holder to obtain tickets to balls for all or part of the season. Subscribers were allowed to bring a guest to a Ball, provided they passed muster first. He or she had to call personally at the Rooms and were either granted a "Strangers Ticket" of admission or were blackballed. The Rooms were open for supper and gaming, with dancing lasting the night. Once supper had been served at eleven o'clock,
19690-555: The house was occupied by the London Library . The freehold of the house had been acquired in 1785 by William Almack's son, and it subsequently passed to Elizabeth Pitcairn, William Almack's daughter. By her will (proved 1844) she bequeathed the house to her nephew, the Rev. Augustus Campbell, Rector of Liverpool, who died in 1870. The house was sold by the latter's trustees in 1894 and it was demolished shortly afterwards. Next door to
19869-424: The ladies do not like us, they have no opportunity of changing us, but must meet the same persons for ever.' In the following month Gilly Williams reported that 'Our female Almacks flourishes beyond description. . . . Almack's Scotch face, in a bag-wig, waiting at Supper, would divert you, as would his lady in a sack, making tea and curtseying to the duchesses.' The great room is said to have been completed in 1767. In
20048-465: The large new House West of his now dwelling House in Pall Mall for the sole use of a Society Established upon the following Rules': Until 10 February 1762, membership was to be open to anyone signing his name in the book. Thereafter, election was to be by ballot, which was always to be held 'in Parliament Time', i.e. , when Parliament was in session, and one black ball (vote against admission)
20227-646: The latter in The Public Advertiser on the following day. It was addressed to 'the Ladies and Gentlemen, Subscribers to the Assembly in King street St. James's,' whom it informed that 'the Building already erected, and now finishing for the Purposes of your Meeting, is in such Forwardness, that every Thing will be done by the Time proposed; and that at any Rate, there will be more than sufficient Time for
20406-441: The lighting the only good things. And yet Almack's is the culminating point of the English world of fashion." The decline in popularity of the balls appears to have begun about 1835. In 1837, writers could still say of the Lady Patronesses that they "have the power, by their single fiat, of making or unmaking entire families. They can open or shut the doors of fashionable life on them, by the mere circumstance of giving or withholding
20585-515: The members was to be limited to a maximum of nine guineas per rubber or session. This new club appears to have been formed in opposition, perhaps for political reasons, to White's (then often called Arthur's), for rule 12 as originally drafted forbade any member of Almack's from membership of any other London club, 'nor of what is at present called Arthur's or by whatever Name that Society or Club may be afterwards called, neither of new or old club or any other belonging to it'. In February 1763 this rule
20764-459: The most beautiful in London) after its redecoration by Kuckuck in 1860, but under the heavy Victorian overlay can be seen the elegance depicted by Cruikshank. It seems clear, therefore, that the walls were divided into bays by a Composite order, with paired pilasters between the windows or panels of the long side walls, and single columns between the five bays of each end wall. Cruikshank suggests that
20943-458: The most influential and exclusive ladies of London's high society (the ton ), referred to as the Lady Patronesses of Almack's. There were six or seven Patronesses at any one time. Traditionally, during the Regency of George IV , they are named as: Of these lady patronesses and their establishment, the memoirist Captain Gronow would later write, "The most popular amongst these grandes dames
21122-524: The northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region . Russian was also the main foreign language taught in school in China between 1949 and 1964. In Kazakhstan , Russian is not a state language, but according to article 7 of the Constitution of Kazakhstan its usage enjoys equal status to that of the Kazakh language in state and local administration. The 2009 census reported that 10,309,500 people, or 84.8% of
21301-515: The other hand, before the war, almost a quarter of Ukrainians were in favour of granting Russian the status of the state language, while after the beginning of Russia's invasion the support for the idea dropped to just 7%. In peacetime, the idea of raising the status of Russian was traditionally supported by residents of the south and east . But even in these regions, only a third of the respondents were in favour, and after Russia's full-scale invasion , their number dropped by almost half. According to
21480-488: The other hand, she admitted that the details of the Reform Act 1832 came as a complete surprise to her, which may be a sign that Grey did not entirely trust her in spite of their friendship. In England's vibrant political environment, the princess discovered in herself a flair for politics. She also became a leader of society; invitations to her house were highly sought after, and she was the first foreigner to be elected
21659-461: The other three languages in the East Slavic branch. In many places in eastern and southern Ukraine and throughout Belarus, these languages are spoken interchangeably, and in certain areas traditional bilingualism resulted in language mixtures such as Surzhyk in eastern Ukraine and Trasianka in Belarus. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect , although it vanished during the 15th or 16th century,
21838-446: The parliament approved a bill to close up all Russian language schools and kindergartens by the school year. The transition to only Estonian language schools and kindergartens will start in the 2024-2025 school year. In Latvia , Russian is officially considered a foreign language. 55% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 18 February 2012, Latvia held
22017-453: The peasants' speech was never systematically studied, as it was generally regarded by philologists as simply a source of folklore and an object of curiosity. This was acknowledged by the noted Russian dialectologist Nikolai Karinsky , who toward the end of his life wrote: "Scholars of Russian dialects mostly studied phonetics and morphology. Some scholars and collectors compiled local dictionaries. We have almost no studies of lexical material or
22196-525: The period, notably those of Georgette Heyer . Heyer generally portrays her as a haughty, formidable and unapproachable leader of society, but in The Grand Sophy she is described as "clever and amusing", and there is a passing reference in that book to her role as a political intriguer. Russian language Russian is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of
22375-459: The population aged 15 and above, could read and write well in Russian, and understand the spoken language. In October 2023, Kazakhstan drafted a media law aimed at increasing the use of the Kazakh language over Russian, the law stipulates that the share of the state language on television and radio should increase from 50% to 70%, at a rate of 5% per year, starting in 2025. In Kyrgyzstan , Russian
22554-418: The population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2019 Belarusian census , out of 9,413,446 inhabitants of the country, 5,094,928 (54.1% of the total population) named Belarusian as their native language, with 61.2% of ethnic Belarusians and 54.5% of ethnic Poles declaring Belarusian as their native language. In everyday life in
22733-408: The project appears to have been a risky venture. Almack only held a twenty-one-year lease of part of the ground on which the building was erected, and the new assembly was a direct challenge to Teresa Cornelys 's entertainments, which had been established at Carlisle House in Soho Square since 1760. In December 1764 Horace Walpole noted that Mrs. Cornelys, 'apprehending the future assembly at Almack's',
22912-479: The pronunciation of ultra-short or reduced /ŭ/ , /ĭ/ . Because of many technical restrictions in computing and also because of the unavailability of Cyrillic keyboards abroad, Russian is often transliterated using the Latin alphabet. For example, мороз ('frost') is transliterated moroz , and мышь ('mouse'), mysh or myš' . Once commonly used by the majority of those living outside Russia, transliteration
23091-472: The proper pronunciation of uncommon words or names. Russian is an East Slavic language of the wider Indo-European family . It is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language used in Kievan Rus' , which was a loose conglomerate of East Slavic tribes from the late 9th to the mid-13th centuries. From the point of view of spoken language , its closest relatives are Ukrainian , Belarusian , and Rusyn ,
23270-416: The rate books show James Willis as the occupant or manager of the rooms. James Willis had been the proprietor of the Thatched House Tavern in St. James's Street since 1770 and on 18 August 1768 he had married Elizabeth Tebb, niece of William Almack senior. At the time of his death in 1794, he held a twenty-one-year sub-lease of the assembly rooms. His descendants continued to manage the rooms (except perhaps for
23449-511: The ratepayer for No. 50, and in March 1768 Boodle is known to have held a sub-lease of the house from Almack. Contemporary references to the club become much more frequent. Edward Gibbon first mentions Boodle's in a letter of 18 April 1768, and he subsequently became a member of the club; starting in December 1769 he wrote much of his correspondence there, and in 1770 he was one of the managers. Boodle died on 8 February 1772, and on 13 February it
23628-449: The ratepayer from 1809 to 1817, and she may have managed the rooms during this period. In her will, which was proved in 1844, she left a large fortune, and the residue of her estate (including the assembly rooms) was bequeathed to her grandniece and adopted daughter, Elizabeth Campbell. The latter married Edward Calvert of Thurstonbury and their descendants retained the freehold (which had been acquired at an unknown date) until 1920. In 1792
23807-491: The respondents), while according to the 2002 census – 142.6 million people (99.2% of the respondents). In Ukraine , Russian is a significant minority language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 29 million active speakers. 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. On 5 September 2017, Ukraine's Parliament passed
23986-498: The society would dine in the rooms every fortnight during the "London season"; the walls of the apartment were hung with the portraits of the members, most of which were transferred from the Thatched House prior to demolition. In 1886–7 the business was purchased by a company, Willis's Rooms Limited, and in 1892 the building was considerably altered and the whole of the King Street front was refaced in cement. From 1893 part of
24165-402: The space in an Arab camp parted off for the horses; two or three naked rooms at the side, in which were served the most wretched refreshments; and a company into which, spite of the immense difficulty of getting tickets, a great many 'Nobodies' had wriggled; in which the dress was generally as tasteless as the tournure was bad; – this was all. In a word, a sort of inn-entertainment: – the music and
24344-622: The supper rooms. By the 1830s, refreshments had fallen off in quality: "Now there is no supper; there is nothing in the shape of refreshments but tea and lemonade, and the worst of it is, that both articles are so miserably bad that it requires an effort to drink either. The lemonade is sour as vinegar; while to apply the word tea to the stuff called by that name at Almack's, were one of the most unwarrantable perversions of language ever perpetrated. Give it to any person with-out calling it by any name, and that person will soon find one for himself. He will at once call it chalk and water." By 1825, Almack's
24523-626: The survey carried out by RATING in August 2023 in the territory controlled by Ukraine and among the refugees, almost 60% of the polled usually speak Ukrainian at home, about 30% – Ukrainian and Russian, only 9% – Russian. Since March 2022, the use of Russian in everyday life has been noticeably decreasing. For 82% of respondents, Ukrainian is their mother tongue, and for 16%, Russian is their mother tongue. IDPs and refugees living abroad are more likely to use both languages for communication or speak Russian. Nevertheless, more than 70% of IDPs and refugees consider Ukrainian to be their native language. In
24702-459: The syntax of Russian dialects." After 1917, Marxist linguists had no interest in the multiplicity of peasant dialects and regarded their language as a relic of the rapidly disappearing past that was not worthy of scholarly attention. Nakhimovsky quotes the Soviet academicians A.M Ivanov and L.P Yakubinsky, writing in 1930: The language of peasants has a motley diversity inherited from feudalism. On its way to becoming proletariat peasantry brings to
24881-442: The tavern; this was the first of Almack's clubs, and was the immediate precursor of two of the greatest clubs in St. James's Street, Brooks's and Boodle's . The record book of the new society was kept by Almack as a statement of the terms on which he agreed to provide for the social needs of the members, and it has survived amongst the records of Boodle's. The first entry, dated 1 January 1762, states that 'William Almack has taken
25060-462: The theory that this was an assumed name is undoubtedly false. In the will of his brother John Almack (died 1762) there is a legacy to his married sister, Ann Tebb, who lived at Sand Hutton in the parish of Thirsk, Yorkshire; and William Almack later bequeathed an annuity of twenty pounds to his niece Ann Tebb. The parish registers of Thirsk show that the Almack family had been established there since 1629. However, William Almack's wife, Elizabeth Cullen,
25239-519: The time, are the sofas which lined the walls for the guests to sit on between dances, the ladies-patronesses having a sofa to themselves at the upper end. Besides the great ballroom, the building also included card rooms and supper rooms." Almack's, in its heyday, appears or is mentioned in some of the " silver fork novels " of the time. These notably included Almack's by Marianne Spencer Hudson (1827) and Almack's Revisited by Charles White (1828). Almack's and its patronesses also appear frequently in
25418-415: The town is ill with colds, and many were afraid to go, as the house is scarce built yet. Almack advertised that it was built with hot bricks and boiling water—think what a rage there must be for public places, if this notice, instead of terrifying, could draw anybody thither. They tell me the ceilings were dropping with wet, but can you believe me, when I assure you the Duke of Cumberland was there? . . . There
25597-786: The two. Others divide the language into three groupings, Northern , Central (or Middle), and Southern , with Moscow lying in the Central region. The Northern Russian dialects and those spoken along the Volga River typically pronounce unstressed /o/ clearly, a phenomenon called okanye ( оканье ). Besides the absence of vowel reduction, some dialects have high or diphthongal /e⁓i̯ɛ/ in place of Proto-Slavic * ě and /o⁓u̯ɔ/ in stressed closed syllables (as in Ukrainian) instead of Standard Russian /e/ and /o/ , respectively. Another Northern dialectal morphological feature
25776-401: The ultimate social disgrace (although Lady Cowper, who was Caroline's sister-in-law, eventually got the ban lifted). Few exceptions to the strict rules were ever made, and the Lady Patronesses met every Monday night during the London social season (approximately April to August) to decide who, if anyone, might need to be removed for recent déclassé behaviour, and whom they might wish to add to
25955-503: The unanimous vote of at least thirty members. The annual subscription was to be two guineas , to be paid 'to Almack for the House'. Almack was to take in all the London and some foreign newspapers; dinner (at eight shillings) was 'to be allways upon the Table' at a quarter past four o'clock and supper (at six shillings) at 'a Quarter before Eleven'; a bottle of port cost half a crown. Almack
26134-411: The unfluted shafts were marbled or of scagliola. Between the capitals, the bays were decorated with a frieze of festoons and paterae, and below these were oblong panels with relief subjects. In Cruikshank's time, the windows were furnished with elegant scrolled pelmet-heads of gilt wood supporting swagged draperies, and Rococo looking-glasses filled some of the wall panels. He shows the orchestra playing in
26313-605: The upper end of the room, which was considered a great impertinence." By 1837, matters had so far changed that the gallopade and the waltz were now the only things danced at the Almack's balls. The club took pains not to resemble expensive private balls by avoiding sumptuous repasts. In the Regency period, refreshments in the supper rooms consisted of thinly-sliced bread (which must be a day old to be sliced that thinly) with fresh butter, and dry cake (dry meaning unfrosted, without icing, not stale), probably similar to pound cake . To avoid drunkenness, only tea and lemonade were served in
26492-511: The use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population, especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. However, English has replaced Russian as lingua franca in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as their first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008). According to
26671-502: The west end, there were three storeys of accommodation, with a mezzanine over the ground floor. Sources of information about the interior include the view of 'The Ball Room, Willis's Rooms' in Old and New London , and an illustration by Cruikshank in Life in London (1821). The illustration in Old and New London almost certainly shows the great room (described in sources as being one hundred feet in length by forty feet in width, and "one of
26850-514: The wine, which the men are to pay". Members met "every morning, either to play cards, chat, or do whatever else they please. An ordinary is provided for as many as choose to dine, and supper to be constantly on the table by eleven at night; after supper, they play loo ..." By September 1770 this very exclusive club possessed 123 members, including five dukes. It is not certain in which of Almack's two houses in Pall Mall it met; Mrs. Elizabeth Harris placed it at Boodle's (No. 50) but an undated letter of
27029-636: The years 1809 to 1817) until 1886–87. For the whole of this period, the Willis family were tenants of Almack's descendants. In the nineteenth century, the rooms were often referred to as Willis's Rooms. By the beginning of the 19th century, with the Pantheon out of fashion, and the Assembly Rooms under the management of the Willises, Almack's was at the height of its reputation. People came to Almack's to see and be seen, to assert their claim to being of
27208-512: The younger a site on the corner of Park Place and St. James's Street and opened his club there in October 1778. In a letter of September 1778, James Hare says: 'Brookes is to open his house in St. James's Street next month, it is to consist of as many of the present members of Almack's as choose to put their names down'; and in the following month 'Brooks opens his house in St. James's Street this month. He invites all or as many as please to come from
27387-495: Was 'to contain the Names of 60 Subscribers'. Each subscriber was to pay ten guineas for admission to the twelve balls which were to be given each season. 'The Entertainment of each Night to consist of a Ball, in a Room 90 Feet long, 40 Feet broad, and 30 Feet high; Tea and Cards in separate Rooms; and a Supper in a Room 65 Feet long, 40 Feet broad, and 20 Feet high, with a Concert of Music from a separate Orchestra.' These rules show that
27566-530: Was Scottish, and Almack himself may have met her whilst they were both in the service of the Duke of Hamilton, Almack as valet to the Duke and Elizabeth as waiting-maid to the Duchess. These Scottish associations may have led to the presumption that Almack himself was a Scot. From 1754 to 1759 William Almack kept a licensed coffee house in Curzon Street , open to all comers. On 7 September 1759 he obtained
27745-569: Was a political force, a position reached by few other contemporary females. The princess participated, either directly or indirectly, in a large number of major diplomatic events between 1812 and 1857. She knew "everyone in the Courts and cabinets for thirty or forty years"; she "knew all the secret annals of diplomacy", wrote a French diplomat. Lord Palmerston, despite their friendship, seems to have resented her interference, writing that "a busy woman must do harm because she can do no good." She acquired
27924-413: Was already enlarging and redecorating her rooms, while Mrs. Harris thought that 'As there is already so commodious a place, [Almack's] seems an unnecessary piece of extravagance.' In a letter of 14 February 1765 to Lord Hertford, Horace Walpole described the opening of the new rooms. 'The new Assembly Room at Almack's was opened the night before last, and they say is very magnificent, but it was empty; half
28103-534: Was altered and made even more emphatic: 'If any Member of this Society becomes a Member of Arthur's or a Candidate for Arthur's, he is of Course struck out of this Society.' Eighty-eight gentlemen, none of whom appears to have been a member of White's, paid subscriptions for 1762, and the appointment of thirteen managers for the period February 1763 to February 1764 is recorded. In March 1764 this club appears to have been superseded by or to have divided itself into two separate societies. The reason for this rearrangement
28282-487: Was appointed minister to Berlin . When Tsar Alexander I appointed Count von Lieven ambassador to Great Britain in 1812, Dorothea von Lieven used her intelligence, charisma, and social skills to make herself a leader of London's politicized society, thereby contributing materially to the success of her husband's embassy. In London , Princess Lieven cultivated friendships with the foremost statesmen of her day. Moreover, she and Austrian Chancellor Metternich cultivated
28461-757: Was assigned as a maid of honour to Maria Feodorovna. In St. Petersburg on 1 February 1800, at age fourteen, some months after finishing her studies, Dorothea married General Count (later Prince) Christoph von Lieven . Although the marriage was arranged, the couple managed to live in harmony for many years; only in the last years did serious differences arise between them that led to a total estrangement. They had one daughter and five sons, three of whom predeceased their mother: Magdalena (15 January 1804 – 1805), Paul (24 February 1805 – 13 October 1864), Alexander (9 March 1806 – 5 October 1885), Konstantin (24 April 1807 – 17 October 1838), Georg (27 October 1819 – 20 February 1835) and Arthur (1825 – 23 March 1838). In 1810, her husband
28640-403: Was based in assembly rooms on King Street, St James's , and was one of a limited number of upper-class mixed-sex public social venues in the British capital in an era when the most important venues for the hectic social season were the grand houses of the aristocracy. The site of the club, Almack's Assembly Rooms or (from 1781) Willis's Rooms , has become retrospectively interchangeable with
28819-585: Was chaired by the first president of the society, The Bishop of York. Also present in attendance were the "Bishop of London, Lord Strangford, the Right Hon. Mr. Layard, the Count de Vogue, the Dean of Westminster, the Dean of Canterbury, Sir Roderick Murchison, Mr. Gifford Palgrave, Professor Owen, the Rev. H. B. Tristram, and Mr. Gilbert Scott." It was agreed that the organization would be dedicated to academic study of
28998-468: Was dying; the assemblies are said to have come to an end in 1863. From the beginning, Almack's/Willis's Assembly Rooms had many uses beyond the Almack's Balls. Other balls were also held there. In July 1821, a splendid ball was given there in honour of the coronation of George IV by the special Ambassador from France , the Duc de Grammont . The King himself was present, attended by some of his royal brothers,
29177-616: Was either a continuation or an off-shoot under new management and slightly altered rules of the club which Almack had established in January 1762. It met in the house which the latter had occupied from January 1762 to February 1764, i.e., No. 50 Pall Mall, next door to the house (No. 49) which from 1759 to 1764 was Almack's tavern and from 1764 to 1778 housed Almack's club, before its removal under William Brooks to St. James's Street. The partnership between Almack and Boodle probably came to an end in 1768, for in that year Boodle succeeded Almack as
29356-405: Was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia during the 18th century. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and preserved the Russian language in this region to this day, although only a few elderly speakers of this unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Alaska , Russian
29535-421: Was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family, friends, or at work. According to the 2014 Moldovan census , Russians accounted for 4.1% of Moldova's population, 9.4% of the population declared Russian as their native language, and 14.5% said they usually spoke Russian. According to the 2010 census in Russia , Russian language skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% of
29714-425: Was genuinely grieved when he died in January 1839. In a city where salons served a unique social and political purpose, Princess Lieven's salon, known as "the listening/observation post of Europe", empowered her to be an independent stateswoman. In 1837 she and François Guizot entered into a close personal partnership that lasted until the princess's death and included exchanging over 5000 letters; he has been called
29893-408: Was granted leases of four small houses on the south side of King Street. Two of these houses were on the west side of Rose and Crown Yard and two were on the east; their total frontage, including the entrance to the mews, was some seventy-three feet. He also acquired the lease of the stables and coach-houses on the west side of the mews. Finally, on 25 September 1765 John Phillips, carpenter, granted him
30072-462: Was left heavily in debt and the Chancery suit which he subsequently brought against certain members contains valuable information about the way in which such shortlived proprietary clubs were managed. Following the success of William Almack's establishment at No. 49 & 50 Pall Mall, he began to engage in further speculation in the field of fashionable amusement. In September 1764 and March 1765 he
30251-438: Was limited to between 700 and 800. Money was not a key to being a member of Almack's, which existed to exclude the nouveau riche . Possession of a noble title was a recommendation, though breeding and behaviour were more important. Even a duke or duchess might find himself or herself barred if one or other of the patronesses disliked them. It was said three-quarters of the hereditary nobility begged, in vain, to be admitted; and
30430-474: Was occupied from 1779 to 1786 by James Carr, and from 1787 to 1790 it was occupied by Thomas Nelson and (for part of this period) Peter Wilder, who were sub-tenants of William Almack's widow and son. In 1790 the house was described as 'Almack's Hotel'. From 1796 until the early 1820s it was occupied by the firm of Ransom and Morland, and from 1822 to 1832 by the Travellers Club . From 1841 to 1845 part of
30609-501: Was quickly repealed, certainly before 1772. Heavy gambling immediately became prevalent and in 1770 Horace Walpole commented that 'the gaming at Almack's which has taken the pas of White's, is worthy the decline of our Empire, or Commonwealth. . . . The young men of the age lose five, ten, fifteen thousand pounds in an evening there.' At the age of sixteen Charles James Fox was elected a member in 1765 and much of his reckless gambling and betting took place at Almack's. Edward Gibbon became
30788-473: Was said to be due to a similarity in their mental processes: "an intelligence which depended not on education but experience and long observation of men and women". She was wise enough to use her influence discreetly: as she observed, a foreigner who meddles in English politics "is liable to end up with a broken neck". In 1834, during a period of bad diplomatic relations between Russia and Great Britain, Tsar Nicholas I recalled Prince Lieven to become governor to
30967-472: Was showing signs of deterioration, despite its continuing popularity. Prince Puckler-Muskau , visiting London in April 1825, wrote: "The first Almack's ball took place this evening; and from all I had heard of this celebrated assembly, I was really curious to see it: but never were my expectations so disappointed. It was not much better than at Brighton. A large bare room, with a bad floor, and ropes round it, like
31146-524: Was sufficient to exclude a proposed candidate; the total membership was to be limited to 250. After 10 February the members were to appoint thirteen managers, 'each of whom are to have a power to keep order and make the Rules of the Society to be observed'; they were to serve for one year, after which each manager was 'to appoint a Successor for the ensuing Year'. The rules of the society could be changed only by
31325-507: Was the proprietor, the subscriptions were paid to him and the club was known as Almack's. But from 1771 to 1778 the rates for the house were paid by 'Brooks and Ellis', who were presumably Almack's employees or perhaps partners and who were responsible for the day-to-day running of the club. There were twenty-seven foundation members of this club, and a further 141 were elected by ballot in 1764. The original rules of 1764 forbade membership of any other London club except 'old' White's, but this rule
31504-402: Was the sixth-most used language on the top 1,000 sites, behind English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Despite leveling after 1900, especially in matters of vocabulary and phonetics, a number of dialects still exist in Russia. Some linguists divide the dialects of Russian into two primary regional groupings, "Northern" and "Southern", with Moscow lying on the zone of transition between
31683-475: Was to order the food 'without any directions from any body', and members might 'speak for any Dish, cheap or Dear', but the prices were not to exceed those at the Smyrna coffee house. Members' friends could only be entertained in the first room facing the street on the ground floor, where they could have 'tea, coffee or chocolate, but no Meat or Wine nor can there be any Gaming or Cards in that Room'. Gambling amongst
31862-405: Was unanimously resolved that 'Ben Harding shall succeed the late Mr. Boodle in the House and Business, and shall be supported therein'. On 22 February the residue of Edward Boodle's lease from Almack was reassigned to Harding. In spite of the change of proprietor the club continued to be known as Boodle's. It left No. 50 in 1783, following which the house was occupied by Messrs. Hammersley and Co. for
32041-482: Was unquestionably Lady Cowper, now Lady Palmerston. Lady Jersey's bearing, on the contrary, was that of a theatrical tragedy queen; and whilst attempting the sublime, she frequently made herself simply ridiculous, being inconceivably rude, and in her manner often ill-bred. Lady Sefton was kind and amiable, Madame de Lieven haughty and exclusive, Princess Esterhazy was a bon enfant, Lady Castlereagh and Mrs. Burrell de très grandes dames. Many diplomatic arts, much finesse, and
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