THE PARLOUR EVENINGS

The Parlour Evenings are the Court’s standing engagement through January, held in a borrowed room. A decanter stays on the table, whisky is poured, and there are cigars where the room allows them.

The Form

Every club that has lasted was built around a room where nothing was scheduled.

The parlour, the card room, the smoking room. Places a member could enter without an appointment, find whoever happened to be there, and stay or not. No programme, no speaker, no seating plan, and no reason required for turning up.

That is the rarest thing in modern social life and the easiest to provide. It needs a room, some furniture, and a rule against organising it.

The Court keeps these evenings in January because January is the month with nothing else in it, and because a society that convenes only for occasions is not a society.

The Evenings

Bridge, backgammon and chess. Nobody is introduced and nobody is announced. Several across the month, on weeknights, from seven until the room empties.

There is no dinner. There is something to eat and it is not the point.

The tables are set for bridge, backgammon and chess, and all three get played. Members who want neither sit by the fire and talk, which is equally the point.

Nobody is introduced. A member who arrives is not walked round the room and presented. They find a chair and the room absorbs them. This is deliberate, and it is the thing guests notice first.

Arrivals and departures go unremarked. A member may come at nine and leave at ten and nobody will ask why.

What Is Asked

The code is stated in the invitation. These are among the least formal of the Court’s engagements, and they are not informal.

Telephones stay in pockets.

No photographer attends. This is the one engagement the Court does not record, and it is the only evening in the year that leaves nothing behind.

Nobody is pitched at the table.

A member may bring a guest by arrangement, and answers for them.

The Places

Twenty-five at each evening. Members write to say which they will come to, and the Court replies.

The sum is stated in the invitation and covers the whole of the evening.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.

Questions

What are the Parlour Evenings?

The Parlour Evenings are the Court’s standing engagement through January: several weeknight evenings in a borrowed room in New York, with twenty-five places at each. Bridge, backgammon and chess are played, whisky is poured, and nobody is introduced or announced. There is no programme and no dinner. The 2027 dates are to follow.

What does one wear to the Parlour Evenings?

A lounge suit. The code is given in the invitation; these are among the least formal of the Court’s engagements, though they are not informal.

Who may attend the Parlour Evenings?

They are for members of the Court, by the Court’s invitation. Members write to say which evenings they will attend, and the Court replies. A guest may come by arrangement, and the member who brings them answers for them. How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.