Instead of a liveried attendant, he received a rustle of damascened silk, a wafted assault of perfumed air, and a stifled explosion of giggles.

A. team of liveried attendants walked past, four men carrying something heavy on a wooden bier between them.

A liveried flunkey standing by the main door requested their tickets and then ushered them inside, where another liveried attendant indicated the direction of the cloakrooms.

A liveried attendant leaped smartly from beside the driver and opened the door.

But a liveried attendant greeted them civilly enough and conducted them along a covered walkway to the main entrance of the inn.

The liveried attendants attempted to hold the crowd away but were pushed back into their own elevators by the force of the rush.

From one of them a liveried attendant rose with calculated languidness and, in a bored and condescending voice, asked: 'Your business... sir?'

Most had come this way, although many were in elaborate private coaches with their own liveried attendants and a few arrived by motor car.

Prancing out of the gateway came a procession of dozens of brightly-bedecked nobles and their liveried attendants, all mounted on high-bred palfries.

They rode to a stable and stopped while liveried attendants took charge of the horses and led the people inside.