If I somehow found myself in a strange country and deeply in love with a titled man, I would probably pay for an etiquette class. It just makes sense if you’re a gauche American, as I am. I chew gum. I put ice in all my drinks. I not only cross my legs, but I often swing/bounce my foot as a nervous habit. If you put me in front of a formal dinner place setting, I would have no idea which fork, spoon and knife went with which course. So yes, I would need some kind of etiquette training if I was about to become Kaiser, Duchess of Tidypants or the Countess of Rootertooter. I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself. This is how the Duchess of Sussex felt too, because Meghan is super-organized and she probably just needed the one class.
Some people think table manners don’t matter any more but, happily, the Duchess of Sussex is not among them. Before moving to London to live with Prince Harry, the American actress was given a two-hour lesson in etiquette by Edmund Fry, a Londoner who runs the Rose Tree Cottage tea room in Pasadena, California.
‘She enjoyed it so much that she wanted to come back,’ Fry tells me. ‘The younger generation doesn’t know what bone china is and certainly don’t know anything about how to handle a cup and saucer, or how to handle a knife and fork. They come to us mainly to find out, ‘What should we do, as we are having this social event? The same sort of thing happened with Meghan. She knew she would be having tea with the Queen. Here they really do not know what to do. What we have found is that we give them a little information if they are interested and watch what happens.
Again, the reservation wasn’t made under her name, it was made by a friend.
‘We live in a society here which is a styrofoam cup or cardboard cups with a straw and everybody eats with their hands as we see with the ads on television. It is a wonder they know what a knife and fork is. The younger generation doesn’t know what what bone china is and certainly don’t know anything about how to handle a cup and saucer or how to handle a knife and fork. Not to mention any particular brand but a lot of people over here have donuts for breakfast on the run in a styrofoam cup with a bit of a stick in it or they have a latte. Obviously she’s not going to get that for afternoon tea if she goes to the Queen. Like everybody who comes here, they want to know “well do I hold the cup and saucer like this?”…A lot of people actually do very strange things for tea. They move the plate, they don’t know what to do with the napkin and don’t know anything about what they’re doing. She wanted to know the comfort of sitting.’
Fry feels Markle did not have a ‘love for England’ during their first meeting. ‘I don’t think she did. I think she fell in love with England when she came to Rose Tree Cottage. A very strange thing to say, and probably self serving. But when you come to a place like Rose Tree we don’t pretend to be urban here. We bring something that you cannot find in England anymore, because we really care about our customers. When they come through the door they are in England. You can see by my portrait of Her Majesty The Queen on the wall we are completely prepared for anybody who might come to Rose Tree Cottage.’
If she took the class before she moved to London, that was probably in early to mid-2017, one would think. By then it was clear that Meghan was The One and it was also clear that she was being fast-tracked by Harry and the Firm into the royal fold. I wonder if someone in the family (or one of those nitpicky courtiers) suggested the etiquette class, or whether she went there of her own accord? My guess is that she went of her own accord, just because Meghan has shown us time and time again that she PREPARES. She prepared for the job of duchess. She prepares her charitable initiatives before announcing them. She wanted to make sure she nailed her job interview with the Queen, because she knew that was what “afternoon tea” was – a job interview.
… I kind of wish I was the Countess of Rootertooter.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Avalon Red.
