ABSTRACT
In commerce, everything was basking in what seemed to be perpetual prosperity. And the great department stores of London were at their zenith. The Squire was at Sundial Comer, Mrs Liberty guarded the front door; Aunt Eliza was placed at the pond, Phyllis Mary Stewart at the summerhouse. The Missenden Army blew a hooter at 9.30 p.m., the Manor dinner-gong replied, a rocket was sent up, shot rang out. In spite of his delights fulfilments as Squire, he was still very much involved with London commitments. One of these was the revival of the British silk industry which had declined ever since Cobden's treaty with France in 1860 when the import duty on silk was repealed. The fashions of the Belle Epoque were very different from the aesthetic attire for which Liberty had become celebrated; titled ladies who condescended so charmingly at the silk exhibitions were very different from the aesthetic guests at Grosvenor Gallery private views.
