Letters / Still genealogically puzzled
I am humbled and grateful to receive a reply from His Lordship, The Baron Skene (as he was gracious enough to admit is his position), regarding my enquiry concerning his elevated status (Genealogical accident; SN, 05/05/15).
However, I am still embarrassingly unclear as to the central query I posed. Namely: How should The Baron be addressed, and how should we rude proletarian swains behave in his august presence?
I have since checked with that essential publication Debrett’s, which, fortunately, rarely leaves my bedside table.
It seems The Baron should be addressed personally as ‘My Lord Skene’ or, in print, ‘My Dear Lord Skene’. Forelock-tugging is apparently optional, though not if one is a retainer engaged in bearing his escutcheon, as presumably will happen during the pomp and ceremony of the electoral count this week. Complete obedience and obeisance is then compulsory.
I hope this is of some help to anyone who may meet His Lordship during the next few days.
As regards his comments about ‘accidental genealogy’ I agree that one cannot help one’s family background.
It surely is a matter of whether or not one embraces it and exults in it. I attach a link which some may feel shows His Lairdship Skene of Skene, perhaps understandably, celebrating the appurtenances of his grandiloquence… http://www.clanskene.us/chief.html
Tom Morton
Hillswick
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