Purbeck Vignettes -- 1: The Lesser Ascot Fascinator

Changing at Oxford Circus on our way to Waterloo just over a week ago, we encountered what at first appeared to be three people on their way to a wedding: a smartly dressed young man in a grey suit, accompanied by two young women in summer frocks and the wire-and-feather contraptions pinned to the side of the head known as fascinators which are apparently this season's de rigeur fashion accessory for smart engagements. Instead of an elaborate hat (or het, as Judith and I pronounce it, thereby distinguishing them from proper hats), something which lets the breeze through and keeps one's head cool.

Getting out at Waterloo, we were passed by a third young woman in a summer frock and fascinator. Same wedding party, we thought. Then, arriving on the station concourse and encountering more (and more and more and more -- and many more smartly dressed men) of them, the penny dropped -- this was the last Saturday of Ascot, and they were off for a day at the races.

It was immediately obvious that few if any of them would be classifiable as proper toffs. For all of them -- the men as well, many in highly formal top hat and tails (often carrying picnic bags and folding stools) -- this was an opportunity to dress up and have fun: just the sort of thing to do (especially if one is in one's twenties and thirties, and most of them clearly were) to keep one's spirit up during the worst economic recession since the war (phrase copyright just about everybody, and can we please find another). But one couldn't help thinking that most of the women just weren't dressed for the weather (nine-tenths overcast, and the propsect of rain): bare legs (and often bare arms), thin dresses, no coats....many of them looked chilled already. And the shoes: how could they possibly expect to navigate grassy surfaces in such ridiculously high heels? (Even though the sensible ones were actually travelling in flats and carrying their heels in a bag.)

We left them to it. "It" included vast queues for the ticket machines -- presumably the decision to go to Ascot for the day was so last-minute that they couldn't organise themselves to buy their tickets in advance and save a bit of money....