What makes you an aristocrat? (Light hearted!)

[hatethinkingupnamechanges]

You know thing about how posh people don't buy their own furniture? (I learnt this from watching Downton Abbey.) I'm looking around my two bed, ex councilflat and I actually haven't bought any of my own furniture, it's all inherited from my gran (as we were clearing out her house at exactly the same time as I was moving into mine), my gran's friends, passed on by relatives who emigrated, or left by the previous owners of the flat.

As I do not buy my own furniture, I am therefore proclaiming aristocratic status. 🤣

What makes you an aristocrat?

I was sat in the home of ds’s friend (the drawing room to be precise), which was a manor, with the land rover, the dogs, the Gardner, the house keeper and so on (you get the idea). And lady of the manor who has a very posh title (they all obviously have titles, which I still can’t figured out how they are passed down) said ‘we don’t know if we are going away for the summer this year or fixing the downstairs lavatory instead?’. I burst out laughing and said ‘little miss aristocratic are you telling me I can afford to go away and you can’t?’ She yes, then called me a bitch! Lol. I must admit she was so much fun and I used to have so many laughs with her. Listening to stories of how the ‘other half lived’, which was a totally different life to my own!

"best rule" is it?
There is an excellent steel rule in this household. However I have no wish to use that to declare myself an aristocrat.
We were all primeval sludge once.

My pure white fur and my gold and diamond collar.

Oops, that might be an Aristocat

My parents own a 700-year-old house.

I say “fuck” a lot and dress scruffily-Pretty sure that qualifies me

I drive 16 year old Audi estate and am going to France for the summer (well 10 nights in a static!)

Ah, but how old and expensive is this furniture?

I don’t know what a weekend is.

DM looked into our family history. Her family were lowly servants at a grand stately home for generations.
I'm convinced there were shenanigans and I'm half/quarter/ eight aristocratic. I do have the nose

Drogosnextwife No one on Downton Abbey stipulated it had to be old and expensive!

(Some pieces are about 80-100 years old, some are from IKEA.)

I find milk in the cup before tea an utter, utter abomination!

I find tea made in a cup or mug, rather than a teapot, an utter abomination.

We have a teapot on the go pretty much constantly at home.

For the gents, red or mustard coloured corduroy trousers are a pretty reliable sign. Especially if the red trousers are combined with a red jumper in a very slightly different (clashing) shade of red.

Once upon a time I met a child who was idly doodling his family's coat of arms (no relation).

DH thinks I am posh because I put all the food on the table and let people help themselves, as opposed to plating it up for them in the kitchen as though the house were a bloody canteen or something.

@BarbaraofSevillle

But is it silver, and a genuine antique that once belong to your grandmother's grandmother's grandmother, who was lady-in-waiting to queen Victoria?

My great great grandmother was a Lady. My Gran took great delight in telling anyone and everyone and loved to show me the photo of her (We are remarkably similar looking!) Apparently she "married beneath her" which my gran was quite annoyed about as I think she quite fancied being titled.

not sure if that makes me an aristo? I do have a piano and an inherited teapot so that might help??

Furry nah, of course not. I bought it from The Range after the last one got broken personally sourced it from an exclusive retail establishment.

My maternal great grandmother never left the house without a hat, with hat pins, stockings and some weird bloomer things though, even in the height of summer.

Not marrying into the royal family.

I read the article about inheriting your furniture being a sign of aristocracy but I'm sat her looking at my inherited GM's bedroom suite and I am most definitely not an aristo!!

The one I read that I think most resonates is inheriting clothes. As in tweeds to go out doing country pursuits/hunting - which I despise.

I'm sure HMQ would never be so rude but apparently the PMs who are invited to Balmoral during her summer break are judged by her entourage if they turn up in brand new, bought from Saville Row tweeds.

Those that turn up in inherited but altered tweeds are much more accepted as being the 'right sort.' Could be a load of old bollocks of course.... But what are you supposed to do if HMQ invites you to Balmoral? You aren't going to find that stuff in the local charity shop.

I had a horse and skied a lot growing up. Lived in a rambling old house with a pool.

HOWEVER family was ‘new money’ and I’m a teacher whose country property is a flat in a converted village pub furnished by Ikea. Favourite shop is Aldi. Love a Spoons lunch. Have inherited the family love of a good fart joke.

Maybe I’m slumistocratic 😂

My granny did embroidery at the Darby and Joan club and knew Winston Churchill met him once as a child
My mum grew up on a Surrey council estate
Our last car was a 25 year old scruffy jaguar with doors that wouldn’t open. V posh.

I live in a Grade 2* listed building. It’s disintegrating.

The last time I went to the Royal Opera House to see a ballet, I wore jeans.

I have a white birthmark. It’s a sign of aristocratic blood, apparently. Or so my grandma always told me.

She was a raging snob