If it's not an impertinent question (or, well, even if it is) - which era are you thinking of?
The young bucks have always been a pretty rowdy lot left to their own devices (c.f. Wodehouse's references to Wooster and his chums ending up falling afoul of the law on sundry minor offences, typically relating to hi-jinks and public order); and this goes back through the centuries: P.A.V.'s linking to the Cleveland St. Scandal, the Hellfire Club, the Cavaliers, Shakespeare's Prince Hal; Richard Couer de Lion; you name it.
(Prince Philip is also a prime example of the sort; when you're the Prince Consort, you really don't need to be polite if you don't feel like it.)
In court and formal society, then yes, manners were to be tip-top or you would be persona non grata PDQ.
In the field, the upper and lower classes typically called a spade a spade (or, equally often, a bloody spade) - any hesitation or cavilling about such terms would have marked you out as a member of the middle classes. Hence 'U and non-U'.
In fiction of the interwar period, the impeturbable are nearly always middle-class - Jeeves and Bunter being two notable examples; the aristocrats they accompany are far more erratic, given to emotional outbursts and the habit of getting themselves into scrapes.
On a second's reflection, this does not apply to women, especially aunts and great-aunts; who manifest usually as awful and terrifying voices of authority.
ooo, there's a thought, since I've already characterised the *actual* valet as somewhat restrained and the toff as more carefree, emphasising would work.
The young bucks have always been a pretty rowdy lot left to their own devices (c.f. Wodehouse's references to Wooster and his chums ending up falling afoul of the law on sundry minor offences, typically relating to hi-jinks and public order); and this goes back through the centuries: P.A.V.'s linking to the Cleveland St. Scandal, the Hellfire Club, the Cavaliers, Shakespeare's Prince Hal; Richard Couer de Lion; you name it.
(Prince Philip is also a prime example of the sort; when you're the Prince Consort, you really don't need to be polite if you don't feel like it.)
In court and formal society, then yes, manners were to be tip-top or you would be persona non grata PDQ.
In the field, the upper and lower classes typically called a spade a spade (or, equally often, a bloody spade) - any hesitation or cavilling about such terms would have marked you out as a member of the middle classes. Hence 'U and non-U'.
In fiction of the interwar period, the impeturbable are nearly always middle-class - Jeeves and Bunter being two notable examples; the aristocrats they accompany are far more erratic, given to emotional outbursts and the habit of getting themselves into scrapes.
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On a second's reflection, this does not apply to women, especially aunts and great-aunts; who manifest usually as awful and terrifying voices of authority.
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