Hang your Halo in the Hall !

Application

Name: Well, I had never seen such a poor way to ask for someone's name. It almost makes me want to give you a false one. Almost.

My name is Ernest~ *winks* *

Representative of: The Albemarle Club

Gender: Male

Age (human and historical) : Born in 1874, I am a lovely gentleman who has never been altered by age. You can see my beautiful Portrait in the living room, on which I look, like today, 22.**

Brief personality: I am a confirmed Bunburyist and liar. It is incomparably inconvenient and of the most distateful manners to speak nothing but the truth. My friends say I don't believe the nonsense I say, but why should I ? Those ideas don't need my believing in them to have a happy and joyful life.
I see the Art of conversation as an essential joy in life and I am a complete Hedonist ; I don't talk to the ones I find boring or annoying, but I see Friendship as one of the most important things. I don't get into fights, oh dear - well, not physical ones (For my words really are a weapon I am not afraid to use). And I mostly dislike physical efforts, though I'm not exactly idle : I go out a lot among the society, I receive even more - and not only during the season - wait, I don't even think there are seasons for this, anymore, are they ? Well... - And I read and write a lot. I paint sometimes, but I'm not very good, though I'm far better at drawing, especially what we call "Arts & Crafts".
I am an esthete, I seek beauty above everything else (except pleasure, which I seek as much). I am rather careless, and loungingly passive. Few and rare are the occasions when I cannot put things into perspective, or when I actually care for something.

Brief physical description: I am a dandy. The most dandyiesque of all dandys ! Everything is a question of style. I wear 19th century suits of the most delicate and expensive fabric, with always something that stands out and the flower of my buttonhole is never the one in fashion. My hair is dark brown and my eyes of a very clear green.
One could call me the model of "Androgyne of Manners", and I am slightly epicene.



Brief history: The Albemarle Club is a gentlemen's club founded in 1874 ans open to both men and women. It was located on the 25, Albemarle Street, then moved to the 13, then the 36. To be honest I am quite tired of all those changings, and if I can speak candidly I stopped doing my best to represent it at the beginning of the 20th century, as a punishment for treating me so badly and making that poor idle me move all the time. It has a sort of "electric" ambiance now, but I never followed that : I was and always will be the club of æsthetes.
At least it is how people remember me. Of course, for I am known to have counted Oscar Wilde among my members ! Ahh, the conversations we had with him are unforgetable ! "In life, there are two types of people : those who catch the waiter's eye and those who don't. Whenever Oscar appeared the club servants hovored attentively. They honoured him. He tipped like a prince and treated them as allies", Mr Braneth wrote, and it was very true indeed. At the club's beginning I myself served a little, so I knew the servants' ways, and I could see how the ways they treated him were special.
But Albemarle is mostly known because it was there that *face darkens* Queensberry, unable to enter, let a note to "Oscar Wilde, posing somdomite" (Such a vulgar and a unknowing man that he couldn't even write the word properly !), which led to Wilde courageously sue him. We all know how this ended...
To gain the status of membership, one had to be supported by someone already member of the club, as well as pay eight guineas. Five other guineas were to be paid as annual contribution, but as far as I'm concerned I always let others pay for me ; to expose our money by paying bills and memberships is to me quite indecent.
The club opened on 29 May 1874 with the aim to be available to both men and women. It formed under a committee formed of both sexes, under the presidency of James Stansfeld, Member of Parliament for Halifax. It had initially set the limit for members at 600, with some 350 elected two weeks prior to opening. The club came in for criticism because of its progressive view of women's rights, but also saw supporters join its ranks such as Edward Cortenay MP. However, it was not immediately popular and by January 1879, it had to raise the subscription fees in order to make up the shortfall due to the lack of numbers. A year later, it was said to have suffered from more withdrawals than new admissions and this was blamed on the poor quality of the food being served there. However, by the end of the decade, memberships had reached 600 and the club was considering moving to larger premises.

Religious affiliation: Anglican & Catholic

Any special powers or abilities: Be witty all the time. Except when I'm hungry. *eats a cucumber sandwich*


*His real name is Algernon "Algy" René Moncrieff.
**His real age is 42, but this is a thing he could never accept to admit publicly.


SOURCES :
-Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders, Gyles Brandreth
-Wikipedia
-The title of the application, Hang your Halo in the Hall ! is the title of a history of another Club written by a certain Garrett Anderson and published in 1993