Below is a sample of the major events in the English social calendar. As I mentioned in my post about the London Season, social functions were built around the traditionally masculine focus on sports.

JANUARY

• Race meetings are held at Newmarket, Gatwick, Windsor and elsewhere
• Pheasant shooting closes at the end of the month

FEBRUARY

• Sandown Park races in Surrey
• Quorn Hunt in Leicestershire
• The Waterloo Cup–the premiere event of the hare-coursing year

MARCH

• The Grand National, the most valuable National Hunt horse race in the world

APRIL

• Parliament adjourns for Whitsuntide
• Oxford versus Cambridge boat race
• Opening of The “Oval” for Summer season (cricket)
• Primrose Day (April 19th), anniversary of the death of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
• Races at Epsom and Sandown

MAY

• Private View at the Royal Academy, the traditional starting signal of the London season
• Court drawing rooms (Moved to June, and in the evening, in Edward VII’s reign)
• First night of Covent Garden’s opera season
• Royal Horticultural Society’s Great Flower Show

JUNE

• The Derby
• The Fourth of June at Eton
• Crystal Palace Horse Show
• Ascot Week
• Fete & gymkhana at the Ranelagh Club

JULY

• Cricket matches at Lord’s; Harrow vs Eton, Oxford vs Cambridge
• Henley Regatta
• Goodwood race-meeting

AUGUST

• Cowes week on Isle of Wight
• Glorious Twelfth, grouse hunting on the moors of Scotland
• Stag-hunting season begins in Devon

SEPTEMBER

• Partridge season begins
• Scottish social season in Edinburgh
• Cubbing begins with the Beadle Hounds
• Races at Doncaster

OCTOBER

• Cubbing in Ireland
• Aristocratic weddings in London

NOVEMBER

• Hunting season begins
• Country Ball season

DECEMBER

• Christmas in the country
• Boxing Day (Dec. 26)
• Twelfth Night celebrations (Twelve days of Christmas: Dec 25-Jan 6)