BRITAIN – In the bucolic Cotswolds region, the arrival of summer is typically marked by a migration. Specifically, the return of a rarefied group to grand country houses in counties such as Oxfordshire or Gloucestershire, where preparations begin for a season of hosting guests at picnics, luncheons and events like the Chelsea Flower Show, the Royal Ascot horse races and “the tennis” – shorthand for a Centre Court box at Wimbledon. Owners of those country estates – possibly the richest 1 per cent of the 1 per cent – of course do not handle such preparations themselves.
These are relegated to butlers, whose job, like for others associated with the lifestyles of the ultra-wealthy, has evolved. As personal assistants have been rebranded as executive assistants and childcare providers as executive nannies, butlering has become a career that involves not only polishing silver and folding napkins, but also lifestyle management. The modern butler – also known as, wait for it, an executive butler – is still in most cases a man.
But he is no longer a grandfatherly type in morning trousers who stays in the background, if not out of sight. More likely, he is fresh-faced, wears a lounge suit with a Charvet tie and is by his employers’ side whether they are at home or not. “They’re like a private maitre d’ now,” said Mr Nicky Haslam, 84, a British interior designer and social fixture.
“In the old days, the butler was in the house all the time. Now, if the family.
