What was it like to have your birthday at a frothy Victorian country house party?  Focusing on Mary Gladstone's twenty-third birthday in 1870, which she observed at Ashridge House, this post describes a country house party and examines the nature of Victorian birthdays and birthday letters. It suggests the private nature of birthdays as a more intimate, family celebration, and the contrastingly more public feeling of a country house party. (Please note that regular blog postings will begin again in September).