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A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860

A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860

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This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
little sympathy among; persons of fashion. In the very midst of these distresses sprung- up a rage for masquerades. At one of these licentious entertainments given at the Pantheon, in Oxford-street, it was calculated that not less than 10,000 guineas were expended by the revellers in dress and other luxuries. The trade of the metropolis would have profited by this, to a certain extent, had payment of liabilities been a recognised duty of the time. As a sample 'of the sort of persons, and their conduct at these orgies may be cited from the various reports in different journals, the presence of groups of g-ontlemen from the universities, some of them attired as "Tom-fools, with cap and bells;" of clergymen, who gained applause for originality by trying- to represent " old sober hackney-coachmen;" and of ladies, the Duchess of Ancaster at their head, in male attire. Dr. Goldsmith is named among- those who masqueraded in " an old English dress;" and after lists of noble ladies, descriptions of their dresses, and praises of their wit and beauty, we find a sample of the easy virtue of the times in the presence of a group of " a lady abbess, and her nuns." The licence of speech, action, and allusion was astounding-. At the Pantheon, the excited crew generally finished by breakfasting1 at daylight on the remains of the supper, and then going home " gloriously drunk." At Cornely's masquerades in Soho-square, after a supper, marked by hard drinking- and immodest singing-, " which no lady need leave save those who are too immodest to stay," as the formula ran, the custom was to fling- open the windows and pelt the eager, hungry, thirsty, and howling- crowd below with half-empty bottles and the remains of the supper. The very Queen of Beauty at these orgies was young Gertrude Conway, niece of...
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