{"product_id":"9781116896886","title":"A Century of Anecdote from 1760 to 1860","description":"Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.\u003cbr\u003eThis is an OCR edition with typos.\u003cbr\u003eExcerpt from book:\u003cbr\u003elittle 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...","brand":"Creative Media Partners, LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48849512923376,"sku":"9781116896886","price":32.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781116896886_p0.jpg?v=1771955763","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781116896886","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}