CHAPTER II THE KING OF BATH-ORGANISATION OF FASHIONABLE LIFE (1730-1761) A VISIT paid by Queen Anne and the Prince Consort, George of Denmark, in 1702, was the occasion of unusual festivities, and of an unprecedented influx of visitors. The municipality was eager to atone for certain incivilities shown to Anne some ten years earlier at the command of her royal sister.1 They accordingly approached her immediately after her accession, begging her to honour Bath with her presence again, and prepared a most sumptuous reception for her.2 A hundred young men belonging to the town, armed and dressed alike, and two hundred women and young girls on horseback, went to meet the Sovereign at the boundary of the county, and brought her to the gates of the city by a road specially constructed for the occasion. These and similar rejoicings attracted more visitors to the little town than it had ever yet received. The pumps that supplied the thermal waters could not satisfy all who came to drink, and lodgings were so scarce that a guinea a night was paid for a bed; many persons of quality had even to put up with a lodging in one of the neighbouring villages. Thanks to a repetition of the royal visit the following year, there 1 "Queen Mary, the wife of William III., not being on very friendly terms with her sister Anne, took offence at the attentions paid by the civic authorities to her sister, and ordered the burgesses of the municipal council to abstain from such demonstrations in future. They obeyed reluctantly, with many apologies to the princess." (Cf. Warner," History of Bath," iv., chap. ii. pp. 207-209.) 2 For a detailed account of this visit, see Warner, ibid. 1 was the same influx; 1 and the inhabitants, delighted at the reviving and increasing vogue of their city, at last set to work to embellish it, and to make it more accessible and more agreeable to strangers.2 A certain Captain Webster undertook the amusements, and organised balls at the Town Hall, the tickets for which cost half a guinea each. In accordance with a custom mentioned above (see chap. i. p. 7), he had been elected King of Bath; he was, apparently, a professional gambler.3 There are no indications of his having been a person of much influence. He died shortly afterwards, and was succeeded by an extraordinary person, whose life Goldsmith did not disdain to write, and who demands a much larger share of our attention-Richard Nash, nicknamed Beau Nash.5 He 1 Wood, vol. ii. p. 221. The good effect of the waters upon the Prince's health induced the second visit, but he died shortly afterwards; the Queen obstinately refused to return to Bath after this, even at the urgent advice of her physicians ("Some Memoirs of John Radcliffe, M.D.," pp. 65-68). 2 "Thatched coverings were exchanged for such as consisted of stone and tile, low and obscure windows were made into sashes, and handsome rooms were built for people to drink the waters and assemble in. These improvements encouraged strangers to come here." . . . (MS. by Wood, quoted by Warner, "History of Bath," book v. chap. i. p. 220.) At least, if Goldsmith was right in identifying this Webster with the one spoken of by Lucas in his "Lives of Gamesters." Lucas's book gives no information on this point. Fleming, a musician of Bath, who seems to have been very well posted in local tradition, says merely: "At that time, a Captain Webster resided here, who had a thirst for gaming, and introduced it to a great degree; he was a man of spirit and address. After the duke relinquished his undertaking (cf. supra, p. 19, note 5), the captain took upon him to conduct the amusements" ("Life . . . of T. Ginnadrake," vol. iii. p. 17). "The Life of Richard Nash of Bath, Esq.," published anonymously in October, 1762. A second edition, dedicated to the Municipality of Bath, with slight corrections and additions, appeared in December of the same year. A receipt given by Goldsmith shows us that Newbery the bookseller paid him fourteen guineas for the work (Forster, "Life of Goldsmith," p. 243). 5 This term, Beau, was still taken in good part; it had been applied quite recently to well-known persons, such as Sir George Hewitt, the original of Etherege's "Sir Fopling Flutter"; Wilson, who was killed in a duel by the future financier, Law; Fielding, the husband of the Duchess of Cleveland in her old age; and Edgeworth, spoken of in the Tatler (No. 246). As late as 1786, the actor Bernard mentions a |