ments. This was due, no doubt, in some degree to pride of caste, but still more to differences of education. The first step taken by the new Master of the Ceremonies was, as we have seen, to bring musicians to Bath by means of a subscription. Other subscriptions enabled the authorities to repair the neighbouring roads and thoroughfares. The Pump Room was rebuilt and put under the care of a special functionary; a theatre was begun, and, at Nash's instigation, one Harrison built the first Assembly Rooms, to which gardens were added. The completion of these rooms brought about an effacement of distinctions, and a fusion of coteries hitherto strictly separate; every one came to them, just as every one went to walk in the shady alleys. At the same time, the evident tendency of Bath to develop, induced many speculators to set about building on all sides, and it was not long before an architect of talent, the elder Wood, began the construction of those squares in the town, and of those colonnaded terraces on the surrounding hills which delight the eye to the present day.

Meanwhile the King of Bath continued to organise fashionable society, not altogether without occasional revolts on the part of his subjects. With much ingenuity he arranged a succession of pleasures and pastimes which awaited the visitor when he rose in the morning, and led him on without fatigue to the end of the day. Every hour had its appointed occupation; the interval between

1 Goldsmith, "Life of Nash," p. 520.

2 Cf. Lecky on this point: "The power of the nobility was supported by great wealth of the kind which carries with it most social influence, and by a superiority of education and manners which distinguished them far more than at present from the average country gentleman." —(“History of England,” vol. vii. chap. xxi. p. 184.)

In 1705 (Wood, op. cit. vol. ii. chap. xii. p. 223).

In 1708 (ibid. p. 225).

"But when proper Walks were made for exercise and a House built for assembling in, Rank began to be laid aside, and all Degrees of People, from the Private Gentleman upwards, were soon united in Society with one another."-(Wood, op. cit. part iv., chap. ix. p. 411.)

See chap. x. below. It was in 1728 that he began to build Queen's Square.

the morning bath and the evening dance or play was filled up by regular gatherings in the Pump Room, at concerts, and on the public promenades. The idle crowd readily accepted a programme of life marked out for its adoption. Private parties were voted unfashionable, and discontinued; and all meals, even to the early morning breakfast, were taken in company at the Assembly Rooms.

Occupations and amusements being thus established, the Master of the Ceremonies made them subject to a severe etiquette, and it was in this connection that he met with most opposition. His authority was recognised as very considerable, since he was allowed to have "the government of all the Publick Assemblies, and an absolute power vested in him to rebuke whoever may, through Inadvertency, infringe in the least upon the Bounds of Decency and good Manners." This authority Nash exercised in the first place by persuasion, and afterwards by audacities which often came very near to impertinence, or worse. Thus one day at the Baths, to which ladies came in full dress and with elaborate coiffures, Nash heard a visitor address a compliment he considered rather too broad to one of the bathers; the only reproof that occurred to him was the somewhat primitive one of throwing the gallant into the water, clothes and all. It cost him a duel and a wound in the arm, but his authority seems to have been strengthened by this curious proceeding.2

1 "An Undertaking so nice and delicate," continues Wood, "that till the Humours of the Place are, by the various Ceremonies of Initiation, perfectly known, no monarch can discharge it so as to induce People to submit to his Decrees."-(Op. cit. part iv. chap. xi. p. 415.) Fleming observes that "the magistrates of the city found he was necessary and useful, and took every opportunity of paying the same respect to his fictitious royalty that is generally paid to or claimed by real power." "Life of... T. Ginnadrake, vol. iii. p. 61.)

* Thicknesse, who gives the anecdote with great detail ("New Prose Bath Guide," pp. 26-28), and says he had it from Nash himself, adds that by this double stroke (the immersion and the duel) "he shewed himself a Man of Pleasantry as well as Spirit, Two excellent Qualities for a Prince who presides over the Pleasures and Pastimes of Youth."

A reform in costume next engaged his attention, and here again we find another instance of the boldness, to call it by no harsher name, with which he insisted on the observance of his decrees. He had forbidden ladies to appear at the assemblies in white aprons. The Duchess of Queensberry having come to a dance one day in hers, he tore it off and threw it away, saying that such articles were suitable only for Abigails. The thing was done with such an air that "the good-natured Duchess acquiesced in his censure, and with great good sense and good humour begged his Majesty's pardon! "1 The men resisted more stoutly when the Master of the Ceremonies attacked their swords and high boots. He had recourse to ridicule to banish the boots. He composed a lampoon against those who wore them,2 and had a little piece performed by the marionettes, in which Punch made love to his mistress in boots and spurs, and refused to take off his boots even on his wedding-night. "Why, madam, you may as well bid me pull off my legs!" he cried. "I never go without boots. I never ride, I never dance, without them, and this piece of politeness is quite the thing at Bath. We always dance at our town in boots, and the ladies often move minuets in riding-hoods." It was impossible to resist such delicate satire. Only very occasionally did some rebel venture to Nash evidently sought an opportunity for a duel which should establish his courage and increase his prestige.

1 The last clause of the sentence, which was added to the second edition, is omitted in the Globe edition (p. 523).

2 Goldsmith gives this little piece. It is called: "Frontinella's Invitation to the Assembly":

Come one and all to Hoyden Hall,
For there's the assembly this night;
None but prude fools

Mind manners and rules,
We Hoydens do decency slight.
Come trollops and slatterns,
Cocked hats and white aprons,
This best our modesty suits,
For why should not we

In dress be as free

As Hogs Norton squires in boots?

appear booted at an assembly. In such a case Nash never failed to walk up to the delinquent and ask him if he had not forgotten his horse.1 There was a more obvious reason for getting rid of the swords, for they constituted a permanent danger. Scarcely a day passed without some insolence on the part of the chairmen, which excited gentlemen to draw their swords and engage in brawls ; these terrified the ladies and often ended disastrously.2

A still graver inconvenience was caused by the frequency with which gambling quarrels resulted in duels. Nash, though he had begun by fighting himself, determined to suppress these, and whenever the rumour of a challenge reached his ears he at once caused the two adversaries to be arrested. A nocturnal encounter between two professional gamblers, in which one of them was run through the body, took place very opportunely to give weight to his objections. The wearing of swords was definitely forbidden,3 a trifling change apparently, but one which had consequences of great importance. Young gentlemen did not resume the sword they had laid aside in Bath when they returned to London, and this abandon

1 The eccentric Lord Peterborough resisted. "Lord Peterborough has been here some time, though by his dress one would believe he had not designed to make any stay, for he wears boots all day, and as I hear, must do so, having brought no shoes with him. It is a comical sight to see him with his blue ribbon and star and a cabbage under each arm, or a chicken in his hand, which, after he himself has purchased at market, he carries home for his dinner."-(Letter from Lady Hervey, June 7, 1725, in the Countess of Suffolk's "Correspondence," vol. i. p. 181.) The rules of the New Assembly Rooms (1771) reiterate the injunction: "That no gentleman in boots or half-boots be admitted into any of these rooms on ball-nights, or public card or concert nights."(Nightingale, "Beauties of England and Wales," vol. xiii. p. 419.)

"It was the Insolence of the Chairmen that gave rise to the first of these Laws; it having been usual with those turbulent people to provoke gentlemen to draw their Swords upon them, and then, by defending themselves with their Chair Poles, the Danger of Murder frighted the Ladies to such a Degree, that the Publick Assemblies for Diversion seldom ended without the utmost Confusion."-(Wood, op. cit. part iv. chap. ix. p. 413.)

There are various allusions to this prohibition in Sheridan's "Rivals : "We wear no swords here " (iii. 4). "A sword seen in the streets of Bath would raise as great an alarm as a mad dog" (v. 2).