worst hearts had courage to refuse, what their own inclinations would not have prompted them to bestow.

"Of a noble public spirit and a warm grateful heart, the obelisk in the Grove and the beautiful needle in the Square, are magnificent testimonies. The One erected to preserve the memory of a most interesting event to his country, the restitution of health, by the healing waters of this place to the illustrious prince of Orange, who came hither in a most languishing condition: The Other, a noble offering of thanks to the late Prince of Wales, and his royal Consort, for favours bestowed, and honours by them conferred, on this city.

"His long and peaceful reign of absolute power was so tempered by his excessive good-nature, that no instance can be given either of his own cruelty, or of his suffering that of others to escape its proper reward. unprecedented amongst absolute monarchs.

"READER

Example

"This monarch was a man, and had his foibles, and his faults; which we would wish covered with the veil of good-nature, made of the same piece with his own : but, truth forceth us unwillingly to confess, his passions were strong; which, as they fired him to act strenuously in good, hurried him to some excesses in evil. His fire, not used to be kept under by an early restraint, burst out too often into flaming acts, without waiting for the cool approbation of his judgment. His generosity was so great, that prudence often whispered him, in vain, that she feared it would enter the neighbouring confine of profusion His charity so unbounded, that the severe might suspect it sometimes to be the offspring of folly or ostentation.

"The Grandson of Atlas"

131

"With all these, be they foibles, follies, faults, or frailties, it will be difficult to point out amongst his contemporary Kings of the whole earth, more than ONE who hath fewer, or less pernicious to mankind. His existence (For life it scarcely might be called) was spun out to so great an age, that the man was sunk, like many former heroes in the weakness and infirmities of exhausted nature; the unwilling tax all animals must pay for multiplicity of days. Over his closing scene, charity long spread her all-covering mantle, and dropped the curtain, before the poor actor, though he had played his part, was permitted to quit the stage. Now may she protect his memory! Every friend of Bath; Every lover of decency, decorum, and good breeding, must sincerely deplore the loss of so excellent a governor; and join in the most fervent wishes (would I could say hopes) that there may soon be found a man able and worthy to succeed him.”

Quite as laudatory, and more amusing, are some lines from Anstey's "New Bath Guide," in which Simpkin Blunderhead tells us that

The gods, their peculiar favour to show,

Sent Hermes to Bath in the shape of a Beau:
The Grandson of Atlas came down from above
To bless all the regions of pleasure and love;
To lead the fair mymph thro' the various maze,
Bright beauty to marshal, his glory and praise;
To govern, improve, and adorn the gay scene,
By the graces instructed, and Cyprian queen :
As when in a garden delightful and gay,
Where Flora is wont all her charms to display,
The sweet hyacinthus with pleasure we view
Contend with narcissus in delicate hue,
The gard'ner industrious trims out his border,
Puts each odoriferous plant in its order;
The myrtle he ranges, the rose and the lilly,
With iris and crocus, and daffa-down-dilly;

Sweet peas and sweet oranges all he disposes
At once to regale your eyes and your noses:
Long reign'd the great Nash, this omnipotent lord,
Respected by youth, and by parents ador'd;
For him not enough at a ball to preside,

Th' unwary and beautiful nymph would he guide;
Oft tell her a tale, how the credulous maid
By man, by perfidious man, is betray'd;
Taught charity's hand to relieve the distress,
While tears have his tender compassion exprest;
But alas! he is gone, and the city can tell
How in years and in glory lamented he fell;
Him mourned all the giants on Claverton's Mount;
Him Avon deplor'd, him the Nymph of the Fount,
The crystalline streams.

Then perish his picture, his statue decay,

A tribute more lasting the Muses shall pay.
If true what philosophers all will assure us,
Who dissent from the doctrine of great Epicurus,
That the spirit's immortal: as poets allow,

If life's occupations are follow'd below:

In reward of his labours, his virtue and pains,

He is footing it now in th' Elysian plains,

Indulg'd as a token of Proserpine's favour,

To preside at her balls in a cream-colour'd beaver:

Then peace to his ashes-our grief be supprest,

Since we find such a phoenix has sprung from his nest;

Kind heaven has sent us another professor,

Who follows the steps of his great predecessor.

"The King is dead, long live the King," is the substance of the last lines, but Bath was never again the place that it had been under Nash.

CHAPTER IX

They looked wonderfully dainty in their well-combed periwigs, their coats powdered half way down their back, their waistcoats of coloured silk or satin richly embroidered with gold or silver lace; their velvet breeches and coloured stockings, and their great silver-buckled shoes.

J. F. MOLLOY.

URING the life of Richard Nash there were many URI remarkable figures in society who lived to dress, men who thought the shape of the shoe-buckle, the quality of the lace hung at the neck, or the exact cut of the coat, to be among the most important things of life. Such men were Lord Chesterfield, Lord Hervey, George Selwyn, Lord Bolingbroke, Bubb Dodington, and others. Of these Chesterfield was the amalgam of the ambitious politician, the literary man, and the beau, and it is difficult to say which of these varied characteristics was the strongest. Lord Hervey was ambitious of office, and extraordinarily devoted to dress in a finicking, dainty way. Bubb Dodington was very much a Beau, but of a somewhat garish and self-assertive type, and M. Barbey d'Aurevilly says that Bolingbroke most deserved the name of all the men of his time; but then, Bolingbroke was better known in France than any of the others.

Bolingbroke once offended Queen Anne in a matter sartorial. Being summoned to her presence in great haste, he hurried to obey without changing any article of his attire; thus he appeared in a Ramilie or tie-wig, instead of a full-bottomed one, provoking the remark

from Her Majesty, that she supposed he would come to Court in his night-cap next. In full dress Bolingbroke was a gorgeous figure, for though the gallants considered ribbons to be out of date, they still indulged in many fripperies. See him, then, in full-bottomed wig, rising high over his forehead, parted or not at the centre, and flowing down his back to below his waist; his hat is garnished with gold braid and lace, turned up at the side; his full-skirted coat reaching nearly to his knees is of claret colour, though on some occasions he chooses rose or purple. And the coat is a wonderfully ornamented garment. Down one edge are many buttonholes to take the gold or jewelled buttons which meet them at the opposite edge, and all are surrounded by gold or silver lace, which also covers the long seams and the pockets. Enormous cuffs are turned back over the sleeves, and rich lace or frilled shirt sleeves hang upon his hands. His blue (sometimes scarlet) silk stockings are pulled well above the knee, almost hiding the short breeches, and a long waistcoat with flapped pockets is of the gayest possible colour. His legs are gartered below the knee with gold braid, finished with gold fringe; square buckles stretch across his shoes, which bear a large instep flap reaching up the front of the ankle, and a sign of extreme dandyism the heels are bright red. His long cravat is edged with lace, and is knotted loosely round his throat, and there is no belt to support his sword, which modestly peeps from between the skirts of his coat. He never goes abroad without his snuff-box, his eyeglass, and a cane attached to a ribbon.

The wigs were at this time so enormous that most people who preferred comfort were seeking something more convenient and less expensive. Tom Brown speaks of a man who wore a periwig which "was large enough