LIVELY LADIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1927, Page 4

LIVELY LADIES

AGE OF WIG AND HOOP.

During an age when 'it was deemed one of the greatest honours to be presented at Court by a mistress of the reigning monarch one does not expect (says a writer in the “Age”) to discover much that is refined in the general conduct of those who, by virtue of their beauty, breeding, and brilliance, were entrusted with the tremendous task of leading society. Indeed, the conduct of leaders in every sphere during the eighteenth century was decidedly irregular when compared with modern standards. It was the age of wig and hoop, and. the inoials of the ladies of fashion were as spacious as their dresses, and their Jives were as artificial as their hair. But it was undoubtedly a great age, an age when youth and beauty held -sway, an age of literary brilliance, an age of liveliness. Taking one of the mos daring beauties of that age as a peg

upon which to hang a coat of manj colours, Mr Erroll Sherson has written a book which, for entertaining anecdote and smart character delineation, may justly be hailed as a gem ol iait quality. “The Lively Lady lownshend* and Her Friends” is the title of this amazingly interesting volume. In a dedicatory letter the author explains that one of the purposes ol the book is to prove to the evil-minded in general that Lady Townshend was not so bad as she was painted. She was brilliant and audacious, and to endeavour to make her out to be a person of moral stability is simply a surd. Of course, the talented author must have realised the shallowness oi his plea, for he is not particular to consider his brief from that angle. Born in the early years of the eighteenth century, married to Lord Lynn, the vicious son of “lurnip Townshend, the famous Minister ol George 1., in 1723, separated from her husband in 1741, she tasted of the bitter and sweet fruits during the ei'dity-seven years that she giaceil <i portion of this planet. But it is concerning the famous people who moved in the highest circles, about the places which they frequented, and the way they regarded life that this volume mainly deals ; and as a gifted member of those circles Lady Townshend constitutes a pleasing introduction. So, in the company of her ladyship, let us look on the world as it then was, and if we have a sense of humour and are not uncharitable we will enjoy the spectacle. To use the author’s expression concerning ladies of fashion in those days, they were “an ill-educated lot. They had few interests outside thenown set, and they had nothing much to occupy their time beyond a continual round of excitement; consequently they lived an artificial existence. ‘They visited, gambled ,dressed, and intrigued with considerable vigour. A fashionable lady of that age doted upon assemblies, her heart bounded at a ball, at the opera she expired; she loved cards to destruction, play enchanted her, and hazard simply sent her out oi* her wits (if any). Gambling was possibly the most tremendous attraction of'all, and ladies would frequently sit at the tables from sunset to sunrise, and when they came to count their winnings, the very few who had won, they frequently discovered that some sharper had passed a Jew hundred counterfeit coins. When the number ol the company for play exceeded ten tables the party was called a racquet; if under, it was referred to as a rout; and if there were only one or two tables, then it was known as a drum. Cried old Sarah Marlborough on one occasion when the game was at its height: ‘ Don t talk to me about books! The, only books I know are men and cards.” Indeed so great was the wealth or credit of the leading ladies of that time that their lives must have been portentously dull, for everything was provided, and there was nothing left for them to des'ire.

LONDON AMUSEMENTS. But if the London of those times was gav indoors, it was a deal gayer out of' doors. The places of amusement and pleasure gardens which were the delight of the fashionable world of the eighteenth century were many and brilliant. There were sixty-four pleasurable resorts within a four-niile radius of Charing Cross, and the pleasure-loving public flocked in thousands to these places. Cupar s, Jennv’s, Whim, Ranelagh, Vauxhall, Marybone, and the Spaniards’ Tavern at Hampstead were the rendezvous of the beautiful and t|ie damned. Although there was a good deal of coarseness at these haunts, yet the patrons delighted to listen to the latest compositions of Handel, and when, a remarkable boy of eight years George Mozart played on the organ and harpsicord at Ranelagh the vast rotunda was uncomfortably crowded. Certain stern moralists —and there were a few —attacked such pleasure places as “nurseries of idleness and debauchery, schools of impertinence and congresses of vice and impudence, assembled to laugh virtue and modesty 'out of countenance.’’ All oyer the country there were excellent imitations of the original gardens in London: there was a particularly fine Vauxhall in Birmingham. Sir Roger de Coverley went there in 1712, and the good squire was marvellously impressed by the vast number of singing birds in ■ ls luxuriant trees which shaded the gardens. But this exemplary gentleman was obliged to admit that he would have been a better customer to the gardens had there been more nightingales and fewer trumpets. It was on the last night of the season that these places became more than usualy lively, so lively that riots always occurred, and the young bloods would not desert the precincts till they had smashed every lamp and window that their bleary eyes could see. But those were free, open days when people took the cash in hand and waived the rest. Masquerades were another popular form of amusement, and according to the author’s descriptions of some of them they must have been particularly diverting, occasionally astonishingly so. At one such masquerade the gorgeously beautiful Elizabeth Chudleigh made a fairly scandalous appearance in a skin-tight costume of fleshcoloured silk of no particular thickness. Of course, the members of the Royal Family were present, and the Princess of Wales was so envious of, or scandalised by, the distracting spectacle that she threw her own shawl over her economicallyyclad maid of honour (not of the strictest). Jewels and dresses could be hired for these m/. squeradqs, and it is recorded that one lady attended one such affair almost covered with diamonds valued at

thousands of pounds. The lender of these gems refused to accept any payment. but he stipulated that she should inform everyone she met from whence she had hired them. Elaborate ’■.■tasks were worn bv those who were ashamed of their faces and those who had r,o faces at all. Naked dresses hi imitation of the skin were very popu-l-ir even after the Chudleigh episode. The admission tickets for these dazzling entertainments were daringly original, ladies in the nude and cupids being favoured. One such ticket designed by Oypriani and Bartolozzi represented a naked cupid with a bandage over his mouth, and underneath the picture was the motto, ‘ Dumb, not blind,” signifying that Love was to see the fun, but was to hold his tongue as to what he saw. At most entertainments people drank immoderately, and it required an exceptionally strict master o> ceremonies to keep the revellers in reasonable order, and on one occasion when access to the buffet was permitted too early in the proceedings things became so disastrously mixed that the irate master of ceremonies was obliged to lock the hysterical maskers in the building to keep the police outside, and it was not until they were seasonably sober that he ventured to open the doors. Lords and ladies gay —with a vengeance. Indeed, so many lords were created by the Georges that Lady Townshend declared that she dared not spit out of the window for fear of spitting on a lord. And amongst those spectacular ladies there were many who made no disguise ol the fac tthat they belonged to the oldest profession. Some of them were matrons of great fame, who were very religious in thir way, and one of these ladies constantly prayed that she might make enough by her profession to leave it off in time to make her peace with God. Indeed. some of the women who flit across this elaborate stage were simply academies of love lore ; their gallantries a euphemism for infidelities, intrigues, and general looseness —were enormous. But notwithstanding all their badness they had good points as well, and not all the women and men of that age were bad. The scandals talked by Lady Mary Wortley Montague and Horace Walpole and a host of others add. greater brightness to the exceedingly bright pages of this most entertaining and, if sensibly regarded, instructive book.