Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.Malcolm, James Peller
History
Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century; Vol. 1 (of 2): Including the Charities, Depravities, Dresses, and Amusements etc.
Malcolm, James Peller
London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century
"So may great Nassau and his Royal Dame,
In blended love, glide with a gentle stream,
Nor ebb 'till sweet repose of night they know,
At day's return, fresh tides of transport flow."
2000 lamps were used for the above transparencies: the monument was
singularly ornamented with lamps suspended on the urn and flame, and
the Duke of Newcastle caused a large bonfire to be lighted before
his door in Lincoln's-inn-fields, where he regaled the populace with
strong-beer.
The humane Act for the transportation of felons had saved 6000 lives in
the Metropolis alone, from the date of its commencement till 1734.
The Beau of 1734 "was like the cinnamon-tree; his bark is worth more
than his body. A creature of the doubtful gender, masculine in habit,
and feminine in manners; one who has so little manners, that he himself
doth not regard it half so much as his body. All his reading has been
the academy of compliments; and his heels have profited as much by it
as his head. The cut of his clothes he learnt at Paris, the tone of
his voice in Italy, and his affectation every where. In his dressing
he shews his industry; for he spends four hours a day constantly in it
without being fatigued or out of patience. His genius appears in the
variety of his suits, and his generosity in his taylor's bills; his
delicacy in not so much as bearing a breath of wind to blow on him, and
his innocency in being seen with ladies at all hours, and never once
suspected of doing an uncivil thing. When he is dressed, the business
of the day is over; when he is undressed, he grows invisible, for his
clothes are all that is seen of him; when he dies, they are his only
valuable remains, and hung up as trophies in Monmouth-street."
The customs and manners of a part of the community of 1735 are
satirically detailed in a "Covent-garden Eclogue:"
"The _midnight_ Justice, now devoid of care,
Began to slumber in his elbow-chair;
Long had he wak'd, but now his trade was o'er,
Nor could expect a single shilling more:
The watch had cry'd _Past one_, with hollow strain,
And to their stands return'd to sleep again;
Grave cits and bullies, rakes and squeamish beaux,
Came reeling with their doxies from the Rose;
Jephson's and Mitchell's hurry now was done,
And now Tom King's (so rakes ordain'd) begun;
Bright shone the Moon, and calm around the sky,
No cinder-wench, nor straggling link-boy nigh,
When in that _garden_, where with mimic pow'r
Strut the mock-purple heroes of an hour;
Where by grave _matrons_ cabbages are sold,
Who all the live-long day drink _gin_ and _scold_;" &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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