It is the custom to look upon Nash as the first of the dynasty of the Bath Masters of the Ceremonies. The true founder of that highly august dynasty however was the Duke of Beaufort himself. For the invalids who resorted to the healing springs, there were but two houses fitted for the reception of a “respectable,” that is, a _moneyed_ class of visitors; namely, the Abbey House and Westgate House. It was not till long after that there was either a ball-room, or any place of public amusement in the city. Sometimes a convivial party of invalids, or their friends, got up a dance on the open bowling-green. But such inconveniences attended this, that the Duke of Beaufort gave up the town-hall for both the dancers and gamblers. His Grace placed the conduct of the amusements under the superintendence of Captain Webster; and that gentleman having respectably inaugurated them, the sceptre of Master was made over to Nash. The passion for play was long the ruling passion here, among the sick, as well as among the sound. The passion is well illustrated in the epigram, written when subscription books were opened for providing for the expenses of Church service, and for opening a new card-room:— “The books were open’d t’other day, At all the shops, for Church and Play. The Church got _six_; Hoyle _sixty-seven_: How great the chance for Hell ’gainst Heaven!” Nash’s great enemy he found in the doctors. They disliked him for helping to cure invalids too quickly, by the general cheerfulness and gaiety which he essayed to establish in the city. They moreover bore him little love for his abolition of the sword, a general and not too deadly use of which was wont to procure for them endless patients, and continual profit. The profession pursued its vocation at Bath at this period with little delicacy. The carriages of invalids, and the public stage-coach, which reached the city on the third day after its departure from town, were assailed at the outskirts by hosts of “touters,” who were engaged by the physicians to publish their respective merits (they now do that for themselves, thus saving expense), and to carry off as many patients as they could respectively secure. For these the doctors paid the touters a percentage; and as the touters were, in most cases, the husbands of the nurses, all parties played into each other’s hands. “And so, as I grew ev’ry day worse and worse, The doctor advised me to send for a nurse; And the nurse was so willing my health to restore, She begg’d me to send for a few doctors more.”