Not only did the stage-coaches carry an arsenal of cutlasses and blunderbusses, and equestrians ride with pistols in their holsters, but private carriages were built with a sword-box at the back, as much for the safety as the convenience of their occupants, and no one thought of venturing out after nightfall between the suburbs and the city unarmed. The satirist already mentioned aims an ill-natured blow at the Welsh Ambassador’s arrangement, and suggests as questionable whether one-half of what he calls ‘the rabble guard, Whilst t’other’s half-asleep on watch and ward, Don’t rob the people they pretend to save.’ Belsize is noticed in an old London guide-book of 1724 as ‘an academy of music, dancing, and play for the diversion of the ladies,’ and it adds with heavy playfulness that ‘where they are the gentlemen will not fail to be also.’ It describes the ballroom and gaming-rooms as particularly fine and handsomely adorned, and intimates that it would surprise one to see so much good company as came hither in the season. Concerts of music, open-air fêtes, hare and buck hunting, fine grounds and sweet gardens, with fishing, dancing, etc., from six in the morning till eight at night, were sufficient inducements to render a less agreeable spot attractive. The free admission was, of course, a bait by which the visitors were drawn in just far enough to induce them to go farther. At any rate, it became a place of resort for persons of all ranks, and some of the most questionable characters, and according to contemporary writers, appears to have exceeded in immorality and dissipation any place of the kind in modern times. In 1729 Galloway Races, to be run for a Plate of £10 value, were advertised to take place at Belsize, the horses to pay one guinea entrance, and to be kept in the stable at Belsize from entrance to the time of running. Long after rank and fashion had deserted it, Belsize continued to be popular with the multitude, and remained open as a tea-drinking house, etc., till 1745, when foot-races were advertised to take place. This, however, was nothing new. A paragraph under the head of ‘Domestic Intelligence’ in the _Grub Street Journal_ of April 1, 1736, informs its readers that ‘yesterday Mr. Pidgeon and Mr. Garth ran twelve times round Belsize for £50 a side, which was won with great difficulty by Mr. Pidgeon, although Garth fell down and ran ten yards on the wrong side of the post, and was forced to return back; yet he lost it only by a foot.’