The Expedition of Humphry ClinkerSmollett, T. (Tobias)
General
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Epistolary fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Travelers -- Fiction
Bath is to me a new world--All is gayety, good-humour, and diversion.
The eye is continually entertained with the splendour of dress and
equipage; and the ear with the sound of coaches, chairs, and other
carriages. The merry bells ring round, from morn till night. Then we
are welcomed by the city-waits in our own lodgings; we have music in the
Pump-room every morning, cotillons every forenoon in the rooms, balls
twice a week, and concerts every other night, besides private assemblies
and parties without number--As soon as we were settled in lodgings, we
were visited by the Master of the Ceremonies; a pretty little gentleman,
so sweet, so fine, so civil, and polite, that in our country he might
pass for the prince of Wales; then he talks so charmingly, both in verse
and prose, that you would be delighted to hear him discourse; for you
must know he is a great writer, and has got five tragedies ready for the
stage. He did us the favour to dine with us, by my uncle’s invitation;
and next day squired my aunt and me to every part of Bath; which, to be
sure, is an earthly paradise. The Square, the Circus, and the Parades,
put you in mind of the sumptuous palaces represented in prints and
pictures; and the new buildings, such as Princes-row, Harlequin’s-row,
Bladud’s-row, and twenty other rows, look like so many enchanted
castles, raised on hanging terraces.
At eight in the morning, we go in dishabille to the Pump-room which is
crowded like a Welsh fair; and there you see the highest quality,
and the lowest trades folks, jostling each other, without ceremony,
hail-fellow well-met. The noise of the music playing in the gallery,
the heat and flavour of such a crowd, and the hum and buz of their
conversation, gave me the head-ach and vertigo the first day; but,
afterwards, all these things became familiar, and even agreeable.--Right
under the Pump-room windows is the King’s Bath; a huge cistern, where
you see the patients up to their necks in hot water. The ladies wear
jackets and petticoats of brown linen with chip hats, in which they
fix their handkerchiefs to wipe the sweat from their faces; but, truly,
whether it is owing to the steam that surrounds them, or the heat of the
water, or the nature of the dress, or to all these causes together, they
look so flushed, and so frightful, that I always turn my eyes another
way--My aunt, who says every person of fashion should make her
appearance in the bath, as well as in the abbey church, contrived a cap
with cherry-coloured ribbons to suit her complexion, and obliged Win to
attend her yesterday morning in the water. But, really, her eyes were so
red, that they made mine water as I viewed her from the Pump-room; and
as for poor Win, who wore a hat trimmed with blue, what betwixt her wan
complexion and her fear, she looked like the ghost of some pale maiden,
who had drowned herself for love. When she came out of the bath, she
took assafoetida drops, and was fluttered all day; so that we could
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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