From about 1774 it was considered fashionable to arrive at the Rotunda about 11 P.M., one hour after the concert was over. In 1777, according to Walpole, the company did not arrive till twelve. “The people of the true ton,” says the satirical “Harlequin in Ranelagh,”[227] (1774), “come in about eleven, stare about them for half an hour, laugh at the other fools who are drenching and scalding themselves with coffee and tea ... despise all they have seen, and then they trail home again to sup.” The citizens, on the other hand, came to stare at the great, at the Duke of Gloucester or Lady Almeria Carpenter, or whoever it might be. They came to see how the great folks were dressed, how they walked and how they talked. Some worthy men were compelled by their wives to wear swords, and in the circling promenade found it hard “to adjust the spit to the humour of those behind and before” them. The ‘Harlequin’ enlarges on some unpleasant characters who haunted Ranelagh, Baron H----g (for instance), who trails about like a wounded worm, and Lord C----y who “runs his nose under every bonnet.” It is not to be denied that Ranelagh, though on the whole decorous, had a tolerable reputation as a place of assignation. § 4. _Annals of Ranelagh 1742–1769._ From this general sketch of Ranelagh and its frequenters, we may pass on to some details of its amusements year by year. The principal performer at the concerts in the earliest days (1742–_circ._ 1760) was the well-known actor and vocalist Beard, who was considered by Dibdin to be, “taken altogether, the best English singer.” Giulia Frasi, young and interesting, with her “sweet clear voice,” was heard in 1751 and 1752. Michael Festing at first led the band, and was succeeded (about 1752) by Abram Brown, a performer who (according to Burney) had “a clear, sprightly and loud tone, with a strong hand,” but who was deficient in musical knowledge and feeling. Parry, the Welsh harper (1746), and Caporale, the violoncello player, were also among the earlier performers.[228] At first, choruses from oratorios (this was still the case in 1763) were a feature of the concerts, but the performances soon came to differ little from those of Vauxhall and Marylebone. In 1754 an entertainment of recitation, with a procession, was given under the name of Comus’s Court. In 1757 “Acis and Galatea” was performed for the benefit of the Marine Society. On 10 June, 1763[229] Bonnell Thornton’s ‘Burlesque Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day’ was performed, “adapted (by Burney) to the antient British music, viz.: the salt-box, the Jew’s-harp, the marrow-bones and cleavers, the hum-strum or hurdy-gurdy, etc., etc.” The performers sang the recitative, airs and choruses in masquerade dresses, and the salt-box song was especially successful. The fun must have been rather forced, though Johnson, who read the Ode when printed, “praised its humour,” seemed much diverted with it, and repeated the lines:--