London (England) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
The Gent has several fashions in the dancing at Rosherville, different
from those of the Casino. In the first place, he takes off his hat, and
hangs it on a peg, if there is one vacant; if not, he leaves it at the
bar. Then he bows to his partner, and, if he knows her very well, courts
at the same time: and, subsequently, he salutes the corners with great
politeness, previous to commencing the first set. But this particular
set does not stand very high in estimation. In common with other balls
for the _basse classe_, its component Gents prefer dances of intricate
and abnormal fashion: and so it is here also considered _ton_ to perform
the _Caledonians_ (which nobody ever knows all through, except the
master of the ceremonies), the _Lancers_, _Spanish Dances_, the
_Cellarius_, even the _Gavotte_, and other frantic arrangements of
gasping professors, including, of course, “_La Polka_” as it is always
termed, in their parlance. And on “Gala Nights,” still more wonderful
evolutions are gone through, all of which are due to the inventive
genius of the aforesaid inimitable M.C., whose friendship the Gent
especially prizes. For at Rosherville that great man is to be
seen—actually, really to be seen—walking like an ordinary person,
amongst ordinary fellow creatures. He is no longer a phantasy of mental
conception—not that zephyr in pumps bounding amidst new-laid eggs and
tea-things, or matchlessly performing his Marine Hornpipe in top-boots,
or Chinese Fandango in handcuffs, or Milanese Fling in the double
jack-chains; but a substantial reality,—the glass of fashion, the mould
of form, whom we can never fancy putting off the pumps of ceremony for
the high-lows of necessity—in a word, THE BARON NATHAN.
The Gent at Ramsgate would be the last to persuade that it is really a
dull place. He is one of the most strenuous upholders of that greatest
of all popular delusions suffered to go unchallenged, that English
sea-side watering-places generally are pleasant spots to emigrate to,
and Ramsgate in particular. We know, as far as we are concerned, that we
once underwent transportation for seven days to that penal settlement;
and that we never before suffered (we expect in common with every body
else) from such a ghastly gasping after the belief that we were “doing a
holiday,” as the Gent would say, as during that time.
How the Gent makes up his mind to go to Ramsgate at all we cannot make
out; but there he always is: and he divides the measure of his revelry
thereat into four goes of excitement: Going on the sands; Going out
sailing; Going on the pier; and Going to Sachett’s.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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