Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1858-10-27

porouShs 10 sell, agents, pamph hieteers, coffee
mousse politicians were accustomed to attend, ,
hooking about the man who possessed power
and patronage, deserting him as he lost influ-
ence, ever in search of notice from the man
in whose courts it seemed TO them most prof.
table 10 be time-servsrs and sycophants. The
mansion of the Duke of Newcastle in Lincoln's
Inn Fields was the most extensive mart of pat
ronaga ever opened in this country, and it was
thronged with clients. When this duke fell,
after dictatorship of fifteen years, the king
himself assumed the keeping of the great
source of corruption his Majesty's own levees
were thrown open, and the saloons of minis
ters were thronged no more.
We have referred to the gaming and we re-
turn to that. 1t was the great vice of Eng
land during large part of the eighteenth cen
tury. Cards, dice, and betting engaged peo-
pie of all ranks and ages-learned OF unlearn-
ed-man or woman. Whist required too much
thought, the gambler also could not intoxicate
himself with it rapidly enough. Brag, crmp,
basset, ombre, hazard, commerce, leo, spadilIe
could be played quickly without brains. The
ordinary stakes were high. At one of the pro-
prietary cillbs-zW hite's. Brookes's, Boobies
--insttuted1o evade the statue against gam
ng-houses; the lowest stake was fifty pounds,
and it was a common thing for gentleman to
lose or win ten thousand pounds in an evening.
Sometimes whole fortune was lost at sit
ting. Every fashionable assembly was gam
ing house. Large balls and routs had not yet
come into vogue. A ball seldom consisted of
more than ten or twelve couples. When
lady received company, card tables pro-
vided for all the guests, and even when there
was dancing, cards formed the principal part
OF the entertainment. Ladies often contract
ed debts of honor TO fine gentlemen larger
than they could pay, larger than they could
venture to:coniess to father or a husband.
All this tended to evil.
Few women were well taught. In town,
ievity was the fashion. In the days of Queen
Anne, the daughter of a country gentleman
was bred as a cook and, that she might do
her duty as a hostess, often received lessons
from carving master. If she married in the
country, she might get husband with the
graces of publican who would press friends
to drink away their reasons urgently she
was bound, If possible, to make them eat to
absolute repletion. She probably became the
mistress of hall containing no literature be-
yond cookery-bo book, and filthy book of
drinking songs-the Justice of the Peace--a
book of sports and theological tract or two.
The country town, If not of the first class,
depended for its supply OF literature solely on
the occasional visits of a hawker or travel
ling agentof some distant house Of business.
The state of the roads during great part of
the year made visiting Impossible. Agricu-
ture was still represented by patches OF culti-
vation, seen at intervals between the swampS
and wastes that formed the peryading charac
ter of the landscape. Neat country villas
with trim lawns, and wcll-kept walks, shrub
berries furnished from all regions of earth, and
bright conscrvatories did not then exist; even
4 common flower garden not usual ap-
Pendage to the house of gentleman qualified
TO be king of the shire. The house, though
substantial was rarely clean, and had, under
its window not the jessamine and roses, but
the stable and the kennel. No wonder that
people who had means fiocked ont of the coun-
trvJ t.,V Il ,~sS -,
carried London fashions home.
In the early days OF George the Third there
were still to be found country gentlemen of
the old type, but commonly, the country lady
had we'd some polish in the metropolis,
and took Der daughters for the like benefit TO
spend a VI nter in London or season at tn,
after theyEame home from the boarding school
London had grown. and roads into it had
thrvcn, that, about hundred years ago,
a writer had to speak with wonder of the new
town lately sprung up from Piccadilly to Ty-
burn Road Tuow Oxford Street, as covering
area larger than the cities of Bristol, Exeter,
and \ ork put together.
Up to the middle Of the last century, gam
ing remained the fashionable entertainments
but the high play of the clubs then made of
it a pursuit too serious for mixed society
Other diversions were invented, and numerous
places of amusement opened in London and
the suburbs The fashionable dinner hour
The theatre, card drum, ball and an occa-
sional masquerade. no longer sufficed for the
crowd OF pleaSure-Seekers that was docking ev-
cry year into London. Ranelagh, Nauxhail,
Mrs. Cornleys's, and the Pantheon, therefore.
became fashionable places of resort.
Ranelagh supplied, at Chelsea, spacious as
sembly y-rooms with a fine band. The large a
rea OF the building was thronged as pro-
menade, made Somewhat select by the price
of admission. There were boxes opening to
the garden for those who desired more strictly
select society. To Ranelagh, visitors repaired
to see the world of London, and dignifed clcr-
gymen who did not venture into other public
assemblies. saw nothing Objectionable in its
rotunda. Vauxhall, from the time of Queen
Anne to an advanced period of the reign OF
George the Third, was fashionable sink of
infamy. The lessee, in seventeen sixty-four
made an attempt to check the wickedness that
made it seandaous if not unsafe for any decent
woman to enter the garden. He closed the
schedule walks and lit up the recesses; but
the Young gentlemen Of fashion, reselting this
invasion of their privileges, tore down the bar
riers and put out the new lights. AT Al
mack's people of quality assembled for high
play. In Soho Square, Mrs. COrneiys Kept
house Of an exclusive character, but of ques-
tionable reputation. Masqueradcs and operas
approached through guinea tickets-were
the oStensible amusementS, assignatlo1s, the
real business of the establishment. Worst OF
all was an assembly called the Coterie, a mix
ed club of the most fashionable ladies and gen.
tlemeD the ladies balloting for the gentle
men, and the gentlemen tor the ladies.
Mr. Massey tells us that ssunless we are to
-discredit the concurrent testimony OF the pull
pit, the press, the stage, the records OF courts
of tustice. private letters and tradition--which
| has hardly ceased to be recent-it is manifest
| that the depravity of manners in this country
f-om tho accession of the House OF Hanover