First published in 1932, this is the story of eighteenth century
Bath, where Beau Nash ruled as uncrowned king for so many years,
the fashionable members of English society found a splendid
justification for improving their health and enjoying themselves at
the same time. They took the waters assiduously, gambled
excessively, danced away the evenings at cotillion balls, and spent
the mornings strolling along the Parades in their elegant finery,
and exchanging gossip in the coffee houses. Writers, actors,
artists and politicians shared the city's delights with exalted
members of the peerage; and over them all, the great Beau presided
with avuncular authority. This book, written with all the skill and
visionary commitment of an established poet, recreates the
atmosphere of Bath's famous century superbly, and faithfully
mirrors several of the well-known personalities who graced the
period with their wit, their talent and their eccentricity. Here is
Nash himself, generous to a fault, whose chief claim to fame must
surely be the widespread improvement in English social behaviour
that his strict control initiated; the charming blue-stocking,
Elizabeth Montagu, who hated card games and strove to encourage
literary causeries; the irascible Captain Thicknesse; the ascetic
religious reformer, the Countess of Huntingdon; the famous
"limner", Thomas Gainsborough; Sarah Siddons, who bewitched almost
everyone when she played at the old Orchard Street theatre; the
talented, gentle Ralph Allen, who built Prior Park; that old knave
James Quin, who retired to Bath after a hugely successful career on
the London stage; and several others. Against a meticulously
researched background, they are all convincingly brought to life.
General
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