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Old times

Chapter 2: PREFACE.
By John Ashton
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History - BritishHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

The author assembles social paragraphs, satirical sketches, and illustrations drawn from contemporary newspapers and prints to recreate metropolitan life in late eighteenth-century Britain. Organized by topics such as dress, theatre, gaming, the military, law and police, social economy, and political and royal affairs, the collection presents anecdotes, reports, and caricatures that illuminate fashions, entertainments, public pastimes, and everyday customs, with special attention to the middle classes. Notes on press practices and the exaggerated nature of satirical prints highlight source biases while producing a textured portrait of manners, amusements, and public anxieties of the period.

PREFACE.

Of the period of which this book treats, there have been political histories, and scurrilous books written anent the Royal Family, ad nauseam: and the Diaries which have been published, bearing on this time, deal only with the acts, and sayings, of the higher classes—leaving the life of the vastly greater proportion of the population—the middle classes—untouched. No better source of information as to their mode of living, their amusements, the tattle, and passing follies of the times, can possibly be found, than in the Newspapers of the day; and I selected the commencement of the Times, 1 Jan. 1788, as the starting point of a picture of the Social Life at the end of the Eighteenth Century.

The copies of the Times, however, are very imperfect,—nay, in some years, totally missing—until 1793-1794—from which date they are perfect; so that, when anything noteworthy occurred, I have drawn from another source; and, to establish the undoubted authenticity of each quotation, I have given the title of the Newspaper, with its date.

The daily Newspapers of those times were totally different to those to which we are accustomed. The absence of Railways, Steamships, and Electric Telegraphs, combined with a very high rate of Postage, prevented the publication of all News, either from foreign or provincial sources, except it were of real importance; and, as the daily sheets must be filled, it followed, as a matter of course, that a substitute was found in detailing the social life of the Metropolis—and the daily Newspapers, which now give us the latest news from all parts of the globe—had to be filled with social paragraphs, anecdotal, satirical, or otherwise. They were as open to correction, or contradiction, then, as now; so that we may put trust in them; and when these paragraphs are collected, and somewhat classified, they afford a view of the daily life of the period, such as is utterly unattainable elsewhere. This collection must, of necessity, be valuable to the student of those times, besides being of great interest to the general reader.

The difficulty of obtaining contemporary illustrations, fitted for this work, from books, or pictures, has compelled me to draw freely on the satirical prints of the period—which are abundant, and perfectly well suited to the purpose, if the reader will only bear in mind, that they are sometimes a little exaggerated. Still, on the whole, they so truthfully represent the manners, costume, &c., of the age, that they could not be omitted; and that they are faithful reproductions of the originals, I can guarantee, for I drew them all myself.

JOHN ASHTON.

CONTENTS.

  •  PAGE
  • INTRODUCTION 1
  • MEN'S DRESS 51
  • WOMEN'S DRESS 69
  • NAVY AND ARMY 80
  • SOCIAL ECONOMY 114
  • GAMING, ETC. 166
  • THE THEATRE 187
  • OPERA AND BALLET 204
  • MASQUERADES, CONCERTS, ETC. 215
  • MONETARY 232
  • LAW AND POLICE 243
  • POLITICAL 280
  • ROYALTY 293
  • VARIETIES 297

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

  •   PAGE
  • EDMUND BURKE 16
  • THE PRINCE'S BOW 51
  • TIGHT-LACING, 1788 51
  • MACARONIS, 1789 53
  • A JESSAMY, 1790 54
  • A CHOICE SPIRIT—A BUCK 54
  • A SMART, 1790 55
  • A RAIN-BEAU 56
  • JIMMY LINCUM FEADLE, 1791 56
  • A SCARAMOUCH 56
  • APING THE FRENCHMAN 57
  • NECK OR NOTHING—A BACK VIEW OF THE CAPE, 1792 57
  • A SPENCER AND A THREAD PAPER, 1792 63
  • "A JEAN DEBRY" (MR. SKEFFINGTON) 66
  • FRENCH TAILOR FITTING JOHN BULL WITH A "JEAN DEBRY" 66
  • A COTILLION, 1788 69
  • FASHIONS FOR 1788 69
  • INDOOR COSTUMES, 1788 70
  • THE DUCHESS OF YORK 70
  • THE DUCHESS 70
  • FRAILTIES OF FASHION, 1793 70
  • THE HEIGHT OF FASHION, 1793 70
  • THE TOILETTE, NO. 1 71
  • DO. NO. 2 71
  • DO. NO. 3 71
  • A SCARECROW, 1793 71
  • "SHEPHERDS! I HAVE LOST MY WAIST" 1794 72
  • FOLLOWING THE FASHION, "ST. JAMES'S GIVING THE TON" 73
  • FOLLOWING THE FASHION, "CHEAPSIDE APING THE MODE" 74
  • CROPS 73
  • A LADY PUTTING ON HER CAP, 1795 73
  • CHARACTERS IN HIGH LIFE 75
  • A MODERN BELLE GOING TO THE ROOMS OR BALLS, 1796 75
  • WAGGONER'S FROCK, OR NO BODYS OF 1795 75
  • THE FASHION, DEC. 1795 76
  • FASHIONABLE MODESTY, 1796 76
  • HIGH CHANGE IN BOND STREET, 1796 76
  • FASHIONS FOR 1797 (SEE FRONTISPIECE) 78
  • MY POLL, AND MY PARTNER JOE, 1796 80
  • BRITISH LADIES PATRIOTIC PRESENTS TO THE ARMY, 1793 95
  • KIDNAPPING, OR A DISGRACE TO OLD ENGLAND 99
  • MODERN MODE OF BEATING UP FOR VOLUNTEERS 104
  • HEROES RECRUITING AT KELSEY'S, 1797 108
  • INSTALLATION SUPPER, NO. 1 114
  • DO. NO. 2, SIR F. JOHNSTON AND LADY, LORD BATHURST, MAJOR TOPHAM 114
  • DO. NO. 3, SIR GEORGE YOUNG AND LADY 114
  • DO. NO. 4, LORD AMHERST 114
  • DO. NO. 5, LORD SANDWICH, DR. BRILLAND, DR. PAIR 114
  • THE ASSESSED TAXES TAKING THEIR DEPARTURE 132
  • JOHN BULL AND THE INCOME TAX 133
  • A PRETTY BAR MAID 135
  • A LADY AT A CARD PARTY WHO DOES NOT PLAY, 1788 166
  • GAMBLING, 1792 166
  • A KICK UP AT A HAZARD TABLE, NO. 1, 1790 167
  • DO. NO. 2, 1790 167
  • MODERN HOSPITALITY 168
  • DIVIDING THE SPOIL, ST. JAMES'S, 1796 177
  • DO. ST. GILES'S, 1796 177
  • FARO'S DAUGHTERS 177
  • DISCIPLINE À LA KENYON, 1797 179
  • THE THEATRE 187
  • MACKLIN AS "SHYLOCK"—HOLMAN AS "RICHARD" 190
  • POPE AS "HOTSPUR"—JOHNSTONE AS "APOLLO" 190
  • QUICK AS "SCRUB"—RYDER AS "FALSTAFF" 190
  • KEMBLE AS "HAMLET"—KEMBLE AS "LEAR" 190
  • MRS. BELLAMY—MRS. ABINGTON AS "LAPPET" 190
  • MRS. SIDDONS AS "ANDROMACHE"—MRS. JORDAN AS "VIOLA" 190
  • MRS. BILLINGTON AS "ROSETTA"—MRS. MARTYR AS "EUPHROSYNE" 190
  • MISS BRUNTON AS "JULIET "—MISS FIELD AS "ARIEL" 190
  • AT THE OPERA—AT CHURCH 204
  • THE CELEBRATED MADEMOISELLE G—M—RD 211
  • BALLET AT THE KING'S THEATRE-PANTHEON, 1791 211
  • THE OPERATICAL FINALE TO THE BALLET OF "ALONZO E CARO" 212
  • MDLLE PARISOT 213
  • DURHAM MUSTARD TOO POWERFUL FOR ITALIAN CAPERS, 1798 213
  • ECCLESIASTICAL SCRUTINY, OR, THE DURHAM INQUEST ON DUTY, 1798 214
  • MADAME CORNELYS 217
  • THE FEMALE COTERIE 221
  • A COUNTRY CONCERT, OR AN EVENING'S ENTERTAINMENT IN SUSSEX 225
  • SAVOYARDS OF FASHION, 1799 226
  • SEEN HOME BY THE WATCH, 1792 243
  • the MONSTER cutting a lady, 1790 248
  • RENWICK WILLIAMS, 1790 256
  • protection from the MONSTER 258
  • BOXING MADE EASY, OR HUMPHREYS GIVING A LESSON, 1788 274
  • JEFFREY DUNSTAN—ORDINARY COSTUME 292
  • SIR JEFFREY DUNSTAN—COURT DRESS 293
  • TREATMENT OF LUNATICS 298

Memorandum.—For binder's purposes some of the illustrations will not be found on the pages named, but a few pages further on.