Dancing in Bath 1792

A letter from Elizabeth Canning to her mother dated Tuesday, December the 11th, 1792 when she was about 16.

"they took me to the Rooms last night but for the novelty of the thing, I should have thought it very stupid. I saw a good many faces that I had met before, among the rest Mrs Smith and one of the Miss Scots, who is turned into a Mrs Mc Somebody, to the great delight of her Mama, my three Aunts, played cards, & were  successful the little one brought home her Louis D'Or, Jassum [sic] you, I was very much amused looking over the Table of Cassino [a card game of the type known as fishing], at which Aunt Fan played, and observing the faces & vexation of the losing party. We came home at ten O'clock - tomorrow I am to go to the undress Ball."

The ball Elizabeth attended at the Lower Rooms was the first of the new Fancy Balls, an innovation designed to combat the decline in attendance at the Cotillion Balls of the previous decade and increasing resistance to the rigid dress codes. Fancy Balls were, in Georgian terms, much more relaxed occasions Ladies could appear in hats or make any other elegant fashion statement they pleased, short of actual fancy dress costumes. Fancy balls started with a country dance, after which there was one Cotillion only, and then tea – after tea, a country dance, one Cotillion only and the evening ended with more country dances and the Long Minuet, famously illustrated by Henry Bunbury.



The term undress ball is a nickname given by the company to the new Fancy Balls and is a joking allusion to their not being Dress Balls.

The Fancy Ball at the Upper Rooms 
Thomas Rowlandson

Dress Balls were formal occasions which commenced with Minuets before moving on to Country Dances. Dancing ability and the ability to get the technical details and formalities right were key to admission to the beau monde in the eighteenth century, particularly at big formal assemblies. The minuet was the ultimate test of those skills. The minuet was a couples’ dance where the couple performed before the assembled audience and other dancers who were continually assessing their skills; everything from how they entered the room, their deportment and how they executed the steps through to how the gentleman handled his hat. The dress code was strict, with women wearing lappets and hoops. Special servants were provided to help them change for the country dances.

The Rooms in Verse - the 1730s

In 1731, The Gentleman's Magazine published a poem by Lady M M, "A Farewell to Bath," which contained the following:

"Lindsays and Hayes's both farewell,

Where in the spacious hall;

With bounding steps, and sprightly airs

I've led up many a ball

Where Somerville of courteous mein,

Was partner in the dance,

With swimming Haws, and Brownlow blithe;

And Britton pink of France."

Lady M M was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, nee Pierrepont (baptised May 26, 1689, died Aug. 21, 1762), one of the most colourful Englishwomen of her time and a brilliant and versatile writer.

Evelyn Pierrepont,

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
nee Pierrepont

She was the daughter of Evelyn Pierrepont, 5th Earl, later 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, and his first wife, Lady Mary Fielding. The Pierreponts owned extensive land holdings in Bath, and the family name is recalled in the street running into North Parade. Indeed, the Lower Rooms were built, at least in part, on Pierrepont land.

Because she was often the most socially important person at the balls, she usually stood in the first position in the line of dancers in country dances and would usually have danced the first minuet at the start.

Mrs Lindsay, a former opera singer, was the operator of the rooms which had been built on what is now York Street and Mrs Hayes, her sister, ran the rooms formerly operated by Mr Harrison, which were on the site now occupied by the derelict Island Club and known locally as Bog Island.

The "spacious hall" at Mrs. Lindsay's was probably no more than 26 feet in length, 30 feet wide and 30 feet high in 1730.

"Somerville of courteous mein" is probably James, the 13th Lord Somerville of Scotland, who had come to England in the 1720s and met and married, in Bath, the enormously wealthy local widow Anne Rolt, nee Bayntun.

Spring Balls of 1793

On Friday, the 12th of April, at the Lower Assembly Rooms, they held a benefit ball for the Master of the Ceremonies, Mr King. At benefit balls, the Master of the Ceremonies kept the profits. [1]

James King

On Monday, the 22nd of April, the New Rooms held a benefit ball for their man Mr Tyson.

On April 24th, Miss Flemings put on their spring ball at the New Rooms to showcase the students' talents from their dance academy.

Miss Flemings were the sisters Anne and Kitty, the then proprietors of the famous Fleming family dance academy, a prominent Bath institution since the 1740s and celebrated for throwing magnificent balls often attended by Royalty.

Source: Bath Chronicle 12th April 1793

The Grove a dance from 1796

The suggested figures for The Grove taken from "The Scholar's Companion - Cotillions and Country Dances – 1796. The scholar’s companion: containing a choice collection of cotillons & country-dances by M.J.C. Fraisier." of 1796

"First and 2d couples cross hands and back again, lead down the middle, lead up and cast off one couple; then the 1st gentleman sets to the 3d lady, whilst his partner sets to the 3d gentleman; then the 1st gentleman sets to the 2d lady, whilst his partner sets to the 2d gentleman; then the 1st gentleman turns his partner with both hands, placing her between the 2d and 3d ladies, and right and left at top."

The Africans a Dance from 1816

The suggested figures for The Africans taken from "TheTreasures of Terpsichore; OR,
A COMPANION FOR THE BALL-ROOM. BEING A COLLECTION OF ALL THE
MOST POPULAR ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCES, Arranged Alphabetically, with proper Figures to each Dance. BY T. WILSON, DANCING MASTER, from the King's Theatre, Opera House, AND AUTHOR OF 'THE ANALYSIS OF COUNTRY DANCING.'

Africans (The). 2 PARTS REPEATED.

Single Figure.

Set and change sides, down the middle, up again, right and left.

Or thus:

Hey of your own sides, cross over two couple. and lead up one.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Cape Colony was annexed by the British and officially became their colony in 1815 and this may possibly have inspired the title.

Two Bath dances from 1797

The originally suggested figures for the country dance tune Victory. Taken from "Ten Country Dances and four cotillions with their basses for the pianoforte as they are now danced at Bath for the year 1797. Price 1s 6d. Printed for & sold at J&W Lintern's Music Warehouse, Abbey Church Yard Bath."

First and second Cu. set and Hands across ~ Same Back again ~ Lead down the,
Middle and up again ~ Right and left at Top 8 ~

From the same book come suggested figures for the country dance tune, The Whimsical Lover.

First & 2d. Cu ~ set & change Sides - The same Back again - Lead down the Middle & up again ~ Right & Left at Top ~

Lintern, J. & W. Abbey Church Yard were music sellers, publishers and agents for  the long-established London publishers Longman, Clementi & Co. and Cahusac & Sons at the sign of the "Two Flutes and Violin, opposite St Clement's Church in the Strand,"

The title "Victory" may well be inspired by the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (14 February 1797), where a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.

Lady Archer, make-up and gambling

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, a number of aristocratic ladies opened their houses for gambling, one of the best known, probably, being Lady Archer. It is the lady whose toilet regime is immortalised in this 1792 print by Thomas Rowlandson when she was 51. Lady Archer's commitment to "beauty" can also be judged from the following extracts from the Morning Post.

"Jan.  5, 1789. The Lady Archer, whose death was announced in this paper of Saturday, is not the celebrated character whose cosmetic powers  have long been held in public estimation." 

"Jan.  8,1789. It is said that the dealers in  Carmine and dead white,  as well as the  perfumers  in general, have it in contemplation to present an Address to Lady Archer, in gratitude for her not having  DIED  according to a late alarming report."

The Exaltation
of
Faro's Daughters
by James Gilray
depicting
Lady Archer
and
Lady Buckingham

Lady Archer's gambling business featured the card game Faro. Indeed, she and her "sisters" were satirised as Faro's daughters. Faro houses were notorious for bilking their customers. Indeed, the odds of the game (see below) are such that the house could only ensure profits by cheating in some form or other.

The sort of money that could be made from this game by Faro house operators can be illustrated by a court case reported by the Bath newspapers in 1787.

Gambling was always central to the entertainment that attracted the Ton to Bath, and repeated attempts by the law to regulate it failed in the face of the Georgian obsession with gaming and the large amounts of money to be made by catering to this obsession.

As the Bath Chronicle of 12th April 1787 reported:

"Yesterday Mr. John Twycross and Mr Richard Weternall were convicted before the Mayor, on several counts, of keeping a Faro and other Gambling Table and sentenced to pay, Twycross four hundred, and Wettenall fourteen hundred pounds"

The article goes on to say:

"Eighteen hundred pounds [approximately the equivalent £100,000 today] is a seemingly large sum; but when the various arts of seduction to support this Faro Table, and its immense profits, are considered, it will appear a mere trifle. Every allurement of expensive eating and the richest wines are ever speciously ready, to invite the convivial. The hounds are principally, if not solely, supported to take in country gentlemen; and the present culprits are only the ostensible members of a numerous co-partnership, amongst whom the money may be easily raised; and who, like the Syrens of old, are unceasingly employed to draw devoted victims into this dreadful vortex of destruction."

Twycross and Wetenall ran their rooms in Alfred Street, which runs alongside the Upper Assembly Rooms and were therefore well placed to exploit the well-heeled crowds attracted there in the season.

The game of Faro originated at the court of Louis XIV. The game quickly spread to England. Because it is relatively easy for the banker to rig the cards, Faro became very popular with the proprietors of gaming houses.

Faro is a game of pure chance played on a baize table with a board of 13 cards enamelled into it and used to place bets. These cards are traditionally spades, but it is the rank of the card that matters in the game, not the suit. One player is selected as the banker, as with all games of pure chance, even an honest banker enjoys a considerable advantage. The role of the banker was usually decided by auction or fixed by the house. Players bet on which rank will win or lose the next round. A shuffled deck of 52 cards is then dealt from a specially designed box. The first card revealed by the bank is called the soda and is placed to the left of the banker, playing no role in the game. The second card, placed to the right of the banker, is the losing card. The third card placed on top of the soda is the winning card. The game continued until there were just three cards left in the box, at which point the players bet on the order in which they would appear. The players knew which cards remained because the banker used a device known as a casekeeper to record the cards that had been dealt.