A colt by Tatler and the Arabian connection

On Tuesday, the 16th of September 1777, on Claverton Down, a 50 guinea sweepstakes was run between two horses over four miles. [1]

The winner was Mr Yeat's bay colt Patriot. The loser is described as Mr Coxe, a brown colt by Tatler Dam by White Nose.

Mr Coxe has yet to be identified with certainty, but he was probably a member of the Hippisley Coxe family of Ston Easton.

We can, however, trace the origins of Mr Coxe's colt.

Tatler, his sire, was a relatively undistinguished horse bred by the very important stallion Blank. Blank was bred by Frances, 2nd Earl of Godolphin, at his stud at Babraham in Cambridgeshire, but sold as a six-year-old to Peregrin Bertie, the 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, for his stud at Grimsthorpe in Lancashire. The stallion Godolphin used bears his family name and is one of the three great founding oriental stallions of the thoroughbred horse. The colt's dam was, we are told, bred using the stallion White Nose. This stallion appears to have been bred either by Sir William Middleton or Thomas Panton in 1742; he never raced. He was, however, remarkably successful at stud and is considered among the top ten of the Godolphin Arabian's sons.

The Godolphin Arabian, initially known as Sham or Shami, was foaled in Yemen in 1724 (from Jilfan blood). A brown colt with a bit of white on his off-hind heel, he stood 14.3 hands high.

He was exported via Syria to Tunis as one of four horses to be presented by the Bey of Tunis to the King of France. In France, he was acquired by an Englishman, Edward Coke, who sent his purchase to his estate at Longford Hall in Derbyshire.

When Coke died in August 1733, aged only 32, he bequeathed his bloodstock to Roger Williams, proprietor of the St James's Coffee House in London, who also acted as a bloodstock agent. Williams then sold the Arabian to Francis, 2nd Earl of Godolphin.


1. Bath Chronicle

A Race on Lansdown in 1765

Wednesday, 2nd October 1765, was the first day of a three-day race meeting held on Lansdown in Bath. For some reason, this meeting is not recorded in Heber's calendar. 

It featured a race for "a handsome silver tankard by any horse mare or gelding, not exceeding 14hh, carrying 9 stone allowing 7 pounds for every inch under, the best of 3 four mile heats." By comparison, the longest flat race run in the UK today is the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot, which has a race length of over 2 miles and 6 furlongs.

The race was won by Lord Staverdale's bay mare Blue Cap. Henry Thomas Fox-Strangways, known as Lord Stavordale from 1756 to 1776, when he inherited the title of Earl of Ilchester on his father's death, had his family seat at Melbury House, near Evershot, Dorset, some 50 miles from Bath. In 1765, he was 18 and likely to still be riding his own horses in races.

His Lordship would have paid 5 shillings, about £30 at today's values, to enter Blue Cap if he had subscribed to the race costs and prizes or half a guinea, about £60, if not. These prices only applied if he entered his horses by Friday, 27th September, at Mr Dover's alehouse, the Coach and Horses in Bell Tree Lane, which ran between Stall Street and Bilbury Lane. He was open to accept entries from 2 to 6 each day. If he had not entered by the 27th, he would have had to enter "at the post" on race day at twice the price.

On receiving the horse's entry, Mr Dover would have had the horse officially measured to determine what weight it should carry. at the Coach and Horses in "Bell Lane" between the hours of 2 and 6. The Coach and Horses was an alehouse on Bell Tree Lane, which ran between Stall Street and Bilbury Lane.

The entrance money was used to provide a purse for the horse owner who came second, having won at least one of the heats.

Before starting, his Lordship would have had to have had his horse shod with racing plates by one of the blacksmiths who had paid the organisers a subscription for the privilege.

On arrival at the course, all visitors would have been courted by the many booth holders and liquor sellers who had paid a guinea to the organisers for the opportunity to sell their wares to the well-heeled racing crowd.

The main race was scheduled to start at 3 o'clock each day, but an hour before this, a drum or trumpet would alert runners to the need to weigh in to determine whether or not the rider needed to carry extra weight in pockets usually specially built into their waistcoat and designed to ensure it was secure and evenly distributed. Each owner had to pay one shilling to the Clerk of the course for the use of the official weights and scales.

Riders were at liberty to wear whatever they chose, but most would wear coloured silk or white holland [a plain woven or dull-finish linen] to help the spectators identify runners, waistcoats and drawers or breeches made of light fabric designed to hug the body, and on their head a little cap tied on; tight-fitting boots and spurs.

Thus equipped, the rider would mount and ride down to the appointed start. Books from the time advise on tactics. If the horse had more stamina than speed, they recommend trying to win from the front, forcing the pace as much as possible from the start to break the spirit of faster horses. If you had a fast horse, by contrast, they advise holding him behind and coming with a late rush. To conserve a horse's stamina, a rider might hold a horse back in one heat, but had to be careful not to be "distanced, "meaning it would be disqualified. This rule was introduced to discourage riders from giving horses an easy ride in a single heat. The distance was approximately 240 yards from the finish.

The Complete Sportsman by Thomas Fairfax describes the riding style in vogue at this time.

'The posture to be observed is, that you place yourself upon your twist [the part of the saddle the rider feels between their upper inner thighs], with your knees firm, and your stirrups just at such a length, that your feet, when they are thrust home in them, you can raise yourself a little in the saddle, for your legs, without that allowance, will not be firm when you come to run; the counter-poise of your body must be forward, to facilitate your horse's running, and your elbows must be close to your body; be sure, above all things, that you do not incommode your horse by swaggering this or that way, as some do, for since weight is a great matter in running, and that a troublesome rider is as bad as so much more weight, there is no need to say how necessary it is to take great care of your seat and hand; you must therefore beware of holding yourself by the bridle, or of jobbing your horse's mouth upon any occasion; you must take your right rein in the same hand, holding up horse, &c. as you find it necessary, and every now and then remove the bridle in his mouth. But these things are best learned by experience and practice.'

At the end of each heat, riders would be weighed in great scales and disqualified if they weighed less than they had at the start.

The horse and rider usually had half an hour between heats to recover and for the grooms to rub down the sweating horses until the drum or trumpet, again, sounded to announce the start of the next heat.

At the end of each heat, owners and spectators would gather at the betting post to exchange bets and set odds on the race's outcome. Huge sums of money could be wagered, and considerable emotion could be raised. It was not uncommon for spectators and owners to follow their chosen horse on horseback over the last part of the race, adding to the confusion and excitement.

On winning the race, Lord Stavordale could claim his prize but, on receiving it, was required to pay 5 shillings to the Clerk of the Course. Should anyone have disputed his victory, such a dispute would have been judged by those who had subscribed money to meet the costs of the meeting, who had not entered horses.

Hairdressing in the 1780s

This advert appeared in the Bath Chronicle in 1781. The term peruke is a synonym for wig. A gentleman's wig consisted of the toupee or front hair and the back hair. At this time, most wigs were either made of human or animal hair, including the hair of horses, cows and foxes or textiles such as mohair or silk.

During this period, the toupee came to be known as the 'brush' or 'feathered part'. The emphasis in this decade was on width rather than height.

A bag wig gathered the back hair in a black silk bag. This type of wig fell out of fashion in the 1790s.

There are no unambiguously labelled eighteenth-century illustrations of bob wigs, but they are understood to have been wigs with short, tight curls at the bottom.

Of course, all wigs would be powdered even if they were already grizzled.

Cushions were used to pad out ladies' hair to help build the higher and fuller styles which were fashionable throughout the eighteenth century. However, at this time, the height of the coiffure was beginning to decrease.

In front, the hair was usually frizzed out to give extra width to the face, and below the mass of the hair at the back of the nape of the neck, a 'banging chignon' was usually included. In this decade, the chignon was sometimes twisted or even plaited.

Feathers worn in the hair were more popular in the eighties than in the previous decade, and fancy caps, ribbons, pearls and lace were also worn.

Such luxuriant hairstyles might necessitate the wearing of a complete wig.

Natural hair and wigs were almost always powered, especially on formal occasions.

Number 3 today

By the decade's end, Bally had moved the business to his house in Burton Street.

1 Burton Street Today

A man's hair cut and dress cost 1s 6d, or about £111 at today's values.

It is worth noting the distinction and price difference between a lady's hair being dressed for the morning or fully dressed for appearing at a formal public event.

Up With The Orange a dance from 1814

This is taken from "Up with the Orange. A fashionable country dance to which are added two favorite French country dances or cotillions for the year 1814. The proper figures are affixed to each air."

The suggested figures are:
    
The 1st and 2nd couples advance and foot it in the centre, Then turn into place down the middle and up again - swing corners  - pousette.  

The title probably refers to the Prince of Orange, for whom 1814 had been a big year as he had been promoted to lieutenant-general in the British Army and had become engaged to Princess Charlotte, the only daughter of the Prince Regent.  

William and his wife Anna Pavlovna (1816)

                                                                                                

The London dancing master Thomas Wilson tells us in his 1808 publication An Analysis of Country Dance how to swing corners correctly at this period.

The Gentleman at B, turns the Lady at A, with his right hand, who moves to D, while the Gentleman
moves to C.

Jane Austen on drunkenness and adultery at the rooms

Jane Austen's letter to her sister Cassandra 12th - 13th May 1801. Jane was staying with her Aunt and Uncle in their home in the Paragon.

"In the evening I hope you honoured my Toilette & Ball with a thought; I dressed myself as well as I could, & my finery was much admired at home."

On Mondays, the Ball at the Upper Rooms was a formal dress ball. This was the last but one Ball of this season.

"By nine o'clock my Uncle, Aunt and I entered the rooms & linked Miss Winstone on to us."

The Ball started at 7 o'clock, so the Austens were probably timing their arrival to avoid the demanding and increasingly unpopular minuets.

"Before tea, it was a rather dull affair; but then the before tea did not last that long, for there was only one dance, dance by four couple. Think of four couple, surrounded by about an hundred people, dancing in the Upper Rooms at Bath! After tea we cheered up; the breaking up of private parties sent some scores more to the Ball, & tho' it was shockingly & inhumanly thin for this place, there were people enough I suppose to have made five or six very pretty Basingstoke assemblies."

Since the early 1790s, there had been an increasing fashion for attending private parties before considering moving on to the assemblies. This was one factor that led to the introduction of the much more informal fancy balls. The Austen party may have been particularly sensitive to numbers attending the Upper Rooms as her uncle had a financial interest in the rooms, having subscribed funds to their construction.

"I then got Mr Evelyn to talk to & Miss Twisleton to look at; and I am proud to say that I have a very good eye at an Adulteress, for tho' repeatedly assured that another in the party was the She, I fixed upon the right one from the first. A resemblance to Mrs Leigh was my guide."

The Twisleton family was related to the Austen family via the Leighs. Miss Twisleton was Miss Mary Cassandra Twislton, whose older sister Julie Judith Twislton married Jane's cousin, James Henry Leigh of Adlestrop, in 1786. Mary Cassandra had moved to Bath with her mother, Lady Saye and Sele, in 1800 following the end of a legal action that had made her notorious and allowed her cousin to brand her as an "adulteress."

At the age of 16, Mary Cassandra married Edward Ricketts. The marriage collapsed 7 years later when her husband discovered incriminating letters between his wife and Charles Taylor. The following year the Bishop of London granted Ricketts an Episcopal divorce. Not content with this, Ricketts applied to the House of Lords for a civil divorce. At the hearing, several witnesses swore they had seen Mary Cassandra visit her lover's house, and some commented on her dishevelled appearance on leaving. The most damaging evidence was provided by a maid who testified that Mary had boasted in graphic detail of Taylor's prowess as a lover compared to her husband's performance. Ricketts was granted his divorce in 1799.

Before this, the Twisleton name had already featured in a sexual scandal through Mary Cassandra's older brother Thomas's marriage to Charlotte Anne Frances Wattell, who was the daughter of John Wattell Esq and niece to Sir John Stonehouse. At about the age of eighteen, she had met, through a mutual love of performing in amateur theatricals, Mary's brother Thomas James Twisleton, the youngest son of Lord Saye and Sele. Twisleton was 18 and still at school, but within four months had eloped with her to Gretna Green. According to her husband, Mrs Twislton had very expensive tastes. She had "reduced him almost to poverty", and when he had attempted to remonstrate with her, she had "declared to go on the [professional] stage, where she knew she possessed the talent to support herself in affluence". He strongly opposed her plans, and when she went behind his back to meet Harris, the proprietor of the Covent Garden Theatre, he sought and obtained a deed of separation in 1794. At this time, the couple had five children, of whom only one daughter survived to maturity. However, before Twisleton got a divorce bill passed in 1798, Charlotte gave birth to a son as the result of an affair with a merchant named Stein. Stein acknowledged paternity and helped with his education.

Charlotte Twisleton around 1796

"She is not so pretty as I expected ; her face has the same defect of baldness as her sister's, & her features not so handsome; she was highly rouged & looked quietly & contentedly silly than anything else. Mrs Badcock & two young women were of the same party except when Mrs Badcock thought herself obliged to leave them, to run round the room after her drunken husband. His avoidance, & her pursuit, with the probable intoxication of both was an amusing scene."

This Mr Badcock may well be the young man mentioned in a letter preserved in the Bath library describing a ball in the Upper Rooms nine years earlier in 1792:

"It was amazingly crowded, although the minuets had not begun, so much so that we found some difficulty to get seats. I was very much entertained with the bad minuet dancers especially with a Mr. Badcock who was obliged to stand up with seven or eight Ladies successively, to the great diversion of the spectators. I believe there were twenty minuets which was rather tiresome, but at last the Country Dances began."

Making your dancing look effortless, smooth and steady.

In his 1822 book Elements of the Art of Dancing the Edinburgh dancing master, Alexander Strathy recommends the following exercise as a way of mastering this skill.

“PLACE your feet in the fifth position, keep the body upright, rest on the leg that is behind, raise the heel of the foot that is before, and slide the foot on the point slowly to the second position. The knee should be straight, as the foot arrives at the second position; place the heel of the foot which you have moved, keeping it forward; rest the body on it, and at the same time raise the heel of the other foot, which you now slide on the point into the fifth position before, keeping the knees straight, and the heel forward, that you may form the position closely; then do the same thing to the other side. This exercise should be also performed, by entering the foot behind in the fifth position.

Then, in the same manner;' from the fifth to the fourth position forward.-Place the feet in the fifth position, balance the body on the leg that is behind; raise the heel of the foot that is before, slide the foot on the point to the fourth position forward, keeping the knees straight; place the heel, and rest the body on the foremost leg, then slide up the foot that is behind, to the fifth .position behind.
Continue to do this several times forward, then backward. Do the same thing with the other foot before.”

Feet Positions

Anne Bland music publisher

Anne Bland is an important figure for those interested in the dance music of the period of Jane Austen's life and novels. Anne Bland, who has no connection with the music publisher John Bland, began her music publishing business in London 1784. 

Anne Bland was established at 23 Oxford Street prior to 1790 and issued sheet music and yearly sets of dances.   Anne partnered with E. Weller in 1792, forming Bland and Weller. In addition to their publishing activities, which included a large number of country-dance collections, many of which survive, and the first English edition of three Mozart piano sonatas (k280, 282, 283), they were also piano and wind instrument makers. Anne Bland as "Music Seller, Oxford Street" is given in the Musical Directory for 1794. 

Early English pianoforte by Bland and Weller
23 Oxford Street

In 1805, the firm purchased from Dibdin, the composer, musician, dramatist, novelist and actor, the copyrights of 360 of his songs together with his musical stock, which they then reissued. Anne Bland retired in about 1818, and a sale of plates and copyrights took place though Weller carried on the business as Weller & Co. until 1820.

Typical surviving dance collections include:

24 Favorite country dances, hornpipes and reels with their proper figures for the German flute or violin as performed at court and all public assemblies 1807
24 Favourite Country Dances, Hornpipes and Reels with their proper figures for the German flute or violin. As performed at court and all public assemblies.A typical country dance tune and instruction book printed in London in 1803
Bland and Weller’s Annual Collection of Twenty-four Country Dances for the year 1797, with their proper Figures. For the Violin
Bland and Weller’s annual Collection of twenty-four Country Dances for the year 1798, with their proper figures, for the violin
Bland and Weller’s Annual Collection of twenty-four Country Dances for the Year 1799, with their proper Figures. For the violin and German flute, etc.

Bland and Weller
Clarinet

Mr De La Main - Dancing Master

The European Magazine and London Review Volume April 1797 obituary  “Lately, at Bath, Mr De la Main, formally a wine-merchant and dancing master".

There is some evidence of Thomas De La Main operating as a dancing master in Bath as early as 1757.

Thomas De le Main opened a public dancing academy in his house in Westgate Street, where he taught both ladies and gentlemen in September 1768. Prior to that, he had been teaching private pupils and the students of a local boarding school.

By 1774, he was also trading as a wine merchant out of 4 Westgate Street. Sometime in early 1775, the wine business was in the hands of Robert De Le Main, probably Thomas's son.

By 1775, De La Main was organising balls at the New Rooms to show off his students' skills. These seem to have been held on Saturdays with a 6:30 start time.

By 1776, when the business was sold, Robert had acquired a partner in the wine merchants called Mr. Higgs.

In the winter of 1778, Thomas De La Main from Bath was running a dancing academy in Dublin.

Thomas was still running dancing classes in Bath as late as 1786.

In April 1797, the Chronicle announced, "died, in a very advanced age, Mr De La Main, formerly an eminent wine-merchant and dancing master of this city."

Artists and the Rooms

The Assembly Rooms were magnets for the rich and fashionable of the Georgian age. Consequently, those who made their living from the rich wanted to be close to the rooms.

This effect can be seen most clearly from moves by three famous Bath portrait artists when the Upper Rooms were opened and became the most fashionable of the Bath Rooms.

Thomas Gainsborough moved from near the Abbey to the Circus, where he lived at number 17; William Hoare moved from Queen Square to Edgar Buildings, and Thomas Lawrence's father brought his young genius of a son to live at 2 Alfred Street, where he built his reputation by painting small pastel portraits of the visitors to the Assemblies.

A pastel portrait by Thomas Lawrence from the 1780s

William Hoare was the first fashionable portraitist to settle in Bath, and he remained the leading portraitist there until the arrival of Thomas Gainsborough in 1759. He remained the favourite of his powerful patron, the Duke of Newcastle, his family, followers and political associates. Included amongst his other important patrons were the Earls of Pembroke and Chesterfield and the Duke of Beaufort. With Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, he was a founding member of the Royal Academy.

Sir Thomas Lawrence was the second president of the Royal Academy. Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. He moved to Bath at age ten in 1779, where he supported his family with his pastel portraits.

the body is in motion, and is thrown into all postures, frequently into very indecent ones

In his book “TRAVELS THROUGH PORTUGAL AND SPAIN, In 1772 AND 1773” RICHARD TWISS, F. R. S. (1747-1821) describes the Fandango being danced an inn in Mafra in Portugal,
“The dance itself is for two persons, and much like the Dutch plugge dansen. I imagine the Dutch, by having been so long under the Spanish dominion, have retained this dance, as well; as many other customs. For instance, the veils ; which are large square pieces of black silk, that the women, when walking, throw over their heads, and keep nearly closed over their faces. The Spanish name is velo the Dutch call it saly. The custom of smoking tobacco the inhabitants of the Netherlands have probably also derived from the Spaniards. The pronunciation of the two languages in the harsh and guttural G, is exactly the fame.

But to return to the fandango. Every part of the body is in motion, and is thrown into all postures, frequently into very indecent ones.    Stamping the time with the feet, and playing all the while with the castanets which are a kind of small shells of ivory, or hard wood, of which two are rattled together in each hand.    When they have not these instruments, they snap with their fingers and thumbs.    The dancers approach, turn, retire, and approach again; the man with his hat on.    I afterwards saw this dance to greater perfection on the stage, to the music of the whole orchestra.   It seems the tune is always identically the fame. When these dancers were tired, and in a profuse sweat with the violence of the exercise, their place was immediately supplied by another couple, as the room was  by this time filled   with most of the decent people of the village, who having danced in their turns, I disregarded the musician,  and passed the remainder of the evening in playing a rubber at whist with my landlady, her husband, and her sister.”

In his book The Code of Terpsicore in 1830 Carlo Blasis Italian dancer, choreographer and dance theoretician

"A young girl, of bold character, places in her hand two castaguettes of sonorous wood. By the aid of her fingers she produces a clattering noise, and to that she keeps time with graceful motions of her feet. The young man holds a tambourine (or a tambour de basque, which, however, is now out of use), this he strikes with little bells, seemingly, as it were, to invite his companion to accompany him in gesticulation. While dancing, both alternately playing the same air, both keep time to its measure.

Every description of lascivious motion, every gesture that is offensive to modesty, and whatever can corrupt innocence and honesty is represented by these dancers, to the life. Alternately do they salute, exchanging amorous looks; they give their hips a certain immodest motion, then they meet and press their breasts together; their eyes appear half closed, and they seem, even while dancing, to be approaching the final embrace."

Given these descriptions it is not surprising to discover that in Georgian Bath performances of the Fandango seem to have been largely confined to the circus and the theatre.

Bath Chronicle 1822

The Giroux sisters who performed on the 3rd February were from a family of the theatrical dancers but had settled in Bath and Bristol where they ran successful dance academies.

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.

The rooms and the racing crowd

The horse racing which took place on Claverton Down attracted sizable crowds and enormously wealthy owners and gamblers.

Many businesses in Bath sought to profit from this, and the Assembly Rooms were no different. So, when, in 1772, there was a three-day meeting in September, the Upper Rooms put on a pre-season ball, as described in this advertisement in the Bath Chronicle.

There were also Balls at Gyde's Lower Rooms on Tuesday and Thursday Nights at the same price.

The racing took place from September 21st through to Thursday, the 24th, on Claverton Down.

Those owners of horse raced included:

The enormously wealthy gambler, horse breeder and pimp Denis O'Kelly.

Sir Richard Bamfylde MP for Exeter.

Lady Bampfylde
by Sir Joshua Reynolds,
c.1776

Mr Wildman was a very wealthy meat wholesaler.

Edmund Boyle, 8th Earl of Cork

John Parker of Saltram House in Devon. A close friend of the Prince of Wales

Beauchamp notation

Lady's Track

A Step with the Right Foot

Sometime in the 1680s, Louis XIV (who had founded the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661) ordered the dancing master and choreographer  Pierre Beauchamp to invent a way of making dance understood on paper. 

The king's command provoked a race among dancing masters to devise such a system, but Beauchamp prevailed and, after years of work, presented the King with five volumes of symbols with explanatory notes and complete notated dances. Beauchamp failed to obtain the required permissions to publish his work.

Gentleman's track

His system was taken up and finally published in 1700 by the Parisian ballet master Raoul-Auger Feuillet, who began a programme of publishing notated dances.

A Slide

It was used to record dances for the stage and domestic use throughout the eighteenth century. It was modified by Pierre Rameau in 1725 and survived into at least the 1780s in various modified forms.

Because of Beauchamp and Feuillet's work, we now have more than 300 fully notated dances from the 17th and 18th centuries available to dance today.

In 1706, the English Dancing Master published Orchesography, the first English Feuillet’s Chorégraphie. Weaver's introduction to an English-speaking audience of the Beauchamp-Feuillet notation enabled more widespread communication of dance compositions and promoted a uniform set of standards in dance throughout England. A Small Treatise of Time and Cadence in Dancing (1706) expanded the musical section in Orchesography. In An Essay Towards a History of Dancing (1712), Weaver drew from diverse sources to document the history of dance from its ancient traditions to the 18th century and argued for dance’s importance as a means of expression and a sign of social accomplishment. Weaver also wrote about the physical aspects of dance in Anatomical and Mechanical Lectures upon Dancing (1721), in which he emphasized the need to understand human anatomy to use the body as a tool of expression. Weaver’s contributions helped to establish dance in England as a narrative form and a respected method of artistic expression.

Masked balls much more than masks

In the 15th June 1769 edition of the Bath Chronicle the following description of the previous week's masked ball thrown by the Duke of Bolton on his estate at Hackwood near Basingstoke.

'The company began to assemble between seven and eight, and by ten o'clock, the rooms were very full of masks. About twelve, five different apartments were opened, in which the most elegant and beautiful sideboards were prepared, the illuminations at which were prettily conceived and finely executed; as were also a lighted temple and some other buildings in the gardens.

Lady Gideon

Mrs Garrick with her husband

The dresses in general were extremely magnificent. The Duchess of Bolton was in the habit of a Tartarian Princess, embroidered with diamonds. Lady Waldegrave, and Lady Mary Hay, as Eastern Sultanas, very richly dressed. Lady Harriet Williams and Lady Gideon were covered with a profusion of jewels. Two young ladies, habited like girls of Patmos, were remarked for their great beauty and dress. Lady Archer in the character of Ovisa. Mr. Askew, of the Guards, in the character of the Devil, and admirably kept up. Mrs. Ligonier was an elegant Savoyard, and a young Lady who accompanied her a beautiful Chanoincie. Garrick made a very fine figure in the Venetian carnival habit. A gentleman in the character of Tiddy Doll [a famous London character who made and sold gingerbread men], displayed great humour. The Duke of Manchester appeared in old English habit. Capt. Deburgh in the character of Osmyn [a character from a popular peice of musical theartre]. Capt. Pye as Tancred [a leader of the first crusade], his Lady as Ruben's wife. Two young ladies in the habit of vestals. Mr. James clothed as Pope, very well supported. Lady Mary Lowther, in the character of an old woman, afforded infinite humour. Lady Stanhope in the character of a French nosegay girl, which she supported with great humour.  The Duke of Bolton wore a domino.

Lady Waldegrave

Mrs Ruben and family

The whole company kept on their masks till about one o'clock, when they removed them down to supper, to which they were conveyed through a corridor beautifully illuminated with waxed lights. They did not begin to depart till past six in the morning, when the ladies seem to think, that the Faro bank had engrossed the attention of the gentlemen after supper. The illuminations in the woods, and the building erected there, were in admirable taste; and the whole exceedingly well conducted. It is said that there were 270000l. worth of jewels [approximately £37million at today's prices]  between three ladies.'

The following is taken from a letter of 1772 describing a masked ball in Southampton.

"The masked ball, on Thursday last, was not so numerous as a former one about two years ago; however, the characters were in general well supported, particularly that of a Devil, who, on entering the room, welcomed the company to his infernal regions, and expressed his joy at seeing so many of his true and faithful servants in all places; a very good Mother Shipton [ a medieval soothsayer and prophetess]; a Dutch Pedlar; a Tancred [a Norman leader of the First Crusade], tolerably well supported; a Running Footman; some Jews, Turks, and Persians, richly dressed; a magnificent Nabob; two very witty Haymakers, who exited the attention of all the beaux; several Shepherds and Shepherdesses; a Milk-maid and her companion, who did not unmask the whole evening."

It is instructive to compare this with Fanny Burney's fictional description of a masquerade in her novel Cecilia which she started writing in 1780, a year in which she came to stay in Bath with Hester Thrale. The story is told from the point of view of the heroine, who is attending a masquerade for the first time.

'Soon after nine o'clock every room was occupied, and the common crowd of regular masqueraders were dispersed through the various apartments. Dominos [sic] of no character, and fancy dresses of no meaning, made, as is usual at such meetings, the general herd of the company, for the rest, the men were Spaniards, chimney sweepers, Turks, watchmen, conjurers, and old women; and the ladies, shepherdesses, orange girls, Circassians, gipseys [sic], haymakers, and sultanas.

Cecilia had, as yet, escaped any address beyond the customary enquiry of Do you know me? and a few passing compliments; but when the rooms filled and the general crowd gave general courage, she was attacked in a manner more pointed and singular.

The very first mask who approached her seemed to have nothing less in view than preventing the approach of every other; yet had little reason to hope favour for himself, as the person he represented, of all others least alluring to the view, was the devil! He was black from head to foot, save that two red horns seemed to issue from his forehead; his face was completely covered that the sight only of his eyes was visible, his feet were cloven, and in his right hand. he held a wand of colour of fire."

In the Bath Chronicle on January 8th 1801, we hear of Mrs Champneys’ [sic] Masquerade

"Wednesday an elegant suite of apartments were thrown open at Orchardleigh-house [the Champney's ancestral home between Bath and Frome] for the reception of masks, who, to the number of 200, assembled at an early hour. In order to heighten the hilarity of the entertainment, all dominoes were excluded; the characters were numerous, and these, by their frequent change of dress , added  apparently to the catalogue of merry mortals. Among the most popular, a jessery wild goose in search of his daughter, an owl, a lame fiddler, Punch, a most beautiful figure in the dress of a Christ’s Hospital Boy, a Fury clothed in the terrors of infernal paraphernalia pursuing an Orestes, two chattering Barbers, a dancing bear, a pretty milk maid, an elegant representative of a fille de patmos, and a French taylor bien habille galloping on a very

A Fille de Patmos 1700

magnificent goose. This last mask, was exquisite, and by the drollery of its appearance, and the novelty of its accoutrements, preserved its fascination throughout the whole of the diversion. There were a few elegant figures of both sexes, very splendidly dressed, and although the parade and insipidity of finery is inconsistent with the true genius of a masquerade, yet even this is less offensive than noisy nonsense and impertinent clamour. The supper was served in the richest profusion; but from a laudable attention to the severity of “existing circumstances” the use of bread was entirely prohibited."

A masquerade, circa 1808.