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CHAPTER IV |
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BEAU NASH AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS, AND OTHER MASTERS OF THE CEREMONIES
To Tunbridge Wells in the earlier decades of the eighteenth century came many people, but not yet to any great extent fashionable folk other than those who wished to try the effect of the waters. The inhabitants desired that " The Wells" should be a resort as popular as Bath, but they had the good sense to realise that the place had no attractions to offer to persons in search of amusement and to see that they could achieve their desire only if these were provided. Not knowing how to set about this business, in their dilemma they did the wisest thing possible : they invited the King of Bath, the great Beau Nash himself, to accept the position of director of the town's entertainment. There was not a watering-place in England that would not have welcomed Nash in this capacity, and Tunbridge Wells regarded itself as peculiarly fortunate when 128 |
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