| Share page |
|
Beau Nash at Tunbridge Wells
" My father was a Welsh gentleman, my mother niece to Colonel Poyer, who was murdered by Oliver for defending Pembroke. I was born October 18, 1674, in Swansea, Glamorganshire." So runs the only scrap of autobiography left behind him by Richard Nash. Nash the elder, a partner in a glass manufactory, was in circumstances sufficiently easy to send his son, first, to the Carmarthen Grammar School, and then to Jesus College, Oxford, at which latter place, Goldsmith states, " he showed that though much might be expected from his genius, nothing could be hoped from his industry." It is not clear whether he left the university of his own accord or at the express wish of the authorities; but he came down without taking a degree or discharging certain debts he had contracted. He was allowed to have his way and enter the army; but his father, having purchased for him an ensigncy, could not make him an allowance sufficient to enable him to indulge his tastes. After a short time, therefore, the young man sold his commission and went back for a while to the paternal roof; emerging again in 1693 to go to London, where he entered himself as a student at the Middle 12 131 |
||