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Beau Nash at Tunbridge Wells
happen, nor is it likely that after your Demise we shall ever see it again."
Under the rule of Nash Bath soon became a place of great social importance in the kingdom, second only to the metropolis. What he had done for that city, most people believed he could effect elsewhere, and the other watering-places put themselves under his suzerainty. Only Epsom showed itself independent and elected its own monarch, and Derby, which had a code of its own for its Ladies' Assemblies. So great was the Beau's fame that there was but a little exaggeration, and that little entirely good-natured, in the dedication to him, by the anonymous author of the already mentioned Characters at the Hot-Well . . . and at Bath—
" When a Man writes the History of a Country, who is so proper a Patron for it as the Prince who governs it ? And when one writes Characters at Bath, who is so proper a Patron for such a Piece as yourself, under whose Protection there is so great Security, and in Shelter of whose Power so many who come there think themselves so happy ? Nor will it, I hope, be thought improper that I give you the Patronage of the Frequenters of the Hot-Well (at Bristol) too. Kings, Sir, are as K2 147 |
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