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Royal Tunbridge Wells
bourhood. Nash allotted to every hour its special occupation, and to this programme every one, wealthy or poor, nobleman or citizen, adhered. So it happened that every one at " The Wells" did exactly what every one else did, and at the same time. The company need not have done so, of course; they might have sat in their apartments and read; they might have taken long walks; a number of things might have been done by them at an hour different from that at which the other visitors were doing them. Few, however, struck out aline for themselves : like sheep they followed their leader. Indeed, for the most part, they went to the watering-places with the fixed determination to do as the rest of the world there did. The fact is, that, in spite of all that has been said and written to the contrary, the Englishman and Englishwoman of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, especially those whose position was assured, were gregarious. Those, on the other hand, who were not sure of their social standing, or who had no social standing at all, could not resist the temptation to fraternise with those above them in station. This was then no difficult matter, for those who went to the spas were willing to have 234 |
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