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Royal Tunbridge Wells
the folly to address the peer in a London street, when his Lordship courteously assured him he did not know him. " But, my Lord," the man persisted, " you knew me at Tunbridge Wells." " Ah ! " said his Lordship, with superb insolence, " then I shall doubtless know you again—at Tunbridge Wells."
To-day people read more than they did when the majority spelt but indifferently, and they find congenial occupation in many sports and exercises. The men of those days cared nothing for walking, took little exercise, and did not know of such things as golf, cricket, tennis, and football: they found their amusement almost solely in social gatherings, in card-assemblies, in dancing, in song and woman. It is to be hoped that it is not disrespectful to the female sex to say that gallantry flourished in inverse ratio to athletics. The sole occupation then of many men was the pursuit of woman, and numbers came to the watering-places only to indulge this passion— no difficult task, if contemporary writers may be believed.
" This Night, our Author, to divert our Spleen, 'Mongst Crowds and Fools at Tunbridge lays his Scene, |
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