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He stretched himself as he spoke, first half-way up to the ceiling, and then fairly out of the room. Randal, with his May Fair manner, turned towards Mrs. Avenel as if to apologize for her husband and himself. "Poor Richard!" said she, "he is in one of his humours, all men have them. Come and see me again soon. When does Almack's open?"
Horace Walpole, writing of May in this year, says that General Smith, an adventurer from the East Indies, who was taken off by Foote in The Nabob, 'being excluded from the fashionable club of young men of quality at Almack's, had, with a set of sharpers, formed a plan for a new club, which, by the excess of play, should draw all the young extravagants thither.
There was myself. I spoke of myself; of myself, of myself, of myself; of Nosology, of my pamphlet, and of myself. I turned up my nose, and I spoke of myself. "Marvellous clever man!" said the Prince. "Superb!" said his guests: and next morning her Grace of Bless-my-Soul paid me a visit. "Will you go to Almack's, pretty creature?" she said, tapping me under the chin. "Upon honor," said I.
I begin to think of sending a daily card to Almack's." "Sir, I am an old friend of Miss Manners," I replied, "having grown up with her in Maryland " "Are you Mr. Carvel?" he demanded abruptly, taking his hat from his arm. "Yes," I answered, surprised. In the gleam of the portico lanthorn he scrutinized me for several seconds.
Never mind if his vanity is puffed up; he is very good-natured; he has rescued two unfortunate people, and pumped tears of goodwill and happiness out of their eyes: and if he brags a little to-night, and swaggers somewhat to the chaplain, and talks about London, and Lord March, and White's, and Almack's, with the air of a macaroni, I don't think we need like him much the less.
In London a serious difficulty presented itself when Queen Charlotte grew old and ailing, and there was no royal lady, not merely to hold a Drawing-room, but to lend the necessary touch of dignity and decorum to the gaieties of the season. The exigency lent a new impetus to the famous balls at Almack's.
Marmaduke to fidgeting in his seat, and he came to the rescue with all the town-talk at his command. He knew little else. Could Mr. Walpole tell him of this club of both sexes just started at Almack's? Mr. Walpole could tell a deal, tho' he took the pains first to explain that he was becoming too old for such frivolous and fashionable society.
Still, as he was not a gambler, and was withal a moral man, no great inroad upon his purse would have resulted from a few entertainments thus bestowed upon his sponging acquaintances, who, as he really supposed, were reversing the order of the obligation, by the light and flashy touches they gave him of high life in Europe, relating, with great particularity, their adventures in France, dining with the Dukes of Chartres and Angouleme, and attending the opera with the Duke of Berry and the Countess de Chausel, visiting Rome with the grand Duke of Tuscany, and flirting with the Countess Guiccioli, in the absence of Lord Byron, engaged in the chase with the Percies of Northumberland, or at Almack's, with the Marchioness of Conyngham, all of which apocryphal incidents and adventures my simple-minded friend received as sober verity, and felt himself exceedingly edified thereby.
On the opening of the New Assembly Rooms at Bath, which commenced with a ridotto, Sept. 30, 1771, he wrote a humorous description of the entertainment, called "An Epistle from Timothy Screw to his Brother Henry, Waiter at Almack's," which appeared first in the Bath Chronicle, and was so eagerly sought after, that Crutwell, the editor, was induced to publish it in a separate form.
Marmaduke to fidgeting in his seat, and he came to the rescue with all the town-talk at his command. He knew little else. Could Mr. Walpole tell him of this club of both sexes just started at Almack's? Mr. Walpole could tell a deal, tho' he took the pains first to explain that he was becoming too old for such frivolous and fashionable society.
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