Thomone, tatherine (Byerley);

THE

WITS and Beaux of SoCIETY

BY

GRACE AND PHILIP WHARTON
AUTHORS OF 'THE QUEENS OF SOCIETY'

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY

H. K. BROWNE AND JAMES GODWIN

GEORGE

LONDON

ROUTLEDGE AND SONS

BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL

NEW YORK: 9, LAFAYETTE PLACE

1883

-

Signs of the Restoration.-Samuel Pepys in his Glory.-A Royal Company.-

Pepys 'ready to Weep.'-The Playmate of Charles II.-George Villiers's

Inheritance. Two Gallant Young Noblemen.-The Brave Francis Villiers.

-After the Battle of Worcester.-Disguising the King.-Villiers in Hiding.

-He appears as a Mountebank. - Buckingham's Habits.-A Daring

Adventure.-Cromwell's Saintly Daughter.-Villiers and the Rabbi.-The

Buckingham Pictures and Estates. -York House. -Villiers returns to

England.-Poor Mary Fairfax.-Villiers in the Tower.-Abraham Cowley,

the Poet.-The Greatest Ornament of Whitehall.-Buckingham's Wit and

Beauty.-Flecknoe's Opinion of Him.-His Duel with the Earl of Shrews-

bury.-Villiers as a Poet.-As a Dramatist.-A Fearful Censure !-Villiers's

Influence in Parliament.-A Scene in the Lords.-The Duke of Ormond

in Danger.-Colonel Blood's Outrages.-Wallingford House and Ham

House. 'Madame Ellen.'-The Cabal.-Villiers again in the Tower.-A

Change. The Duke of York's Theatre.-Buckingham and the Princess of

Orange. His last Hours.-His Religion.-Death of Villiers.-The Duchess

of Buckingham.

p. I

COUNT DE GRAMMONT, ST. EVREMOND, AND

LORD ROCHESTER.

De Grammont's Choice.-His Influence with Turenne.-The Church or the

Army?-An Adventure at Lyons.-A brilliant Idea.-De Grammont's

Generosity.-A Horse for the Cards.'-Knight-Cicisbeism.-De Gram-

mont's first Love.-His Witty Attacks on Mazarin.-Anne Lucie de la

Mothe Houdancourt.-Beset with Snares.-De Grammont's Visits to

England.-Charles II. - The Court of Charles II. - Introduction of

Country-dances.-Norman Peculiarities.-St. Evremond, the Handsome

Norman.-The most Beautiful Woman in Europe.-Hortense Mancini's

Adventures.-Madame Mazarin's House at Chelsea.-Anecdote of Lord

Dorset.- Lord Rochester in his Zenith. His Courage and Wit.-

Rochester's Pranks in the City.-Credulity, Past and Present.-' Dr.

Bendo,' and La Belle Jennings.-La Triste Heritière.-Elizabeth, Coun-

tess of Rochester.-Retribution and Reformation.-Conversion.-Beaux

without Wit.-Little Jermyn. - An Incomparable Beauty.-Anthony

Hamilton, De Grammont's Biographer.-The Three Courts.- 'La Belle

Hamilton.'-Sir Peter Lely's Portrait of her.-The Household Deity of

Whitehall.-Who shall have the Calèche ?-A Chaplain in Livery.-De

Grammont's Last Hours.-What might he not have been? .

BEAU FIELDING.

P. 41

On Wits and Beaux.-Scotland Yard in Charles II.'s day.-Orlando of 'The

Tatler.'-Beau Fielding, Justice of the Peace.-Adonis in Search of a Wife.

-The Sham Widow.-Ways and Means.-Barbara Villiers, Lady Castle-

maine. Quarrels with the King.-The Beau's Second Marriage.-The

Last Days of Fops and Beaux.

p. 80

OF CERTAIN CLUBS AND CLUB-WITS UNDER

ANNE.

The Origin of Clubs.-The Establishment of Coffee-houses.-The October Club.

-The Beef-steak Club.-Of certain other Clubs.-The Kit-kat Club.-The

Romance of the Bowl.-The Toasts of the Kit-kat.-The Members of the

Kit-kat. A good Wit, and a bad Architect.—'Well-natured Garth.'-The

Poets of the Kit-kat.-Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax.-Chancellor

Somers. Charles Sackville, Lord Dorset.-Less celebrated Wits.

WILLIAM CONGREVE.

p. 91

When and where was he born?-The Middle Temple.-Congreve finds his

Vocation.-Verses to Queen Mary.-The Tennis-court Theatre.-Congreve

abandons the Drama.-Jeremy Collier.-The Immorality of the Stage.-

Very improper Things.-Congreve's Writings.-Jeremy's Short Views.'-

Rival Theatres.-Dryden's Funeral.-A Tub-Preacher.-Horoscopic Pre-

dictions.-Dryden's Solicitude for his Son.-Congreve's Ambition.-Anec-

dote of Voltaire and Congreve.-The Profession of Mæcenas.-Congreve's

Private Life.' Malbrook's' Daughter.-Congreve's Death and Burial.

BEAU NASH.

P. 106

The King of Bath.-Nash at Oxford.-'My Boy Dick.'-Offers of Knighthood.

-Doing Penance at York.-Days of Folly.-A very Romantic Story.-

Sickness and Civilization. -Nash descends upon Bath.-Nash's Chef-

d'œuvre. The Ball.-Improvements in the Pump-room, &c.-A Public

Benefactor.-Life at Bath in Nash's time.-A Compact with the Duke of

Beaufort.-Gaming at Bath.-Anecdotes of Nash. 'Miss Sylvia.'—A

Generous Act.-Nash's Sun setting.-A Panegyric.-Nash's Funeral.-His

Characteristics. .

P. 127

PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON.

Wharton's Ancestors.-His Early Years.-Marriage at Sixteen.-Wharton takes

leave of his Tutor.-The Young Marquis and the Old Pretender.-Frolics

at Paris.-Zeal for the Orange Cause.-A Jacobite Hero.-The Trial of

Atterbury. Wharton's Defence of the Bishop. - Hypocritical Signs of