Beaux and Belles of England

Beaux and Belles of England
[with accents]

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Title: Beaux and Belles of England Mrs. Mary Robinson, Written by
Herself, With the Lives of the Duchesses of Gordon and Devonshire by
Grace and Phillip Wharton
Author: Mary Robinson
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9822] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 21,
2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Frontispiece: The Attempted Abduction Original painting by B.
Wesley Rand]

Beaux & Belles of England
Mrs. Mary Robinson
Written by Herself
With the Lives of the Duchesses of Gordon and Devonshire by Grace
and Philip Wharton
London
EDITION DE LUXE

INTRODUCTION TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION
The following brief memoirs of a beautiful, engaging, and, in many
respects, highly gifted woman require little in the way of introduction.
While we may trace same little negative disingenuousness in the writer,
in regard to a due admission of her own failings, sufficient of
uncoloured matter of fact remains to show the exposed situation of an
unprotected beauty--or, what is worse, of a female of great personal and
natural attraction, exposed to the gaze of libertine rank and fashion,
under the mere nominal guardianship of a neglectful and profligate
husband. Autobiography of this class is sometimes dangerous; not so
that of Mrs. Robinson, who conceals not the thorns inherent in the
paths along which vice externally scatters roses; For the rest, the
arrangement of princely establishments in the way of amour is
pleasantly portrayed in this brief volume, which in many respects is not

without its moral. One at least is sufficiently obvious, and it will be
found in the cold-hearted neglect which a woman of the most
fascinating mental and personal attractions may encounter from those
whose homage is merely sensual, and whose admiration is but a snare.

EDITOR'S PREFACE
The author of these memoirs, Mary Robinson, was one of the most
prominent and eminently beautiful women of her day. From the
description she furnishes of her personal appearance, we gather that her
complexion was dark, her eyes large, her features expressive of
melancholy; and this verbal sketch corresponds with her portrait, which
presents a face at once grave, refined, and charming. Her beauty,
indeed, was such as to attract, amongst others, the attentions of Lords
Lyttelton and Northington, Fighting Fitzgerald, Captain Ayscough, and
finally the Prince of Wales; whilst her talents and conversation secured
her the friendship and interest of David Garrick, Richard Brinsley
Sheridan, Charles James Fox, Joshua Reynolds, Arthur Murphy, the
dramatist, and various other men of distinguished talent.
Though her memoirs are briefly sketched, they are sufficiently vivid to
present us with various pictures of the social life of the period of which
she was the centre. Now we find her at the Pantheon, with its coloured
lamps and brilliant music, moving amidst a fashionable crowd, where
large hoops and high feathers abounded, she herself dressed in a habit
of pale pink satin trimmed with sable, attracting the attention of men of
fashion. Again she is surrounded by friends at Vauxhall Gardens, and
barely escapes from a cunning plot to abduct her,--a plot in which
loaded pistols and a waiting coach prominently figure; whilst on
another occasion she is at Ranelagh, where, in the course of the evening,
half a dozen gallants "evinced their attentions;" and ultimately she
makes her first appearance as an actress on the stage of Drury Lane,
before a brilliant house, David Garrick, now retired, watching her from
the orchestra, whilst she played Juliet in pink satin richly spangled with
silver, her head ornamented with white feathers.
The fact of her becoming an actress brought about the turning-point in
her life; it being whilst