The Wits and Beaux of Society

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The Wits and Beaux of Society, by

Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Wits and Beaux of Society Volume 1
Author: Grace Wharton and Philip Wharton
Release Date: March 19, 2006 [EBook #18020]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE WITS AND BEAUX OF SOCIETY
BY GRACE AND PHILIP WHARTON
New Edition with a Preface
BY JUSTIN HUNTLY MCCARTHY, M.P.
And the original illustrations by H. K. BROWNE AND JAMES GODWIN
TWO VOLS.--VOL. I.
New York WORTHINGTON CO., 747 BROADWAY 1890
[Illustration: WHARTON'S ROGUISH PRESENT.]

DEDICATION.
DEAR MR. AUGUSTIN DALY,
May I write your name on the dedication page of this new edition of an old and pleasant book in token of our common interest in the people and the periods of which it treats, and as a small proof of our friendship?
Sincerely yours, JUSTIN HUNTLY M'CARTHY.
LONDON, July, 1890.

CONTENTS.
PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION p. xi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION p. xxv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION p. xxix
GEORGE VILLIERS, SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.
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 Shrewsbury.--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. 1
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 Grammont'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, Countess 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? p. 41
BEAU FIELDING.
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 Castlemaine.--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. p. 91
WILLIAM CONGREVE.
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 Predictions.--Dryden's Solicitude for his Son.--Congreve's Ambition.--Anecdote of Voltaire and Congreve.--The Profession of M?cenas.--Congreve's Private Life.--'Malbrook's' Daughter.--Congreve's Death and Burial. p. 106
BEAU NASH.
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'oeuvre.--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 Penitence.--Sir Robert Walpole duped.--Very Trying.--The Duke of Wharton's 'Whens.'--Military Glory at Gibraltar.--'Uncle Horace.'--Wharton to 'Uncle Horace.'--The Duke's Impudence.--High Treason.--Wharton's Ready Wit.--Last Extremities.--Sad Days in Paris.--His Last Journey to Spain.--His Death in a Bernardine Convent. p. 148
LORD HERVEY.
George II. arriving from Hanover.--His Meeting with the Queen.--Lady Suffolk.--Queen Caroline.--Sir Robert Walpole.--Lord Hervey.--A Set of Fine Gentlemen.--An Eccentric Race.--Carr, Lord Hervey.--A Fragile Boy.--Description of George II.'s Family.--Anne Brett.--A Bitter Cup.--The Darling of the Family.--Evenings at