I Shall Believe Nothing So Scandalous Of The Ladies Of This Town
And The Country Round It As A Late Writer Insinuates.
That the
ladies round the country appear mighty gay and agreeable at the
time of the fair in this
Town I acknowledge; one hardly sees such a
show in any part of the world; but to suggest they come hither, as
to a market, is so coarse a jest, that the gentlemen that wait on
them hither (for they rarely come but in good company) ought to
resent and correct him for it.
It is true, Bury Fair, like Bartholomew Fair, is a fair for
diversion, more than for trade; and it may be a fair for toys and
for trinkets, which the ladies may think fit to lay out some of
their money in, as they see occasion. But to judge from thence
that the knights' daughters of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and
Suffolk--that is to say, for it cannot be understood any otherwise,
the daughters of all the gentry of the three counties--come hither
to be picked up, is a way of speaking I never before heard any
author have the assurance to make use of in print.
The assembly he justly commends for the bright appearance of the
beauties; but with a sting in the tail of this compliment, where he
says they seldom end without some considerable match or intrigue;
and yet he owns that during the fair these assemblies are held
every night. Now that these fine ladies go intriguing every night,
and that too after the comedy is done, which is after the fair and
raffling is over for the day, so that it must be very late. This
is a terrible character for the ladies of Bury, and intimates, in
short, that most of them are loose women, which is a horrid abuse
upon the whole country.
Now, though I like not the assemblies at all, and shall in another
place give them something of their due, yet having the opportunity
to see the fair at Bury, and to see that there were, indeed,
abundance of the finest ladies, or as fine as any in Britain, yet I
must own the number of the ladies at the comedy, or at the
assembly, is no way equal to the number that are seen in the town,
much less are they equal to the whole body of the ladies in the
three counties; and I must also add, that though it is far from
true that all that appear at the assembly are there for matches or
intrigues, yet I will venture to say that they are not the worst of
the ladies who stay away, neither are they the fewest in number or
the meanest in beauty, but just the contrary; and I do not at all
doubt, but that the scandalous liberty some take at those
assemblies will in time bring them out of credit with the virtuous
part of the sex here, as it has done already in Kent and other
places, and that those ladies who most value their reputation will
be seen less there than they have been; for though the institution
of them has been innocent and virtuous, the ill use of them, and
the scandalous behaviour of some people at them, will in time arm
virtue against them, and they will be laid down as they have been
set up without much satisfaction.
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