Being, However, At Length Tired Of The Crowd, And Being Tired Also
With Always Moving Round And Round In A
Circle, I sat myself down in
one of the boxes, in order to take some refreshment, and was now
contemplating
At my ease this prodigious collection and crowd of a
happy, cheerful world, who were here enjoying themselves devoid of
care, when a waiter very civilly asked me what refreshments I wished
to have, and in a few moments returned with what I asked for. To my
astonishment he would accept no money for these refreshments; which
I could not comprehend, till he told me that everything was included
in the half-crown I had paid at the door; and that I had only to
command if I wished for anything more; but that if I pleased, I
might give him as a present a trifling douceur. This I gave him
with pleasure, as I could not help fancying I was hardly entitled to
so much civility and good attention for one single half-crown.
I now went up into the gallery, and seated myself in one of the
boxes there; and from thence becoming all at once a grave and
moralising spectator, I looked down on the concourse of people who
were still moving round and round in the fairy circle; and then I
could easily distinguish several stars and other orders of
knighthood; French queues and bags contrasted with plain English
heads of hair, or professional wigs; old age and youth, nobility and
commonalty, all passing each other in the motley swarm. An
Englishman who joined me during this my reverie, pointed out to me
on my enquiring, princes and lords with their dazzling stars; with
which they eclipsed the less brilliant part of the company.
Here some moved round in an eternal circle to see and be seen; there
a group of eager connoisseurs had placed themselves before the
orchestra and were feasting their ears, while others at the well-
supplied tables were regaling the parched roofs of their mouths in a
more substantial manner, and again others, like myself, were sitting
alone, in the corner of a box in the gallery, making their remarks
and reflections on so interesting a scene.
I now and then indulged myself in the pleasure of exchanging, for
some minutes, all this magnificence and splendour for the gloom of
the garden, in order to renew the pleasing surprise I experienced on
my first entering the building. Thus I spent here some hours in the
night in a continual variation of entertainment; when the crowd now
all at once began to lessen, and I also took a coach and drove home.
At Ranelagh the company appeared to me much better, and more select
than at Vauxhall; for those of the lower class who go there, always
dress themselves in their best, and thus endeavour to copy the
great. Here I saw no one who had not silk stockings on. Even the
poorest families are at the expense of a coach to go to Ranelagh, as
my landlady assured me.
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