II--b--h, R------, D------, and B------,
and other Innumerables.
It was during the fashionable season of the year 1818, when Augusta
Corri, _ci-devant_ Lady Hawke,{1} shone forth under her newly-acquired
title a planet of the first order, that a few amorous noblemen and
wealthy dissolutes, ever on the _qui vive_ for novelty, projected and
sanctioned the celebrated Venetian carnival given at the Argyll-rooms
under the patronage of her ladyship and four other equally celebrated
courtezans. Of course, the female invitations were confined exclusively
to the sisterhood, but restricted to the planets and stars of Cytherea,
the carriage curiosities, and fair impures of the most dashing order and
notoriety; and never were the revels of Terpsichore kept up with more
spirit, or graced with a more choice collection of beautiful, ripe, and
wanton fair ones.
1 In page 315 of our first volume we have given a brief
biographical sketch of her ladyship and her amours.
~36~~Nor was there any lack of distinguished personages of the other
sex; almost all the leading _roues_ of the day being present, from Lord
p******** Tom B***, including many of the highest note in the peerage,
court calendar, and army list. The elegance and superior arrangement of
this Cytherean _fete_ was in the most exquisite taste; and such was the
number of applications for admissions, and the reported splendour of the
preparations, that great influence in a certain court was necessary to
insure a safe passport into the territories of the Paphian goddess.
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