These solemn
performances lasted about two hours, and we can easily imagine that the
rest of the company were delighted when the country dances, which
included everybody, began. The ball opened at six; the country dances
began at eight: at nine there was a lull for the gentlemen to offer
their partners tea; in due course the dances were resumed, and at eleven
Nash held up his hand to the musicians, and under no circumstances was
the ball allowed to continue after that hour. Nash well knew the value
of early hours to invalids, and he would not destroy the healing
reputation of Bath for the sake of a little more pleasure. On one
occasion the Princess Amelia implored him to allow one dance more. The
despot replied, that his laws were those of Lycurgus, and could not be
abrogated for any one. By this we see that the M.C. was already an
autocrat in his kingdom.
Nor is it to be supposed that his majesty's laws were confined to such
merely professional arrangements. Not a bit of it; in a very short time
his impudence gave him undenied right of interference with the coats and
gowns, the habits and manners, even the daily actions of his subjects,
for so the visitors at Bath were compelled to become.
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