The society was in fact in a
very barbarous condition at the time, and people who came for pleasure
liked to be at ease. Thus ladies lounged into the balls in their
riding-hoods or morning dresses, gentlemen in boots, with their pipes in
their mouths. Such atrocities were intolerable to the late frequenter of
London society, and in his imperious arrogance, the new monarch used
actually to pull off the white aprons of ladies who entered the
assembly-rooms with that _degage_ article, and throw them upon the back
seats. Like the French emperor, again, he treated high and low in the
same manner, and when the Duchess of Queensberry appeared in an apron,
coolly pulled it off, and told her it was only fit for a maid-servant.
Her grace made no resistance.
The men were not so submissive; but the M.C. turned them into ridicule,
and whenever a gentleman appeared at the assembly-rooms in boots, would
walk up to him, and in a loud voice remark, 'Sir, I think you have
forgot your horse.' To complete his triumph, he put the offenders into a
song called 'Trentinella's Invitation to the Assembly.'
'Come, one and all,
To Hoyden Hall,
For there's the assembly this night:
None but proud fools,
Mind manners and rules;
We Hoydens do decency slight.
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