| Citation |
EJMP.774.046
6 Apr 1774:31 (1/16)
Extract of a letter from Bath, Dec. 23. Poor young
Wroughton, after dancing past thirty couple at our last
ball, instantly droped down dead! his partner, and one
other lady fainted away; but some spirit of hartshorn, and
the still more powerful tincture of fiddle, enabled them to
save most part of the evening's amusement; and as for the
rest of the dancers, they no more regarded the loss of one
man, (where dancing men are so plenty) than a
Buckinghamshire lace-maker does the dropping of a single
bobbin. Had King Nash, however been living, I dare say he
would have instantly dismissed the fidler, and having
produced a little real concern, among people who were too
well bred to affect any. We have here a great number of
pretty women, and who are in possession too of a certain
charm which has great weight with us men, yet tho' we hear
of nothing but balls, cotilion dances, and continual parties
of jollity between the sexes, such a thing as a marriage, or
even a serious attachment is never mentioned, . . [full
column, ending with]
Entre nous, my dear friend, I will honestly own that I
had some tho'ts of popping the question to my partner, but
when I found that the death of a gentleman, who perhaps
killed himself rather than not dance every dance quite down,
made so little impression on the minds of all the ladies,
and none at all on my partner's, I am determined that she
and I shall remain two. If you have courage however to
venture, and will come down, I will engage to procure you a
ten thousand pounder. We have them plenty, and not a ticket
taken up. Adieu.
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