| Citation |
RAG.780.164
26 Sep 1780:21 (308)
From the Royal South-Carolina Gazette. . . [Report of a
Regatta]
Upon the evening of the arrival of Colonel Clarke, of the
fuzileers, his Excellency Governor Tonyn entertained the
public with an exhibition of fire-works in the Great Square
before the town house; some days previous to which he had
given a grand concert at his own house; and, upon the 12th
of the month (August) in honour of sir Henry Clinton's
success at Charles-Town, as well as it being the Prince of
Wales's birth-day, he was again pleased to give a regatta to
a respectable company of ladies and gentlemen, military and
civil, the first amusement of the kind ever known in these
more southern colonies; a description of which is attempted
as follows:
About six in the morning the company assembled to
breakfast at the government house, . . . [procession] to
embark in the respective barges provided for them, . . .
whose gay appearance may be compared to Mr. Pope's
description of Belinda in her excursion to Hampton Court.
Not with more glories in th' etherial plain,
The sun first rises o'er the purpl'd main,
Than issuing fort, the rival of his beams,
Launch'd on the bosom of the silver Thames,
Fair nymphs, and well drest youths, &c.
A little after seven the fleet got under way, attended with
the music of the 60th regiment in two boats, one ahead, the
other a stern, and proceeded up the broad navigable river to
Mr. Moss's plantation, . . .
At dinner the ladies and gentlemen were intermixt, a much
better method than placing them separately at different ends
of a table like so many nuns and monks to the ruin of all
sprightly conversation, which order was also observed at the
different embarkations through the day, when they were
changing from one barge to another to vary partners; . . .
But to change the subject from Mars to Venus, it will not
be amiss to introduce another quotation from Cleopatra's
sailing down the Cydnus, which may with some alteration be
applied to more than one of the ladies present in the
descriptive sense.
Her galley on the glassy river row'd,
The tackling silk, the streamers wav'd with gold,
Where she another sea born Goddess sat,
She sat, and lean'd her cheek upon her hand,
. . . [3 lines]
To conclude--- The day evening and evening were spent in
much mirth, water wit, and decorum; and those gentlemen who
did not retire to dance with the ladies continued at table,
where there was a profusion of excellent liquor, . . .
[return to town] accompanied by the music echoing from the
woods upon each side of the river, . . .
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