Part 1

Transcribed from the L. B. Seeley 1817 (eighth) edition by David Price, email [email protected], using scans made available by the British Library.

[Picture: Book cover]

THE Fashionable World DISPLAYED.

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BY THE _REV. JOHN OWEN_, _A.M._

LATE FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND RECTOR OF PAGLESHAM, ESSEX.

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VELUTI IN SPECULUM.

_THE STAGE_.

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Eighth Edition.

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LONDON: PRINTED FOR L. B. SEELEY, FLEET STREET. 1817.

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TO THE RIGHT REVEREND BEILBY PORTEUS, D.D. _LORD BISHOP OF LONDON_, NOT MORE DISTINGUISHED BY HIS ELOQUENCE AS A PREACHER, HIS VIGILANCE AS A PRELATE, HIS SANCTITY AS A CHRISTIAN, AND HIS VARIOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS A SCHOLAR AND A MAN, THAN BY HIS INDEFATIGABLE EXERTIONS TO DETECT THE ERRORS, REBUKE THE FOLLIES, AND REFORM THE VICES, OF THE FASHIONABLE WORLD, THE FOLLOWING ATTEMPT TO BENEFIT THAT PART OF SOCIETY, BY MEANS TOO FREQUENTLY EMPLOYED TO CORRUPT IT, IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY HIS LORDSHIP’S FAITHFUL AND DUTIFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

_Fulham_.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE _EIGHTH EDITION_.

THE following little Work was originally published in the Spring of 1804, under the assumed name of Theophilus Christian, Esq. From the high commendation bestowed on it by the late Bishop Porteus, the Author was induced to avow himself in the second impression, and to prefix a Dedication, in which he endeavoured to do some justice to the merits of that Prelate, whose character he united with the public in revering, and whose patronage and friendship he had the honour to enjoy.

The Author is not insensible to the degree of improvement in the general tone of society, which has rendered certain strictures on the grosser qualities of a Fashionable character, somewhat less appropriate than they were at the period of their first publication. He wishes, however, he could convince himself, that the improvement to which he alludes, and of which he desires to speak with becoming respect, were not to be interpreted as originating more in _humour_ than in _principle_, and as indicating rather the progress of refinement than the influence of virtue. The peccant evil, he is sorry to observe, continues to exist; and, however the form of its operation may have been varied, its spirit remains the same. On this account, it did not appear to the Author expedient to tamper with his text. He felt persuaded that its application will be found sufficiently accurate for every practical purpose; and he could not consent to weaken its force by over-scrupulous concessions to the pleadings of candour, or the requirements of temporary accommodation.

If an apology should be thought necessary for the little place which has been allowed for remarks of a purely religious description, that apology will be furnished by the nature and design of the Work. To produce a disaffection to a life of sense, with all its blandishments, and under all its modifications, was the end which the Author proposed to himself; and his means were chosen with a reference to that end. In whatever degree he may succeed in effecting it, he will think that he has gained no ordinary point; inasmuch as they who despair of happiness in the ways of sin, are so far prepared to embrace that godliness, which is “profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

_Fulham_, _February_ 28, 1817.

INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE often been surprised, that among the many descriptions which ingenious writers have given of places and people comparatively insignificant, no complete and systematic account has yet been written of the Fashionable World. It is true, that our poets and caricaturists have honoured this people with a great share of their notice, and many particulars, not a little edifying, have been made known, through the medium of their admirable publications. It is also true, that our prose-writers have occasionally cast a very pertinent glance over this fairy ground. Some of these latter have even gone so far, as to write absolute treatises upon certain parts of the Fashionable character. Mrs. More, for example, has delineated the religion, and Lord Chesterfield the morals, of this singular people with the greatest exactness and precision. Nor would it be just to overlook the very acceptable labours of those writers who, in their Court-calendars and Court-almanacks, bring us acquainted, from time to time, with the modes of dress which prevail in the Fashionable World, and the names of its most distinguished inhabitants. But after all that has been done, towards exhibiting the manners, and unfolding the character, of this splendid community, much remains to be done: for though certain details have been well enough handled, yet I repeat, that a complete and systematic account of the Fashionable World, is still a desideratum in Cosmography.

I am far from pretending to either the ability or the design of supplying this deficiency. The utmost that I propose to myself, is to bring more particulars into a group, than former writers have done; and to exhibit an outline, upon which others of more enlarged experience may improve. It seems to me of great importance to the interests of society, that its members should be known to each other: and of this I am persuaded, that if there be one description of people, the knowledge of whose genuine character would be more edifying to mankind than another, it is—the people of Fashion.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. I.—PAGE 1. _Situation—Boundaries—Climate—Seasons_.

CHAP. II.—PAGE 19. _Government—Laws_, _&c._

CHAP. III.—PAGE 46. _Religion and Morality_.

CHAP. IV.—PAGE 73. _Education_.

CHAP. V.—PAGE 89. _Manners—Language_.

CHAP. VI.—PAGE 108. _Dress—Amusements_.

CHAP. VII.—PAGE 127. _Happiness of the People estimated_.

CHAP. VIII.—PAGE 142. _Defect of the System—Plans of Reform—Conclusion_.

CHAP. I.

SITUATION—BOUNDARIES—CLIMATE—SEASONS.

THOUGH I do not undertake to write a geographical account of the Fashionable World, yet I should think myself highly culpable were I to pass over this interesting part of the subject wholly in silence. My readers must be at the same time cautioned, not to form their expectations of the geography of Fashion from that of other countries. The fact is, that the whole community which sustains this appellation, extensive as it is, can scarcely be treated as having any peculiar or exclusive locality. The individuals who compose it, are not, it is true, absolute wanderers, like the tribes of Arabia; nor yet are they regular settlers, like the convicts at Botany Bay: but moveable and migratory to a certain degree, and to a certain degree stationary and permanent, they live among the inhabitants of the parent country; neither absolutely mixing with them, nor yet actually separated from them.

This paradoxical state of the people renders it not a little difficult to reduce their territory within the rules of geographical description. They have, it is true, their _degrees_ and their _circles_; but these terms are used by people of Fashion in a sense so different from that which geographers have assigned them, that they afford no sort of assistance to the topographical enquirer. It is, I presume, on this account, that in all the improvements which have been made upon the globe, nothing has been done towards settling the meridian of Fashion; and though the Laplanders, the Hottentots, and the Esquimaux, have places assigned them, no more notice is taken of the people of Fashion, than if they either did not exist, or were not worthy of being mentioned.

The only expedient, therefore, to which a writer can resort, in this dearth of geographical materials, is that of designating the territory of Fashion by the ordinary names of the several places through which it passes. And this is, in fact, strictly conformable to that usage which prevails in the language and communication of the people themselves: for London, Tunbridge, Bath, Weymouth, &c. are, in their mouths, names for little else than the lands and societies of Fashion which they respectively contain.

Now, the portion of each place to which Fashion lays claim, is neither definite as to its dimensions, nor fixed as to its locality. In London, a small proportion of the whole is Fashionable; in Bath, the proportion is greater; and in some watering-places of the latest creation, Fashion puts in her demand for nearly the whole. The locality of its domains is also contingent and mutable. Various circumstances concur in determining, when a portion of ground shall become Fashionable, and when it shall cease to be such. The only rule of any steadiness with which I am acquainted, and which chiefly relates to the metropolis, is that which prescribes a _western_ latitude: {5} if this be excepted, (which indeed admits of no relaxation,) events of very little moment decide all the rest. If, for example, a Duchess, or the wife of some bourgeois-gentilhomme, who has purchased the privileges of the order, should open a suite of rooms for elegant society in any new quarter, the soil is considered to receive a sort of consecration by such a circumstance; and an indefinite portion of the vicinity is added to the territory of Fashion. If, on the other hand, a shop be opened, a sign hung out, or any symptom of business be shewn, in a quarter that has hitherto been a stranger to every sound but the rattling of carriages, the thunder of knockers, and the vociferation of coachmen and servants, it is ten to one but the privileges of Fashion are withdrawn from that place; and the whole range of buildings is gradually given up to those, who are either needy enough to keep shops, or vulgar enough to endure them. Now, it happens as a consequence from this adoption of new soil and disfranchisement of old, that the territory of Fashion is extremely irregular and interrupted. A traveller, determined to pursue its windings, would soon be involved in a most mysterious labyrinth; his track would be crossed by portions of country which throw him repeatedly out of his beat: insomuch that his progress would resemble that of a naturalist, who, in tracing the course of a mineral through the bowels of the earth, encounters various breaks and intersections, and often finds the corresponding parts of the same stratum unaccountably separated from each other.

It would be only fatiguing the reader to say more upon the topographical part of my subject. It is obvious, from what has been stated, that the regions of Fashion, considered as a whole, are rather numerous than compact: and, indeed, such difference of opinion subsists among the people themselves upon the territories which are entitled to that name, that no correct judgment can be pronounced upon a question of so great controversy. Thus much, however, may be affirmed, that there is scarcely a market-town in the kingdom, in which some portion of land is not invested with Fashionable privileges; and designated by such terms, as mark the wish of the inhabitants, to have it considered as forming part and parcel of the demesnes of Fashion.

The _Climate_ of Fashion is almost entirely factitious and artificial; and consequently differs in many material respects from the natural temperature of those several places over which its jurisdiction extends. Though changes from heat to cold, and vice versa, are very common among these people, yet heat may be said to be the prevailing character of the climate. They appear to me to have but two Seasons in the year; these they call, in conformity to ordinary language, rather than to just calculation, Winter and Summer. Of Summer little is known: for it seems to be a rule among this people, to disband and disperse at the approach of it; and not to rally or re-unite, till the Winter has fairly commenced. Though, therefore, they exist somehow or somewhere, {10} during the Summer months; they wish it to be considered, that they do not exist under their Fashionable character. They wash themselves in the sea, drink laxative waters, lose a little money at billiards, or catch a few colds at public rooms; but all these things they do as individuals, and wholly out of their corporate capacity as members of the community of Fashion. So that in their mode of disposing of the Summer, they invert the standing rule of most other animals; they choose the fair season for their torpid state, and shew no signs of life but during the Winter. It is not easy to say exactly when the Winter _begins_ in the Fashionable World; an inhabitant of Bath would have one mode of reckoning, and an inhabitant of London another. To do justice to the subject, the commencement of Winter ought to be regulated by the former of these places, and the close of it by the latter. Supposing, therefore, that it begins some time in November, there can be no difficulty in settling its duration; for the 4th of June {12} is, by a tacit yet binding ordinance, considered as a limit, which a Fashionable Winter can seldom, if ever, exceed.

There are many circumstances in which the Climate of Fashion stands peculiarly distinguished from every other. It has already been intimated that heat is its prevailing characteristic: it is, moreover, not a little remarkable, that this heat is at its highest point in the Winter season; and that the inhabitants often perspire more freely when the snow is upon the ground, than they do in the dog-days. The truth is, that, as was before said, the Climate is wholly created by artificial circumstances, and the natural temperature of the air is completely done away. The sort of communication which these people keep up with each other, is considered to require a species of apparatus which fills their atmosphere with an immoderate degree of phlogiston. Besides this, they are notoriously fond of assembling in insufferable crowds; and travellers have assured us, that they have often witnessed from ten to twelve hundred persons suffocating each other, within a space which would scarcely have afforded convenient accommodation for a dozen families. And this may enable us in some measure to account for the little benefit which modish invalids are said to derive from their frequent removals to the healthiest spots in the universe. The original object of such a prescription was doubtless to change the air; and certainly no expedient could have been better imagined for bracing a constitution relaxed by too intense application to the business of a Fashionable life. But the usages of the order render a change of air, to any salutary purpose, utterly impracticable: for the weakest members of the community consider themselves bound to kindle a flame wherever they go; and thus they breathe the same phlogisticated air all over the world.

They profess to adopt the ordinary divisions of time; and they talk like other people of _Day_ and _Night_: but their mode of computing each is so vague and unnatural, that inhabitants of the same meridian with themselves scarcely understand what they mean by the terms. A great part of this difficulty may possibly arise from the very small portion of solar light with which they are visited. For certain it is, that no people upon earth have less benefit from the light of the sun than the people of Fashion; so that if it were not for torches, candles, and lamps, they would scarcely ever see each other’s faces.

With regard to the constitutions of these people, I have been inclined to think them naturally robust, from observing the astonishing heat and fatigue which they are accustomed to endure. And in this respect the women have appeared to evince an uncommon degree of hardiness: for, besides that they wear on every occasion a lighter species of clothing than the men, I have been confidently told that many among them will appear, in the severest part of the season, with dresses of such transparency and scantiness, as convince every beholder that they who wear them are utter strangers to the weaknesses of the sex. There is, however, some room for doubting, whether the air which this people breathe, and the usages which prevail among them, are favorable to the constitution. Their patience of fatigue has been thought to be wholly the result of habit, and their hardiness has been conjectured to be little more than an air of extravagance and bravado. The frequent transitions which they make from heat to cold, and back again from cold to heat; perhaps half-a-dozen times in as many hours; must very materially diminish the physical strength of their bodies. Certain it is, that their natural countenances do not betray the usual symptoms of health; and it is, I believe, admitted, that instances of extraordinary longevity are not very common among them.

CHAP. II.

GOVERNMENT—LAWS, &c.

THE History of the Fashionable World is a sort of undertaking, which, to be accurately executed, would require abundantly more leisure and diligence than I could afford to bestow upon it: and I very much doubt, whether, after all, one reader out of a hundred would be at the pains of perusing it. The fact is, that the members of this community are not sufficiently substantial to form historical pictures. Their employments are not of a nature to make their memory an object with mankind. Hence, though they make a splendid appearance in a ball-room, they appear to little advantage in a record; and, like the dancing figures in a magic-lantern, they seem to have answered the end of their being, when they have afforded an evening’s amusement. For these and other reasons which might be assigned, I shall content myself with giving a brief account of their Polity and Laws; referring those of my readers who are desirous of further information upon their history, to Novels and Romances, and to such Chronicles of antiquity, as have preserved the memorials of obsolete and superannuated manners.

It is a task of no ordinary difficulty to convey any tolerable idea of this people, in their aggregate or national capacity. Consisting, as they do, of various and detached societies, they are yet considered to possess a sort of federal relation among each other; and to unite into an imaginary whole, under the collective denomination of the Fashionable World. It is under this aggregate character that they take their rank in society; and the appellation which denotes their community, is recognised by the tradesmen who advertise for their custom, and the politicians who discourse of their affairs. A very handsome proportion of the daily newspapers is devoted to their service; and intelligence from their drawing-rooms is reported with as much regularity as that which is derived from the first cabinets in Europe. Indeed, the minuteness with which their routs and dances, their dresses and dainties, the expressions they utter, the company they keep, and the excesses they commit, are detailed, is at once an evidence that these people are considered to have a corporate existence; and that no little consequence is attached to their proceedings. I wish, with all my heart, that they thought a little more of this; they would then scarcely run into such extravagancies, as make them, on too many occasions, objects of ridicule to one part of society, and dangerous examples to the other.

Their _Population_ is more fluctuating and uncertain than that of any people upon the face of the earth. There are among them certain tribes, or families, distinguished by different descendable titles, who are said to claim a sort of prescriptive right to the name of Fashionables. In these the federal appellation continues hereditary; and it is an axiom among the body, that people of _Quality_ (for this is the term by which they designate the titled gentry) can never be out of Fashion.

This is, it must be observed, their _own_ representation of the matter; and I am inclined to suspect that there is no little management at the bottom of it. There is something, no doubt, very splendid in the idea of including all the families of rank within the limits of Fashion; and it is a mark of no contemptible policy, to have constructed an axiom which so effectually cuts off their retreat. But surely, it would be but decent to allow the gentry of the realm to have a voice in the business. There _have been_ times, in which many of our Nobles would have thought themselves dishonoured by being presumed of course to sustain a Fashionable character. I cannot but think, that if the modern nobility were fairly consulted, several of them would _still_ be found to entertain the same opinion; and that persons of the first distinction in the country would be among that number.

However that be, these dignified families are, according to Fashionable computation, almost the only standing members of the community; and, if these be excepted, all the rest of their body is mutable in the extreme.

There is a perpetual reciprocation of numbers between them and the society in which they reside. Scarcely an hour passes without some interchange. The gossip of every day announces that some have migrated from the region of Fashion, and that others have made their appearance within it for the first time. The causes which produce these variations, and the reasons by which they are defended, are in some instances too mysterious, and in others too frivolous, to become subjects of recital. In general it may be affirmed, that though persons become Fashionable _with_ the concurrence of their will, they cease to be such _against_ it. For, if a few accidental converts to plain sense and sober piety be excepted, the greater part of those who retire have been superseded; and resign their places, only because they cannot any longer retain them. However that be, the fluctuation thus occasioned in the numbers and characters of those who compose this Fashionable Community, diversifies its complexion daily; and renders a precise account of its population and totality utterly impossible.

The form of government subsisting among this people, so far as it can be traced out, is Oligarchical, and the spirit of it is absolute and despotical. The few in whose hands the supreme authority resides, do not consist of any regular or definite number, nor are they confined to any particular sex. In general, they are composed of persons out of both sexes, who, while they exercise a separate influence in things relating to the sexes respectively, possess also a common jurisdiction in matters of universal concern.