he King of England's sister. The Common Council presented
him with the freedom of the City, and the Goldsmith's Company admitted
him into their society, and gave him a splendid box containing the
documents which made him a London citizen. The prince was the first
gentleman in Europe, and yet he did not disdain to add this new honour to
a family illustrious for fourteen hundred years.
On this occasion Lady Harrington was the means of getting Madame Cornelis
two hundred guineas. She lent her room in Soho Square to a confectioner
who gave a ball and supper to a thousand persons at three guineas each. I
paid my three guineas, and had the honour of standing up all the evening
with six hundred others, for the table only seated four hundred, and
there were several ladies who were unable to procure seats. That evening
I saw Lady Grafton seated beside the Duke of Cumberland. She wore her
hair without any powder, and all the other ladies were exclaiming about
it, and saying how very unbecoming it was. They could not anathematize
the innovator too much, but in less than six months Lady Grafton's style
of doing the hair became common, crossed the Channel, and spread all over
Europe, though it has been given another name. It is still in fashion,
and is the only method that can boast the age of thirty years, though it
was so unmercifully ridiculed at first.
The supper for which the giver of the feast had received three thousand
guineas, or sixty-five thousand francs, contained a most varied
assortment of delicacies, but as I had not been dancing, and did not feel
taken with any of the ladies present, I left at one in the morning. It
was Sunday, a day on which all persons, save criminals, are exempt from
arrest; but, nevertheless, the following adventure befell me:
I was dressed magnificently, and was driving home in my carriage, with my
negro and another servant seated behind me; and just as we entered Pall
Mall I heard a voice crying, "Good night, Seingalt." I put my head out of
the window to reply, and in an instant the carriage was surrounded by men
armed with pistols, and one of them said,--
"In the king's name!"
My servant asked what they wanted, and they answered,--
"To take him to Newgate, for Sunday makes no difference to criminals."
"And what crime have I committed?"
"You will hear that in prison."
"My master has a right to know his crime before he goes to prison," said
the negro.
"Yes, but the magistrat
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