emples. He thrust his horse's
head into the carriage, rather abruptly and indecorously, (as one not
accustomed to the haut-ton might suppose) but it gave no offence. He
smiled affectedly, adjusted his hat, pulled a lock of hair across his
forehead, with a view of shewing the whiteness of the latter, and next,
that the glossiness of the former must have owed its lustre to at least
two hours brushing, arranging, and perfuming; used his quizzing-glass,
and took snuff with a flourish. Lady Townley condescended to caress the
horse, and to display her lovely white arm ungloved, with which she
patted the horse's neck, and drew a hundred admiring eyes.
The exquisite all this time brushed the animal gently with a
highly-scented silk handkerchief, after which he displayed a cambric
one, and went through a thousand little playful airs and affectations,
which Bob thought would have suited a fine lady better than a lieutenant
in his Majesty's brigade of guards. Applying the lines of an inimitable
satire, (The Age of Frivolity) to the figure before him, he concluded:
"That gaudy dress and decorations gay,
The tinsel-trappings of a vain array.
The spruce trimm'd jacket, and the waving plume,
The powder'd head emitting soft perfume;
These may make fops, but never can impart
The soldier's hardy frame, or daring heart;
May in Hyde-Park present a splendid train,
But are not weapons for a dread campaign;
May please the fair, who like a tawdry beau,
But are not fit to check an active foe;
Such heroes may acquire sufficient skill
To march erect, and labour through a drill;
In some sham-fight may manfully hold out,
But must not hope an enemy to rout."
Although he talked a great deal, the whole amount of his discourse was
to inform her Ladyship that (_Stilletto_) meaning his horse, (who in
truth appeared to possess more fire and spirit than his rider could
either boast of or command,) had cost him only 700 guineas, and was
_prime blood_; that the horse his groom rode, was _nothing but a
_good one_, and had run at the _Craven--that he had been prodigiously
fortunate that season on the turf--that he was a bold rider, and could
not bear himself without a fine high spirited animal--and, that being
engaged to dine at ~19~~three places that day, he was desperately at a
loss to know how he should act; but
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