| Share page |
|
Royal Tunbridge Wells
a bell. " Why does he do that ? " Lady New-haven asked. Her cicerone answered, " To notify your arrival." At that moment the man stopped ringing, and shouted : "At one o'clock, at Mr. Pinchbeck's great room, will be shown the surprisingly tall woman."
Nash always made a point of calling on the new-comers. He fixed the sums that should be paid as subscriptions towards the maintenance of the Rooms, the Orchestra, the Water-Dippers and the Bell-ringers. He organised, and took control of, the music; he issued rules to govern the company at the balls and card-assemblies, and settled the price of admission to these entertainments. It cannot be discovered whether at Tunbridge Wells he published the famous Bath code, but that most of the rules laid down therein were made to apply there can be no doubt. It is a moot point whether the custom was introduced of the company already assembled calling on the new-comers, but as there is no record of this, probably the ceremony was dispensed with. If it was omitted, then certainly there was some good reason, since Nash was not the man to yield a point in these matters unless he was convinced of its inexpediency. It may well 152 |
||