Advt.—"Assembly Rooms, King Street, St. James's Square.
"Willis humbly begs leave to acquaint the Nobility, and Gentry, Subscribers, that the first Ball, this season, commences This Day.
"The Rooms will be lighted at Ten, and the Ball will be opened at Half-past Ten o'clock, precisely.
"N.B.—By order of the Ladies (Directresses), no person whatever will be admitted without producing their ticket, and no ticket but those of the night, can possibly be admitted.
"The Nobility and Gentry are most earnestly requested to order their Coachmen to set down, and take up, with their horses' heads towards St. James's Street.
"The side doors are for chairs only."—(Morning Post, Feb. 14, 1788.)
A Country Concert, or, An Evening's Entertainment in Sussex.
This refers only to the subscription Balls, which were so famous, and so select—but, as I said above, this was the chiefest Concert Hall. A greater libel against the English nation never was uttered, than when it was said they were not a musical nation—and it was, essentially, in Chamber music, glees, madrigals, ballads—small home concerts in which a few friends met together and spent a pleasant evening—in which the harpsichord, or pianoforte (for that instrument was then in vogue), joined with the cello, violin, and flute, in pretty, and harmonious, quartets.
This Illustration shows Mrs. Billington and the Duke of Sussex, with two friends, thus engaged, and an exceedingly home-like group it is.