Later masquerades, though attended by fashionable people, were less select, as appears, for example, from an advertisement which a gentleman inserted in the Public Advertiser of 8 March, 1753[233]:—“This is to inform the Lady that was in a wite mask, red Beard and Ey’s at the last Masquereade but one, in a brown and silver flora Pethecoat and head-dress, remarkable gentle, very finely maid, who lost her company and walked with several masks, perticuler with one, who in raptorous heared her declare a dislike to gameing and the intention of Maskquerdes ... on which he asked, wathere single or ingaged, and under whos care that Night? the lady pointing to a tall gentleman in black and a bag wigg, said his, my Brother.” His intentions were honourable, and he begged to see her face. In reply, “she repetted Part out of the Orphin ‘Trust not a man’; said he had taken notice enough of her to know her again; bid him look sharp at the next Makquered, at wich and all other Places he as been dispionted of seeing her; he therefore hops (if not ingaged) will get her Brother or some Friend to call on him” as he feels assured he could be happy for life with her.
On the occasion of the Jubilee Ridotto on 12 May, 1769, the gardens and the Chinese House were illuminated. “A large sea-horse stuck full of small lamps floated on the Canal, and had a very agreeable aspect.” A favourite Ranelagh ‘serenata,’ Dibdin’s ‘Ephesian Matron,’ was performed at ten, and the Rotunda and gardens were gradually filled by a brilliant company. The Dukes of York and Cumberland were there, and one of the prettiest characters was “a rural nymph in rose-coloured sattin, trimmed with silver.” The tickets, which cost a guinea, included the supper. Unfortunately, the wine and sweetmeats were not immediately forthcoming, and some gentlemen broke open the wine cellar and helped themselves. Sir Thomas Robinson, to make things pleasant, thereupon sent a general invitation to the company to sup with him. The dancing began at twelve, and was continued till four, a comparatively early hour at Ranelagh masquerades.
§ 5. Later history of Ranelagh, 1770–1805.
A “Gentleman in Town,” writing in The Town and Country Magazine for April 1770 (p. 195) to his friend in the country, enlarges on the fashionable assemblages to be then seen at Ranelagh three times a week. And we may note that about this time the tradesmen advertised their silver Ranelagh silks and Ranelagh waistcoats in gold, silver and colours. The sweet voice of “the lovely Mrs. Baddeley” was then to be heard in the Rotunda, and she sang (in the autumn, 1770) in “The Recruiting Sergeant,” together with Mrs. Thompson, Dibdin, and Bannister.[234]
The garden concerts, and the fireworks, and transparent pictures in a building in the grounds had by this time become prominent features of the place.[235]
The event of 1775 was the Ranelagh Regatta and Ball,[236] which took place on June 23rd. Early in the afternoon of that day the whole river from London Bridge to Millbank was covered with pleasure boats, and scaffold erections were to be seen on the banks, and even on the top of Westminster Hall. Gambling tables lined the approaches to Westminster Bridge: men went about selling indifferent liquor, Regatta songs and Regatta cards. The river banks now resembled a great fair, and the Thames itself a floating town. Wild calculations fixed the number of the spectators at 200,000, or “at least” three millions. At 7.30 a cannon signalled the start of the racing-boats, and about 8.30, when the prizes had been awarded, the whole procession began to move “in a picturesque irregularity towards Ranelagh.” The Directors’ barge, with its band playing and gold Regatta ensign flying, led the way, and the fortunate persons who had ball-tickets landed at Ranelagh Stairs at nine o’clock.
Dancing took place in the Temple of Neptune, a temporary octagon erection in the grounds. Mrs. Cornelys had been given seven hundred guineas (it is said) to supply the supper, and it is lamentable to reflect that the supper was “indifferent, and the wine very scarce.” However, there was a great company: the Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of Northumberland, Lord North, the Duchess of Devonshire, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, Colman, Samuel Foote. A band of two hundred and forty instrumentalists, under Giardini, performed in the Rotunda, and there was singing by Vernon and Reinhold, including the cheering ballad:—
Ye lords and ye ladies who form this gay throng,
Be silent a moment, attend to our song,
And while you suspend your fantastical round,