Born 1758. Died 1800

A LITTLE more than one hundred years ago, when Beau Brummell was yet a little boy, and the First Gentleman in Europe had not earned the distinction of being called his “fat friend,” when the latter was colonel of the most famous regiment of fops that ever existed (the 10th Hussars); before the wicked Lord Lyttelton had quarrelled with George Ayscough, or had broken off his engagement with Miss Warburton, “who was,” according to him, “as cold as an anchorite; formed to be the best wife in the world to a good husband, but by no means calculated to reform a bad one;” about this time, the famous Lord Lyttelton and his friend, George Ayscough, sauntered one evening into the Pantheon Rotunda, to have a look at, and a chat with, the beauties and beaux usually to be found congregated there.

Nominally, a concert was the excuse for the gathering together of this brilliant assemblage. The first women of fashion of the day were amongst the audience—from the first Countess of Tyrconnell, with her pretty brogue, to the sleepy-eyed, lovely, and voluptuous-looking Lady Almeria Carpenter, and the magnificent Marchioness of Townshend. The gay young nobleman and his boon companion mingled with the brilliant throng, where doubtless Mary Warburton—who was at that time betrothed to the former—jealously watched the flirtations of her erratic and susceptible affianced husband.