The Merry Past 



carriages out of number were to be seen setting down 

 their aristocratic occupants at the top of the lane on 

 a grand sparring day, and all went "merry as a 

 marriage bell." Pugilism was on the same level as 

 racing, fox-hunting, and other first-rate sports; and 

 the prize-fighters themselves looked happy, sleek, and 

 respectable as they strode about amongst an envying 

 " mobiHty." 



The chief supporters of the "ring" were to be 

 found amongst the sporting aristocracy and the 

 proletariat ; the middle classes, whose influence, how- 

 ever, was then inconsiderable, seemingly viewed this 

 form of sport with scant favour. This section of the 

 population, however, had its own amusements, gener- 

 ally of a more decorous kind. Many of the better 

 sort of tradesmen kept their gigs, in which, on 

 Sundays, they drove their wives to one or more of 

 the many pleasure resorts or tea-gardens which then 

 abounded on the outskirts of the metropolis. 



The Londoners of other days were very fond of 

 out-of-door amusements, and delighted in flocking to 

 Ranelagh and Vauxhall — evening resorts of a very 

 free kind. 



Vauxhall first came into fashion about June, 1732, 

 at which time a Ridotto al fresco was the entertainment. 

 On this occasion about four hundred people assembled, 

 in the proportion of ten males to one female ; and no 

 very rigid standard of morality was enforced. Most 

 of the subscribers appeared in dominos and masks, 

 and remained till four o'clock in the morning. Such, 

 however, was the licentious spirit of a period when 



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