LORD MARCH AND ACTRESSES 117 



1766, shows that Royalty then indulged in petit 

 soupers with opera -girls, to use his own words, as 

 well as himself. Indeed, the opera -girls of those 

 times have since become in name, to the jeunesse 

 doree of our days, actresses ! Heaven save the mark ! 

 These in their turn become the milliners and 

 dressmakers of the bourgeois. 



The confidence existing between Lord March 

 and Selwyn must have been very firm, as his 

 lordship, with characteristic nonchalance, coolly in- 

 forms his correspondent that he is going to New- 

 market, and being deeply engaged (on ' his book,' 

 assuredly, as the racing records do not bear the 

 statement out) 'shall perhaps be obliged to make 

 use of your money.' No doubt March Imew how 

 far he might trespass on his obliging friend's 

 purse; besides, the reason given was laudable — to 

 escape becoming a ' lame duck.' This equivalent for 

 a defaulter his lordship, to his credit, never earned. 



It is also singular that so accomplished an epicure 

 as Lord March is generally acknowledged to have 

 been — though he tempered this with moderation — 

 should complain of the Duke of Northumberland's 

 ' high living ' ; as a dinner he had partaken of at that 

 nobleman's had given him ' an indigestion.' 



Nevertheless, in the same letter his lordship, in 



