General History of Bath. 8i 



rebels ridiculous.* But he showed besides such tact in 

 adjusting awkward situatior;s, that he was made an almost 

 universal referee. 



Nash was no moralist, and, unlike many others no better 

 than himself, he never pretended to be. His contempo- 

 raries, finding him to be a man of honour and of spirit, 

 and successful in the great work which he undertook, were 

 proud of him. Recognising in him a genial tenderness of 

 heart, which made him ever ready to listen to a tale of woe, 

 ever eager to relieve distress, they were blind to his faults. 

 Do not let us, who still enjoy the advantages he secured for 

 the city, seek to discover weaknesses which injured only 

 himself. He held the post of Master of Ceremonies for 

 upwards of fifty years, and after a few years of retirement, 

 as a pensioner of the Corporation, he died in 1761 at the 

 age of eighty-seven. 



The first of our Triumvirs came to Bath as 



''^ ™' a freak of wayward fancy ; the second, Ralph 

 Allen, was sent here by his superiors. Ralph Allen was the 

 son of an innkeeper at St. Blaize, in Cornwall, and, in 1711, 

 he obtained, through Sir John Trevelyan, promotion from a 

 small office in that county to a clerkship in the Bath Post- 

 office. At this time the country was moved to great excite- 

 ment by rumours of a Jacobite rising. In 1715 a discovery 

 of arms was made in Bath, and it was found that prepara- 

 tions had been made to proclaim the " Pretender." In 

 1718 a raid was made at Badminton, and pikes and muskets 

 were seized, sufficient in number to equip a regiment, and 

 eight gentlemen of position were arrested in Bath itself. 



* There are many stories illustrative of this. One gentleman refused to 

 abide by the law against wearing riding-boots at the ball, and Nash van- 

 quished him by askitig him in public why he had omitted to bring his 

 horse ? 



