8 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
extravagant diversions were exceptional, but all 
year round there were opportunities for fashionable 
entertainment and civic conviviality. When 
advocating the siting of the County Court in the 
town in 1660, Wiltshire J.Ps had described Devizes 
as ‘a town fitted for entertainment’.” Elections, the 
Assizes or the two-month militia training periods 
attracted gentry to the town, and became occasions 
for social events, where town and country élite 
could mingle. Perhaps influenced by the Bath social 
scene, seasonal evening subscription assemblies for 
cards, dancing and conversation provided an 
opportunity for display and a respectable outlet for 
women where the sexes could associate. In the 
Assembly Room of the newly-completed Town 
Hall, illuminated by ‘two magnificently beautiful 
Grecian cut-glass chandeliers’ presented by Mrs 
Sutton in 1808, a gathering of 315, including 
‘fashionable society from Bath and Clifton’, danced 
from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. with ‘a grand supper 
provided by a person of Bath’.*’ The following year, 
‘a very grand Ball and supper’ were held — ‘where all 
the beauty and fashion of the town and 
neighbourhood met together — many ladies dressed 
with diamonds and every other brilliant 
ornament’.** In 1820, the Brabants, Hugheses, 
Lockes and Tylees whiled the night hours away 
with country dances until 1 a.m. and quadrilles 
until three.®’ Less frenetic were William Halcomb’s 
card assemblies at The Bear in his own Assembly 
Rooms;”’ Thomas Gisborne noted the popularity of 
evening card-playing in provincial towns.?! The 
Venison Feast given by the County M.Ps in August 
was another highlight of the social calendar. In 1790 
M.Ps Henry Addington and Joshua Smith gave a 
grand entertainment to the principal inhabitants: 
to which the neighbouring gentlemen were also 
invited .. .Amongst other elegancies there were three 
turtles and 4 fat bucks. . .and the day was spent in the 
utmost harmony. Many loyal and constitutional toasts 
were given with repeated huzzas, amongst which ‘An 
Honourable accommodation or a glorious war’ were 
not forgotten. The Wiltshire band (one of the finest in 
England) played martial music during the greatest 
part of the day, and in the evening several hogsheads 
of strong beer were given to the populace.” 
Despite Edward Gibbon’s claim that ‘the little 
civility of the neighbouring gentry’ gave him little 
opportunity of dining,”*a great deal of entertaining 
coach wing of Roundway House as the building 1s now called. 
