The English Spy, page 179 by Bernard Blackmantle
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to be credited, there were very few among the enchanting spirits before yet with whom that happiness which springs from virtuous pure affection was to be anticipated. If was no place to moralize, but, to you who know my buoyancy of spirit, and susceptibility of mind, I must confess, the reflection produced a momentary pang of the keenest misery.
[Illustration: page205]
THE ROYAL SALOON.
Visit of Heartly, Lionise, and Transit--Description of the Place--Sketches of Character--The Gambling Parsons--Horse Chaunting, a true Anecdote--Bang and her Friends--Moll Raffle and the Marquis W.--The Play Man--The Touter--The Half-pay Officer--Charles Rattle, Esq.--Life of a modern Roué-B------ the Tailor--The Subject--Jarvey and Brooks the Dissector-- "Kill him when you want him"
~205~~ After the opera, Bob Transit proposed an adjournment to the Royal Saloon, in Piccadilly, a place of fashionable resort (said Bob) for shell-fish and sharks, Greeks and pigeons, Cyprians and citizens, noble and ignoble--in short, a mighty rendezvous, where every variety of character is to be found, from the finished sharper to the finished gentleman; a scene pregnant with subject for the pencil of the humorist, and full of the richest materials for the close observer of men and manners. Hither we retired to make a night of it, or rather to consume the hours between midnight and morning's dawn. The place itself is fitted up in a very novel and attractive style of decoration, admirably calculated for a saloon of pleasure and refreshment; but more resembling a Turkish kiosk than an English tavern. On the ground floor, which is of an oblong form and very spacious, are a number of divisions enclosed on each side with rich damask curtains, having each a table and seats for the reception of supper or drinking parties; at the extreme end, and ~206~~ on each side, mirrors of unusual large dimensions give an infinity of perspective, which greatly increases the magnificence of the