SUBJECTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume I.

Page

Wharton’s roguish present (Frontispiece)

VILLIERS IN DISGUISE—­THE MEETING WITH HIS SISTER 14

DE GRAMMONT’S MEETING WITH LA BELLE HAMILTON 74

BEAU FIELDING AND THE SHAM WIDOW 85

A SCENE BEFORE KENSINGTON PALACE—­GEORGE II.  AND QUEEN CAROLINE 172

POPE AT HIS VILLA—­DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 194

A ROYAL ROBBER 217

DR. JOHNSON AT LORD CHESTERFIELD’S 226

SCARRON AND THE WITS—­FIRST APPEARANCE OF LA BELLE INDIENNE 247

PREFACE.

When Grace and Philip Wharton found that they had pleased the world with their “Queens of Society,” they very sensibly resolved to follow up their success with a companion work.  Their first book had been all about women; the second book should be all about men.  Accordingly they set to work selecting certain types that pleased them; they wrote a fresh collection of pleasant essays and presented the reading public with “Wits and Beaux of Society”.  The one book is as good as the other; there is not a pin to choose between them.  There is the same bright easy, gossiping style, the same pleasing rapidity.  There is nothing tedious, nothing dull anywhere.  They do not profess to have anything to do with the graver processes of history—­these entertaining volumes; they seek rather to amuse than to instruct, and they fulfil their purpose excellently.  There is instruction in them, but it comes in by the way; one is conscious of being entertained, and it is only after the entertainment is over that one finds that a fair amount of information has been thrown in to boot.  The Whartons have but old tales to tell, but they tell them very well, and that is the first part of their business.

Looking over these articles is like looking over the list of a good club.  Men are companionable creatures; they love to get together and gossip.  It is maintained, and with reason, that they are fonder of their own society than women are.  Men delight to breakfast together, to take luncheon together, to dine together, to sup together.  They rejoice in clubs devoted exclusively to their service, as much taboo to women as a trappist monastery.  Women are not quite so clannish.  There are not very many women’s clubs in the world; it is not certain that those which do exist are very brilliant or very entertaining.