Note 205 — Chapter III · THE PROGRESS OF CARD-PLAYING. (continued 2)

"At this period it was the fashion for the ladies to adorn their heads, before they entered the bath, with all the lures of dress. By these means their charms were set off to such advantage, that the husband of a lady, who, with Nash and other spectators, was admiring the female dabblers, told his wife 'she looked like an angel, and he wished to be with her.' Nash seized the favorable occasion to establish his reputation as a man of gallantry and spirit, and therefore suddenly taking the gentleman by the collar and the waistband of his breeches, soused him over the parapet into the bath."—Life of Beau Nash.