Note 158 — ENGRAVED FANS OF THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. PART II.
Reading edition
The Beau always carried a white beaver hat, assumed after he had lost many of ordinary colours, as he said, to prevent any person taking it by mistake, though the uncharitable declared the reason for this singularity was to attract attention. Nash was fond of fine clothes, and celebrated the King’s Birthday in 1734 by appearing in gold-laced clothes, in which, says Chesterfield, ‘he looked so fine that, standing by chance in the middle of the dancers, he was taken by many at a distance for a gilt garland. (Lewis Melville, Bath under Beau Nash.)