ABSTRACT
The natural gradation of breeding begins in savage disgust, proceeds to indifference, improves into attention, by degrees refines into ceremonious observance, and the trouble of being ceremonious at length produces politeness, elegance and ease. There is therefore some merit in mending society, even in one of the inferior steps of this gradation. Nash soon began to exert his authority, not always very gently. He was a tuft-hunter of genius, and besides all the reigning monarchs from William 3 onwards he was well acquainted with Frederick, Prince of Wales, and lesser royalty of every description. He ticked off duchesses, bandied jokes with the Earl of Chesterfield and even, the story goes, interrupted the celebrated discussions of Locke and Dr Samuel Clarke. The eighteenth-century beau thought himself genteel and sought elegance. The later dandy knew himself elegant and sought gentility.
