A tidbit from a fellow Janeite from a travel magazine re: Bath & Georgian times.
"Nash's (the rule maker/enforcer at the Assembly Rooms) rules weren't meant to eliminate illicit pleasures, just hide them. Every taste was catered to in Bath, beneath the veneer of elegant refinement ... lay a world of sordid world of gambling, pornography & vice." Nash was also a professional gambler. The author goes on to say, that time can still be imagined..."Austen's Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth attending a recital...dancing around their passion." Twice weekly formal balls were followed by folk dances. One could attend if dressed right and had the admission. There were also beggars, thieves & mountebanks (imposter, swindler, or peddler of quack medicines) as well as laborers & shopkeepers who lived in Bath then.
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