SOCIAL LIFE
evening till five o'clock in the morning; and Lord Valentia, who took everything very seriously, wrote—
"Consumptions are very frequent among the ladies, which I attribute in a great measure to their incessant dancing, even during the hottest weather. After such violent exercise they go into the verandahs, and expose themselves to a cool breeze and damp atmosphere."
Much of this dancing took place in the Old Court House, which for over thirty years was the scene of most of the public entertainments, and assembly balls. Towards the close of the century the old house became unsafe; society, too, had begun to break up into classes, and subscription assemblies went out of fashion. Entertainments of every kind were transferred to private houses, and hosts, led by the Governor-General in his new and splendid Government House, gave weekly receptions, besides large dinner-parties, balls, and fêtes.
The eventful years at the close of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century gave many opportunities for entertainments, and other displays of rejoicing, either for victories obtained in war, or for the return of peace, or the celebration of some important treaty. A
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