Word: nash
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Beau" Nash, a sort of combination of Elsa Maxwell and Ward McAllister in his day, "made" Bath. In 1705 he found the town squalid and cramped, the famous mineral baths (started by the Romans) badly run. Worst of all, there was no place for the fashionable to dance except the bowling green, and it was frequented by swaggering armed swells who unsheathed their swords at the slightest affront to honor...
...Rules. Beau Nash changed all that. He made himself master of ceremonies, raised money for buildings, started the Pump Room Orchestra, organized balls and assemblies in a stately new hall, laid down and enforced a code of manners (sword-wearing and smoking in front of ladies were banned), ordered all the old ladies to sit in the back rows and all the shyest maidens to dance. The plump, dandiacal "King of Bath," whose crown was an enormous cream-colored beaver hat, ruled society like an autocrat.* Graceful new Georgian buildings transformed Bath into the handsomest of English towns...
...time when one was sure to meet one's friends in Bath. But now one hardly knows anyone." Echoed a Bath specialist: "In a few years Bath will become so crowded and impossible that any person of quality will naturally go abroad for treatment." Was Beau Nash turning in his grave? Probably not; he used to pass his six-quart beaver among the swells to collect money for a mineral-water hospital available to all comers...
...Once the Duchess of Queensbury came to a Nash-managed dance wearing a white apron (contrary to the Nash rules). He untied the offending garment and flung it to a group of maids in waiting-with profound protestations of respect for Her Grace...
...last week posted its second round of price rises in less than two months. Blaming increased costs and "material shortages which cause production interruptions," it added $75-about 5%-to the price of Fords.* Lincolns and Mercurys were boosted proportionately, and other manufacturers were sure to follow suit-Nash, for instance, when their new models come out this fall...