An Eighteenth Century Regatta on the Thames
Englishmen, during the reign of George III, loved every form of festivity and show. In 1775, a courageous attempt was made to hold a magnificent London regatta. But, as F.H.W. Sheppard writes, there were the usual delays and misunderstandings; ladies fell into the Thames-side mud; and, naturally, the weather changed.
In the 1770s it was customary for the members of the fashionable clubs of Pall Mall and St. James’s Street to organize balls or masquerades at Ranelagh, the Pantheon or the Opera House in the Haymarket. One of the most famous of these lavish divertissements was the regatta held on Friday, June 23rd, 1775.
“The design of this elegant entertainment on the water” was first proposed during the winter of 1774-5 by the Savoir-Vivre Club, whose proprietor, Nicholas Kenney, was responsible for the erection in 1775-6 of that most graceful of all London club houses, No. 28 St. James’s Street, occupied ever since the demise of the Savoir-Vivre Club in 1782 by Boodle’s. The regatta was to be a very splendid affair, beyond the means of any one club, and so its organization was entrusted to a committee of members of Almack’s, White’s, Boodle’s and Goostree’s as well as of the Savoir-Vivre.
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