Page:Wives of the prime ministers, 1844-1906.djvu/134

WIVES OF THE PRIME MINISTERS that it was said they could even get an important debate in the House postponed if one of them had fixed a grand dinner on that evening. Lady Cowper was beautiful, intelligent, and accomplished, and soon became the most popular of the Lady Patronesses of Almack's, the most exclusive and brilliant of fashionable assemblies. When the number of hostesses entertaining on a large scale was comparatively small, need was felt of some way of meeting more often, and so in 1764 a man known as William Almack built a suite of Assembly Rooms in King Street, St. James's, where for a subscription of ten guineas a series of weekly balls were given for twelve weeks. But only those who knew the saints who guarded its heaven could pass through "Almack's holy gate." A contemporary writer thus describes the Committee which ruled affairs at Almack's, and bestowed happiness by granting the vouchers of admission, or despair by withholding them, as:

"That most distinguished and despotic conclave, composed of their High Mightinesses the Ladies Patronesses of the balls at Almack's, the rulers of fashion, the arbiters of taste, the leaders of ton, and the makers of manners, 102