Nocturnal Revels (1779)

This constellation of nunneries which happens to include every house in King's Place, some might think sufficient to supply the whole polite world with nuns, and amorous refreshment; but we know from experience, that neither Monmouth Street, though so long, can produce clothes sufficient for the ten thousandth part of the inhabitants of this metropolis, or Whitechapel butcher's meat but for a very small part of the inmates of the civic walls.

Before we proceed to enumerate the fair beauties of these nunneries, we shall give a little sketch of Black Harriot, whilst she still remains upon this voluptuous spot. She was purchased amongst other slaves when every young upon the Coast of Guinea, and carried to Jamaica: here she was, as usual, put up to public sale, and purchased by a capital Planter of Kingston. As she approached nearer to maturity, she discovered a lively genius, and a penetration far superior to the common run of Europeans, whose minds had been cultivated by learning. Her master now took particular notice of her, and removed her so far from her late menial capacity, as to make her a superintendent of other female negroes. He gave Harriot a master to teach her write, read, and so much arithmetic as enabled her to keep the domestic accounts. He soon distinguished her still farther from the rest of his slaves; he being a widower, used frequently to admit her to his bed: this honour was accompanied by presents, which soon testified she was a great favourite. In this station she remained for near three years, during which time she bore him two children. His business now calling him to England, Harriot accompanied him; and notwithstanding the beauties of this island often attracted his attention, and he frequently gave loose to his natural appetites with his own country women, still she remained unrivalled as a constant flame. Nor was it, in some respect, extraordinary; for though her complexion might not be so engaging as that of the fair daughters of Albion, she had many attractions that are not often met with in the female world who yield to prostitution. She was faithful to his bed, careful of his domestic concerns, exact in her accounts, and would not suffer any of the other servants to impose upon their master; and in this respect she saved him some hundreds a year. Her person (to follow her) was very alluring; she was tall, well made, and genteel; and since her arrival in England, she had given her mind to reading, and at her master's recommendation, had perused several useful and entertaining books, calculated for women; whereby she had considerably improved her understanding, and had attained a degree of politeness, scarce to be paralleled in an African female.

Such was her situation for many months; but unfortunately her master, or friend, which you please, had never had the smallpox; and having caught it, this malady proved fatal to him, and he paid the great and final mortal tribute upon the occasion. She had made some small provision for herself, with regard to clothes, and some trifling trinkets; but she had acted in so upright and generous a manner towards her departed master, that she had not amassed five pounds in money, though she might easily, and without detection, have been the mistress of hundreds.

The scene was soon changed, and from being the superintendent of a noble table, she found herself reduced to a scanty pittance; and even that pittance could not last long, if she did not find some means of speedily recruiting her almost exhausted finances.

We cannot suppose that Harriot had any of those nice, conscientious, scruples, which constitute which is usually called chastity, and by some, virtue. The daughters of Europe, as well as those of Africa, scarce know their meaning, in their natural state; and nature always directed Harriot, notwithstanding she had read some pious, and many moral books. In a word, she found it necessary to make the most of her jetty charms, and accordingly applied to Lovejoy to be properly introduced into company. She was quite a new face, in every sense of the word, upon the town, and a perfect phenomenon of her kind. He dispatched immediately a messenger to Lord S––, who instantly quitted the arms of Miss R––y for this black beauty. The novelty so struck him, with her unexpected improved talents, that he visited her several successive evenings and never failed giving her at least a twenty pound bank note.

She now rolled in money; and he finding that she had attractions sufficient to draw the commendations and applause of so great a connoisseur in female merit as his Lordship, resolved to vend her charms as dear as possible; and she found that the caprice of mankind was so great, that novelty could command almost any price.

In the course of a few months she could class in the list of her admirers, at least a score of peers and fifty commoners, who never presented her with anything less than soft paper, commonly called a bank note. She had ere this realised near a thousand pounds; besides having well stocked herself with clothes, plate, and furniture. One of her friends now advised her to seize a favourable opportunity that presented itself, and succeed the late Mrs Johnson in King's Place. She listened to this advice, and disbursed almost all her little fortune to enter properly upon the premises.

For some time she had uncommon success; but taking a fancy to a certain officer of the Guards who had no more than his pay to subsist upon, she declined accepting the addresses of any other admirer; and being at the same time obliged to dilate frequently her purse strings in behalf of this son of Mars, she soon found a great defalcation in the state of her receipts. Add to this, some of her nuns eloped considerably in her debt; and being last season at Brightelmstone with a party of her nuns, the servants she left in charge in the house, not only ran her deeply in debt at the shops in the neighbourhood, but purloined many things of value, which she could not recover. She was unwilling to make a legal example of them, though they closed the scene of her ruin, and finally conveyed her (though indirectly) to the King's Bench, where she now remains.