… – suitably dressed people could attend – while retaining a flattering feeling of exclusiveness. It could gather the public for entertainments or for national occasions such as the conclusion of a peace treaty. The setting and ornaments … balls in the townhouses of the nobility or city festivities for the merchant classes. The pleasure gardens offered new public spaces corresponding to Enlightenment forms of urban culture and sociability: places of ‘politeness’ – the new … such as exoticism and new musical tastes to be disseminated to a fairly large section of the population while making its public feel connected to a restricted aristocratic society. This could be achieved through a culture of spectacle: …