… generally runs upon the Weather, Fashions, News, and the like publick Topicks. In Proportion as Conversation gets into Clubs and Knots of Friends, it descends into Particulars, and grows more free and communicative: But the most open, …
… creating new spaces of sociability (the coffeehouse being a premier example); likewise, new institutions (varieties of club and society) were proliferating. 5 A feature of these venues and institutions, noted by contemporaries, was the …