In London much of the development in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century was in the hands of aristocratic landowners. But were they ‘compleat’ gentlemen?

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18th century Scottish architect Robert Adam was ambitious and planned to perfect his knowledge of architecture on his Grand Tour by examining outstanding monuments from antiquity. He also wanted to refine his social graces so that he would be able to move in the highest possible elevations of society, conversing easily with any member of the aristocracy that had formed and refined their taste in Italy.

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England’s Prince Regent George, Prince of Wales, later George IV (1762 – 1830) scandalized the nation with his reckless and lavish living habits. He gave an impressive love gift a diamond riviére (a necklace of precious stones, generally set in one strand) to his mistress Elizabeth, Lady Conyngham, who reputedly received gifts of jewels valued at the time in the region of 80,000 pounds.

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Charles II abandoned puritanical austerity following his Restoration to the English throne in 1660. It is not surprising that he wanted to buy sumptuous and fashionable clothes. When he had been a fugitive from the Battle of Worcester in 1651 he been forced to wear ‘nothing but a green coat and a pair of country breeches on and a pair of country shoes, that made him sore all over his feet that he could scarce stir’. On his return he gave himself up completely to luxury and pleasure, adorning his very Frenchified person with sumptuous textiles and jewels.

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