3-082-450 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lady Wolseley's costume ball at the Royal Hospital, Dublin, 1895. 'Miss E. Bramston, as Mrs. Robinson (Reynolds). The great success of the Countess of Warwick's ball has been followed by the same result on similar lines in Dublin. Viscountess Wolseley enlivened the season by giving on March 14, in the hall of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, a most picturesque costume ball. The ladies were delightfully apparelled after the examples set by portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, by Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney, and artists of that period. The gentlemen's attire, copied from pictures of the same date, was an effective illustration of what colour and charm we have lost in man's ordinary evening dress of to-day. The Lord Lieutenant and a very brilliant company graced the proceedings, which gave great pleasure to all the guests of the charming hostess'. Actress, writer and poet Mary Robinson (1757-1800) earned her nickname "Perdita" for her role as Perdita (heroine of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale) in 1779, and was the first public mistress of King George IV while he was still Prince of Wales. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.