A party.

Also, follow the drum, meaning to follow the army. For example, a woman who joins her soldier husband wherever he is posted is said to follow the drum.

The widow of a peer, eg the Dowager Countess of Somewhere. The term was not added to a woman’s title unless and until the new (male) holder of the title married. For example, if the new Earl of Somewhere, the son of the late earl, is a young man when he inherits the title and has no wife, his mother continues to be styled Countess of Somewhere. When he marries, his wife takes that title and his mother becomes the Dowager Countess. The term is also sometimes used informally, and disparagingly, to refer to an older woman of the upper classes.

Literally “half world”; a class on the fringes of respectable Society. Often used in reference to courtesans, prostitutes, etc, though this is not strictly correct.

A deliberate and public snub.

A traveling chariot was a small privately owned vehicle, the equivalent of the rented post chaise. See definition of Post Chaise for more details on this type of carriage.

The precursor of the metropolitan police, the Bow Street Runners were established in the mid-18th century by the magistrate of the Bow Street court, who happened to be the novelist Henry Fielding at that time. The runners were professional detectives who pursued felons across the country. They could also be hired by private individuals if the magistrate approved and could spare them.

A woman with unfashionably intellectual and literary interests. The term is explained in Boswell’s “Life of Dr. Johnson”, as deriving from the name given to meetings held by certain ladies in the 18th century, for conversation with distinguished literary men. A frequent attendee was a Mr. Stillingfleet, who always wore his everyday blue worsted stockings because he could not afford silk stockings. He was so much distinguished for his conversational powers that his absence at any time was felt to be a great loss, and so it was often remarked, “We can do nothing without the blue stockings.” Admiral Boscawan, husband of one of the most successful hostesses of such gatherings, derisively dubbed them ‘The Blue Stocking Society’. Although both men and women, some of them eminent literary and learned figures of the day, attended these meetings, the term ‘bluestocking’ became attached exclusively, and often contemptuously, to women. This was partly because women were instrumental in organizing the evenings, but also because they were seen as encroaching on matters thought not to be their concern.

An orderly assigned to a military officer.