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Walpole describes a firework display given in 1763 by the notorious Duchess of Kingston, who was thirteen years later tried by her peers on a charge of bigamy.

The display appears to have taken place in Hyde Park, opposite the residence of the Duchess, then at the height of her popularity. He records that “the fireworks were fine and succeeded well.” One item seems curious to modern ideas; it took the form of a cenotaph for the Princess Elizabeth, a sister of the king, bearing the inscription: “All honours the dead can receive.”

The sequel was even more extraordinary, as “about one in the morning this Sarcophagus burst into crackers and guns.”

Firework Display given by the Duke of Richmond on the Thames off Whitehall, May 15th, 1749, to celebrate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.

Lieutenant Jones, who published a book on fireworks in 1765, in his preface makes the following remarks:

“I own I cannot help reflecting with some kind of chagrin that whenever we have had occasion for these sort of diversions to be exhibited in England we have almost always had recourse to foreigners to execute them; if this has been owing to the ignorance of our own people on this subject I shall be very happy if it is in my power to correct it; if it is only owing to that prevailing fondness we entertain for everything foreign I know no remedy for that evil but time and experience.”