Harris's List of Covent-Garden Ladies for the year 1788
Miss Betsy Clarke
Miss Betsy Cl—rke, No. 11, Stephen-Street, Rathbone Place.
Hope, with a gaudy prospect feeds the eye,
Sooths every sense, does with each with comply;
But false enjoyment the kind guide destroys,
We lose the passion in the treacherous joys.
Enjoyment is the most exquisite of human pleasures; ah! what a pity it is so short in duration. Nature wound up to the highest pitch, after striking twelve, immediately descends to poor solitary one: these are the reflections that naturally arise on enjoying Betsy. Though she is but little, she is an epitome of delight, a quintescence of joy, which by the most endearing chemistry, give all spirit, and unite in small compass, the efficacy of a much larger bulk. Her lovely fair tresses and elegant countenance beat alarms to love; but we attack only to fall in the breach, and lament that the luscious conflict is so soon ended. The common destroyer of beauty has made a few dells on the face of this fair Jewess, but a pair of pretty dimples makes ample amends, and quite over balances these trifling imperfections; she has been in life not more than six months, and expects, if she calls any man a friend, to receive two guineas the first visit.