The "groundlings" had given place to people of fashion and social distinction.

Mr.Leigh Hunt notes that the pit even of Charles II.'s time, although now and then the scene of violent scuffles and brawls, due in great part to the general wearing of swords, was wont to contain as good company as the pit of the Opera House five-and-twenty years ago.

A reference to Pepys's "Diary" justifies this opinion.
"Among the rest here the Duke of Buckingham to-day openly sat in the pit," records Pepys, "and there I found him with my Lord Buckhurst, and Sedley, and Etheridge the poet." Yet it would seem that already the visitors to the pit had declined somewhat in quality.

Pepys, like John Gilpin's spouse, had a frugal mind, however bent on pleasure.

He relates, in 1667, with some sense of injury, how once, there being no room in the pit, he was forced to pay four shillings and go into one of the upper boxes, "which is the first time I ever sat in a box in my life." One does not now look to find members of the administration or cabinet ministers occupying seats in the pit.