There, the evening of February 24, 1840, was held the first masked ball ever given in New York.

It was, to quote Mr.George S.Hellman, "the most splendid social affair of the first half of the nineteenth century." But it was also the last masked ball held in the town for many years.
The name of the British Consul to New York at the time was Anthony Barclay, and he had a daughter.

Her name was Matilda; she is described as having been a belle of great charm and beauty, and as having had a number of suitors.

Of course, after the fashion of all love stories, the suitor favoured by her was the one of whom her parents most disapproved.
He was a young South Carolinian named Burgwyne.

Opposition served only to fan the flame, and the lovers met by stealth, and the gay Southerner wooed the fair Briton in the good old school poetical manner.