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The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century cover

The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century

Chapter 20: VIEWS.
By Warwick William Wroth
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History - BritishHistory - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

A detailed survey traces the development, character, and decline of London’s eighteenth-century pleasure gardens, offering descriptive notices of over sixty venues. Arranged by neighbourhood, the work records origins, proprietors, physical layouts, entertainments, and the social atmosphere of each resort, with attention to music, illuminations, rotundas, tea-houses, and seasonal amusements. Entries are supported by illustrations, plans, contemporary advertisements and newspaper extracts, and by annotated notes and references; a collaborating contributor supplies several of the shorter garden accounts.

MERLIN’S CAVE

The Merlin’s Cave, a tavern standing in the fields near the New River Head, close to the present Merlin’s Place, possessed extensive gardens and a skittle-ground, which were frequented by Londoners especially on Sundays.

It was probably built in 1735 or not long afterwards[48] and derived its name from the Merlin’s Cave constructed in 1735 by Queen Charlotte in the Royal Gardens at Richmond. The Richmond Cave was adorned by astrological symbols, and contained waxwork figures, of which the wizard Merlin was the chief. By the end of 1735 humble imitations of the Cave were established in various parts of the Kingdom, and it is highly probable that the Merlin’s Cave tavern had an exhibition of this kind. The New Wells in Lower Rosoman Street, Clerkenwell, possessed a Merlin’s Cave in 1740.[49]

About 1833 the gardens of the Merlin’s Cave were built over. The New Merlin’s Cave, a public-house now numbered 131 Rosoman Street, stands a little north of the old site.

[Pinks’s Clerkenwell, 580, 581; Wheatley’s London, s.v.]

VIEWS.

1. A view of the skittle-ground, Merlin’s Cave, New River Head, with rules and instructions for playing. A print published by G. Kearsley, 1786. Crace, Cat. p. 592, No. 71.

2. Old Merlin’s Cave near the New River Head, Rosoman Street. A drawing by C. H. Matthews, 1833. Crace, Cat. p. 592, No. 70.