[1] Some of the rarer items of the collection which it seemed desirable to cite as authorities are marked W. or W. Coll.

[2] Several London pleasure gardens were in existence before the Restoration, the Mulberry Garden on the site of Buckingham Palace and the Spring Gardens at Charing Cross being well-known instances. But in the present volume only such seventeenth-century gardens as survived till the succeeding century are noticed.

[3] The English Grotto.

[4] Cp. The Idler, No. 15, July 1758.

[5] At Vauxhall fireworks were not introduced till 1798, but illuminations were always a feature of the gardens.

[6] Bermondsey Spa and Finch’s Grotto, above mentioned, might be classed among the spas and springs, but their amusements resembled those of Vauxhall.

[7] Islington Wells, a song of all the virtues of those old waters newly found out. London, 1684 (Brit. Mus.), cp. A morning ramble; or Islington Wells burlesqt. London, 1684 (Cunningham, London, 1850, s.v. “Islington”).

[8] London Gazette, 24 September, 1685.

[9] Nearly all modern writers—Mr. Pinks is an exception—have in some way or other confused Sadler’s Wells with New Tunbridge Wells (Islington Spa). The mistake may have first arisen from the circumstance that Sadler, in his printed prospectus concerning the discovery of the wells on his premises, describes them as “Sadler’s New Tunbridge Wells near Islington.” The sub-title of New Tunbridge Wells never, however, took root at Sadler’s, though it was soon permanently adopted (as is stated in our text) by the rival Islington Wells, i.e. Islington Spa.

[10] The following details are mainly derived from Islington Wells, or the Threepenny Academy, 1691, and from Edward Ward’s Walk to Islington, 1699, fol. (Ward’s Works, ii. 63, ff. ed. 1709).

[11] Ward describes the gambling places as an outhouse with sheds and a hovel adjoining.

[12] Islington Wells, or the Threepenny Academy.

[13] Cp. E. Ward, “The Infallible Predictor” (Works, ii. p. 355, ed. 1709).

[14] An advertisement of 23 May, 1712 (Percival’s Sadler’s Wells announces the performances from six to ten in the morning and from four till eight in the evening of two wonderful posture-makers, a man and a child of nine, to take place in the dancing-room of New Tunbridge Wells.

[15] Extract from family correspondence communicated by C. L. S. to Notes and Queries, 8th ser. vi. 1894, p. 69.

[16] In 1760 the breakfasting was ninepence, the afternoon tea sixpence, and the coffee eightpence. No stronger beverages were sold.

[17] A serious attempt seems to have been made to keep this rule. The London Daily Advertiser for 25 June, 1752, records that a beautiful though notorious woman, who had appeared at the dancing at New Tunbridge on June 24, was, on being recognised by the company, turned out by a constable.

[18] Dr. Russel, who analysed the water about 1733, says that it had a taste of iron and (unless mixed with common water) was apt to make the drinker giddy or sleepy. This was the experience of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who, however, expatiates on the benefit she had derived from the Spa.

[19] This was between the main part of the Spa gardens and St. John’s Street Road; cp. Wallis’s Plan, 1808.

[20] A band had played in the morning under Holland’s management (advertisement in the Public Advertiser, 5 May, 1775).

[21] Malcolm, Lond. rediv. iii. 230, 231.

[22] The orchestra connected with it was pulled down in 1827; Cromwell’s Clerkenwell, p. 357.

[23] No. 6, Eliza Place, stood on the site of the old entrance (Pinks).

[24] Mr. Philip Norman, writing in Notes and Queries, 8th ser. vi. 1894, p. 457, says:—“I have seen (in the cellar of No. 6, Spa Cottages, behind the house at the corner of Lloyd’s Row) grotto work with stone pilasters and on each side steps descending. Here, I believe, was the chalybeate spring. For many years it has ceased to flow.”

[25] Daily Telegraph, 1 August, 1895.

[26] A newspaper paragraph of April 1752, mentions the little summer house at the Ducking Pond House in Spa Fields, as being lately stripped of its chairs and tables by some pitiful rogues.

[27] In The Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine for January 1773 (p. 162) is the notice:—

“Pantheons: The Nobility’s, Oxford Road; the Mobility’s, Spawfields.”

[28] The organ appears, about 1772, to have been silenced on Sundays, at least for a time. A correspondent in The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser for 20 June, 1772, refers to the Middlesex Justices who will not suffer the organs to be played at the Little Pantheon, White Conduit House, Bagnigge Wells, &c.

[29] May Day, or the Origin of Garlands, a poem published in 1720. The Field Spy, published in 1714 (Rogers, Views of Pleasure Gardens of London, p. 46), speaks of the spring and garden as if a good deal frequented in 1714.

[30] A rare bronze ticket of oblong form, incised with the words, “London Spaw No. 19,” is in the possession of Mr. W. T. Ready, the London coin dealer. It may belong to about the middle of the last century.

[31] Rosoman Street was called after Mr. Rosoman, who about 1756 built the west side, which was then called Rosoman Row. Rosoman, who acted at the New Wells in 1744, was the well-known proprietor of Sadler’s Wells. Pinks (Clerkenwell) states that the houses numbered (in his time) 5 to 8 occupied the site of the Wells.

[32] The New Wells seem to have been already established in 1737. The earliest advertisement quoted in Pinks is of 1738, but there are earlier advertisements (W. Coll.), May to August 1737, in one of which reference is made to the alterations in the theatre that season.

[33] Daily Post, 3 July, 1742 (quoted in Gent. Mag. 1813, pt. ii. p. 561).

[34] Doran’s London in Jacobite Times, ii. pp. 148, 149.

[35] The English Grotto has escaped the minute research of Mr. Pinks, and his continuator Mr. Woods (cp. however, Daniel, Merrie England, i. chap. ii. p. 33). It is practically known only from the following views:—

[36] The continuator of Pinks (p. 740) quotes advertisements of 1769, without, however, specifying the newspapers referred to. J. T. Smith, Book for a Rainy Day, p. 70, refers to the Grotto Garden as being kept by Jackson in 1779. Pinks (p. 169) mentions the fountain and Grotto in 1780, and describes the site.

[37] Rockhoutt = Rockholt House in Essex.

[38] The legs referred to are those of Sir Thomas Robinson, the principal proprietor of Ranelagh, nicknamed Long Sir Thomas.

[39] The New Wells, Clerkenwell.

[40] Cuper’s Gardens, Lambeth.

[41] Newspaper advertisement in “Public Gardens” collection in Guildhall Library, London.

[42] Advertisement in Daily Advertiser, 8 July, 1745.

[43] Sadler originally advertised the place as “Sadler’s New Tunbridge Wells,” but it soon became known simply as Sadler’s Wells. On the confusion with the neighbouring New Tunbridge Wells (Islington Spa), see Islington Spa, supra, note 3.

[44] About 1800 the forgotten well was accidentally re-discovered between the stage door and the New River.

[45] A poem by William Garbott, entitled the New River, published probably about 1725.

[46] A new song on Sadler’s Wells, set by Mr. Brett, 1740.

[47] The Sadler’s Wells anglers are mentioned in the Field Spy, a poem of 1714. The New River remained open until 1861–62 when it was covered in.

[48] A newspaper cutting in “Public Gardens” collection in Guildhall Library, records the death on 2 February, 1786, of Mrs. Bennet, of Merlin’s Cave, Spa Fields, who was the successor of her uncle, Mr. Hood.

[49] A view of the Merlin’s Cave at Richmond forms the frontispiece of Gent. Mag. 1735; on the cave, see Walford’s Greater London, ii. 345, ff

[50] A square stone bearing the inscription given below was, about 1760, over an old gateway in the wall to the north of the Long Room, and was still there in 1843. In 1850 it was to be seen in Coppice Row, now Farringdon Road.

S T
THIS IS BAGNIGGE
HOUSE NEARE
THE PINDER A
WAKEFEILDE
1680.

The Pinder a Wakefielde (the modern representative of which stands near the old site in Gray’s Inn Road) was a tavern; and some writers have inferred from the above inscription that Bagnigge Wells itself was a place of entertainment as early as 1680.

[51] Over one of the chimney-pieces of the room was the garter of the order of St. George, in relief, and over another the bust of a woman in Roman dress, popularly supposed to represent Nell Gwynne. This bust was let into a circular cavity of the wall, bordered with festoons of fruit and flowers moulded in delft earth and coloured after nature. Owing to the number of visitors promenading in the Long Room to the hindrance of the waiters, the room was, before 1797, divided into two, though we are told that the “former elegance” remained.

[52] The organ and its organist (under Davis), Charley Griffith, are shown in an engraving “The Bagnigge Organfist” (undated). “Published for the benefit of decayed musicians.”

[53] Picture of London, 1802.

[54] “Bagnigge Wells,” a song in the London Magazine, June, 1759.

[55] Colman’s prologue to Garrick’s Bon Ton, 1775.

[56] This is made sufficiently clear in the Sunday Ramble (1774, &c.); in the poem cited in the next note, and in Trusler’s London Adviser (1786).

[57] Bagnigge Wells, an anonymous poem (1779).

[58] The life of John Rann, otherwise Sixteen Strings Jack, reprinted London, 1884; C. Whibley in The New Review, 1896, p. 222; cp. also the print “The Road to Ruin.”

[59] Sale Catalogue, 1813. (Copy in Brit. Mus.)

[60] A few years before 1891, these figures were in the possession of Dr. Lonsdale of Carlisle (Wheatley’s London P. and P.).

[61] The temple (behind the Long Room) and the grotto to the north of it, were, as formerly, in the garden east of the Fleet. The western garden, previous to its curtailment, contained the rustic cottage nearly opposite the grotto, and the pond with its swan and Cupid fountain about the middle of the garden.

[62] For New Year’s day 1751, new fireworks in the Chinese manner were announced to take place at the Sir John Oldcastle (Pinks, p. 738). This was a special subscription entertainment. The regular open-air amusements appear to have come to an end in 1746.

[63] The Well at Battle Bridge (i.e. St. Chad’s) is mentioned with four other London Wells in the Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine for January 1773, p. 162. A Mr. Salter was part proprietor of the Well for many years previous to 1798. His mind became deranged and on 17 July, 1798, he was found drowned in a pond in the garden of St. Chad’s (The Courier for 18 July, 1798).

[64] Coull’s St. Pancras, p. 22.

[65] In the minutes of a Vestry Meeting in St. Giles’s parish, held in 1676, it is recorded that a meeting is appointed with the parishioners in St. Andrew’s, Holborn, about the Bowling Green in Gray’s Inn Fields and the houses near thereabouts built (F. Miller’s St. Pancras, p. 77).

[66] Malcolm’s Manners and Customs of London (1811), p. 209.

[67] Barras’s advertisement is quoted in Palmer’s St. Pancras, p. 310.

[68] It was generally known as the Bowling Green House, but the sign of the inn appears to have been the Three Tuns, for in a plan of the new road from Paddington to Islington (London Mag. 1756), the place is marked as the Three Tuns Ale House and the Three Tuns Bowling Green.

[69] Malcolm in Gent. Mag. 1813, pt. 2, pp. 427–429. The Bowling Green House is marked in Horwood’s Plan C, 1799; in a map of 1806 in Lambert’s London, vol. iv., and in Wallis’s plan of 1808.

[70] Walford, v. 304, cites a newspaper advertisement of September 1718, announcing that “there is a strange and wonderful fruit growing at the Adam and Eve at Tottenham Court, called a Calabath, which is five feet and a half round, where any person may see the same gratis.”

[71] Cunningham’s Handbook of London (1850), “Tottenham Court Road”; see also Paxton’s History of St. Giles’ Hospital and Parish (cited in F. Miller’s St. Pancras, p. 161), where similar fines for drinking at Tottenham Court are recorded for the year 1644.

[72] His first ascent was on 15 September, 1784. This was the first ascent in England, but it may be noted that Mr. J. Tytler had made an ascent from Edinburgh on 27 August, 1784.

[73] The Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser, Saturday, 14 May, 1785.

[74] See Horwood’s Plan, 1793.

[75] See Wallis’s Plan, 1808.

[76] Thus the grounds must at that time have covered the space now occupied by Eden Street and Seaton (formerly Henry) Street.

[77] There may be some exaggeration in this description (based on Wilkinson), for in the Picture of London, 1802, p. 370, the Adam and Eve is enumerated among the tea-gardens frequented by the middle classes, and is described as somewhat similar to the Jew’s Harp, with a small organ in the room upstairs where tea, wine and punch are served.

[78] Walford, v. 305.

[79] Stow’s Survey, p. 7 (ed. Thoms).

[80] At a depth of four feet was a bottom of “lettice” work under which the water was five feet deep.

[81] Watts’s building operations do not appear to have been completed till about 1811 or later (cp. Hughson’s London, iv. (1811), p. 414).

[82] Peerless Pool is mentioned in The Picture of London, 1829 (p. 370), as one of the principal public baths of London. Cunningham, Handbook of London, 1850, speaks of it as a then existing public bath. Mr. Hyde Clark writing in Notes and Queries (7th Series, viii. 214, 215) for 14 September, 1889, says that “it continued to be used as a bath until comparatively late years.” I am informed that after the death of Joseph Watts, the Bath was carried on by his widow, Mrs. Watts, and by the sons, Thomas Watts of the British Museum and his brother. It seems to have been built over at some time between 1850 and 1860.

[83] The grounds originally extended on the north-east to a tavern called The Fountain, which was frequented by tea-parties:—

(Lines in Hone, loc. cit.). There is now a public house called The Old Fountain at the east end of Baldwin Street. The Shepherd and Shepherdess (q.v.) was close by on the other side of the City Road.

[84] Cp. Lewis’s Islington, p. 31, note 6, referring to August 1758.

[85] For the connexion of the Salvation Army with the Eagle, and for some details as to the history of the Eagle tavern and gardens see The Times for 1882 (Palmer’s Index, under “Salvation Army,” June to September). On the Eagle see also Dickens, Sketches by Boz (Miss Evans and the Eagle); Hollingshead’s My Lifetime, i. p. 25, ff.; Ritchie’s Night-side of London (1858); Stuart and Park, The Variety Stage, p. 35, ff. &c.; Era Almanack, 1869, p. 80; H. Barton Baker’s The London Stage, ii. p. 254, ff.; and a view of the garden in Rogers’s Views of Pleasure Gardens of London, p. 57.

[86] The Post Man, Oct. 3 to 6, 1702, has the advertisement “At Milend the garden and house called the Jews Spring Garden is to be let. Enquire at Capt. Bendal’s at Milend” (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 463). Mr. Alexander Andrews (ib. 2nd ser. viii. 422) has shown that this Jews’ Spring Garden is in all probability to be identified with the Spring Garden marked in a map of Stepney parish of 1702.

[87] Rayner, Master of the Spring Garden at Stepney, died April 3, 1743, aged 70 (London Daily Post for 6 April, 1743).

[88] Low Life (1764), “Stepney Spring Gardens.”

[89] Dodsley’s London (1761), s.v. “Stepney.” There are modern streets known as Garden Street and Spring Garden Place, but these are some distance south of the Mile End Road, not far from St. Dunstan’s, Stepney.

[90] See Crace, Cat., p. 616, No. 80.

[91] “The back entrance was from the fields, beyond which, north, was a narrow winding passage, with garden palings on each side, leading into High Street” (Smith’s Book for a Rainy Day, p. 39).

[92] Pulled down in 1791. Devonshire Mews was built on the site.

[93] These lines, often erroneously attributed to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, occur in Pope’s The Basset-table, an Eclogue. The allusion in the second line is to Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham.

[94] Gough issued, 1738–9, silver tickets at 12s. each, admitting two persons for the season. In 1740 the silver season-ticket, admitting two, cost £1 1s. There are extant silver (or rather base silver) season tickets of 1766 (Wilkinson, Londina, vol. ii., last plate, No. 19) and of 1767 (Brit. Mus.). These later tickets, admitting two, cost £1 11s. 6d., or two guineas. There are copper tickets of 1770 (specimen in Brit. Mus.). In 1774 the ticket for two cost two guineas.

[95] The use of the old spelling which occurs in all the advertisements and contemporary notices must be conceded.

[96] J. T. Smith and several modern writers state that Trusler was proprietor in 1751. It would appear, however, from the newspapers that in 1754 John Sherratt was proprietor, and in May 1755 Mr. Beard was stated to have “lately taken the Gardens.” Trusler was undoubtedly manager from 1756–1763. He died before October 1766.

[97] Cp. Vocal Melody, Book iii. A favourite collection of songs and dialogues sung by Master Arne and Miss Faulkner at Marybone Gardens, set by Mr. Arne. Published 15 August, 1751, by J. Walsh, Catherine Street, Strand.

[98] The name is variously spelt; usually Falkner.

[99] See Trusler’s Memoirs, p. 63, ff.; cp. Dict. Nat. Biog., art. “Dunk, George Montagu, second Earl of Halifax,” 1716–1771.

[100] The Servant Mistress, a burletta translated from the Italian. Price 6d., printed at Marybone Gardens.

[101] Hone’s Year Book, pp. 500–503.

[102] Trusler’s Memoirs, p. 57.

[103] Two men were executed 15 June, 1763, at Tyburn for robbing, in Marybone Fields, the waiters belonging to Marybone Gardens.

[104] Indenture between Robert Long and Thomas Lowe, dated 30 August, 1763. The lease was for fourteen years. Trusler ceased to reside at the Gardens in 1764 when he went to Boyle Street, Saville Row, and Miss Trusler carried on business as a confectioner.

[105] The vocalists 1763–1767, besides Lowe, were—1763, Mrs. Vincent, Mrs. Lampe, Miss Catley, Miss Hyat, Miss Smith, Miss Plenius (1763?), and Mr. Squibb (Sig. Storace and Miss Catley had benefits); 1764, Mrs. Vincent, Mrs. Lampe, Miss Moyse, Miss Hyat, Mr. Squibb; 1765, Mrs. Vincent, Mrs. Collett, Miss Davis, Mrs. Taylor, Mr. Legg; 1766, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Raworth, Mrs. Vincent, Miss Davis; 1767, Mrs. Gibbons.

[106] The vocalists in 1768 were Reynoldson, Taylor, Phillips, Miss Davis, Miss Froud.

[107] Performers in 1769: Pinto, leader; Hook; Park, hautboy. Vocalists, Mrs. Forbes, Miss Brent, Mr. Herryman, Mr. Reynoldson.

[108] Performers, 1770: Barthelemon (violin); Hook; Reinhold, Charles Bannister; Mrs. Thompson; Mrs. Barthelemon; Mrs. Dorman. It is well known that Thomas Chatterton the poet wrote a burletta called The Revenge, which he sold to the management of Marybone Gardens for five guineas. It was not published till 1795, when it was issued as The Revenge, a burletta acted at Marybone Gardens, MDCCLXX. In the Marybone Gardens’ advertisements of 1770 (and of later dates) no burletta bearing the name of The Revenge appears, and the writer of the article “Chatterton” in Dict. Nat. Biog. thinks that the burletta must have been performed at some time subsequent to 1770, the year of Chatterton’s death. In The Revenge as published, the dramatis personæ are Jupiter, Mr. Reinhold; Bacchus, Mr. Bannister; Cupid, Master Cheney; Juno, Mrs. Thompson. Reinhold, Bannister, and Mrs. Thompson sang at the Gardens 1770–1773, and Cheney in 1770. I may add that a burletta called The Madman, performed at the Gardens in 1770, has a plot quite distinct from that of The Revenge.

[109] Performers, 1771: Hook; solo violin, Mons. Reeves; Charles Bannister; Mrs. Thompson; Miss Esser; Miss Harper (afterwards Mrs. John Bannister); Miss Thomas; and Miss Catley who sang “The Soldier tired of War’s Alarms”; “Sweet Echo,” from Comus (the echo “sung by a young gentleman”), &c.

[110] According to J. T. Smith (Rainy Day, p. 52, n.), Torré was a print-seller in partnership with Mr. Thane, and lived in Market Lane, Haymarket. Other fireworkers at the Gardens at this period were Clitherow (1772); Clanfield (1772 and 1773); Caillot of Ranelagh (1773, 1775, 1776).

[111] Performers, 1772: Hook, organ; Charles Bannister, Culver, Reinhold, Mrs. Calvert, Mrs. Forbes, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Cartwright and Mrs. Thompson.

[112] On his own benefit night in July 1772, Torré gave a representation of Hercules delivering Theseus from Hell, in addition to the Forge of Vulcan.

[113] Performers, 1773: Charles Bannister; Reinhold; Phillips; Barthelemon (leader); Miss Wilde; Mrs. Thompson; Mrs. Barthelemon. “Mr. Dibdin, of Drury Lane Theatre,” was announced to sing in Barthelemon’s “La Zingara, or the Gipsy” on Barthelemon’s benefit night.

[114] Also on 13 June, 1774.

[115] Performers, 1774: Fisher (violin), Dubellamy, Reinhold; Mons. Rodell, “musician to the King of Portugal,” German flute; Miss Wewitzer, Miss Trelawny, Miss Wilde.

[116] A large printed bill referring to this entertainment is in the possession of Mr. H. A. Rogers, and is reproduced in his Views of Pleasure Gardens of London, p. 30.

[117] Nollekens, i. 33, chap. ii.

[118] At a bazaar held in the Portman Rooms, Baker Street, in 1887 (Nov. 22–26), for the benefit of the charities of Marylebone Church, an ingenious reproduction was attempted, under the direction of Mr. Thomas Harris, the architect, of the latticed alcoves, lamp-hung trees, &c., of the old Marybone Gardens (see A Booke of ye olde Marybone Gardens, 1887 (sold at the bazaar); Daily Telegraph for 23 November, 1887).

[119] An account of the robbery and murder in 1808 of Mr. William Joachim in the Marylebone Fields mentions that he was on his way home to Lisson Grove, after a visit to the Jew’s Harp Tavern to see the skittle-playing (F. Miller’s St. Pancras, p. 238).

[120] Wheatley, London Past and Present, s.v. “Yorkshire Stingo,” states on the authority of Cooke’s Old London Bridge, p. 7, that a bridge designed by the celebrated Thomas Paine, being the second cast-iron bridge ever constructed, was brought to London in 1790 and set up in the bowling-green of the Yorkshire Stingo; it was afterwards taken back to Rotherham (where it had been made in 1789) and broken up in 1791.

[121] The Picture of London, 1802, p. 370, mentions the Yorkshire Stingo as a house many years celebrated for rustic sports on May Day.

[122] Newspaper cuttings in W. Coll.; cp. Hollingshead’s My Lifetime, i. 24, and see also Stuart and Park, The Variety Stage, p. 38, who mention Cave and Glindon as the comic vocalists. The saloon, which was in the rear of the tavern, had a small but capable orchestra directed by Love, afterwards leader at the Princess’s Theatre under Charles Kean. Miss Tunstall of Vauxhall was at one time a singer there.

[123] Pulled down about 1895.