the pit and gallery free, on the purchase of a pint of wine. A charge
of half-a-crown was made for the boxes. The audience smoked and toasted
one another. The man-servant by day became a beau at night; and with
the lady’s-maid, decked out in colours filched from her mistress, gazed
open-mouthed at the wonderful sights. Winifred Jenkins describes her
experiences, in _Humphry Clinker_ (1771):--“I was afterwards of a
party at Sadler’s Well, where I saw such tumbling and dancing on ropes
and wires that I was frightened and ready to go into a fit. I tho’t
it was all enchantment, and believing myself bewitched, began for to
cry. You knows as how the witches in Wales fly on broom-sticks; but
here was flying without any broomstick or thing in the varsal world,
and firing of pistols in the air and blowing of trumpets and singing,
and rolling of wheelbarrows on a wire (God bliss us!) no thicker than
a sewing thread; that to be sure they must deal with the Devil. A fine
gentleman with a pig’s tail and a golden sord by his side, came to
comfit me and offered for to treat me with a pint of wind; but I would
not stay; and so in going through the dark passage he began to show his
cloven futt and went for to be rude; my fellow sarvant Umphry Klinker
bid him be sivil, and he gave the young man a dous in the chops; but i’
fackins Mr. Klinker warn’t long in his debt; with a good oaken sapling
he dusted his doublet, for all his golden cheese-toaster; and fipping
me under his arm carried me huom, I nose not how, being I was in such a
flustration.”
Between 1752 and 1757 Michael Maddox exhibited his wire-dancing and
his tricks with a long straw, which he manipulated while keeping his
balance on the wire. In 1755 (and for many years afterwards) Miss
Wilkinson, the graceful wire-dancer and player of the musical glasses,
was a principal performer.
Giuseppe Grimaldi (“Iron Legs”) the father of the famous clown, was the
ballet-master and chief dancer in 1763 and 1764; and remained at the
Wells till 1767. Harlequinades and similar entertainments were from
this time added to the ordinary amusements of tumbling and rope-dancing.
[Illustration: SADLER’S WELLS IN 1792, AND AS IT WAS BEFORE 1765.]
In 1765 Rosoman pulled down the old wooden house and erected in
its place a new theatre which in part survives in the building of
the present day. The seats now had backs with ledges, as in our
music-halls, to hold the bottles and glasses of the audience. About
this time, or a few years later, the charge for a box was three
shillings including a pint of wine (port, Mountain, Lisbon or punch),
and eighteen pence and one shilling for the pit and gallery; an
extra sixpence entitling the ticket-holder to a pint of the wine
allowed to the box-holders. Angelo, at a later time, refers in his
_Reminiscences_ to the Cream of Tartar Punch and the wine of the
Sloe Vintage usually drunk at Sadler’s Wells.
Among the vocalists were Mrs. Lampe (1766–1767) and the famous Thomas
Lowe (1771 and later). In 1768 Spinacuti exhibited his wonderful monkey
which performed on the tight-rope feats resembling Blondin’s. Jemmy
Warner, the clown, appeared in 1769, and Richer, the wire and ladder
dancer, in 1773; and the years 1775 and 1776 were noticeable for the
appearance of James Byrne, the harlequin, father of Oscar Byrne. In
1778 the interior of the theatre was entirely altered and the roof
considerably raised. The audience now often included people of rank,
such as the Duke and Duchess of York and the Duke and Duchess of
Gloucester.
In 1781 Joseph Grimaldi (_b._ 1779, _d._ 1837) made his first
appearance at Sadler’s in the guise of a monkey, and appeared there
year by year till within a few years of his retirement. On 17 March,
1828, he took a farewell benefit there, playing “Hock,” the drunken
prisoner in “Sixes, or the Fiend.” His final appearance was at Drury
Lane on 27 June, 1828, when, prematurely broken down in health, he
sang, seated, his last song, and made his farewell speech.
The Dibdins, Charles the elder in 1772 and Charles the younger, 1801
to 1814, wrote many plays and songs for Sadler’s Wells. Charles the
younger and Thomas Dibdin were also proprietors and managers.
Among the performers who appeared between the years 1780 and 1801 were
Miss Romanzini, the ballad-vocalist, afterwards Mrs. Bland. Braham
(then Master Abrahams) the singer; Paul Redigé the clever tumbler,
called “the little Devil”; La Belle Espagnole, his wife; Dighton and
“Jew” Davis, pantomimists; Bologna and his sons in their exhibitions
of postures and feats of strength; Placido the tumbler, Dubois the
clown, and Costello (1783), whose wonderful dogs enacted a play called
_The Deserter_. Edmund Kean, the tragedian, appeared in June 1801
as “Master Carey, the pupil of Nature,” and recited Rollo’s address
from _Pizarro_.
[Illustration: SPINACUTI’S MONKEY AT SADLER’S WELLS, 1768.]
Among the varied entertainments at Sadler’s may be mentioned the
pony-races in 1802 (July) and 1822 (April and June). A course was
formed by means of a platform carried from the stage round the back
of the pit. In 1806 and 1826 a racecourse was formed outside in the
ground to the east of the theatre; booths, stands, and a judge’s box
were erected, and many of the most celebrated full-sized ponies with
a number of jockeys of “great celebrity” and lightweight were, at
least according to the bills, engaged. In 1826 (June) a balloon ascent
from the grounds was made by Mrs. Graham, and in 1838 her husband
also ascended. Belzoni, the famous excavator, exhibited his feats of
strength in 1803. In 1804 Sadler’s Wells was known as the “Aquatic
Theatre.” A large tank filled with water from the New River occupied
nearly the whole of the stage, and plays were produced with cascades
and other “real water” effects.
Our rapid survey, omitting many years, now passes on to 1844, when
Samuel Phelps became one of the proprietors of Sadler’s Wells.
During Phelps’s memorable management (1844–1862) there were produced
some thirty of Shakespeare’s plays, occupying about four thousand
nights--_Hamlet_ being played four hundred times.
In 1879 Sadler’s Wells was taken by Mrs. Bateman (from the Lyceum
Theatre), and under her management the whole of the interior was
reconstructed. At the present time it is a music-hall with two houses
nightly. It is curious to note that Macklin, describing Sadler’s Wells
as he remembered it some years before Rosoman’s time, says that several
entertainments of unequal duration took place throughout the day, and
were terminated by the door-keeper calling out “Is Hiram Fisteman
here?” Fisteman being a mythical personage whose name signified to the
performers that another audience was waiting outside. The price of
admission at that time was threepence and sixpence; to-day the charge
is twopence, a box being procurable for a shilling.
[The authorities are numerous. The Percival collection relating
to Sadler’s Wells (in Brit. Mus.) contains a great mass of
material bound in fourteen volumes. Useful summaries are given
in Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_, 409, ff; in the _Era Almanack_, 1872,
p. 1, ff; in M. Williams’s _Some London Theatres_; and in H.
Barton Baker’s _London Stage_, ii. p. 187, ff]
VIEWS.
The views, especially those of the 19th century, are abundant.
The following are of the 18th century:--
1. A view of Sadler’s Wells. C. Lempriere, sculp., 1731. Crace,
_Cat._, p. 593, No. 77; cp. _ib._ p. 592, No. 76.
2. Hogarth’s Evening, showing old Sadler’s Wells and the Sir
Hugh Middleton tavern.
3. South-west view of Sadler’s Wells, from a drawing by R.
C. Andrews, 1792; with a smaller view of the same in its
former state. Wise, sc., published in Wilkinson’s _Londina
Illustrata_.
Many others may be seen in the Percival and Crace collections.
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.
BAGNIGGE WELLS
A modern public-house, “Ye olde Bagnigge Wells,” standing on the west
side of the King’s Cross Road (formerly Bagnigge Wells Road), and the
building yard of Messrs. Cubitt, behind it, now occupy part of the site
of these famous Wells.
Bagnigge House, the building which formed the nucleus of the place of
entertainment called Bagnigge Wells, is believed to have been a summer
residence of Nell Gwynne. It fronted Bagnigge Wells Road, and was
pleasantly situated, lying in a hollow called Bagnigge Wash (or Vale);
and being well sheltered on all sides, except the south, by the rising
grounds of Primrose Hill, Hampstead and Islington.[50]
In 1757 a Mr. Hughes, described as a man curious in gardening, and
apparently the tenant of Bagnigge House, found that the more he watered
his plants with the water drawn from a well in the garden, the less
they seemed to thrive. He asked the opinion of a doctor, John Bevis,
who analysed the water, and pronounced it a valuable chalybeate. At
the same time the water of another well, sunk in the ground adjoining
Bagnigge House, was discovered to possess cathartic properties. Hughes,
realising the commercial possibilities of these wells, opened the
house and gardens to the public, at least as early as April 1759. The
place was open daily, including Sundays, and in 1760 Bevis published a
pamphlet, setting forth the virtues of the waters.
The chalybeate well was situated just behind the house, and the
cathartic well about forty yards north of the chalybeate. The water
of the two wells, which were each some twenty feet in depth, was,
however, brought to one point, and thence drawn from a double pump
placed within a small circular edifice consisting of pillars supporting
a dome, erected behind the house. This was commonly called the Temple.
The chalybeate was of a ferruginous character having “an agreeable
and sprightly sub-acid tartness,” and was, according to Bevis, “apt
to communicate a kind of giddiness with an amazing flow of spirits
and afterwards a propensity to sleep if exercise be not interposed.”
The purging water left a “distinguishable brackish bitterness on the
palate,” and three half-pints were “sufficient for most people,”
without the addition of salts to quicken their virtue.
The charge for drinking the water at the pump was threepence: half
a guinea entitled the visitor to its use throughout the season.
At a later date when Bagnigge Wells was mainly frequented for its
tea-gardens, a general charge of sixpence was made for admission.
The Long Room,[51] the old banqueting hall of Bagnigge House, was about
seventy-eight feet by twenty-eight feet with a rather low ceiling
and panelled walls. At one end of the room was a distorting mirror,
a source of considerable amusement, which, for instance, revealed to
Captain Tommy Slender of the Middlesex Militia, so odd a figure, that
he was almost “hyp’d to death.” Filled with apprehension he consulted
a physician, who understanding the use of the concave and convex
mirror made his patient take copious draughts of the water, and, after
pocketing his fee, led him to another panel of the glass, where the
Captain beheld a portly well-conditioned man. Vastly pleased he went
home convinced of the virtues of the wells. At the other end of the
room was a good organ[52] which provided music for the company. A water
organ was also to be heard in the grounds. The organ performances were
prohibited on Sundays by the magistrates from about 1772, apparently
with the idea of rendering the attractions of Bagnigge Wells less
dangerously seductive. The organ was, however, played regularly on the
week-day afternoons.[53]
[Illustration: “THE BREAD AND BUTTER MANUFACTORY, OR THE HUMORS
OF BAGNIGGE WELLS,” 1772.
(INTERIOR OF LONG ROOM.)]
From about 1760 till near the end of the eighteenth century Bagnigge
Wells was a popular resort. Some hundreds of visitors were sometimes to
be found in the morning for the water-drinking, and early breakfasts
were provided. In the afternoon the Long Room and the gardens were
thronged by tea-drinkers, especially on Sundays. Stronger beverages
were not unknown, and a bowl of good negus was a feature here. The
lawyer, the man about town, and the active city merchant, no less than
the gouty, and the hypochondriac, came to while away an hour or two:--
Ye gouty old souls and rheumaticks crawl on,
Here taste these blest springs, and your tortures are gone;
Ye wretches asthmatick, who pant for your breath,
Come drink your relief, and think not of death.
Obey the glad summons, to Bagnigge repair,
Drink deep of its streams, and forget all your care.
The distemper’d shall drink and forget all his pain,
When his blood flows more briskly through every vein;
The headache shall vanish, the heartache shall cease,
And your lives be enjoyed in more pleasure and peace.
Obey then the summons, to Bagnigge repair,
And drink an oblivion to pain and to care.[54]
The city matron deemed it the very home of fashion:--
Bon Ton’s the space ’twixt Saturday and Monday,
And riding in a one-horse chair on Sunday:
’Tis drinking tea on summer afternoons
At Bagnigge Wells with china and gilt spoons.[55]
With “genteel females” there mingled others of decidedly bad
reputation.[56] Even a feminine pickpocket[57] was not unknown. The
notorious John Rann,[58] who, as Dr. Johnson observed, towered above
the common mark as a highwayman, was a visitor at Bagnigge Wells, and
a favourite with some of the ladies there. On 27 July, 1774, Rann was
brought before Sir John Fielding after one of his escapades, but was
acquitted, the magistrate exhorting him in a pathetic manner to forsake
his evil ways. On the Sunday following (31 July), he appeared at
Bagnigge Wells with all his old assurance, attired in a scarlet coat,
tambour waistcoat, white silk stockings, and a laced hat. On each knee
he wore the bunch of eight ribbons, which had gained him his sobriquet
of Sixteen Strings Jack. On this occasion his behaviour gave such
offence to the company that he was thrown out of one of the windows
of the Long Room. About four months later, 30 November, 1774, he was
hanged at Tyburn for robbing Dr. Bell, chaplain to the Princess Amelia.
The grounds of Bagnigge Wells were behind the Long Room, and were laid
out in formal walks, with hedges of box and holly. There were a number
of fine trees, some curiously trimmed, and a pretty flower garden.
Ponds containing gold and silver fish, at that time a novelty, were in
the gardens; and the pond in the centre had a fountain in the form of a
Cupid bestriding a swan from whose beak issued streams of water.
Parallel with the Long Room, and separating the eastern part of the
grounds from the western (and by far the larger) portion, ran the
river Fleet, with seats on its banks, for such as “chuse to smoke or
drink cyder, ale, etc., which are not permitted in other parts of the
garden.” Willows, large docks and coarse plants, elder bushes and other
shrubs in luxurious profusion, fringed the banks; and we hear of Luke
Clennell, the artist, making studies of the foliage.
Three rustic bridges spanned the stream, and amid the trees were two
tall leaden figures; one a rustic with a scythe, the other a Phyllis
of the hay-fields, rake in hand.
Arbours for tea-drinking, covered with honeysuckle and sweetbriar,
surrounded the gardens; and there was a rustic cottage and a grotto.
The last named, a small castellated building of two apartments open
to the gardens, was brightly decorated in cockney fashion with
shells, fossils, and fragments of broken glass. A bowling-green and
skittle-alley were among the attractions of the Wells, and a bun-house
or bake-house was erected (before 1791) on the south side of the house,
but not immediately contiguous to it.
Hughes, the original proprietor, appears to have remained at the Wells
till about 1775; and a Mr. John Davis was subsequently the lessee till
his death in 1793. During the last twenty years of the eighteenth
century the company, for the most part, seems to have consisted of
persons of lower rank than formerly:--
Cits to Bagnigge Wells repair
To swallow dust and call it air.
Prentices and their sweethearts, and city matrons with their husbands,
frequented the place; while unfledged Templars paraded as fops, and
young ensigns sported their new cockades. The morning water-drinking
was not neglected, but the full tide of life at Bagnigge was from
five to eight p.m. on Sundays, when the gardens were crowded with
tea-drinkers. A prentice-song sets forth the delights of the Wells:--
Come prithee make it up, Miss, and be as lovers be
We’ll go to Bagnigge Wells, Miss, and there we’ll have some tea;
It’s there you’ll see the lady-birds perched on the stinging nettles,
The crystal water fountain, and the copper shining kettles.
It’s there you’ll see the fishes, more curious they than whales,
And they’re made of gold and silver, Miss, and wags their little tails;
They wags their little tails, they wags their little tails.
[Illustration: Frontispiece _for the_ Sunday Ramble;
_Being a View in Bagnigge Wells Garden, drawn on y^e Spot._
_Salubrious Waters, Tea, and Wine,
Here you may have, and also dine;
But, as ye through the Garden rove,
Beware, fond Youths, the Darts of Love._]
About 1810 the place became more exclusively the resort of the lower
classes, though the situation was still somewhat picturesque. In 1813
Thomas Salter, the lessee, became bankrupt, and Bagnigge Wells was
put up for sale by auction[59] on four days in the month of December.
Not a bench or shrub was omitted: the “excellent fine-toned organ,”
the water-organ, the chandeliers from the Long Room, dinner and tea
services of Worcester china; the tea-boxes, two hundred drinking
tables, four hundred teaboards, and some four hundred dozen of ale and
stout. The various rooms and buildings were also offered for sale,
including “Nell Gwyn’s house,” the summer-house, the bake-house, the
grotto, temple, bridges; the two leaden rustics,[60] the fountains and
all the gold and silver fish. Also the pleasure and flower gardens
with their greenhouses, all the trees, including a “fine variegated
holly tree,” the gooseberry and currant bushes, the hedges, shrubs and
flowers.
In the year following, however, the place was re-opened under W.
Stock’s management, and though the gardens[61] were now curtailed of
all the ground west of the Fleet (at this time a ditch-like, and, on
warm evenings, malodorous stream), an attempt was made to revive their
popularity. The proprietor’s efforts were not very successful, and
during the next few years the premises frequently changed hands. In
1818 the lessee of Bagnigge Wells was Mr. Thorogood, who let it to
Mr. Monkhouse (from White Conduit House) about 1831. In April 1831
Monkhouse advertised the Concert Room as being open every evening for
musical entertainments, which continued to be the main feature of
Bagnigge Wells until its close. In, or before, 1833 Richard Chapman was
the proprietor, and John Hamilton in 1834.
In 1838 (August 14th), the lessees, Mr. and Miss Foster, announced
for their benefit night an array of concert-room talent:--Le Mœurs of
Bagnigge Wells, Mr. Darking (of the London concerts), Miss Anderson
(from the Mogul Concert Room), Messrs. Sutton and Gibson (Sadler’s
Wells), Master Clifford (Yorkshire Stingo), Mr. H. Smith (Royal Union
Saloon), Mr. Boyan (Queen’s Head Rooms), Mr. Roberts (White Conduit);
and the songs included “Tell me, my heart,” “Billy the Snob” (in
character), “Pat was a darling boy.” A scene was given from _Julius
Cæsar_; a soliloquy from _Hamlet_; and one Simpson exhibited
classical delineations of the Grecian statues. The concert was followed
by a ball, in which were danced a Highland fling (by a Mr. McDougal),
a double comic medley dance, a waterman’s hornpipe, and a hornpipe
in real fetters and chains. During the evening a balloon was sent up
from the grounds; and sixpence procured admission to the whole. On
other concert nights the admission was as low as threepence. Among the
singers in the latest days of Bagnigge Wells were the well-known Paddy
O’Rourke, Alford, Ozealey, Prynn, Box, Sloman, Booth, Gibbs and Dickie.
Besides the songs and duets, portions of plays were acted, though
without scenery or special dresses.
The year 1841 witnessed the last entertainment at Bagnigge Wells, when
on 26 March there was an evening performance (admission sixpence) of
glees, farces and comic songs. The dismantling of the place was now
begun. The grotto, which was already in a very dilapidated condition,
was destroyed by some passers by in the early morning of 6 April, 1841.
In 1843 all that remained was the north end of the Long Room, and,
according to a representative of _Punch_, who visited the spot in
September of that year, the old well was filled up with rubbish and
mosaics of oyster shells. Shortly afterwards, the present tavern was
built; Mr. Negus, a name suggestive of other days, being the tenant in
1850.
[Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_; Walford’s _O. & N. London_; Palmer’s
_St. Pancras_, p. 77, ff.; Wheatley’s _London P. & P._;
Kearsley’s _Strangers’ Guide_; Noorthouck’s _London_, p. 752,
ff.; Clinch’s _Marylebone and St. Pancras_, p. 148, ff.;
Malcolm’s _Lond. Rediv._ (1803), p. 237; _Sunday Ramble_
(various editions); Rimbault in _Notes and Queries_, 1st ser.
ii. 228; 4th ser. xi. 24; _Era Almanack_, 1871 (account of
Bagnigge Wells by Blanchard).]
VIEWS.
The following views may be noted:--
1. “Ancient stone from Bagnigge Wells,” engraved in Pinks, p.
558.
2. “The Bread and Butter Manufactory, or the Humors of Bagnigge
Wells,” a mezzotint published by Carrington Bowles, 1772; cp. an
aquatint print from a painting by Sanders, published by J. R.
Smith in 1772.
3. Mr. Deputy Dumpling and Family enjoying a summer afternoon, a
print (1780) published by Carrington Bowles. Crace, _Cat._,
p. 583, No. 84.
4. Bagnigge Wells, near Battle Bridge, a print (1777). Crace,
_Cat._, p. 583, No. 82; engraved in Walford’s _O. & N.
London_, ii. p. 294.
5. Bagnigge Wells Garden, frontispiece engraved for the
_Sunday Ramble_, “drawn on ye spot,” Page sculp.
(_circ._ 1774?) (W. Coll.); engraved in Pinks, p. 563.
6. “A Bagnigge Wells scene: or, No resisting temptation.”
An engraving published by Carrington Bowles, 1780. Crace,
_Cat._, p. 583, No. 85; a hand-coloured mezzotint in Brit.
Mus. _Catal. of Prints_, vol. iv., No. 4,545.
7. View of the Tea-gardens and Bun-house, from a drawing, taken
in 1790 (?); copy in sepia in W. Coll.; an almost identical
view is reproduced in Rogers’s _Views of Pleasure Gardens of
London_, p. 23, “from a drawing made in 1827.”
8. “The Road to Ruin” (with figure of John Rann). Crace,
_Cat._, p. 583, No. 86.
9. A view taken from the centre bridge in the gardens of
Bagnigge Wells. An example in Crosby Coll.; also reproduced in
Ashton’s _The Fleet_.
10. The original garden entrance to Bagnigge Wells (_circ._
1800?) J. T. Smith del. Etched in Rogers’s _Views of Pleasure
Gardens of London_, p. 26.
11. View of Bagnigge Wells Gardens, 1828, engraving in
Cromwell’s _Clerkenwell_, p. 414; reproduced in Pinks, p.
567.
12. A collection of manuscript notes, sketches and drawings,
relating to Bagnigge Wells in its later days, made by Anthony
Crosby. (Guildhall Library, London.)
13. “Residence of Nell Gwynne, Bagnigge Wells.” An engraving, C.
J. Smith, sc. 1844; Crace, _Cat._, p. 583, No. 88; Pinks,
p. 559.
“LORD COBHAM’S HEAD.”