(1755); Miss Formantel (_Ten favourite songs sung by Miss Formantel
at Ranelagh_, music by Mr. Oswald, published July 1758).
[229] According to a statement of Burney’s (note in Croker’s ed. of
Boswell’s _Johnson_, p. 143, anno “1763”), the salt-box song was
sung by Beard accompanied on that instrument by Brent, the fencing
master, while Skeggs played on the broomstick as bassoon. Croker
assigns the composition, and apparently the first performance, of
the Ode to 1769, and states that the first edition (which he himself
had seen) of it bears the date 1749, a date which he considered to
be a misprint for 1769. But the date 1769 is, as some later writers
have seen, clearly erroneous, and the composition--and possibly the
_first_ performance at Ranelagh--must be assigned to 1759. The
published edition of the Ode, in the British Museum, is dated (May)
1763, and the Ode was undoubtedly performed at Ranelagh on 10 June
of that year (1763). (See _Annual Register_; _Lloyd’s Evening
Post_, 8–16 June, 1763.)
[230] Cp. _Six new English songs composed by Ferdinando Tenducci, and
to be sung by him at Ranelagh_. Sold by the author at his lodging in
the Great Piazza, Covent Garden, 1763 (W. Coll.).
Other performers at this period were:--1762: Champness, Hudson, Miss
Thomas, Miss Brent. 1763: Dearle, Miss Wright, Miss Brent. 1765 (?):
the elder Fawcett.
[231] _Gent. Mag._ 1767, p. 277.
[232] Walpole’s _Letters_, ed. Cunningham, ii. 150, ff. (Walpole
to Mann, 3 May, 1749).
[233] It is to be feared that this advertisement was an invention
of the editor’s, but it would have had little point for his readers
had it not been actually based on familiar incidents of the Ranelagh
masquerades.
[234] Mrs. Baddeley also sang there in 1772.
[235] An impetus to the fireworks seems to have been first given by
Angelo, father of Henry Angelo, who directed the displays in 1766. In
1771 the fireworkers were Clitherow and Caillot.
[236] The admission ticket for the Regatta Ball (Lake scene) was
prepared by Cipriani and Bartolozzi.
[237] _Evening Mail_, Feb. 15–17, 1792.
[238] Newspaper cutting [W. Coll.] assigned to 28 June (referring to 27
June), 1793. Mr. Vizetelly (_Chevalier D’Eon_, p. 322) states that
D’Eon fenced at Ranelagh in 1794. The managers of Ranelagh had given
the Chevalier, who was then in money difficulties, a benefit night in
1791 (24 June).
[239] Another great fête of this period (June 1802 or 1803?) was the
Ball given by the Spanish Ambassador.
[240] _The European Magazine_, October 1802, and several
newspapers of the time.
[241] The name was spelt Strumbels, Strombels and Strumbello. Davis
(_Knightsbridge_) calls it Stromboli House.
[242] O’Keefe’s _Recollections_.
[243] Davis’s _Knightsbridge_. Strumbelo is marked in the map of
1789 in Fores’s _New Guide_.
[244] The Star and Garter was at the end of Five Fields Row. In
Faulkner’s time (_Chelsea_, ii. p. 354), about 1829, the house, no
longer used as a tavern, was Mr. Homden’s Academy.
[245] On the Cherokee Chiefs, see Forster’s _Goldsmith_, bk. iii.
chap. vi. (ann. 1762).
[246] John Coan, “the unparalleled Norfolk Dwarf,” died there 16 March
1764 (_Daily Advertiser_, 17 March, 1764).
[247] The Dwarf’s Tavern according to Faulkner (_Chelsea_, ii.
354), was situated in Chelsea Fields “on the spot which was afterwards
called Spring Gardens, between Ebury Street and Belgrave Terrace,” and
which was subsequently (a few years before 1829) occupied by Ackerman’s
Waterproof Cloth Manufactory. This Spring Garden is the place usually
marked in the maps (_e.g._, Horwood’s Plan, B. 1795) as the _New
Spring Gardens, Chelsea_, and was a place of public entertainment,
as may be inferred from a newspaper advertisement of January 1792: “J.
Louis, of New Spring Gardens, Chelsea, having fitted up _likewise_
the above house (_i.e._ York Coffee House) in Norris Street,
Haymarket, for the winter, serves dinners and suppers there.”
This Spring Garden was distinct from the _Spring Gardens,
Knightsbridge_, a place frequented by Pepys, and perhaps identical
with the World’s End, Knightsbridge (see Davis’s _Knightsbridge_,
p. 149, ff.). The Knightsbridge Spring Gardens (which stood about
where William Street joins Lowndes Square) ceased to be a place of
entertainment before 1773, in which year the house belonging to them
was occupied by Dr. C. Kelly, who had his anatomical museum there.
Walford (v. 18) engraves from a drawing in the Crace Collection a view
of the “Spring Gardens,” which he assigns to the Knightsbridge Spring
Gardens, but it is possibly a representation of the _Chelsea_
Spring Gardens.
[248] O’Keefe’s _Recollections_, vol. i. p. 88: “1762. At Cromwell
House, Brompton, once the seat of Oliver, was also a tea-garden
concert.”
[249] The price appears on the (undated) pewter and brass admission
tickets to Cromwell’s Gardens. The British Museum has four specimens in
pewter, with Cromwell’s head; and one of the brass tickets.
[250] The Sunday Rambler visits the gardens between 7.30 and 9 p.m.
[251] I follow the _Modern Sabbath_, ed. 1797, in stating that
Cromwell’s Gardens were identical with the Florida Gardens. In the
second edition of the _Sunday Ramble_ (1776) Cromwell’s Gardens
at Brompton are described under that name, and in the 1797 ed. (_A
Modern Sabbath_) almost the same description is repeated, and it
is expressly stated that the name of the place had been changed from
Cromwell’s to Florida Gardens. On the other hand, Faulkner describes
the Florida Gardens as having been originally a nursery garden kept by
“Hyam” (he is called Hiem in the advertisements) and converted by him
(for the first time, it is implied) into a place of public amusement.
Faulkner after describing Hale House, mentions Cromwell’s Gardens as
a separate place of amusement earlier than the Florida Gardens. The
contemporary authority of the _Modern Sabbath_ seems, however,
preferable; especially as Faulkner does not appear to be able to state
the precise site of Cromwell’s Gardens. A further complication may
perhaps be thought to be introduced by the passage in O’Keefe (cited
in Note 1) where Cromwell’s Gardens are described as “at Cromwell
House” (_i.e._ Hale House). But the inhabitants of Cromwell House
from 1754 to 1794, or later, are well known to have been people of
substance, and the gardens proper of Hale House could hardly have been
employed as a tea-garden. The Florida Gardens (afterwards occupied by
Canning’s Gloucester Lodge) were (as stated above) adjacent to Hale
House, and may possibly at one time have belonged to its owners, and
have been let out partly as a tea-garden and partly as a nursery. The
writer of the _Modern Sabbath_ in fact remarks that Cromwell’s
Gardens is supposed to have taken its name from the ground being
formerly the patrimonial estate of the Protector who once had a
palace here upon the site of which is a handsome seat (_i.e._
Hale House). The change of name from Cromwell to Florida took place
(as appears from the various editions of a _Sunday Ramble_) at
some time between 1776 and 1797. I suggest that the change took place
about 1780, because Lysons (who, however, does not mention Cromwell’s
Gardens) says that the place was “much puffed in the daily papers
between the years 1780 and 1790 by the name of Florida Gardens.” In any
case they certainly were advertised by Hiem as the Florida Gardens as
early as 1781.
[252] The Florida Gardens are described as a place of entertainment in
the _Modern Sabbath_, published in 1797, but they were already
in the possession of the Duchess of Gloucester in September 1797.
Cp. a newspaper paragraph of 25 September, 1797, in “Public Gardens”
Collection in Guildhall Library: “Florida Gardens, at present in the
possession of the Duchess of Gloucester, were fitted up in an elegant
manner as a place of resort by the late Mr. Wilder [a successor of
Hiem?] but did not answer the purpose for which they were intended.”
[253] These checks in copper and lead resemble the tradesmen’s
halfpenny tokens of the end of the eighteenth century, and are usually
described as tokens: see descriptions in Sharpe’s _Catalogue_, p.
89; Atkins, p. 193. Miss Banks, in the MS. catalogue of her tokens (p.
210) now in the Department of Coins, British Museum, says respecting
the leaden check: “One shilling was paid on going in, and this ticket
given in exchange which would count for sixpence if the person chose
liquor.”
[254] Smith’s _Book for a Rainy Day_: the description strictly
applies to the year 1795; _A Modern Sabbath_, chap. ix. (1797),
implies that the place was more refined than Smith’s description would
suggest.
[255] Blewitt lived in Bermondsey Square, where he died in 1805.
[256] Cp. “X” in _The Musical Times_ for October 1, 1893, p. 588.
[257] It is possibly worth while to record the names of some of the
forgotten performers at Bermondsey Spa. _Circ._ 1785–1788 the
vocalists were Mr. Birkett, Mr. C. Blewitt, Mr. Burling (or Birling),
Mr. Harriss; Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Byrn, Mrs. Piercy; Miss Stephenson,
Miss Pay, Miss Cemmitt; Mme. Floranze. In 1792 the leader of the band
was Mr. Peile, and the vocalists were Mr. Burton, Mr. Milward, Mrs.
Freeman, and Mrs. Peile.
Among the burlettas (1785–1788) were “The Quack Doctor,” “The Fop,” and
“The Auctioneer.”
[258] The fireworks in 1792 were by Rossi and Tessier, of Ranelagh.
On 25 September, 1792, “by particular desire, the Battle of the Fiery
Dragons, and the line comet to come from the Rock of Gibraltar and
cause the Dragons to engage.”
[259] This entertainment was probably first introduced in 1786, in
which year (2 September) the _Public Advertiser_ announces “the
representation of the storming of a fort which with the fortifications
cover (_sic_) 3 acres of ground, the rock being fifty feet high
and 200 feet long.” From about 1789 to 1792 it was advertised as a
representation of the Siege of Gibraltar. The writer of _A Modern
Sabbath_ (1797) gives further details. “On the north-east side
of the gardens is a very fine lawn consisting of about three acres,
and in a field parted from this lawn by a sunk fence is a building
with turrets, resembling a fortress or castle.” At each side of this
fortress at unequal distances were two buildings, from which on public
nights bombshells, &c., were thrown. The fire was returned and the
whole exhibited the “picturesque prospect of a siege.”
[260] _Gent. Mag._ 1800, pt. i. p. 284. Keyse’s house was a large
wooden-fronted building, consisting of square divisions in imitation of
scantlings of stone (J. T. Smith). The entrance to the Gardens was next
to the house, beneath a semi-circular awning.
[261] Hughson’s _London_, vol. v. (1808), p. 60. _The Picture of
London_ for 1802 mentions in the “Almanack of Pleasures” under July
17, “A silver cup run for at Spa Gardens, Bermondsey, by gentlemen’s
ponies.”
[262] Blanchard in _Era Almanack_, 1870, p. 18 (followed by
Walford). Brayley and Mantell (_Surrey_, iii. 200, 201) say the
Gardens were closed about 1805. Lambert in his _London_ (iv. 140)
published in 1806, speaks of the Spa as still open, but the passage may
have been written a year or more before the date of publication.
[263] _Picture of London_, eds. 1802, 1829; Tallis’s
_Illustrated London_, ed. Gaspey.
[264] In the _Era Almanack_, 1871, p. 6, it is stated that the
gardens “disappeared in 1869.” Walford, vi. 138, says they ceased to
exist in 1881.
[265] “The principal site of Finch’s Grotto Gardens appears to have
been a triangular piece of ground forming the western side of St.
George’s Street, Southwark, and bounded on the south by the road called
Dirty Lane and on the north by a vinegar yard in Lombard Street, and
the extremity of St. Saviour’s Parish.” Wilkinson, _Londina_. A
way from Falcon Stairs through Bandy Leg Walk (now Guildford Street)
led directly to the place, and Williams, Finch’s successor, made an
entrance from St. George’s Fields. Those who came by water landed at
Mason’s Stairs.
[266] Goldsmith’s _She Stoops to Conquer_, act. ii.
[267] The Dukes of York and Gloucester, brothers of George III., are,
however, said to have visited the gardens many times.
[268] List of performers under Finch and Williams:--Messrs. Oldfield
(or Offield?, 1765), Lauder, Dearle, Baker, Barnshaw of Covent Garden
Theatre, Moore, Tom Lowe, Kear (sang at Marylebone 1754, and at
Sadler’s Wells in 1771 and later), Nepecker, Clarke, Thomas and A.
Smith from the Richmond Theatre, Weston from Drury Lane (1772), Aitken
and Murphin, Master Adams, Master Suett (in 1771, from Ranelagh,
supposed to be Dick Suett the actor), Master Green, and Master Lyon.
The female singers were Mrs. Forbes, Reed, Smith, Taylor, Clark, and
Dorman, and Misses Garvey, Thomas (in August 1765), Carli, Moyse,
Snow, Dowson (sang at Sadler’s Wells 1775), Cantrell, Marshall, and
Oakes. The instrumentalists included Cocklin and Smart, _violins_;
Hudson, _organ_; Palmer, _flute_.
[269] “Linco’s Travels” was also performed at the Patagonian Theatre,
Exeter Change. Humphreys’s _Memoirs of Decastro_, 237.
[270] A programme of a benefit night for 12 September, 1771 (under
Williams), may be inserted as a specimen:--
“Act i.--An Overture. A favourite song from the opera of Pharnaces:
‘Swift wing’d vengeance nerves my arm,’ by Mr. A. Smith, set by Mr.
Bates. A favourite Scotch air by Miss Dowson, words and music by Mr.
A. Smith. An overture by Abel. The Act to conclude with a celebrated
song from Anacreon, set by Mr. Starling [Sterling?] Goodwin, by Mr. A.
Smith. Act ii.--‘The soldier tired of war’s alarm,’ by Miss Dowson.
A new song, ‘O what a charming thing is a battle,’ by Mr. Barnshaw.
An overture in Otho, Handel. ‘Sweet Echo,’ by a young gentleman from
Italy. Trumpet Concerto by Master Green, pupil of Mr. Jones. The
celebrated song of the ‘British Wives,’ by Mr. A. Smith. A new song by
Miss Dowson. Concerto on the violin by Mr. Smart. The Act to conclude
with ‘Russel’s triumph,’ by Mr. A. Smith, by particular desire. To
which will be added an entertainment called ‘The Gamester,’ to be sung
by Mr. A. Smith, Mr. Barnshaw, Miss Dowson, and Mrs. Dorman, with a
hornpipe in the character of a sailor, by Mr. Rawlins from the Opera
House in the Haymarket. At the end of the hornpipe Mr. A. Smith will
sing the celebrated song of ‘The storm or the danger of the sea,’ in
character. After which will be displayed a Grand Transparent Painting.”
[271] In 1827 this stone was used as a step in the yard of the house
of a Mrs. Stevens near the site of the Gardens, the verses being then
almost illegible (Wilkinson).
[272] Nichols’s _Lambeth_, 1786 (in vol. ii. of _Bibl. Topog.
Brit._ p. 77, ff.); Michaelis’s _Ancient Marbles in Great
Britain_, 35–37.
[273] Prologue to Mrs. Centlivre’s _Busybody_.
[274] Chappell (_Popular Music in the Olden Time_, ii. 727, 728)
gives words and music.
[275] The gardens were closed on the Sundays of 1752.
[276] _Gent. Mag._ 1740, 525.
[277] Walpole’s _Letters_, ed. Cunningham, ii. 32, 24 June, 1746.
Bad company was not unknown in the earlier days of the gardens: see
Welsted’s _Epistle on False Fame_, 1732:--
“For Cupid’s Bowers she hires the willing scull ...
While here a ’prentice, there a captain bites.”
[278] _The Complete Letter-writer_, Edinburgh, 1773, quoted in
_Notes and Queries_, 7th ser. ii. 469.
[279] Twelve songs by Lewis Granom, as sung at Cuper’s Gardens by Miss
Maria Bennett, published London, 24 November, 1752.
[280] The fireworks at Cuper’s in 1751 are described in the _London
Daily Advertiser_ for 10 September, 1751.
[281] ‘The Inspector,’ No. 448, in the _London Daily Advertiser_
for 6 August, 1752. The details that follow are derived from the same
journal for 4 August, 1752, where they are related of “one of the
public gardens on the other side of the water.” Possibly Vauxhall is
intended, but if not literally true of Cuper’s Gardens, they seem
sufficiently applicable to them.
[282] Boswell, _Life of Johnson_, ed. Croker, chap. xli. p. 366.
[283] _Nollekens_, ii. 201.
[284] The Folly was occasionally moored off the Bank side (Wheatley,
_London Past and Present_, “The Folly”).
[285] _Amusements Serious and Comical_, part ii. “The Thames.”
[286] Pepys (_Diary_, 13 April, 1668) jots down in his daily
expenditure a shilling spent “in the Folly.” From the circumstance that
he makes no special comment on the place it may perhaps be inferred
that he was already acquainted with it from previous visits.
[287] Tom D’Urfey, _A Touch of the Times_, 1719.
[288] Walford, iii. 290, 291.
[289] Walford’s statement (_Old and New London_, vi. 388) that
they adjoined Cuper’s Gardens is not quite accurate. Four strips of
land belonging to four different proprietors are marked in the map in
Strype’s _Stow_ (1720) as lying between the Belvedere Gardens and
Cuper’s Gardens.
[290] The proprietor, William Hagley, issued a halfpenny token “at ye
Restoration in St. George’s Feilds.” Boyne’s _Trade Tokens of the
Seventeenth Century_, ed. Williamson, p. 1036, No. 357.
[291] Advertisement in the _Country Journal or the Craftsman_, 31
March, 1733, where the celebrated “Purging Spring” and the Chalybeate
Spring “lately discovered” are mentioned, “at Mr. Lewis’s, commonly
called the Restauration Gardens in St. George’s Fields.”
[292] The water was also to be obtained at a corkcutter’s under Exeter
Change in the Strand.
[293] Loudon’s _Arboretum et frut. Brit._ vol. i. p. 75. Nichols,
_Parish of Lambeth_, p. 84, says “about the year 1777.”
[294] _Notes and Queries_, 7th series, xi. p. 87 (communication
from Lieut.-Col. Capel Coape).
[295] This appears from the evidence brought forward in the prosecution
of Grist; see _The Whitehall Evening Post_ for May 7 to May 10,
1796 (referring to May 7).
[296] Newspapers cited by E. M. Borrajo in _Notes and Queries_,
7th ser. xi. 138.
[297] “The English translator of Lamotte’s _Life_ says she fell
from the leads of her house, nigh the Temple of Flora, endeavouring to
escape seizure for debt, and was taken up so much hurt that she died in
consequence. Another report runs that she was flung out of window....
Where the Temple of Flora was, or is, one knows not” (Carlyle,
_Diamond Necklace_, note near end). The Temple of Flora alluded to
was certainly in London, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the
popular resort now described is the place in question.
[298] At the period when the gardens were open “The Asylum”
(_i.e._ Female Orphan Asylum) stood where Christ Church now stands.
[299] Cp. Wilkinson, _Londina Illust._ vol. ii. “Pantheon Theatre.”
[300] Allen (_History of Lambeth_, 319) states that the Apollo
Gardens were suppressed about 1791, but this is certainly erroneous,
as the gardens were frequently advertised in 1792. Kearsley’s
_Strangers’ Guide to London_ (1793?) mentions the place as
“the resort of company in the evenings,” and says that music was
occasionally performed there. The Temple of Apollo was described about
1796–7 in _A Modern Sabbath_ as already becoming ruinous, and it
is there stated that Claggett, the proprietor, had become bankrupt. A
newspaper paragraph of December 1796 refers to a field opposite the
Asylum, close by “the ditch that encircles that place of late infamous
resort, the Apollo Gardens.”
[301] This was probably the orchestra that seems to have stood in the
centre of the gardens and not that in the concert room.
[302] Cp. a token of 1651 (“At the Dogg and Ducke in Southwarke,”
type, Spaniel with Duck in mouth) in Boyne’s _Trade Tokens_, ed.
Williamson, p. 1022, there assigned to The Dog and Duck in Deadman’s
Place, Southwark, by Mr. Philip Norman, who, however, suggests the
possibility of its belonging to the Dog and Duck in St. George’s
Fields. A specimen is in the British Museum.
[303] The ponds are marked in Rocque’s Map, _circ._ 1745. The
duck-hunting probably took place at an early period, not later than
_circ._ 1750.
[304] Newspaper cutting of 1731 (W. Coll.): see also _The Country
Journal or the Craftsman_ for 12 Aug. 1732; also 26 Aug. 1732.
[305] Johnson to Mrs. Thrale, 10 July, 1771, Letter viii. in Johnson’s
_Works_ (ed. Murphy), xii. 338.
[306] A specimen in British Museum (from Miss Banks’s Coll.). Silver,
size 1·25 inch; _Obverse_: _Lazarius Riverius.--Non omnibus
dormio.--Miseris succurrere disco_. Bearded head of Rivière, to
left; beneath head, the number “18” incised. _Reverse_: _The
original Spaw in St. George’s Fields so memorable in the Plague,
1665.--For the proprieters_ (sic) _T. Townshend Alchemist to
his Majesty, 1760._ Another specimen described in C. A. Rudolph’s
_Numismata_ (relating to medical men), 1862, p. 45, has the words
“Robert Baker, Esq., Twickenham,” evidently the subscriber’s name,
engraved on the edge.
[307] The water continued to be advertised in newspapers of 1771–1779.
Hedger afterwards put in his nephew Mills (or Miles) to conduct the
house which is said to have yielded Hedger £1,000 a year, but evidently
himself remained the moving spirit.
[308] On the “Maid of the Oaks,” see Baker’s _Biog. Dram._
[309] The Dog and Duck may have been more respectably conducted for a
time. On 28 May, 1792, a charity dinner of the Parish of St. Thomas,
Southwark, was held there (engraved invitation ticket in W. Coll.).
[310] The Dog and Duck and the Apollo Gardens were for a time
within the Rules of the King’s Bench Debtors’ Prison (De Castro’s
_Memoirs_, pp. 126, 134).
[311] In De Castro’s _Memoirs_ (1824) it is stated that he died
“about two years ago,” which indicates the year 1822, or possibly the
year 1810 (for part of the _Memoirs_ were apparently written
_circ._ 1812) as the date of his death. He was certainly alive,
however, during part of the year 1810.
[312] Lambeth Wells are marked in the map of 1755 in Stow’s
_Survey_.
[313] They were of smaller extent than the Cumberland Gardens, their
river-side neighbour situated a little further south.
[314] One account calls him Nathan Hart.
[315] “Riley’s Gardens, Vauxhall,” mentioned in Trusler’s _London
Adviser_, 1786, are doubtless identical with Reilly’s Cumberland
Gardens.
[316] In the _Picture of London_ for 1829 the Cumberland Gardens
are named in the list of places of London amusement, but it is probable
that this entry has been inadvertently copied from a previous edition
(1823) of the work. Cp. Allen, _Lambeth_ (1827), p. 379.
[317] Timbs (_Curiosities of London_, 1868, p. 18) says that
Price’s Candle Manufactory occupied the site, but in the Post Office
Directory map of 1858 the “Phœnix Gas Works” are marked immediately
south of Vauxhall Bridge and the Candle Works still further south,
_i.e._, beyond the Vauxhall Creek which formed the southern
boundary of the gardens.
[318] In the advertisements the name Vauxhall Gardens first appears in
1786, but many years before that date the place was often popularly
known as Vauxhall Gardens.
[319] The place was at first generally called The New Spring Garden.
Cunningham (_Handbook of London_, s.v. “Vauxhall Gardens”)
and other modern writers suppose that it was called _New_ to
distinguish it from the old Spring Garden at Charing Cross, and this
view seems to receive some countenance from a passage in Evelyn’s
_Fumifugium_, 1661, quoted by Cunningham. It must be borne in
mind, however, that there existed at Vauxhall shortly after the
Restoration, _two_ Spring Gardens which seem to have been
distinguished as the Old and New. This appears very distinctly from
the following passage in Pepys, under date 29 May, 1662:--“Thence home
and with my wife and the two maids and the boy took the boat, and to
Foxhall, where I had not been a great while. To the Old Spring Garden,
and there walked long, and the wenches gathered pinks. Here we staid,
and seeing that we could not have anything to eate but very dear, and
with long stay, we went forth again without any notice taken of us, and
so we might have done if we had had anything. Thence to the new one,
where I never was before, which much exceeds the other; and here we
also walked, and the boy crept through the hedge and gathered abundance
of roses, and after a long walk, passed out of doors as we did in the
other place.”