entry “I went to see the New Spring Garden at Lambeth, a pretty
contrived plantation.” This probably, if not quite certainly (for
compare the mention in Evelyn’s _Fumifugium_ noticed above),
refers to Vauxhall Gardens. Monconys, the French traveller (1663),
briefly describes “Les Jardins du Printemps” at Lambeth, but it can
hardly be made out whether he is alluding to the garden called by
Pepys the Old Spring Garden at Vauxhall or to the New Spring Garden,
_i.e._, Vauxhall Gardens (cp. Tanswell’s _Lambeth_, p. 181).
The supposed site of the Old Spring Garden at Vauxhall (or Lambeth) is
indicated in a map in Manning and Bray’s _Surrey_, iii. p. 526
(cp. Walford, vi. 340). The statement of Aubrey and Sir John Hawkins,
usually accepted by modern writers, that Sir Samuel Morland occupied in
1675 a house on the site of Vauxhall Gardens, is evidently erroneous
(cp. _Vauxhall Papers_, No. 4, p. 28).
[320] _Swift to Stella_, 17 May, 1711.
[321] _The Spectator_, 20 May, 1712, No. 383. As notices of the
Spring Garden are rare at this period, the following advertisement may
be worth quoting:--“Lost in Fox Hall, Spring Garden, on the 29th past
a little Spaniel Dog, Liver Coloured and white long Ears, a Peak down
his Forehead, a small Spot on each knee” (_The Postman_, May 3–6,
1712). The pleasant walks of the Spring Garden are referred to in 1714
in Thoresby’s _Diary_, ii. 215.
[322] _A New Guide to London_ (1726). Guildhall Library, London.
[323] Lockman in his _Sketch of the Spring Gardens_ (1753?)
praises Jonathan Tyers for having reformed the morals of the Spring
Garden when he became proprietor in 1728.
[324] Several of the Vauxhall season tickets were designed for Tyers
by Hogarth. They are engraved in Nichols’s _Lambeth_, pl. xv.
p. 100, and in Wilkinson’s _Londina lllustrata_. A good though
not complete collection of Vauxhall tickets is in the British Museum,
including the series of silver tickets brought together by Mr. Edward
Hawkins. Tyers presented Hogarth as a return for his services with a
gold ticket, inscribed _in perpetuam beneficii memoriam_, which
was a free pass to the gardens for ever. Mrs. Hogarth had it after her
husband’s death, and in 1856 it was in the possession of Mr. F. Gye who
bought it for £20 (cp. Nightingale in _The Numismatic Chronicle_,
vol. xviii (1856), p. 97). In 1737 the season tickets admitting two
persons cost one guinea; in 1742 they were twenty-five shillings; in
1748, two guineas.
[325] In honour of Frederick, Tyers constructed the “Prince’s Pavilion”
at the western end of the Gardens facing the orchestra.
[326] This description is adapted from the _Scots Magazine_ for
July 1739.
[327] The lamps about the middle of the eighteenth century were about
1,000–1,500 in number; they afterwards greatly exceeded this total.
[328] Smollett’s _Humphry Clinker_.
[329] Goldsmith’s _Citizen of the World_, Letter lxxi.
[330] The cascade was varied in the course of years. In 1783 the
background was a mountain view with palm trees.
[331] _The Connoisseur_, 15 May, 1755.
[332] From _A description of Vauxhall Gardens_, London, S. Hooper,
1762.
[333] Further details as to the form of the Gardens may be seen in
the guides of Lockman and “Hooper.” Mr. Austin Dobson (_Eighteenth
Century Vignettes_, 1st series) gives the best modern account of the
Vauxhall geography.
[334] From about 1827 the entrance chiefly used by the public was the
“coach-entrance” at the corner of Kennington Lane.
[335] This has been attributed to Roubillac, but Mr. Dobson thinks
that it was probably by Henry Cheere who made such leaden statues for
gardens. The statue was cleared in 1779 of the bushes that had grown
round it, and it was still in the gardens in 1817.
[336] In 1818 it was removed to the house of Dr. Jonathan Tyers Barrett
in Duke Street, Westminster; it was described lately (1894) as being in
the possession of Mr. Alfred Littleton.
[337] On Lowe, see _supra_, p. 50, p. 101 f., and p. 243.
[338] As to the introduction of the covered walk see _infra_, § 4.
[339] Trusler’s _London Adviser_, p. 163.
[340] _Notes and Queries_, 6th ser. ix. (1884), p. 208.
[341] _Evelina_, Letter xlvi. Cp. _The Macaroni and Theatrical
Magazine_ for September 1773, p. 529, which gives a plate showing
“the Macaroney Beaus and Bells in an Uproar, or the last Evening at
Vauxhall Gardens” (W. Coll.).
[342] _The Gazeteer and New Daily Advertiser_, 29 June, 1772.
[343] _The Vauxhall Affray, or the Macaronies defeated_, London,
1773; _Westminster Magazine_ for September 1773, p. 558; _The
Macaroni and Theatrical Magazine_ for August 1773, where there is a
copper-plate showing the parson fighting the footman (W. Coll.).
[344] _British Magazine_, 6 August, 1782.
[345] _Westminster Magazine_, May 1775.
[346] _Middlesex Journal_, July 23–25, 1775.
[347] On the gala nights the charge was three shillings.
[348] A burlesque account in the _Bon Ton Magazine_, June 1791,
with plate (W. Coll.).
[349] Her husband, Mr. Mountain, was leader at Vauxhall from 1792.
[350] On Mrs. Bland, see _supra_, p. 137 (White Conduit House).
[351] Miss Tunstall, another singer, was in repute at the gardens about
1820.
[352] _Sketches from St. George’s Fields_ (1821), 2nd ser. p. 216.
[353] In 1806 the opening of the gardens on Saturdays was discontinued
on account of the disorderly persons staying on late into Sunday
morning. From about this time the gardens were for a long period
usually open on three days of the week only.
[354] Already in 1769 an awning or other covering was placed over
one of the walks, and “covered walks” are afterwards alluded to. The
permanent colonnade was not erected till 1810.
[355] Some accounts say £28,000.
[356] Admission, three shillings and sixpence.
[357] This Prince’s Gallery was burnt down in 1800.
[358] Among the curious characters of Vauxhall Gardens must be noticed
a youth named Joseph Leeming, who called himself “the Aeriel” and “the
Paragon of Perfection,” and offered himself for inspection to artists
and surgeons as a model of bodily perfection. On 2 July, 1825, and on
subsequent occasions he mingled with the other visitors at Vauxhall
and created excitement by his extraordinary Spanish costume and by
distributing three or four hundred “Challenges” to the people in front
of the orchestra. One of these curious challenges is in my collection.
It is a small card printed with the words “The Aeriel (_sic_)
challenges the whole world to find a man that can in any way compete
with him as such. No.--.” (cp. Hone’s _Every Day Book_, i. p.
1456, ff.).
[359] An earlier balloon ascent from Vauxhall Gardens by Garnerin in
1802 may be noted.
[360] A detailed account of the voyage is given in Monck Mason’s
_Aeronautica_, London, 1838.
[361] The publication came to an end on 23 August, 1841. It consisted
of sixteen parts, sixpence each. A set of these is in my collection.
Mr. H. A. Rogers, of Stroud Green, has recently undertaken an
interesting facsimile reprint of this scarce little journal.
[362] This part of Tyers Street was formerly called Brunel Street.
[363] _Punch_ for 21 August, 1869, “The Lament of the Colonnade.”
Transcriber’s Notes:
1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling
errors have been corrected silently.
2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
been retained as in the original.
3. Superscripts are represented using the caret character, e.g. D^r. or
X^{xx}.
4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
5. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.