This Evening to Vauxhall, where a Gala Night and much Company, mostly of
the middling Sort, except the worse. Very few Gentlemen of any Condition
do now visit this Place, but plenty of the whippersnapper Sparks that
Shopmen used to call Gents, and a very good Word to distinguish them,
although a vile, as much as to say Snobs. The better Sort of all there
chiefly Medical Students. No Place for Ladies, but here and there a
respectable but stupid Farmer from the Country with his Wife or
Daughter. A bare, faded kind of a Garden, patched with shabby Trees,
variegated Lamps hanging to their Branches among smoky Leaves. The Lamps
do seem the main Attraction, the Bill of Entertainments advertise 10,000
additional every Night, which seems great Folly. However, the Outlines
of all the Buildings picked out with parti-coloured Lamps mighty gay. A
wooden Building on one Side called the Rotunda, where an Orchestra and
they sing, and opposite an Alcove where a Band in Uniform play at the
same Time Tunes which the Gents and their Partners dance to, waltzing
and spinning round like Teetotums, droll to look upon. The Partners some
pretty but nearly all ill-looking, and one or two horribly
ill-favoured, and to see the People sit and look on, and among them a
fat Country Wife, and prim starched old Maid very thin, make me ashamed.
Also a fat singing Woman sung a Song, not at all to my Liking, and did
throw herself about and make faces. Another Alcove hung with Lamps in
Festoons, and in the Middle a Circus Theatre and a Crowd at the Door
crowding to See a Dancing Girl jump through Hoops and dance upon
Horseback. Other Alcoves with Seats for Eating and Drinking, and they
eat Ham and Chicken, and I a Plate cost me 2s. 6d., and the Ham mighty
thin, which is Vauxhall Fashion, and they drink Arrack, a Spirit I was
curious to taste, and did and never shall again. But what did please me
was a Drink newly come in from America, and called Sherry Cobbler, made
of Sherry and Orange and lumps of Ice, and sucked up into the Mouth with
a Straw, which to see two Gents do for the first Time did take me
mightily, and I did do likewise, mighty cool and refreshing and did
delight me much, and three Cobblers cost me 3 Shillings. Amused to see
the Gents strut about so jaunty smoking Cigars, I think Cabbage Leaf
steeped in Tobacco-Juice. They also drink Rhubarb Wine they call
Champagne cost them 10s. a bottle, and bottled Stout, and good Lack to
see the Lots of empty Bottles on the by-Tables! An old Fellow with a
Pot-Paunch that had had too much Drink fallen asleep, a comical Sight,
whilst pretty to see the Waiters dance Attendance with the Refreshments,
and hear the hollaing and shouting, and altogether a good Deal of Fun,
but dreary; but a Family of little Boys and Girls with their fat Father
mighty merry, and clap their Hands to see the Balloon go up in another
Part of the Gardens. A grand Display of Fireworks to conclude diverted
me too, and so Home and to Bed, hoping after my Evening's Entertainment
I shall not wake with a Headache in the Morning.
[Illustration: _A SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTION._
FRIDAY (_further date wanting in MS._).