"The money raised for this building is 150,000_l._ payable in three instalments.--60,000_l._ of this is to pay off the mortgagees on the old Theatre----80,000_l._ is allotted for the new building, and 10,000_l._ for contingent expences. The mode of raising this money is by an annuity of 100 years at 5 _per cent._ and a free admission for every subscription of 500_l._ which already bears a premium of 5_l. per cent._" The Theatre is completed; but the East and West ends remain in a state of ruin, which must be injurious to the walls and foundations. The sides are faced with stone, and ornamented with pediments; and an unfinished colonnade protects the audience from rain, while waiting for admission; or their carriages are drawn before the doors on retiring from the amusements of the evening. A description of the interior is in a great measure unnecessary, and would be difficult to comprehend: the shape is that of the lyre, as indeed are all our present Theatres, and the decorations appear very splendid, though they are nothing more than plain boards well painted in relief; in short, the silvered pillars, and the beams, and the outward walls, are the only _substantial_ parts of the building; and yet the effect is wonderfully magnificent, and far superior to Covent-garden Theatre, which underwent great enlargements, but in my opinion no improvements, at least in effect, about the time Drury-lane was completed. The ensuing particulars were given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1794: "New Drury-lane Theatre contains in the pit 800 persons; whole range of boxes 1828; two shilling gallery 675; one shilling gallery 308; total 3611: amounting to 826_l._ 6_s._ There are eight private boxes on each side of the pit; 29 all round the first tier, and eleven _back front_ boxes; 29 all round the second tier, of which eleven are six seats deep; 10 on each side the gallery three tier; boxes in the cove nine each side. Diameter of the pit is 55 feet; opening of the curtain 43 feet wide; height of the curtain 38 feet; height of the house from the pit floor to the cieling 56 feet 6 inches." The proprietors deserve every praise for the precautions they have taken to extinguish fire, by providing reservoirs of water in different parts of the building, and an iron curtain to drop between the audience and the stage. Whether those in the hurry of so dreadful a moment, would be of any real use, is a question which I sincerely hope will never be decided; I cannot, however, help observing that many large doors seem so obviously necessary in Theatres, that I dare not attempt to account for the diminutive size of the two through which the audience actually creep in the pit of Covent-garden Theatre. An alarm of fire in that house must end fatally, whether it spread, or was immediately extinguished[310:A].