Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th CenturiesTimbs, John
History
Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
Timbs, John
Clubs -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
In 1634 Spring Garden was put down by the King's command, and ordered
to be hereafter no common bowling-place. This led to the opening of "a
New Spring Garden" (Shaver's Hall), by a gentleman-barber, a servant
of the lord chamberlain's. The old garden was, however, re-opened; for
13th June, 1649, says Evelyn, "I treated divers ladies of my
relations in Spring Gardens;" but 10th May, 1654, he records that
Cromwell and his partisans had shut up and seized on Spring Gardens,
"w'ch till now had been ye usual rendezvous for the ladys and
gallants at this season."
Spring Garden was, however, once more re-opened; for, in _A Character
of England_, 1659, it is described as "The inclosure not disagreeable,
for the solemnness of the grove, the warbling of the birds, and as it
opens into the spacious walks at St. James's.... It is usual to find
some of the young company here till midnight; and the thickets of the
garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry, after they
have refreshed with the collation, which is here seldom omitted, at a
certain cabaret in the middle of this paradise, where the forbidden
fruits are certain trifling tarts, neats' tongues, salacious meats,
and bad Rhenish."
"The New Spring Garden" at Lambeth (afterwards Vauxhall) was
flourishing in 1661-3; when the ground at Charing Cross was built
upon, as "Inner Spring Garden" and "Outer Spring Garden."
Buckingham-court is named from the Duke of Buckingham, one of the
rakish frequenters of the Garden; and upon the site of Drummond's
banking-house was "Locket's Ordinary, a house of entertainment much
frequented by gentry," and a relic of the Spring Garden gaiety:
"For Locket's stands where gardens once did spring."
Dr. King's _Art of Cookery_, 1709.
Here the witty and beautiful dramatist, Mrs. Centlivre, died, December
1, 1723, at the house of her third husband, Joseph Centlivre, "Yeoman
of the Mouth" (head cook) "to Queen Anne."[40] In her Prologue to
_Love's Contrivances_, 1703, we have
"At Locket's, Brown's, and at Pontack's enquire
What modish kickshaws the nice beaux desire,
What famed ragouts, what new invented sallad,
Has best pretensions to regain the palate."
Locket's was named from its first landlord:[41] its fame declined in
the reign of Queen Anne, and expired early in the next reign.
FOOTNOTES:
[40] Curiosities of London, pp. 678, 679.
[41] Edward Locket, in 1693, took the Bowling-green House, on Putney
Heath, where all gentlemen might be entertained. In a house built on
the site of the above, died, Jan. 23, 1806, the Rt. Hon. William Pitt.
"HEAVEN" AND "HELL" TAVERNS, WESTMINSTER.
At the north end of Lindsay-lane, upon the site of the Committee-rooms
of the House of Commons, was a tavern called "Heaven;" and under the
old Exchequer Chamber were two subterraneous passages called "Hell"
and "Purgatory." Butler, in _Hudibras_, mentions the first as
"False Heaven at the end of the Hell;"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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