The banks of the New River at this time—and, indeed, till near the middle of the nineteenth century—were lined with tall poplars and graceful willows, and were frequented by anglers, young and old. Hood, in his _Walton Redivivus_ (1826), describes Piscator fishing near the Myddelton’s Head without either basket or can, sitting there (as Lamb expresses it) like Hope, day after day, ‘speculating on traditionary gudgeons.’ The covering in of the New River in 1861–1862 ended the Sadler’s Wells angling for ever. The house was the favourite haunt of the Sadler’s Wells company, and old Rosoman, the proprietor of the theatre; Maddox, the wonderful man who balanced a straw while dancing on the wire; Harlequin Bologna, Dibdin, and Jo. Grimaldi, smoked many a pipe in its long room or in an arbour in the garden. In the fifties, a parlour denominated the ‘Crib’ was set apart for certain choice spirits, who, according to Mr. E. L. Blanchard, were so uncommonly select that they demanded ‘an introduction and a fee’ from all newcomers. The tavern, having fallen into decay, was replaced in 1831 by a plain, ugly building, surmounted by a bust of Myddelton. The ‘grounds,’ chiefly from the twenties to the fifties, formed a miniature tea-garden with ‘boxes,’ shrubs, and flowers. They were improved in 1852 by Deacon, who succeeded Edward Wells as proprietor. The house, which stood at the west end of Myddelton Place, close to Thomas Street and opposite Arlington Street, was swept away for the formation of Rosebery Avenue. [Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_, pp. 406–408; Hone’s _Every Day Book_, 1826, p. 344; Partington’s _Views of London_, ii., p. 186 (showing the later tavern); Blanchard’s _Life_, i., p. 83 _f._; _Theatrical Journal_, 1852, p. 237 (_cf._ p. 376); a drawing of the tavern by C. H. Matthews, 1849, in _Crace Catalogue_, No. 93, p. 594.] THE PANARMONION GARDENS, KING’S CROSS THE formation of the pleasure-garden that we know as Earl’s Court out of the coal-yards of the North End Road has a parallel in the origin of some ephemeral gardens which arose at Battle Bridge (King’s Cross) on or near the site of mountainous heaps of dust and ashes. The place was recalled by the ‘Literary Dustman’ when he sang: ‘My dawning genus fust did peep Near Battle Bridge, ’tis plain, sirs; You recollect the cinder-heap Vot stood in Gray’s Inn Lane, sirs.’