THAVIE’S INN, near the west end of St. Andrew’s church Holbourn, is one of the inns of chancery, and is thus named from its founder John Thavie, who liv’d in the reign of Edward III. It is a member of Lincoln’s inn, and has been lately rebuilt in a very handsome manner. This house is governed by a principal and eleven ancients, who, with the other members, are to be ten days in commons in issuable terms, and in each of the rest a week. THAVIE’S INN _court_, Thavie’s inn. THAVIE’S INN _passage_, Thavie’s inn. THEATRES, there are only two theatres in this metropolis worthy of notice, and these have no fronts to the street. They are both under his Majesty’s companies of comedians, and no new play can be acted in either without the approbation of the Lord Chamberlain, as well as the managers. Drury Lane house appears to be best calculated for the advantage of speaker and hearer, that of Covent Garden for splendor and magnificence. Besides these there is also a theatre for the exhibition of operas, call’d the Opera house, in the Haymarket. THEATRE _court_, Vinegar yard, Drury lane. THEOBALDS, a pleasant village in Cheshunt parish in Hertfordshire, situated by the New River. Here the great Lord Burleigh built a magnificent seat, the gallery, says Hentzner in his _Itinerarium_, was painted with the genealogy of the Kings of England, and from thence was a descent into the garden, which was encompassed with a ditch filled with water, and large enough to have the pleasure of rowing in a boat between the shrubs; it was adorned with a great variety of trees and plants, labyrinths made with much labour, a jet d’eau with its bason of white marble, and with columns and pyramids. In the summer house, the lower part of which was built semicircularly, were the twelve Roman Emperors in white marble, and a table of touchstone; the upper part of it was set round with leaden cisterns, into which water was conveyed through pipes. This seat the Lord Burleigh gave to his younger son Sir Robert Cecil, in whose time King James I. staying there for one night’s refreshment, as he was coming to take possession of the crown of England, he was so delighted with the place that he gave him the manor of Hatfield Regis in exchange for it, and afterwards enlarged the park, and encompassed it with a wall ten miles round. This palace he often visited, in order to enjoy the pleasure of hunting in Enfield Chase and Epping Forest, and at last died there. In the civil wars it was however plundered and defaced; it being the place from whence King Charles I. set out to erect his standard at Nottingham: King Charles II. granted the manor to George Monk, Duke of Albemarl; but it reverting again to the crown, for want of heirs male, King William III. gave it to William Bentinck, whom he created Earl of Portland, from whom it descended to the Duke his grandson: the great park, a part of which was in Hertfordshire, and a part in Middlesex, is now converted into farms.