a fashionable morning lounge of the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century; the Sir Hugh Middleton's Head; the Farthing Pie House; * and Sadler's Music House and “Sweet Wells.” ** A little to the left were Merlin's Cave, * Farthing Pie Houses were common in the outskirts of London a century ago. Their fragrance caught the sharp set citizen by the nose, and led him in by that prominent member to feast on their savoury fare. One solitary Farthing Pie House (the Green Man) still stands near Portland Road, on the way to Paddington. ** Originally a chalybeate spring, then a music-house, and afterwards a “theatre-royal!” Cheesecakes, pipes, wine, and punch, were formerly part of the entertainment. “If at Sadler's sweet Wells the wine should be thick, The cheesecakes be sour, or Miss Wilkinson sick, If the fume of the pipe should prove pow'rful in June, Or the tumblers be lame, or the bells out of tune, We hope you will call at our warehouse at Drury,--We've a curious assortment of goods, I assure you.” Foote's Prologue to All in the Wrong, 1761. Its rural vicinity made it a great favourite with the play- going and punch-drinking citizens. See Hogarth's print of “Evening.” “A New Song on Sadler's Wells, set by Mr. Brett, 1740. 'At eve, when Sylvan's shady scene Is clad with spreading branches green, And varied sweets all round display'd, To grace the pleasant flow'ry meads, For those who're willing joys to taste, Where pleasures flow and blessings last, And God of Health with transport dwells, Must all repair to Sadler's Wells. The pleasant streams of Middleton In gentle murmurs glide along, In which the sporting fishes play, To close each weary summer's day; And music's charm, in lulling sounds, With mirth and harmony abounds; While nymphs and swains, with beaus and belles, All praise the joys of Sadler's Wells.'” Bagnigge Wells, * the English Grotto (which stood near the New River Water-works in the fields), and, farther in advance, White Conduit House. ** * Once the reputed residence of Nell Gwynn, which makes the tradition of her visiting the “Old Bath House” more than probable. F or. upwards of a century it has been a noted place of entertainment.'Tis now almost a ruin! Pass we to its brighter days, as sung in the “Sunday Ramble,” 1778:-- “Salubrious waters, tea, and wine, Here you may have, and also dine; But as ye through the gardens rove, Beware, fond youths, the darts of love!”