deserted and falling into ruins, and visited the Flora Tea Garden. The
company here was more respectable, in consequence of some separation
among the ladies; it was not, however, very orderly, and political
argument ran high.
From this Tea Garden they drove to the Bermondsey Spa Gardens. Let me
extract this account of this place, which was once so popular:
'We found the entrance presents a vista between trees, hung with lamps,
blue, red, green, and white; nor is the walk in which they are hung
inferior (length excepted) to the grand walk in Vauxhall Gardens. Nearly
at the upper end of the walk is a large room, hung round with paintings,
many of them in an elegant and the rest in a singular taste. At the
upper end of the room is a painting of a butcher's shop, so finely
executed by the landlord that a stranger to the place would cheapen a
fillet of veal or a buttock of beef, a shoulder of mutton or a leg of
pork, without hesitation, if there were not other pictures in the room
to take off his attention. But these paintings are not seen on a Sunday.
'The accommodations at this place on a Sunday are very good, and the
charges reasonable, and the captain, who is very intimate with Mr.
Keyse, declares that there is no place in the vicinity of London can
afford a more agreeable evening's entertainment.
'This elegant place of entertainment is situate in the lower road,
between the Borough of Southwark and Deptford. The proprietor calls it
_one_, but it is nearer two miles from London Bridge, and the same
distance from that of Black-Friars. The proprietor is Mr. Thomas Keyse,
who has been at great expense, and exerted himself in a very
extraordinary manner, for the entertainment of the public; and his
labours have been amply repaid.
'It is easy to paint the elegance of this place, situated in a spot
where elegance, among people who talk of _taste_, would be little
expected. But Mr. Keyse's good humour, his unaffected easiness of
behaviour, and his _genuine_ taste for the polite arts, have secured him
universal approbation.
'The gardens, with an adjacent field, consist of not less than four
acres.
'On the north-east side of the gardens is a very fine lawn, consisting
of about three acres, and in a field, parted from this lawn by a sunk
fence, is a building with turrets, resembling a fortress, or castle. The
turrets are in the ancient style of building. At each side of this
fortress, at unequal distances, are two buildings, from which, on public
nights, bomb shells, &c., are thrown at the fortress; the fire is
returned, and the whole exhibits a very picturesque, and therefore a
horrid, prospect of a siege.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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