"Through Islington then glides my best loved theme And Miles's garden washes with his stream: Now F--r's Garden is its proper name, Though Miles the man was, who first got it fame; And tho' it's own'd, Miles first did make it known, F--r improves the same we all must own. There you may sit under the shady trees, And drink and smoak, fann'd by a gentle breeze; Behold the fish, how wantonly they play, And catch them also, if you please, you may, Two Noble Swans swim by this garden side, Of water-fowl the glory and the pride; Which to the Garden no small beauty are; Were they but black they would be much more rare: With ducks so tame that from your hand they'll feed, And, I believe, for that, they sometimes bleed. A noble Walk likewise adorns the place, To which the river adds a greater grace: There you may sit or walk, do which you please, Which best you like, and suits most with your ease. Now to the Show-room let's awhile repair, To see the active feats performed there. How the bold Dutchman, on the rope doth bound, With greater air than others on the ground: What capers does he cut! how backward leaps! With Andrew Merry eyeing all his steps: His comick humours with delight you see, Pleasing unto the best of company," &c. But a very vivid description of Sadler's Wells is given in "Mackliniana, or Anecdotes of the late Mr. Charles Macklin, Comedian" in the _European Magazine_ for 1801 (vol. xl. p. 16):-- "Being met one night at Sadler's Wells by a friend, who afterwards saw him home, he went into a history of that place, with an accuracy which, though nature generally denies to the recollection of old age in recent events, seems to atone for it in the remembrance of more remote periods. "Sir, I remember the time when the price of admission _here_ was but _threepence_, except a few places scuttled off at the sides of the stage at sixpence, and which was usually reserved for people of fashion, who occasionally came to see the fun. Here we smoked, and drank porter and rum and water, as much as we could pay for, and every man had his doxy that liked it, and so forth; and though we had a mixture of very odd company (for I believe it was a good deal the baiting place of thieves and highwaymen) there was little or no rioting. There was a _public_ then, Sir, that kept one another in awe. "_Q._ Were the entertainments anything like the present? _A._ No, no; nothing in the shape of them; some hornpipes and ballad singing, with a kind of pantomimic ballet, and some lofty tumbling--and all this was done by daylight, and there were four or five exhibitions every day.