The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth centuryWroth, Warwick William
History
The London pleasure gardens of the eighteenth century
Wroth, Warwick William
London (England) -- History -- 18th century; Parks -- England -- London -- History
He was succeeded at Vauxhall by his two sons, Thomas and Jonathan.
‘Tom’ Tyers, as he was called by Dr. Johnson, with whom he was a
favourite, had been bred to the law, but he was too eccentric and
vivacious to confine himself to practice. “He, therefore (says
Boswell), ran about the world with a pleasant carelessness,” amusing
everybody by his desultory talk and abundance of anecdote. He furnished
many songs for the gardens, but in 1785, sold his interest to his
brother Jonathan’s family. Jonathan was manager of Vauxhall from 1785
till his death in 1792.
§ 3. 1768–1790.
During this period the character of the entertainments of Vauxhall and
the arrangement of the gardens themselves, underwent no very material
changes,[338] and people of all ranks frequented the place as of old.
The singers, however, were more numerous, and there seems to have been
a general tendency to stay late. In 1783, the concert began at eight
and ended at eleven, and a London guide-book of 1786,[339] states
that the company at that time seldom left the garden till two in the
morning, if the weather was fine.
From about 1772–1778, a good deal of rowdyism appears to have disturbed
the harmony of Vauxhall, though it must be said that the company
under old Tyers had not always been distinguished for urbanity. The
rude treatment to which Fielding’s Amelia was subjected at the gardens
(_circ._ 1752), can hardly have been an isolated occurrence, and
in the summer of 1748 a party of ladies, apparently of good position,
used to crow like cocks when visiting Vauxhall, while their friends of
the male sex responded with an ass’s bray. One Mrs. Woolaston, attained
special proficiency in her imitations.[340]
At this time (1772–1778), it was the custom to violently emphasize the
importance of the _last night_ of the season. Young Branghton,
in _Evelina_ (_circ._ 1778), declares that the last night
at Vauxhall is the best of any; “there’s always a riot--and there the
folks run about--and then there’s such squealing and squalling! and
there all the lamps are broke, and the women run skimper scamper.”[341]
From the newspapers we learn that on the 4th of September, 1774,
“upwards of fifteen foolish Bucks who had amused themselves by breaking
the lamps at Vauxhall, were put into the cage there by the proprietors,
to answer for the damage done. They broke almost every lamp about the
orchestra, and pulled the door leading up to it off the hinges.”
[Illustration: _Vauxhall_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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