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
Next came to the Wells (1745) a youthful giant seven feet four inches
high, though under sixteen years of age, who occasionally exhibited his
proportions on the rope. In 1746 there appeared a Saxon Lady Giantess
seven feet high, and the wonderful little Polander, a dwarf two feet
ten inches in height, of the mature age of sixty, “in every way
proportionable, and wears his beard after his own country’s fashion.”
During this year Miss Rayner performed the feat of walking up an
inclined rope, one hundred yards long, extending from the stage to the
upper gallery, having two lighted flambeaux in her hands.
The same year (1746) witnessed the celebration at Sadler’s Wells and
other places of entertainment in London of the victory of the Duke of
Cumberland at Culloden. At the New Wells were given representations
of the battle, and the storming of Culloden House. Mr. Yeates[34] (or
Yates), the manager at this time, in acknowledging his gratification
at the applause manifested, regretted that on the appearance of
Courage (the character symbolising the Duke of Cumberland) several
hearty Britons exerted their canes in such a torrent of satisfaction
as to cause considerable damage to his benches. About this period
Mrs. Charlotte Charke (the youngest daughter of Colley Cibber the
dramatist) appeared at the Wells as Mercury in the play of _Jupiter
and Alcmena_.
From 1747 to 1750 the theatre and gardens remained closed, but after
having been considerably improved they were re-opened on 16 April,
1750. Towards the close of this year, Hannah Snell made her appearance
and went through a number of military exercises in her regimentals.
This warlike lady, who had served under the name of James Gray as a
marine at the siege of Pondicherry, and who had been several times
wounded in action, was one of the first party that forded the river,
breast high, under the enemy’s fire. She worked laboriously in the
trenches, and performed picket duty for seven nights in succession.
The entertainments at the New Wells appear to have ceased about 1750.
In 1752 the proprietor, Yeates, let the theatre to the Rev. John
Wesley, and in May of that year, it was converted into a Methodist
tabernacle. A few years later the theatre was removed, probably in
1756, when Rosoman Row (now Rosoman Street) was formed.
[Cromwell’s _Clerkenwell_, p. 254; Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_;
newspaper advertisements, W. Coll.].
THE ENGLISH GROTTO, OR GROTTO GARDEN, ROSOMAN STREET
The English Grotto was in existence in 1760, and is described as
standing in the fields, near the New River Head. A view of that
date[35] represents it as a small wooden building resembling the London
Spa. A flag is flying from the roof, and some well-dressed people are
seen walking near it. A garden, with a curious grotto and water-works,
were probably its only attractions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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