In 1744 a good organ was erected in the chief room of the inn and the landlord, Robert Leeming, for one of his concerts in 1744, announced Mr. Blogg and others to sing selections from the Oratorios of “Saul” and “Samson”; a concerto on the organ by Master Strologer and the Coronation Anthem of Mr. Handel. After the concert came a ball, the price of admission to the whole entertainment being half-a-crown. For July 20th of the same year there was announced “a concert of musick by the best Masters,” for the benefit of a reduced citizen, followed by the display of a “set of fireworks by several gentlemen lovers of that curious art--Rockets, line ditto, Katherine wheels, and many other things; likewise will be shewn the manner of Prince Charles’s distressing the French after he passed the Rhine.” The concerts do not appear to have been given after this period but the Cobham’s Head long continued to exist as a tavern, and is marked in Horwood’s Plan of 1799. [Illustration: SUMMER AMUSEMENT.] In December 1811 it was sold by auction, being described at that time as a roomy brick building with a large yard behind, probably all that was left of the gardens. About 1860 during the operations for the Metropolitan Railway the Cobham’s Head was inundated by the bursting of a New River Main, and was so much injured by the undermining for the Railway that it had to be vacated. [Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_; Wheatley’s _London P. and P._, “Coppice Row.”] “SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE” TAVERN AND GARDENS. The Sir John Oldcastle Tavern was situated in Cold Bath Fields on the west side of Coppice Row, and was on the same side of the road as the Lord Cobham’s Head, but rather nearer to Bagnigge Wells. It was originally a wayside inn, but during the first half of the eighteenth century became a well-known tavern. In 1707 (July 18th) the Clerkenwell Archers held their annual dinner there, and frequented it for some years. In the rear of the house were extensive gardens, well planted with trees; and from 1744 to 1746 these were open during the summer for evening entertainments. A band “of the best Masters” played from five o’clock till nine; the walks were lit with lamps, and fireworks were displayed at the close of the evening. The admission was sixpence, including refreshments. In July 1746 concerts of vocal and instrumental music were announced, at which the chief vocalist, Mr. Blogg, sang such songs as “Come, Rosalind,” “Observe the fragrant blushing Rose” and “The Happy Pair.”[62] In 1753 a Smallpox Hospital was erected on part of the Oldcastle estate, but the Sir John Oldcastle, immediately adjacent, was left standing till 1762 when, being in a ruinous condition, it was pulled down. [Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_; Larwood and Hotten, _History of Signboards_, p. 97; Tomlins’s _Perambulation of Islington_, p. 172; _Low Life_ (1764), p. 81; _The Field Spy_ (London, 1714); Ashton’s _The Fleet_, p. 117.] VIEWS.