In 1772 Sampson resumed his performances at the Riding School of the Three Hats and gave lessons there. On Whit Monday some other curious attractions were advertised in the _Gazetteer_ (June 6, 1772): “A young gentleman will undertake to walk and pick up one hundred eggs (each egg to be the distance of one yard apart) and put them in a basket within an hour and fifteen minutes; if any egg breaks he puts down one in its place, for a wager of ten guineas. And on Whitsun Tuesday will be run for an holland shift by a number of smart girls, six times round the School.” About this period the riding seems to have come to an end,[157] though the Three Hats continued for many years to be a favourite tea-garden until the ground at the back of the house was built over. The _Morning Chronicle_ gives us a glimpse of the place in 1779 (21 July): “Yesterday morning upwards of twenty fellows who were dancing with their ladies at the Three Hats, Islington, were taken by the constables as fit persons to serve his Majesty, and lodged in Clerkenwell Bridewell, in order to be carried before the commissioners.” On 6 January, 1839, a fire (which destroyed two neighbouring houses) so damaged the roof of the Three Hats, then a mere public-house, that in April of the same year the whole place was demolished, and the present branch office of the London and County Bank was erected on the site. [Lewis’s _Islington_; Pinks’s _Clerkenwell_.] VIEWS. 1. Engraving of Three Hats and other old houses adjacent, in _Gent. Mag._ 1823, pt. 2, frontispiece; cp. p. 113. 2. A sepia drawing by C. H. Matthews, 1839. Crace, _Cat._ p. 596, No. 110. 3. Engraving in the _Grand Magazine_, showing Johnson’s equestrian feats, 1758, W. Coll.; cp. Crace, _Cat._ p. 596, No. 108. BARLEY MOW TEA HOUSE AND GARDENS, ISLINGTON The Barley Mow Tea House and Gardens were on the west side of Frog Lane, now Popham Road, Islington. They are first mentioned in 1786.[158] About 1799, the Barley Mow was kept as a public-house by a man named Tate, and George Morland lived there for several months, indulging in drinking and low company, but finding time to paint some good pictures which he generally sold for small sums. He often borrowed for sketching purposes old harness and saddles from a farm-house opposite, and was wont “to send after any rustic-looking character” to obtain a sitting. The Barley Mow has been used as a public-house to the present time, and is now No. 31, Popham Road, but it has been modernised, or rebuilt, and the garden has disappeared. [Nelson’s _Islington_, 128, 197; Cromwell’s _Islington_, p. 194, ff.; Lewis’s _Islington_, 154, ff.; Walford, ii. 262; _Morning Herald_, 22 April, 1786.] CANONBURY HOUSE TEA GARDENS