A stock and wristbands; his wig was what is called a ' Busby,' but often wanted powder. His hat a three-cornered one; coats, one a dark mulberry the other brown, inclining to the colour of Scotch snuff; large brass or gilt buttons, black waistcoat and small-clothes -sometimes the latter were corduroy; black stockings, large easy shoes with buckles.2 In 1791 male attire changed almost insensibly from formality to ease. Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, writing of the dress. worn in London about what he calls 'the era of Jacobinism and of equality in 1793 and 1794,' says : It was then that pantaloons, cropped hair, and shoestrings, as well as the total abolition of buckles and ruffles, together with the disuse of hair powder, characterised the men; while the ladies having cut off those tresses which had done so much execution, exhibited heads rounded à la victime et à la guillotine, as if ready for the stroke of the axe.3 Sheridan corroborates this when he mentions that each fop appeared cropped and trimmed up, exposing head and ears. But it was long before the new costume succeeded in displacing the old. Speaking of the morning dress of Beau Brummel, which was similar (in 1795) to that of every other gentleman, Captain Jesse observes :— . Hessians and pantaloons, or top-boots and buckskins, with a blue coat, and a light or buff-coloured waistcoat. His dress of an evening was a blue coat and white waistcoat, black pantaloons, which buttoned tight to the ankle, striped silk stockings, and opera hat.4 To be adorned is a natural instinct. The bright colours with which flowers are adorned are their attraction to insects. Uncivilized races prefer that which is bright and glaring to that which is quiet in dress. Could theeighteenth century more than any other century have existed without the study of ornament? Is it not the same in our own time? Men and women, more especially the latter, are fond to excess of bright colours ; and if any improvement has been effected, it is, perhaps, in the 1 Smith's Book for a Rainy Day, ed. 1861, pp. 67-68. VOL. I. K While the human race exists, choice of more elegant forms. 131 CHAPTER V. AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. Vauxhall and Ranelagh-Marylebone and Cuper's Gardens-Drums, Festinos, and Ridottos-Masquerades-Mrs. Cornelys's Entertainments in Soho Square-The Pantheon-The Opera-The Stage-Its glaring anachronisms-The London fairs: Bartholomew, Southwark, and Mayfairs-Giants and dwarfs Miscellaneous exhibitions-Cockfighting-Prize-fighting-Bear-baiting-Cricket and football-BowlsBoxing-Archery, rowing, and ballooning. In a previous chapter it was incidentally mentioned that among the many centres of pleasure and amusement in the capital frequented by the aristocracy and better class citizens during the last century, Vauxhall and Ranelagh Gardens took the highest rank. Both, from the time they rose, were marked by fashion for her own. Both were the butterflies of the hour at the caprice of the world of gaiety. Both were sufficiently in the outskirts for the enjoyment of pure air. Both could be easily reached by land or water; and although, as Fielding observes, by reason of their price they were not entirely appropriated to the people of fashion, they yet were seldom frequented by any below the middle rank. Even royalty condescended to smile on both, and no wonder, seeing that their meetings often outshone the royal levées in point of magnificence and splendour. How people comported themselves in these halls of pleasure, and what they did, many paragraphs in the newspapers, many passages in the writings of the essayists and novelists enable us to form tolerably correct ideas. Vauxhall Gardens, being the elder of the two, will be noticed first. Begotten of the fierce outbreak of debauchery consequent upon the reign of the martial saints in the latter part of the preceding age, Vauxhall continued throughout the eighteenth century to be one of the chief haunts of the metropolitan pleasure-seeker. There it was that Joseph Addison went, accompanied by the worthy old Worcestershire knight Sir Roger de Coverley, as related in number three hundred and eighty-three of the 'Spectator.' There it was that Goldsmith's 'Citizen of the World' exclaimed, ' Head of Confucius ! this is fine, this unites rural beauty with courtly magnificence.' There it was that Hogarth for suggesting paintings (some of which are still in existence) was presented with a perpetual ticket of admission, which was last used the year before the Queen's accession. There it was that Fielding's 'Amelia' was sent into ecstasies of pleasure with the beauty and elegance of the surroundings; and there it was that Frances Burney was enabled to gather incidents which she afterwards enshrined in her once popular, but now forgotten, novels of fashionable life. The favourite mode of proceeding to the gardens was by water, and the scenes which old Father Thames must have witnessed on the occasion of high days and holidays were doubtless ones of great animation. How sneeringly does Matthew Bramble wax over Vauxhall! In his opinion it was an unnatural assemblage of objects fantastically illuminated in broken masses, seemingly contrived to dazzle the eyes and divert the imagination of the vulgar. Here a wooden lion, there a stone statue; in one place a range of things like coffee-house boxes covered a-top, in another a parcel of alehouse benches; in a third a puppet-show representation of a tin cascade; in a fourth a gloomy cave of a circular form like a sepulchral vault half-lighted; in a fifth a scanty slip of grassplot that would not afford pasture for an ass's colt. The walks which nature seems to have intended for solitude, shade, and silence, are filled with crowds of noisy people, sucking up the nocturnal rheums of an aguish climate, and through these gay scenes a few lamps glimmer like so many farthing candles. Horace Walpole, writing to George Montagu under date of June 23, 1750, favours him with the following account of one of his visits to Vauxhall Gardens :— We got into the best order we could, and marched to our barge, with a boat of French horns attending, and little Ashe singing. We paraded some time up the river, and at last debarked at Vauxhall ; there, if we had so pleased, we might have had the vivacity of our party increased by a quarrel. . . . Miss Spurre, who desired nothing So much as the fun of seeing a duel-a thing which, though she is fifteen, she has never been so lucky to see-took due pains to make Lord March resent this, but he, who is very lively and agreeable, laughed her out of this charming frolic with a great deal of humour. Here we picked up Lord Granby, arrived very drunk from Jenny's (a well-known tavern at Chelsea), where, instead of going to old Strafford's catacombs to make honourable love, he had dined with Lady Fanny, and left her and eight women and four other men playing at brag1 The hour at which fashionable people generally made their appearance was between nine and ten o'clock in the evening. There is a very curious account of a visit to Vauxhall contained in a narrative of a journey through England in the year 1752, by an Irish gentleman whose name is not recorded. He says that in company with others he went to Queenhithe stairs, and found a number of boatmen. He got into one of their boats and arrived at Vauxhall at seven o'clock. The garden [he wrote] strikes the eye prodigiously; it is set with many rows of tall trees, kept in excellent order, among which are placed an incredible number of globe lamps, by which it is illuminated, and when they are lighted the sound of the music ravishing the ear, added to the great resort of company so well dressed and walking all about, would almost make one believe he was in the Elysian fields. In the middle of the garden are two semicircles which appear like an amphitheatre, in which are placed a great number of small booths which may contain about six or eight people apiece, where they commonly refresh themselves with sweetmeats, wine, tea, coffee, or suchlike. The backs of these boxes or booths are adorned with curious paintings, all which are enlightened to the front with globes. They are all numbered, and very just attendance is given by a vast number of warders kept for that purpose. to this a grand orchestra, where the music plays in fine weather; but this night the concert was held in a magnificent hall neatly furnished. At one side of the orchestra is a noble statue of Handel. The music no sooner began than we entered the hall, where fiftyfour musicians performed. Mr. Lowe soon sang, whose character I need not here mention, and after him the inimitable Miss Burchell.. ... Whilst we were entertaining ourselves, we were informed of the new cascade being lighted.. A fine grotto saluted our eyes, surrounded by the statues of Neptune, a mermaid, and other sea pieces, a dolphin, &c., placed in very agreeable attitudes, behind. 'Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. ii. p. 211. Near |