The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-26 00:00:00

EVENING SUN

SALE OF VAUXHALL GARDENS.
This venerated place of old enchantments is now an-
nounced for sale on the 9th of September next, so that
unless a purchaser is then found, its fairy-like groves,
arbours, and palaces will fall to the lot of some invete-
rate speculator, and the site of so many olden pleasures,
fetes, and feastings, be covered, with bran new brick
houses, for it is, we believe, understood " to be let as
building ground." It is to be devoutly hoped that such
will not be the case—that some charm,collected from an-
cient remembrances, will put to flight the Vandalism
that would level it—that the mention of such names as
Addison and Sir Roger de Coverley will throw some-
thing of consecration about the spot—that old Jonathan
Tyers, and the pavilion paintings by Hogarth and Hay-
man, and the rare sparkling lamps, and the dear dusky
walks in which love and beauty have so often knit their
rosy fingers, and in which the evening and the morning
have often listened to the little soul-breathing extacies of
lovers, will not be swept away from the earth—that this
." aviary of nightingales," where in early days Beard and
Lowe, and in later Dignum, Mrs. Billington, Incledon,
Madame Storace, Mrs. Bland, and Charles Taylor,
'warbled till the green groves shook—will not be allowed
to pass utterly away, but still remain through the dull
London summer to be a seat of pleasure and delight.
Our sympathies enlist so strongly with this old fa-
vourite place of resort, that with the love of a zealous
antiquary we have traced out the pretty history of the
place, and our researches on the subject will perhaps be
pleasing to many at the present moment. These cele-
brated gardens are situated near the Thames, in the
,parish of Lambeth, about a mile and a half from West-.•
aminster-bridge. They derive their name from the manor of
Vauxhall or Faukeshall ; but the tradition that this proper-
ty was the property of Guy Fawkes is erroneous. The pre-
nusos were, in 1615, the property of Jane Vaux, and
the _mansion was then called Stockdens. Originally Sir
Samuel Moreland, a private gentleman, appears to have
laid out the gardens for his own pleasure, and planted
them with irees, the same Sir Samuel having displayed
many whimsical proofs of his skill in mechanics, and,
:above all, • had added: a public room, " the inside of
which was all looking-glass, and fountains, very pleasant
, behold, and much visited by strangers.
Up to this period Vauxhall was invested with but little
publlcity, nor is it precisely certain as to when the
place first threw open its enchantments. Nevertheless,
its celebrity is upwards of a century and a half old. In
the reign of Queen Anne it appears to have drawn greatly
as a place of resort ; for, in a paper of the Spectator,
',dated May 20, 1712, Addison has introduced Sir Roger
Coverley, going with him from the stairs at the
Temple to Vauxhall, which was then termed Spring-
ga. -dens. Addison's motto to his paper seems to throw
rattier a doubtful sort of morality over this haunt of
faein ations, for he has topped it with this Juvenalian
:

Criminibus debent portos.
beauteous garden, but by vice maintained.
Addise.-t's poetic fancy seems, however, to have been
charmed by, the delights and meretricious allurements of
the place. _Ye dwells upon the garden (then called
Fox-hall), as • ' excellently pleasant at this time of the
year. When I L'onsidered the fragrancy of the walks
and bowers, with tAte choirs of birds that sung upon the
trees, and the loose. tribe of people that walked under
their shades, I could not but look upon that place as a
sort of Mahometan ParadiSe." The same graceful
tongue also speaks of " d inask" tapping Sir Roger on
the shoulder, and inviting him with her pretty impudent
ruby lips, to drink a bottle of mead with
slice her. They
finished a splendid little evening with a of hung
beef and a glass of Burton.
Vauxhall, however, till 1730;. was barely more than a
good tea-garden of our days, Mr. Jonathan Tyers
took a lease of it, and with suitable entertainments opened
it every summer-evening. Hayman, who, when young,
was a scene-painter at Drury-lane, joined with that
prince of painters Hogarth, in embellishing the gardens
.for Tyers, but the productions of both were then perhaps
rather crude. Tyers, however, went to work with a
bold hand in renewing the gardens. He threw out
brk gad sweeps of pavilions and saloons ; an orchestra was
erected by him ; a statue of Handel, bYßoubiliac, sat up
in their centre, and engaged a goodly music-handl.
Tyers afterwards purchased the whole estate, which is
copyhold of inheritance, and held of the Prince of Wales
as Lord of Kenington Manor, in right of his Duchy of
'Cornwall.
At this period, and up to 1792, Vauxhall Gardens
were open daily (Sundays excepted), and the admission
was is. ; it was then raised to 25., including tea and
cairee ; in 1809 several improvements were made, lamps
• &c., and the price was therefore raised to 3s. Gd.,
and were open only three nights in the week ; in 1821
the price was 4s.
2't.r. Bryant Barrrett. upon. the death of Tyers, suc-
ceeded to the property, having warried the grand-daughter
of
the original proprietor. Mr. Vssrrett's son became the
Wert possessor. In 1818, the entire property was adver-
tised for sale, but no purchaser was obtained. In 1821
the .sr.ondon Wine Company became the purchasers, and
again restored it to something of its ofal celebrity. It
shoula not be omitted that the spacious p,ivilion which
now L-onts the orchestra in the gardens wsss built for
-Pre,,lerick Prince of Wales, who was a liberal
.patron of
these Gardens. The present orchestra, too, which is
not the old-fashioned one of Tyers, was built b' o. car-
penter ; and the ornaments are of a composition soMe-
rt g lkk:e plaster of Paris, but known only to the ingeui-
*is archit 9ct. Before the Gardens close there will be
given, a Lai ,nasque, which is to partake of all the charms
ef Ithe long-Fast Ridotto al fresco, the first kind of enter-
-tain.-nent with which old Jonathan Tyers opened the
• Gard ev.s, and whose novelty attracted such immense
zumbt rs as soon inade his coffers fill with gold.

A GLASGOW HANGMAN
Mr. Thomas Young, the late respectable hangman of
Glasgow,. was once officially requested to perform a legal
operation,. sec andem artern, on the tender threat of an un-
fortunate wretched criminal in Dumfries. But Tho-
mas was an. indulgent father as well as a dutiful hangman;
and, under the gentle influence of paternal sym-
pathy, he took his amiable interesting daughter,
:in her teens, along with him in the carriage (for hang-
men officially travel, like gentlemen, in chariots), to have
ithe benefit of the pure fresh air of Dumfriesshire, and
ihehold the delightful scenery on the banks of the beauti-
Nith, immortalized by the lyric genius of Burns. The
Ivorthy pair, father and daughter, proceeded together to
Dumfries, and took up their abode in the gao;. On the
•evening before the execution, a venerable minister of the
`Gospel visited the unhappy panel to offer him reli-
gious consolation. In passing from the prisoner's cell
to the gaoler's apartments, he came in contact with
an elderly gentleman in black clothes,, and, deeming
him to be a reverend parson like himself, come. on the
same philanthropic errand, to soothe the criminal's agi-
tated mind, he requested the honour of an introduct;.9n.
The gaoler complied, and politely introduced him td
. Mr. Thomas Young, the veneraMe Glasgow hangman,
and his daughter. A shudder of horror ran through the
• lergyman's soul. He bowed to Mr. Young, and he
lc ,oked with pity on the filial girl beside him. By and
lb) they began to chat, and Mr. Thomas diligently
sel ated a few of his " legal murders" to enter-
tah i his reverend friend. "Do you never feel
an, - natural compunction," said the divine, " when
.ycon are performing your official duty'?" " I recollect,"
said _Mr. Thomas, "of having once felt it ; and so
• )ng, was the feeling, that it almost unman'tl' me
for a n iornent ; but it was only for a moment, and
then I (Ili my business as nicely as if nothing had
distr ?bed _me. It happened thus. I was called a few,
years; ago to Inverness, to execute a woman for a capital
crime Whe.l I was introduced to her, on the morn-'
lug of her execution, to pinion her arms, at the first
;glance. I knew her. She was the wife of icy eldest•
'comrad when I was in the army, anti they
both • ha'd done me many acts of kindness ;
but shy was so . terribly agitated that I do not
*think sb e either knew or recognized me. I felt a horrible •
;sensati 01 in my mind, for I was about to hang the wife of.
any old. fliend„ and one who had often been my soother
and nu use, at a time when nobody else regarded me.
-almost fainte2 ; and, had the intense horror con-
tinued, I must lia-ve desisted. Thit it soon passed off ;
un d when I again:. met her on the gallows I per-
fc rmed my duty, anal hanged her as deliberately as
if nothing had hh-Ppened to disturb me. This
it as the only time that . I ever felt any natural compunc-
ti on for the panel, and I ,have no wish to be troubled with
it again." The' minister ',looked at the old legal mur-
si rer with pity,,indignatioi.', and horror, and, taking up
his hat, walked op, withMA Ileigning to reply. The un-
▪ stdral monster who could Clus hang the friendly wife
f his oldest comrade, for a little money, would have
14 anged his own mother iu similar circumstances. Such
.1 gal and moral monstrosities sli,, luld not be permitted to
ontinue to disgrace civilised soei, 'ty with the barbarous
ri acurrence of these disgusting exec utive operations ; and
e hope the time is not far distan, when the pay and
'I !Bee of hangmen and their satellites will be for ever an-
• ihilated.—Scotch paper.

The France has an article on thn question of an
At teration of the import duties on fore ign cattle for the
sal ply of the French markets. This journal opposes
the • reduction of the duties on two gr( ands : first, be-
eaa•se it is unfair upon the French breed( Ts and feeders
• cattle ; secondly, because the supplY butchers' me at
is fully equal to the demand, and the higi t price is owing
the wealthy
•sol ely to the trickery and combination (•
every fat ox
;hut..lhers. The France informs us that
tarot tglit to market in France, the owner I tat L'lreadY aidp.
tom. 120 f. to 1441. in taxes, and this am] :
•y satting that the animal will have consul red aft Pr'cluce
,f six hectares of land (nearly 15 English ao-es),
t explains
,the tax
• tpon which to the Government amounts t 0, the sun.' here
• ientioned. Whereas in Switzerland, ad ds the France,
a s the'tax is upon consumption, and not up on the sool,an
• •x may be fatted at from 120 f. to 144 f. le as than in taw
country, and therefore it would be um Fair upon ihe
• French agriculturist to give to the Sw'ss,. or any other
a griculturist similarly situated as to ecot•ottly of feeding,
gthe import duty.
:a still greater advantage by reducing
)1t the second point of discussion, the Fri Race makes
to a assertion which at the moment NI re can neither
o )ntradict nor confirm in detail, but we confess that
.e should have been better satisfied it our Contempo-
• ry had favoured us with the data upon which the
of sertion is hazarded. We are told that for the hut 25
Y 1 ars the increase in the number of oxen has been ie.rom
Si; :to ten millions, whereas the populati on of France
114 s scarcely increased one-tenth. If the .France is not
lo( re correct in its bovine statistics than it is as to the
duo pulation, the arguments which it fourils upon them
'are not entitled to much notice. The population of
aPra ace, although less rapid in its increase than that of
• other large state in Europe, does not go on so slowly
as ovr Contemporary states. Twenty-five 3rears ago the
lag ,naltion ofFrance did-not much exceed 26 millions; it
he w exceeds 34 millions, which is far beycoad the tenth
sC Itecity our Contemporary.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint, by
tters patent under the Great Seal of 'reit:rid, the Right
on. Francis William Earl of Charl(mont to be Custos
)telot um of the county of Tyrone, in the, room of the
4 IYI of Delmore, deceased.