The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-08-08
From the -AthenGulI
VATYHATJ


OF notice. The old manor ground of the mercenary
fulke de Breaute,--the henchman," as he NAV be
called, of King JOHNS about to be covered with
Drlcks and mortar. Previous to this, the gardens
are to be open to the public for week, by way OF
dying out gaiy. The land on which Fulke erected
his hall now belongs to Canterbury Cathedral
by very ordinary process. The manor OF
fuikeshali FELL by attainder, to the crown. 1t was
successlyely held by the Dispensers and the Damo
ries but the latter exchanged it with Edward the
Third for an estate in Suffolk; and the manor was
conferred on Edward the Black Prince, who piouslv
lett 1t to the Church of Canterbury. This beuuest
was respected by monarch who upset more Wills
than all the Ecclesiastical Courts together; and
Henry the Eighth left the little estate to the orat
fed Dean and Chapter.
The old manor-house, like the gardens in its vi
cInlty, served many purposes; and these were not
always OF gay aspect. Saddest of sad Young Ia
dies, Lady Arabella Stuart, was confined here nm
DER the guardianship of Sir Thomas Parry The
mouse was then known as Copt Hall. Some years
later, there was some doubt whether coIIepe OF
artlzans or public garden and Assembly" Would
oe ultimately established here. The pleasure-seekers
were delighted by the establishment of a place ol
galety and dissipation; and wearied with the stale
vet HVely pleasures of that very rustic locality
Spring Garden" Charing Cross, tbev 1ocked
with the glad eagerness of unhappy idlers in search
oil new sensation to the ''New Spring Gardens ON
the Surrey side of the Thames. This was about the
year 1901. 30 that, In round numbers, the place
may be said to have had reign-a reign of vicissi
tudes-which has lasted two centuries
From the very first the seasons were uncertain
In sickly years they Unattended; but, pener
ally speaking, under the Stuars they were resort
ed to by the equality" of very bad sort in very
great numbers. The richer, not the better class
OF citizens initiated the people of quality and here
they plucked cherries, and gaants broke cheese
cake with their ladies; lovers slipped and looked
foolish over their syllabubs while amateurs of tbn
faster school futtered about, scattering compIi
ments among the flame colored petticoats. But
there were faster gentlemen there than those in the
Stuart days. gay rufians of the Killigrew stamp;
all plume, velvet, gold lace, and bad PRINCIPLES
with swords to support them. These town ropuas
were the terror of "eivil ladies' in masks: and were
sometimes not less 50 to the ladies of less ssciyP,
quality The gardens must have presen ted a
strange sight in those DAYS; for while the hr f
Drained young ''rogues" were assaulting the ar
bors, and dragging the women away from them
at the swords point, more orderly public might
nave been seen in another part, listening with
rapture to the nightingales, or, elsewhere beating
time to the tiddes and Jews trumps, while walk
ing about, laughing, talking, and nightly divert
ing themselves
Were the gay ruffians and jewellers anti-Hano-
verlans? Certain it is that with the coming of
Ureat brunswick" as DIR. Young absurdly called
George the First, the sunny glory of the place
suffered an eclipse. Few went there where the
lively mask tapped Sir Roger de Coverly lightly on
the shoulder and the knight, blameless and stain
less as Mr.. Tennyson's King Arthur himself bade
the baggage, who had audacousy invited him to
partake of bottle of mead-tO s'beponer' But as
brunswick established itself on the seat of the SIN
arts, the gardens recovered their dignity. Early
IN the reign of the Second George, Mr. Tvers OMEN
ed them with much addition to their old routine of
teasting and flirting. He had good luck enough to
win the presence Of the Prince of Wales OCCASION
ally;-a very good representative of the roval and
noble rutlianism of the oden time Around the
Prince. gay crowds of masks, dominos and lovers
of Ridoto al fresco nmbly trooped: and high Art
had, in good time, its cunning to add to the attrac
tIons for Hogarth gloriied much canvas or panDeI
there, and Roubiliac set up the statue of Handel
great Master of that Art Of which Apollo was only
the god
Small, however, were the Influences Of the deitv
about the Rotunda, where he was practically wor-
shipped in those famous ''YauxhaIl ballads Sub
lime namby-pamby of text, to a stupendous nm
meaningness of tune.
The usual guides who axe the public by the hand
state, that the name Of "Spring Gardens" cIung to
the place till about the year 1885. But this is not
the case. fonhdH was commonly spoken of in the
time OF old Iyers Walpole in 1850, in company
with Lady Caroline Petersham, drunken Lord
CRANKY, and far-too-jolly Sir Harry Vane made a
night of it at 'Fauxhall" where the gentlemen cut
up the chickens which frolicsome Lady Caroline
stewed in a saucepan lamp in one of the
bowers. Fielding, too, who published his amelia
ia l75l, sends some Of his friends in that story to
as turbulent but less pleasant night at roaring
''Vauxhall.'
ry wars, and with them came high prices and un-
pronounceabe Greek tor guasi-Greek) names
which did not describe the heentertainments they pre-
tended to designate. The fee for admission ran up
by lnstalments, from one shilling to four; but the
patronage OF fashion did not rise in an equal ratio
and the gardens, which did not blossom sweetly un-
der the first of the Georges sank into cheapnes and
ruin under the last named of that illusrious race
OF mOnarchs The weather, too, had been their un-
kind enemy. The special fete davs were ever so no.
tOriously damaged by deluges of rain, that men of
pastures would not cut their hay on that day; while
one of the Tyerses 1--WE forget now which, was so
continuously unlucky, that farmers laid down broad
acres of turnps they heard ofthe continuation of
his proprietorsAip
One week more of modified madness-a melan-
choly gaiety-and streets will rise where we'll
dressed folly SO long and so riotously reigned-
where Ellington poured forth her honeyed notes
and an lncledon his ''linked sweetness, where Il
DiaVolo Antonio swung by one foot on the slack
wire, peang forth from silver trumpet, as he
swung, the overture to Lodoiska, and where the
terrible gaetes of the night were succeeded bv the
terrible penalties of ''next morning" What is to
come for week is the ''wake" ofa dead, not the
production of living, Vauxha The lights, and
the drink, and the garishness will be there where
the song of the old nghtngales has long been silent
for ever