| Citation |
RNYG.783.159
24 Sep 1783:12,13 (730)
In the absence of our Monthly Pacquet, we beg leave, to
divert our Readers with the following Bagatelle.
A State of the Amusements of London, as it stood May 17.
The Theatres begin to smell strong of noisome heat, and
the ventilators scarce let in a sufficient quantity of air
to prevent suffocation. The shopkeeper now treats his
apprentices and servants with a benefit ticket, which he has
taken from his dramatic debtor, and the family mount aloft
in the one shilling gallery. Toni's pocket is stuffed with
oranges and apples, while Betty's more capacious receptacle
holds the bottle of punch, and the cup with which it is to
be measured between the acts.
The Opera-House having at last tired the public with
Italian nonsense, and the people having come to their
senses, the Treasurer did not receive as much money as was
sufficient to buy paint for the Castratas cheeks, or pay for
the washing of the Dancer's stockings. These pick-pocket
foreigners must therefore return to the place from whence
they came, and dance and sing about their native streets.
They are the people, of all others, with whose absence this
country can dispense for'ever, and their exportation is now
as earnestly looked for, as their presence is become
universally odious.
Sadler Wells, as usual in the summer months, exhibits a
mockery of dramatic entertainment to crowded mariners and
their red-ribboned mollies, where the convivial pint of
Portugal wine, vintaged in Southampton, wets the lips of the
tar and his temporary wife; Jack eyeing with delight the
dexterity of the rope-dancer, whilst Madam is thinking of
somewhat for supper at the Ship and Anchor in Wapping.
Hilloa here-avast there--hip in third place--a song in a
fourth--damn my eyes in a fifth--pint of wine, waiter, in a
sixth--orange, hoy, in a seventh--and then hats off, hats
off, all over the house, give a true picture of this
favourite and long established place of public resort, where
more genuine good humour and real happiness in the audience
are to be found, than in any the most fashionable Theatres
of the Metropolis.
The two Riding- Schools, or more properly called
Equestrian Theatres, having made their peace with the Surry
Magistrates, are again permitted to open their stable doors.
and exhibit their power over the brute creatiomn by
exercising the reason of horses, and giving their auditors
some idea of the transmigration of souls. Here one horse
fetches and carries like a dog--there another tells fortunes
on the cards--a third kneels down, and in a supplicating
posture begs the attention of those who have hitherto paid
more time to the study of men, than the instinct of horses.
A gewgaw pretended French instructed boyish minuet-jumping
jockey, dances on a saddle, whilst others of the Asley
baboons, in silk jackets, inverting the order of nature,
place their heads where their heels should be, whilst an
upright lady in a feathered hat, takes a standing gallop
close to the semicircled gaters. Horses, however, being
rather a sameness of amusement, an infant groupe is brought
forward to prove the ripeness of age, and at how early a
period of life the birch-rod and horn-book can be laid down
for the mysteries of a drama, and the intuition of the
Green-Room.
Ranelagh opens its once fashionable doors in vain. Other
occupations than the circular repetition of pedestrian
exercise have diverted both the great and the little from
that outlet. Scalding water and penny rolls, with a jargon
of fiddlers and bassoons, at 23.6d. a head, are not the
stile of this year, and the Chelsea night-coaches retire to
their hovels at a seasonable hour for rest.
Not so with Vauxhall; its garden of shady walks, and its
brilliant trees, own the fashionable crowd. The Peer, in
stately-pride, shews his glistening star to astonished city
misses, whilst the smart shopman, having shook off the
humility of his morning countenance in submissive Cheapside,
struts with flowing chitterling and beruffled knuckles, as
great and as proud as a new made Lord. . . . .[17 lines
describing the food to be purchased there and the fashions]
The Exhibition of Pictures, wearing no feature of an
improving pencil this year, has tired the public of looking
at declining genius, as much as the criticisms of ignorant
judges . . . [3 lines]
Kensington Gardens have been filled with the unchurched
Sunday idlers, who, preferring the gravel walk to the ayle,
and a seat under a tree to a pew near the puplit . . . [9
lines]
The other end of London, scorning to be out-done in
pleasure, gives entertainment in a comfortable ride with
inside a well-stuffed Greenwich coach, where eight people
and two or three children enjoy the delights of the country
amidst the clouds of dusk, and the sweet-flavoured dew of
natural warmth . . . [26 lines ]
The Play-Houses being too warm, the Opera-House in
fashionable disrepute and shut up, the Park too common, the
Riding-Schools plebian; the Musical glasses are the only
fashionable place for lounging ladies of quality, and
morning idlers of dignity.--There my Lady pretends to faint
with the Orphean touch of the performer, and my Lord
declares it is "bien, tres bien," with a "pray, Sir, let us
hear that again; the shake is delightful, an't it, my
Lady?"----"Heavenly cries my Lady, --"bene obligata
Signor."--The performer don't understand Italian,--but that
is of little consequence, my Lady has two or three words
which must be repeated, or else it would not beknown that
her Lord travelled as far as Rome.--Thus ends the first
Chapter.
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