well as in the business of the play-house. He was frequently applied to for a vaunting bill, of which the following, for Broughton's theatre, is here introduced as a specimen :

"AT THE NEW THEATRE

"IN THE HAY-MARKET, ON WEDNESDAY THE 29TH OF THIS INSTANT APRIL.

The beauty of the Science of defence will be shewn in a Trial of Skill, between the following masters, viz :

:

Whereas, there was a battle fought on the 18th of March last, between MR. JOHNSON, from YORKSHIRE, and MR. SHERLOCK, from Ireland, in which engagement they came so near as to throw each other down. Since that rough battle, the said SHERLOCK has challenged JOHNSON to fight him, strapt down to the stage, for twenty pounds; to which the said JOHNSON has agreed; and they are to meet at the time and place above mentioned, and fight in the following manner, viz., to have their left feet strapt down to the stage, within the reach of each other's right leg; and the most bleeding wounds to

decide the wager. N. B. The undaunted young JAMES, who is thought the bravest of his age in the manly art of boxing, fights the stout-hearted GEORGE GRAY, for ten pounds, who values himself for fighting the famous GLOVER, at TOTTENHAM COURt. Attendance to be given at ten, and the masters mount at twelve. Cudgel-playing and boxing to divert the gentlemen till the battle begins.

In one of these bills Frenchmen are requested to bring smelling-bottles."

This Broughton lived to the age of eighty-five, and died in 1789. He was many years a Yeoman of the Guard.

CHAPTER II.

The Italian Opera House-Nature of this theatre and its destruction-The new theatre-Mansion of the Duke of St. Albans-Market in St. James's Fields-Mrs. Oldfield, the actress The Mulberry Gardens; Dryden a frequenter of them-Ladies there in masks-Gaming-house-Celebrated residents of Arlington Street-St. James's Street-Attempted assassination of the Duke of Ormond-The celebrated Clubs of this street; Crockford's, the Conservative, White's, Boodle's (formerly the Savoir Vivre), Brookes's -Gillray, the caricaturist-Shakspeare Ireland-" The Bunch of Grapes" -Political Betty-Addison-Wilkes-Samuel Rogers-Lord GuildfordLord Spencer-Gibbon, the historian-The Thatched House Tavern ; pictures there-Cleveland House-Sutherland House-St. James's Palace, anecdotes connected with.

RETRACING Our steps on the other side of the street, that we may re-enter Piccadilly, and arrive at Pall Mall, by way of St. James's Street, the first object that solicits remarkable attention is the Italian Opera House, in the present reign the favourite resort of Majesty.

The first Opera House in the Haymarket was built by Sir John Vanbrugh. It was first opened in 1705, under the appellation of the Queen's Theatre, for the exclusive performance of Italian operas. In the year 1720, in consequence of the inadequate support received from the public, a fund of £50,000 was raised by subscription, of which King George I. contributed £1000, and the general management of the concern vested in a governor, deputy-governor, and twenty directors, under the name of the Royal Academy of Music. Owing to its inelegance and inconvenience, this building was continually under process of alteration and improvement. On the night of the 17th of June, 1789, a fire broke out in the theatre which, in the course of a few hours, laid it in ruins. Madame Ravelli, one of the performers, had a narrow escape from perishing in the flames. A small part of the wardrobe and a few other trifling articles were the only things saved. Pennant, in his "Itinerary" condemns the building, and says the fire was happily the means of removing it effectually.. Preparations were immediately made for the erection of a new edifice, and the design of Mr. Novosichkí having been adopted, the foundation-stone of the present building was laid on the 3rd of April 1790, by the Earl of Buckinghamshire. It was never much admired when completed, and in general considered so gloomy and inelegant that Mr. Nash and Mr. G. Repton were employed, in 1820, to decorate and improve

it. Under their superintendence the colonnade on three sides of the building was erected, and the emblematical figures in basso relievo, displaying the rise and progress of music, placed along the front. They are from the design of Mr. B. Bubb, the

sculptor.

It is well known that the first hint of introducing Italian operas into England was given in the reign of Charles II., at the Duchess of Mazarin's, at Chelsea.

In Market Lane, which has given place to the Western Colonnade of the Opera House, lived Torre, the print-seller; he was the principal and famous fire-worker at Mary-le-bone Gardens.

In St. Alban's Street, on the site of which the lower and western side of Waterloo Place now stands, stood the mansion of Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban's. It was on the north-west corner of Charles Street, and is thus noticed in the Historian's Guide," p. 57,-" On May 31, 1670, His Majesty and His Royal Highness were entertained at supper by the Prince of Tuscany at St. Alban's House, in St. James's Fields." This was the night before the Duke departed for Holland. The house afterwards was a tavern, and remained so until it was taken down for the improvements made in Regent Street in 1820 and 1821. The following inscription, though without date, was upon a token issued by one of its landlords,-" George Carter at ye St. Albans, (reverse) in St. Alban's Street, neere St. James Market."

Sept. 27, 1665, at the time of the plague, a market was proclaimed to be kept in St. James's Fields. The following inscription is upon a token of one of its early inhabitants,"Richard Athy, 1668, (reverse) in St. James Markett-place, his halfe-peny."

Mrs. Anne Oldfield, the actress, so well known for her kindness to the poet Savage, who was born in Pall Mall in 1683, was, when in her sixteenth year, assistant to Mrs. Voss, keeper of the Mitre Tavern in this market. When she became celebrated in her profession, she resided in Southampton Street, Covent Garden, died in Grosvenor Street, Oct. 23, 1730, and, previously to her interment in Westminster, lay in state in the Jerusalem Chamber.

It appears by an advertisement in "The Spectator," dated Sept. 14, 1711, that the keeper of the wine-vaults under this market, invited the public by stating that he constantly kept four fires, and accommodation of eatables. Jermyn and St. Alban's Streets were named after the proprietor of those and the neighbouring streets, Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban's, in compliment to

whom the armorial bearings of that family (sable a crescent between two mullets in pale argent,) are displayed over the south entrance of St. James's Church.

It appears, by the Memoirs of Evelyn that the mansion in which Mr. Secretary Bennet (afterwards Earl of Arlington) resided, was called Goring House and subsequently Arlington House. On this site was erected Buckingham Palace. Here formerly were the Mulberry Gardens, so famous as a place of public entertainment, until granted by patent 24th Charles II., (1672) to the Earl of Arlington.

The king demised to Henry, Earl of Arlington, at a rent of twenty shillings per annum, that whole piece or parcel of ground, called the Mulberry Gardens, situated in the parish of St. Martin's in the Fields, together with eight houses, with their appurtenances thereon, for ninety-nine years, from the Feast of St. John the Baptist, then last past, if there should be no former lease of the premises, to Walter Lord Aston, or any other person, undetermined; and if there should be any such lease undetermined, then, for ninety-nine years from the determination of such lease. This ground, probably about that time, ceased to be a place of public entertainment, and became part of the gardens of Arlington House.

Dryden used to frequent this garden; he ate tarts there with Mrs. Anne Reeve, his mistress, as we learn from a curious passage in his life by Malone, quoted from a contemporary writer, whose name is not given. From Sir Charles Sedley's (the Rake and Mohock,) play of "The Mulberry Garden," published in 1668, it appears that the company assembled there in the evening, and that there were arbours in the gardens, in which they were regaled with cheesecakes, syllabubs, and wine sweetened with sugar. The ladies frequently went there in masks. In this comedy it is said, that he who wished to be considered a man of fashion, always drank wine and water at dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards. In act I., scene 2, of the same play, Ned Estridge observes to Harry Modish,

These country ladys, for the first month, take up their places in the mulberry-garden as early as a citizen's wife at a new play. Harry Modish. And for the most part are as easily discovered. They have always somewhat on, that is just left off by the better

sort.

Ned Estridge. They are the antipodes of the Court; for when a fashion sets there, it rises among them."

In "

The Humorous Lovers," a comedy written by the Duke

of Newcastle, and published in 1677, the third scene of act I. is in the mulberry-garden. Baldman observes to Courtly, "'Tis a delicate plump wench; now a blessing on the hearts of them that were the contrivers of this garden; this wilderness is the prettiest convenient place to woo a Widow Courtly."

Evelyn, on March 29, 1665, went to Mr. Secretary Bennet's (Goring House): he observes it was ill-built, but that it might be much improved. On September 21, 1674, Evelyn laments Lord Arlington's loss by fire at Goring House, and states that it was consumed to ye ground."

In 1708, Arlington Street was inhabited by the Duke of Richmond, Lord Guildford, Lord Kingston, Lord Brooke, and Lord Cholmondeley; in 1711 by the Earl of Stair; and in 1749 by the Earl of Middlesex, member for Old Sarum; Sir William Codrington, member for Beverley; John Pitt, Esq., member for Wareham; and Charles Horatio Walpole, member for Calling

ton.

The Honorable Horace Walpole dated many of his letters from this street, in which he resided for several years before he went to Berkeley Square.

The illustrious Charles James Fox was also an inhabitant of this street, and the late Duke of York died in it in 1827, in the house of the Duke of Rutland,

The Marquis Camden's is one of the finest houses in the street. It stands in the recess on the right from Piccadilly. In this mansion there is a whole length portrait of the late Lord Camden seated: it was painted for Guildhall by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was obliged to paint another one in a standing position, as it was to be placed near the pictures of the late King and Queen, by Ramsay.

The houses on the south of the Marquis of Camden's are Lord Sefton's, the Marquis of Salisbury's, the Earl of Zetland's, and Lord Yarborough's. At the last-named mansion, in the gallery leading to the Hall, the late Lord placed the following busts of eminent men: they are all in marble from the hand of Nollekens, viz., Marquis of Rockingham, Mr. Fox, Mr. Pitt, the late Duke of Devonshire, Lord C. Cavendish, the Earl of Leicester, Lord Milton, Francis Duke of Bedford, Sir G. Saville, Mr. C. Windham, Sir Joseph Banks, Dudley Lord North, and Earl Fitzwilliam. In the hall there are busts of Pope and Sterne, also by Nollekens. Here his Lordship has placed the fine marble group of Neptune and Triton, by Bernini, purchased of the executors of Sir Joshua Reynolds