the Shakspeare's Head Tavern and Jubilee Gardens; the New Tunbridge Wells,2 a fashionable that obscured the season, it is to be hoped, are vanished, and nature once more shines with a benign and cheerful influence. Come, then, ye honest sons of trade and industry, after the fatigues of a well-spent day, and taste of our rural pleasures! Ye sons of care, here throw aside your burden! Ye jolly Bacchanalians, here regale, and toast your rosy god beneath the verdant branches! Ye gentle lovers, here, to soft sounds of harmony, breathe out your sighs, till the cruel fair one listens to the voice of love! Ye who delight in feats of war, and are anxious for our heroes abroad, in mimic fires here see their ardour displayed! "Note.—The proprietor being informed that it is a general complaint against others who offer the like entertainments, that if the gentle zephyrs blow ever so little, the company are in danger of having their viands fanned away, through the thinness of their consistence, promises that his shall be of such a solidity as to resist the air!"-Daily Advertiser, July 8, 1745. The latter part of this picturesque and poetical advertisement is a sly hit at what, par excellence, are called, " Vauxhall slices." 1 In 1742, the public were entertained at the "Shakspeare's Head, near the New Wells, Clerkenwell," with refreshments of all sorts, and music; "the harpsichord being placed in so judicious a situation, that the whole company cannot fail of equally receiving the benefit." In 1770, Mr. Tonas exhibited “a great and pleasing variety of performances, in a commodious apartment," up one pair. * These once beautiful tea-gardens (we remember them as such) were formerly in high repute. In 1733, their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Amelia and Caroline frequented them in the summer time, for the purpose of drinking the waters. They have furnished a subject for pamphlets, poems, morning lounge of the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century; the Sir Hugh Middleton's Head; the Farthing Pie House;1 and Sadler's Music House and "Sweet Wells." A little to the left were Merlin's Cave, Bagnigge plays, songs, and medical treatises, by Ned Ward, George Colman the elder, Bickham, Dr. Hugh Smith, &c. Nothing now remains of them but the original chalybeate spring, which is still preserved in an obscure nook, amidst a poverty-stricken and squalid rookery of misery and vice. 1 Farthing Pie Houses were common in the outskirts of London a century ago. Their fragrance caught the sharp set citizen by the nose, and led him in by that prominent member to feast on their savoury fare. One solitary Farthing Pie House (the Green Man) still stands near Portland Road, on the way to Paddington. 2 Originally a chalybeate spring, then a music-house, and afterwards a "theatre-royal!" Cheesecakes, pipes, wine, and punch, were formerly part of the entertainment. "If at Sadler's sweet Wells the wine should be thick, Its rural vicinity made it a great favourite with the play-going and punch-drinking citizens. See Hogarth's print of "Evening." "A New Song on Sadler's Wells, set by Mr. Brett, 1740. ‹ At eve, when Sylvan's shady scene Is clad with spreading branches green, Wells,' the English Grotto (which stood near the New River Water-works in the fields), and, farther in advance, White Conduit House.2 Passing And varied sweets all round display'd, While nymphs and swains, with beaus and belles, 1 Once the reputed residence of Nell Gwynn, which makes the tradition of her visiting the "Old Bath House" more than probable. For upwards of a century it has been a noted place of entertainment. 'Tis now almost a ruin! Pass we to its brighter days, as sung in the "Sunday Ramble,” 1778 :— "Salubrious waters, tea, and wine, Here you may have, and also dine; 2 So called after an ancient conduit that once stood hard by. Goldsmith, in the "Citizen of the World," celebrates the "hot rolls and butter" of White Conduit House. Thither himself and a few friends would repair to tea, after having dined at Highbury Barn. A supper at the Grecian, or Temple Exchange Coffeehouses, closed the "Shoemaker's Holiday" of this exquisite English Classic,-this gentle and benignant spirit! a by the Old Red Lion, bearing the date of 1415, and since brightened up with some regard to the taste of ancient times; and the Angel,—now fallen one!-a huge structure, the architecture of which is anything but angelic, having risen on its ruins, we enter Islington, described by Goldsmith as a pretty and neat town." In ancient times it was not unknown to fame. 66 "What village can boast like fair Islington town Here gallant gay Essex, and burly Lord Burleigh, Here Finsbury archers disported and quaff'd, In "The Walks of Islington and Hogsdon, with the Humours of Wood Street Compter," a comedy, by Thomas Jordan, 1641, the scene is laid at the Saracen's Head, Islington; and the prologue celebrates its "bottle-beer, cream, and (gooseberry) fools;" and the "Merry Milkmaid 1 "The Islington Garland." of Islington, or the Rambling Gallant defeated," a comedy, 1680, is another proof of its popularity. Poor Robin, in his almanac, 1676, says, "At Islington A Fair they hold, Are to be sold. At Highgate and The like is kept At Totnam Court And Kentish Town, And all those places Drunken Barnaby notices some of its inns. Sir William d'Avenant, describing the amusements of the citizens during the long vacation, makes a "husband gray" ask, "Where's Dame? (quoth he.) Quoth son of shop She's gone her cake in milk to sop— Ho! Ho!-to Islington-enough!" Bonnel Thornton, in "The Connoisseur," speaks of the citizens smoking their pipes and drinking their ale at Islington; and Sir William Wealthy exclaims to his money-getting brother, "What, old boy, times are changed since the |