Warwick William Wroth

“ He estimated that, excluding rare or curious books, 'every requisite help for the critical use of a scholar [in Greek and Latin] may be contained in a library of from six to seven hundred volumes.' Clinton is also said to have had a very accurate knowledge of history, and to have been well read in English and other literatures. He invariably devoted Sunday to the study of theology. He was a firm believer in a revealed religion; and his literary journals constantly record (in Latin or Greek) some fervent prayer or thanksgiving in connection with his classical studies. ”

“ In January 1893 he was gazetted 'engraver to the mint' (Ann. Report of Deputy-Master of the Mint for 1893, p. 30) , and from that time till his death was actively engaged in the production of dies for English and colonial coins and for official medals. He was a skilful craftsman who worked with great rapidity, and he designed, modelled and engraved most of his dies. He was in some degree influenced by the French school of Roty and Chaplain, but in his official work there was no great scope for innovation and the play of fancy. He was a man of kindly disposition, entirely devoted to his craft. ”

“ From a very early age Thomas Hope studied architecture, and after spending eight years in studying and sketching architectural remains in Egypt, Greece, Sicily, Turkey, Syria, Spain, and other countries, he settled in England about 1796, with other members of his family who had quitted Holland on its occupation by the French. In England Thomas devoted himself to literature, and employed part of his large fortune in collecting ancient sculptures and vases, Italian pictures, and other works of art. ”

“ In the garden a man might sit with a friend or chance acquaintance as long as his pleasure and a treacherous climate permitted. In the gin-palace he practically cannot sit at all, but is huddled, sometimes with his wife and children, into a kind of pen, from which custom and a sort of shy politeness bid him depart at the earliest moment to make room for new-comers. The London public-house has thus become a mere counter for the hurried consumption p. viiof drink; it has lost any convenience or merit it may once have had as an improvised club and a cheerful resort. ”

“ We have our obvious models on the Continent in the large café, the beer-garden, and even in the small café. The poor man would not be ‘robbed of his beer,’ nor would the change be quite ‘un-English,’ as the record of our little tavern gardens will show. Even in London at this moment there is an (almost solitary) instance of a café-restaurant of this kind, in Leicester Square.
The one feature common to all these Continental places is the custom of sitting down at a table; there is no standing at a bar, or the rapid displacement of one customer by another. ”

“ Evans a conception of evolution as applied to the 'types' and 'fabric' of coins has since borne fruit in other branches of numismatics (cf. Keary, Morphology of Coins, and Evan's own paper, 'Coinage of the Ancient Britons and Natural Selection,' in the Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society, vol. iii. 1885) . In 1864 he published the standard work, 'The Coins of the Ancient Britons,' for which he was awarded the Prix Allier de Hauteroche of the French Academy. ”

“ When in 1847 John Hearne, the publisher, issued a ‘Supplement’ to Ainslie's ‘Illustrations of the Anglo-French Coinage,’ 1830, Cuff, in conjunction with Edward Hawkins, supervised the printing of the work, and contributed descriptions of coins, chiefly from his own cabinet. Cuff was engaged for more than forty years in coin collecting, and his collection, which consisted chiefly of Saxon and English coins, was a remarkable one, and contained many pieces of great rarity. ”

“ WYON, ALLAN (1843–1907) , medallist and seal-engraver, born in 1843, was the son of Benjamin Wyon [q. v.] , chief engraver of the royal seals, and the younger brother of Joseph Shepherd Wyon [q. v.] and Alfred Benjamin Wyon [q. v.] He was early taught the arts hereditary in his family, and for a time aided his brother Joseph in his medal-work. From 1884 till his death he carried on in London the business of the Wyon firm of medallists and engravers founded by his grandfather, Thomas Wyon the elder [q. v.] ”

“ From 1803 till June 1806 he acted as private tutor at Oxford to Earl Gower. He entered the university with 'a strong passion' for Greek literature, and his curiosity to read the Greek historians had been excited by the perusal of Mitford's 'History of Greece.' While at Oxford he went through, in seven years and eight months, about 69,322 verses of the Greek poets and about 2,913 pages of the prose authors, making-together an amount of about 5,223 pages. The less obvious Greek authors were still unknown to him; and later in life he read five times as much in the same space of time. ”

“ In spite of all this, we know of more than one respected paterfamilias who has still somewhere a Cremorne programme or two, the relic of some pleasant and doubtless romantic evening in the sixties or seventies, when he imagined himself to be seeing something—if not too much—of ‘real life’ in London. In the sixties some charming little folding programmes were issued, printed in colour, and presenting on every page a view of Cremorne. ”

“ In the early part of the evening—at any rate, in the seventies—the dancing was left to the shop-girls and their friends: the gilded youth and the ‘smart’ female set of Cremorne began their waltzing later on, after the fireworks.
The gardens had a tendency to become congested with side-shows, flaring stalls and shooting-galleries, too much suggesting a fair; but, unlike Earl’s Court and the later Vauxhall, Cremorne remained a garden. There was still the encircling fringe of ancient trees, and an avenue on the west stretching from north to south ”

“ Walpole sneered at the ‘Knight of the Brazen Milk-pot.’ Many of Knight's bronzes had belonged to the Duc de Chaulnes, who died at the beginning of the French revolution. Knight sent an agent as far as Russia to hunt up the bronzes from the Paramythia find, one specimen of which had reached England. His collection of Greek coins was no less remarkable, and was especially rich in the money of Sicily and Magna Græcia, beautiful series which he had the good taste to appreciate (cf. Knight's article on Syracusan coins in the Archæologia, xix. 374 f.) ”

“ In the early part of 1851 he took Gore House, the famous home of Lady Blessington at Kensington, and fantastic skill and showy decoration soon made the old-fashioned stucco-fronted building the wonder of a London as yet unfamiliar with palatial restaurants. The newspapers and a prospectus printed on satin paper with green-tinted edges announced the advent of ‘Soyer’s Universal Symposium,’ a single ticket for which was to cost a guinea, and a family ticket—your family might consist of five—three guineas. ”

“ Junius was a man of kindly nature and blameless character. A laborious student, he rose at four all the year, worked till one, then engaged in ‘walking or running,’ and again worked from three till eight. A portrait of him, sketched by Vandyck, hangs in the Bodleian Library. An engraving of this by G. Vertue is prefixed to the ‘Etymologicum Anglicanum,’ and there is another, by Burghers, prefixed to C. Rawlinson's ‘Boethius,’ 1698, a work printed from the Gothic and Saxon types left by Junius to the university of Oxford. ”

“ It is too late now to restore the little summer gardens, but it should be possible to convert our public-houses, not into coffee-palaces, which do not meet the general need, but into cafés, by which I mean places where varied drinks, strong or otherwise, would be obtainable, though under less absurd and demoralizing conditions than at present. Every one should be made to sit down, should be waited on—by a waitress if we like—and the great bar itself should be dissolved, except as a counter for the attendants. ”

“ Twenty-three specimens from Knight's own collection were included in the book, and Knight wrote the text, consisting of concise descriptions and a fairly creditable introduction on the history of ancient art. He was one of the contributors to the second volume of the ‘Specimens,’ edited by W. S. Morritt. Unlike the other dilettanti of the time, Knight cared little for ancient marbles, and his collection included only a few specimens. He chiefly appreciated bronzes, coins, and gems. ”

“ It will be remembered that this picture represents a portly dame, accompanied by an evidently ill-used husband and two crying children, passing by the tavern, wherein a merry drinking-party is seen through the open window. Perhaps the mantling vine is not a natural feature of the place, but bitter Hogarthian symbolism—‘Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine upon the walls of thy house.’ On the other hand, Clerkenwell has still its Vine Yard Walk, and twenty years ago in one or two of the gardens in a square near Sadler’s Wells, there might be found a vine which produced a passable grape. ”

“ Elgin accordingly thought it advisable to throw open his collections to public view, and arranged them in his own house in Park Lane, and afterwards at Burlington House, Piccadilly. Upon the supreme merits of the Parthenon sculptures all competent art critics were henceforth agreed. Canova, when he saw them, pronounced them the works of the ablest artists the world has seen.' After some preliminary negotiations, a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed in 1816 to inquire into the desirability of acquiring the Elgin collection for the nation. ”

“ The whole affair caused great excitement in London, and the details were copied into papers like the Indian Mirror. A sheet-ballad sold in the Chelsea streets drew the obvious morals, and appealed to the tender-hearted passer-by:
‘You feeling hearts, list to my story,
It is a most heartrending tale;
And when the facts are laid before you
To drop a tear you cannot fail.’ [19]
But we are nearing the last days of Cremorne. At no period could the gardens be described as a place of quiet family resort, and under Smith in the sixties we begin to hear of rows and cases in the police courts. ”

“ In his introduction to the ‘Specimens’ Carter states that, ‘having explored at different times various parts of England for the purpose of taking sketches and drawing of the remains of ancient sculpture and painting, his aim is to perpetuate such as he has been so fortunate as to meet with by engraving them.’ While the ‘Specimens’ was in progress, Carter also published ‘Views of Ancient Buildings in England’ (drawn and engraved by himself) , 6 vols. ”

“ In 1857 the Chelsea Vestry had presented the first of many annual petitions against the renewal of the licence, setting forth the inconvenience of the late hours of Cremorne, the immoral character of its female frequenters, and its detrimental influence generally on the morals (and house property) of the neighbourhood. Such petitions, like the annual protests against old Bartholomew Fair, were a long time in taking effect, but, as Cremorne grew older, the rowdy and wanton element certainly increased, and finally, as we shall see, not undeservedly brought about its downfall. ”

“ Hamilton was one of the first Englishmen who collected and appreciated Greek vases. He valued them chiefly as good models for modern artists, and is said to have ridiculed antiquarians by training (1780) his monkey to hold a coin-collector's magnifying glass. Hamilton renounced collecting after 1772, but the passion revived, and in 1787 Goethe (Italienische Reise, 27 May 1787) found his private art-vaults at Naples full of busts, torsos, vases, and bronzes. Tischbein once saw Hamilton at Naples in full court dress helping a ragged lazarone to carry a basketful of vases. ”

“ Time has cast a veil over the orgiastic features of Cremorne, and though this is just as well, some of its old frequenters may cherish the feeling that there are no ‘intrepid aeronauts’ now, no fireworks like Duffell’s, no gaily-lighted tiers of supper-boxes, and no waltzing on circular platforms with beauteous, if little known, damsels. ”

“ He had specially studied Pausanias and Pliny's ‘Historia.’ His short-sightedness always rendered reading difficult for him, though he had ‘a microscopic power of discernment’ for objects such as gems. His writings on ancient gems are original, and evince the experience of the practical collector. In England they have stimulated an interest in glyptography, though they are often marred by defects due to insufficient numismatic and archæological training. King died in London, after a brief illness, of a bronchial cold, on 25 March 1888. ”

“ In the centre was fixed an upright wooden stand about 12 feet high, in which De Groof placed himself, working the wings and tail by means of three levers. He ascended from Cremorne about eight, and as the balloon rose seemed like a big bird perched in his net framework. He was meant to descend in the gardens, but the wind carried the balloon away to Brandon in Essex, where he made a perilous descent from the balloon, almost unseen, but apparently without injury. The Cremorne habitué felt that he was cheated of a sight, and on July 9 the experiment had to be repeated. ”

“ In 1792 he made a good finish to his labours by an excavation, in conjunction with Prince Marco Antonio Borghese, on the territory of the ancient Gabii (marbles found there by him are now in the Louvre) . The excavations at Hadrian's villa were undertaken by Hamilton with James Byres and Thomas Jenkins. With the last named Hamilton often acted in partnership. Hamilton sold the antiquities which he discovered or bought up, but did not adopt the lax trading principles of the Roman art-dealers of his day. ”

“ In 1846 an Act of Parliament empowered the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to form a park in the Fields, and in 1850 the Red House and its shooting-ground were purchased by them for £10,000. But the landlord (James Ireland) and the fair people had still two years to run. Mr. Ireland, on his part, considerably forced the pace, and made his garden into a minor Vauxhall, where we hear of balloons and fireworks, a ballet, a circus, a dancing-platform, and a tight rope. All this must have been on a humble scale, for sixpence and threepence were the highest charges. ”

“ During his leisure hours Croker worked at medal-engraving and tried to improve his knowledge of drawing and modelling. On the expiration of his apprenticeship he visited most of the large towns of Germany in the practice of his profession as jeweller. He afterwards went to Holland, whence he came to England towards the end of 1691. In England he engaged himself to a jeweller, but at last began to work exclusively as a medallist. In 1697 he was appointed an assistant to Captain Harris, the chief engraver of the mint, who practically handed over the execution of his work to Croker. ”

“ Already, indeed, we are growing accustomed to speak of the nineteenth century as the ‘last,’ and to recognize that the London of Dickens, and Thackeray—the London of the thirties, the forties, and even of the sixties—had a physiognomy of its own.
Such places of resort, for the most part, enjoyed no kind of fashionable vogue; they were frequented (if invidious distinctions must be made) by the lower middle classes and the ‘lower orders.’ Yet they offer some curious glimpses of manners and modes of recreation which may be worth considering. ”

“ The gardens were by no means solely frequented by South Londoners, though they were far from the luxurious west, and on the wrong side of the Thames. Fireworks, promenade concerts and ballooning were a bait for the shillings of the sightseer, but for more than twenty years at least these attractions never quite sophisticated the simple recreation afforded by the Zoological Garden. ”

“ Smith proposed to supply the want by erecting on the site of the house, or near it, a capacious building. His baths were opened in 1838, and the popular orchard was utilized as a garden promenade, which he provided with an orchestra and a room for concerts and dancing. In imitation of the panoramas of the Surrey Zoological Gardens, the ‘Taking of Fort Bhurtpore’ was reproduced in the grounds, and the fireworks and crackers of Professor Tumour rendered the capture of the fortress by the English a lifelike spectacle. ”

“ The Eagle reopened in the spring of 1832 with many of the attractions that long continued to characterize it. In the garden was an orchestra of Oriental type, variously described as Moorish or Chinese, and the Pandean Band from Vauxhall Gardens was engaged to perform. Dancing took place, generally once a week, in the ‘Grecian tent’ or in the assembly-room, and the gardens were adorned with Chinese lanterns, cosmoramas, fountains, and dripping rocks. In the Saloon there were concerts and ‘vaudevilles’ every evening, with sacred music (in Lent) from Handel and Mozart. ”

“ The Great Exhibition of 1851 was indirectly responsible for the existence in Kensington of two short-lived institutions—a circus and a restaurant. They are rather outside our subject, but, as having something of an open-air character, may be briefly described.
In the autumn of 1850 William Batty, a famous circus proprietor, acquired some land within five minutes’ walk of the new world-wonder, the ‘Crystal Palace,’ and erected thereon an elliptical-roofed pavilion which accommodated many thousands of spectators, and had a large arena open to the sky. ”

“ In March, 1878, the theatre was hired for a single performance, a boxing match between Rooke and Harrington. A rough company of 800 people were got together, and the prize, a splendid silver vase valued at £100, was ostentatiously displayed to the audience. An old ‘Surrey’ waiter who was present is said to have recognized in this noble trophy a capacious leaden vessel which had stood on one of the refreshment counters in the water-drinking days of the Zoological Gardens. ”

“ The comic papers sneered at the petitions ‘signed by all the babies and children under ten,’ and issued a revised set of Cremorne Regulations. All ladies were henceforward to have certificates of respectability from the Board of Guardians, though members of the London School Board were to be admitted free. No fireworks, dancing, smoking, laughing, or flirting were allowed, but by an order from the Vestry you could obtain a coffee cobler or a cocoa cocktail. Ridicule is sometimes a legitimate weapon against the Puritan, but in this case Canon Cromwell and the Vestry were hardly in the wrong. ”

“ Some of the spectators considered that, at any rate, the balloon could be punished, and ‘a well-directed volley of stones’ soon left the monster prostrate on the lake. An attempt was made to drag it on shore and tear it in pieces, but at this moment the cord broke. Some of the rowdier spirits now sought out the proprietor, hoping to duck him in one of his own ponds. And when this failed, they attacked the glass panes of the lion’s conservatory. But suddenly the police appeared and Vesuvius burst forth in all its fury, and when the fireworks were over the visitors quietly dispersed. ”

“ Balloon ascents, which had such a strange fascination for the frequenters of Vauxhall in the thirties and forties, and which were always an attraction at Cremorne, do not seem to have been a feature of the Surrey Gardens. An ascent by Henry Coxwell, on September 7, 1854, was of some importance, as the balloonist for the first time gave a public exhibition of his methods of balloon-signalling in war. His apparatus was attached to the car, and the signals were supposed to be addressed to the beleaguered fortress of Sebastopol. ”

“ Crowds poured in from Greenwich, Deptford, and Woolwich, and the road became so blocked that even ‘families of distinction could not approach within a mile of the tavern.’ Some fortunate parishioners ascended the tower of the church, and a jolly tar got astride of the Mermaid sign. In front of the house an abnormal assemblage of fat men and still fatter women jostled and pushed and tumbled one over another in a way that delighted the coarse caricaturists of the period. Sadler’s companion was a naval officer, Lieutenant (or Captain) Paget, who paid a hundred guineas for his seat in the car. ”

“ In 1783 the old inn was demolished, or was, at any rate, absorbed in the premises of some white-lead manufacturers, who erected (1786–1792) two mills—conspicuous as windmills—in the vicinity. A new tavern was built in front of the mills, with small grounds—about three acres—attached to it. The Rosemary Branch was now frequented as a tea-garden, one of the attractions being ‘the pond near the aforesaid place,’ which was used for boating and skating till, to the disgust of the Sunday visitors, it suddenly dried up about the year 1830. ”

“ In September, 1899, the newspapers announced that the Eagle premises were in the hands of the house-breakers. A few old frequenters hastened to revisit the place, and some others, no doubt, who had only heard of the Eagle as a somewhat low resort associated with that enigmatic song of their childhood, ‘Pop goes the Weasel,’ must have been surprised to find the buildings—rather handsome in their way—still in existence. ”

“ But this does not benefit the humbler classes, and it has often seemed to me that a good way of discouraging intemperance in a great city is not to attempt the heroic, unpopular, and impossible task of abolishing the traffic in drink, but to compel the owners of licensed houses to dispense their stock-in-trade under more rational and recreative conditions—to give us ‘clubs’ for ‘pubs,’ or, at any rate, cafés and café-restaurants. ”

“ The Eagle tavern and Grecian theatre which stood till lately at the corner of the dreary City Road and Shepherdess Walk were developed out of a quiet eighteenth-century pleasure-garden known as the Shepherd and Shepherdess, which had its arbours, skittle-ground, and small assembly-room. [57a] About 1822 a rather remarkable man, named Thomas Rouse (born in 1784) , came into possession of the premises. [57b] He is said to have begun life as a bricklayer; at any rate, he had a turn for building, and in later days indulged himself in saloons, pavilions, and Cockney gardening. ”