of alms-houses, which were founded by Sir Noel de Caron in 1622.

On the Lambeth side of the Thames, nearly opposite to Somerset House, stood Cuper's Gardens, a favourite place of resort of the gay and profligate from the end of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century. The principal attractions of the gardens were their retired arbours, their shady walks, ornamented with statues and ancient marbles, and especially the fireworks. Cuper's Gardens, which derived their name from one Boyder Cuper, who had been gardener to Thomas Earl of Arundel, were suppressed as a place of public entertainment in 1753.

VAUXHALL AND RANELAGH.

ORIGINAL NAME OF VAUXHALL.-IN POSSESSION OF THE CROWN IN CHARLES THE FIRST'S REIGN.-ITS FAR-FAMED GARDENS.—EVELYN'S VISIT TO THEM. -THE "SPECTATOR'S" ACCOUNT OF THEM. NIGHTINGALES AT VAUXHALL. -FIELDING AND GOLDSMITH'S DESCRIPTION OF THE GARDENS.-RANELAGH GARDENS.-WALPOLE'S LETTERS ON THEIR OPENING.-DESCRIPTION OF THE PLACE. ORIGINALLY FREQUENTED BY THE NOBILITY. — CAUSE OF ITS DOWNFALL.

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AUXHALL, or, as it was originally called, Fulke's Hall, is supposed to have derived its name from Fulke or Faulk de Breauté, a distinguished Norman warrior in the reign of King John, who obtained the manor of Lambeth by right of his marriage with a wealthy heiress, Margaret de Ripariis, or Redvers. The name was subsequently corrupted into Fauxeshall, or Fox-Hall, and afterwards into Vauxhall. It seems not improbable that the notorious Guy Faux was descended from the above-named marriage; there being no doubt that he was a resident in this parish, where, according to Pennant, "he lived in a large mansion. called Faux Hall." It has even been supposed that he was lord of the manor.

In the reign of Charles the First we find the manor of Vauxhall in the possession of the Crown. Subsequently it was sold by the Parliament, and the proceeds set apart for the payment of the seamen's wages. The ancient manorhouse known in the seventeenth century as Copt Hall, stood on the banks of the Thames. In the reign of James the First it was in the possession of Sir Thomas Parry, Chan

cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, under whose roof here, and in whose custody, it was that the unfortunate Lady Arabella Stuart passed a dreary imprisonment of twelve months. During the Protectorate Faux Hall was the residence of the well-known mechanical genius, Sir Samuel Morland. At Vauxhall it was that the once gay and gallant Duke of Monmouth, after his defeat at the battle of Sedgmoor, was met by the guard of soldiers which conducted him to the Tower. At his lodgings near Vauxhall, the pastoral poet Ambrose Philips breathed his last on the 18th of June, 1749.

But the best-known memories associated with Vauxhall are derived from its far-famed gardens, which for nearly a century and a half were the resort of all the wit, rank, gallantry, and fashion of the land, and the site of which has been rendered classic ground by the genius of Addison, Fielding, Goldsmith, Horace Walpole, and Madame D'Arblay. The earliest notice which we find of Vauxhall Gardens as a place of public entertainment is in July, 1661, when Evelyn mentions his paying a visit to the "New Spring Garden at Lambeth," which he describes as a "pretty contrived plantation.” It obtained the name of the "New Spring Garden," in contradistinction to the old Spring Garden situated at the east end of St. James's Park. In Pepys' " Diary" occur the following interesting notices of Vauxhall, or, as it was then styled, Fox-hall.

"20 June, 1665. By water to Fox-hall, and there walked an hour alone, observing the several humours of the citizens that were this holyday pulling off cherries, and God knows what."

"28 May, 1667. By water to Fox-hall, and there walked in Spring Garden. A great deal of company, and the weather and garden pleasant; and it is very pleasant and

cheap going thither, for a man may go to spend what he will, or nothing, all as one. But to hear the nightingale and other birds; and here fiddles and there a harp, and here a Jew's trump, and here laughing, and there fine people walking, is mighty divertising."

"30 May, 1668. To Fox-hall, and there fell into the company of Harry Killigrew, a rogue newly come out of France, but still in disgrace at our Court, and young Newport, and others, as very rogues as any in the town, who were ready to take hold of every woman that came by them. And so to supper in an arbour: but Lord! their mad talk did make my heart ache."

"1 June, 1668. Alone to Fox-hall, and walked and saw young Newport, and two more rogues of the town, seize on two ladies, who walked with them an hour with their masks on (perhaps civil ladies); and there I left them.”

"27 July, 1668. Over the water, with my wife and Deb and Mercer, to Spring Garden, and there eat and walked; and observe how rude some of the young gallants of the town are become, to go into people's arbours where there are not men, and almost force the women; which troubled me, to see the confidence of the vice of the age; and so we away by water with much pleasure home."

Who does not remember the charming paper in the "Spectator," dated the 20th of May, 1712 (No. 383), in which Addison describes his visit by water to the Spring Garden, as Vauxhall Gardens were still called, in company with Sir Roger de Coverley? "We were now arrived at Spring-garden," writes Addison, "which is excellently pleasant at this time of the year. When I considered the fragrancy of the walks and bowers, with the choirs of birds that sung upon the trees, and the loose tribe of people that walked under their shades, I could not but look upon the

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place as a kind of Mahometan paradise. Sir Roger told me it put him in mind of a little coppice by his house in the country, which his chaplain used to call an aviary of nightingales. You must understand,' says the Knight, there is nothing in the world that pleases a man in love so much as your nightingale. Ah! Mr. Spectator, the many moonlight nights that I have walked by myself, and thought on the widow by the music of the nightingale!' He here fetched a deep sigh, and was falling into a fit of musing, when a mask, who came behind him, gave him a gentle tap upon the shoulder, and asked him if he would drink a bottle of mead with her? But the Knight, being startled at so unexpected a familiarity, and displeased to be interrupted in his thoughts of the widow, told her she was a wanton baggage; and bid her go about her business. We concluded our walk with a glass of Burton ale and a slice of hung beef. When we had done eating ourselves, the Knight called a waiter to him, and bade him carry the remainder to the waterman that had but one leg. I perceived the fellow stared upon him at the oddness of the message, and was going to be saucy; upon which I ratified the Knight's command with a peremptory look. As we were going out of the garden, my old friend thinking himself obliged, as a member of the quorum, to animadvert upon the morals of the place, told the mistress of the house, who was at the bar, that he should be a better customer to her garden if there were more nightingales and fewer strumpets."

This allusion to the nightingales at Vauxhall sounds strange to modern ears, but other evidence exists of their having sung here so late as the reign of Queen Anne. For instance, on the 17th of May, 1711, Swift writes to

Stella:-"I was this evening with Lady Kerry and Mrs. Pratt at Vauxhall, to hear the nightingales, but they are almost past singing."