Hic alta theatris Fundamenta locant.--Virgil, Aen. 1.

Previous to the year , the tract of ground which we are about to traverse, and indeed as far north and north-west as the parish of St. Mary lebone,was a vast extent of fields. There were no houses, excepting or in the immediate neighbourhood of what is now called Pall

St. James's Fields.

Pickadilly,

History of the Rebellion,

a fair house for entertainment and gaming,

Old London

a parcel of ground lying at Pickadilly,

in consequence of Sir Christopher Wren's favourable report, he obtained leave to erect houses in

Windmill Street

, on the east corner towards the

Haymarket

, and also in the

two

bowling-greens between the

Haymarket

and Leicester Fields.

In the reign of Charles II., mention is made of the Hay Market and Hedge Lane; but they were at that time literally lanes, bounded by hedges. In Faithorne's plan of London, published in , no traces of houses are to be found in the north, except a single , called the Gaming House, at the end next to . In the upper part of this district, on the north side of , and on the site now partly covered by the Criterion Restaurant and Theatre and Lower , a market was established in . Malcolm tells that the market for all sorts of provisions was proclaimed

to be kept in St. James's Fields on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays; and for all kinds of cattle in the Hay Market, in the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

Trivia,

At the

Mitre Tavern,

In the house which stood at the corner of , in , at the shop of a linendraper named Wheeler, lived Hannah Lightfoot, the early flame of King George III., and indeed, if report may be credited, privately married to him. The fair Quakeress--for such was Hannah--is said to have contracted her marriage with royalty in , in Kew Church. She afterwards married a Mr. Axford, and died in obscurity.

The story of Hannah Lightfoot was thoroughly sifted and discussed in the pages of , the conclusion arrived at leaving little or no doubt as to the legality of her union with the young Prince.

The

Hoop and Bunch of Grapes,

was the sign of a public-house in

St. Albans Street

(now part of

Waterloo Place

), kept, at the beginning of the present century, by the famous Matthew Skeggs, who obtained his renown from playing, in the character of Signor Bombasto, a concerto on a broomstick at the

Haymarket Theatre

, adjoining. His portrait was painted by King, a friend of Hogarth, engraved by Houston, and published by Skeggs himself.

About the year , some low and mean houses that stood between the market and were demolished, and these were soon afterwards followed by the market itself, in order to form the broad and spacious thoroughfares of Lower and . At the upper or northern end of Lower a junction is formed right and left with . In that part of lying to the east is the

Criterion

The

Criterion

The

Criterion

White Bear,

History of Sign-boards,

A few doors to the eastward of the

Criterion

The

Piccadilly

Saloon,

On the eastern side of Lower is a large building, which till recently bore the name of the

Gallery of Illustration.

drawing-room entertainments.

Pall Mall

.

[extra_illustrations.4.208.3] , or, as it is often called, Waterloo Chapel, on the opposite side of the street, was built in from the designs of Mr. Repton. The tower is a reproduction of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, at Athens. The front is adorned with a portico, supported by Doric columns. The interior has the appearance of a public secular assembly-room rather than of a church, being nearly square, with a double gallery, supported below by heavy piers, and above by Corinthian columns of scagliola. The ceiling is formed of a double cove, and is lighted from above.

Crossing [extra_illustrations.4.208.4] , and extending from to the , is Here Burke was living in the year , when he received from a poor and friendless young man, named- George Crabbe, a letter asking for aid. Burke read the note, and at once responded; asked Crabbe to call on him; read, and admired his verses.

From that hour,

Crabbe was a made man. Burke not only relieved his more pressing necessities, but domesticated him in his own house, introduced him to a large circle of noble and literary friends, afforded him the inestimable advantage of his critical advice, and, having established his poetical reputation to the world, finally crowned the most ardent aspirations of his

protege

by getting him admitted into the Church.

Here, too, in , the [extra_illustrations.4.208.5] , then quite a young man, was living; and whilst residing here he exhibited some of his early busts.

The Junior United Service Club, of which we have already spoken in our chapter on

Clubland,

[extra_illustrations.4.209.5] , which we now enter, was, like , built from the designs of Mr. Nash. Some time after the death of the architect, the gave the following eulogium on his memory :--

Whether the stranger traverses the splendid line of

Regent Street, the Quadrant

, and

Portland Place

, until he reaches the Regent's Park-beautifully disposed, and laid out in walks and groves, ornamented with sheets of water, dotted with elegant villas, and encircled by rows of houses of noble elevation, from classic architectural designs --or takes his way from

Waterloo Place

towards

Somerset House

, and sees before him streets, and places, and arcades, occupying the sites of the filthiest courts imaginable, and finds himself in front of the splendid parish church of St. Martinin-the-Fields-able to admire its beauties, because cleared away from the wretched dwellings by which it was surrounded-we think his

first

inquiry will be--to whose taste genius, and enterprise, are these improvements owing? He will be answered by being told that they are all attributable to the genius, energy, and talent of Mr. Nash, to abuse and ridicule whom was the fashion of the time in which he lived. This is the best answer to the senseless cry raised against him by those whose enmity arose from their jealousy of the estimation in which he was held by the munificent monarch in whose regency and reign these wonderful changes in this part of the metropolis were effected. Mr. Nash is in his grave; and, standing in the midst of the vast alterations for which we are indebted to him, we feel inclined to say, in the words of Wren's epitaph,

Si monumentum requiris, circumspice

.

On the eastern side was, in , and for some time afterwards, Mr. Catlin's American Indian Collection, of the most interesting and successful of the many exhibitions that have been opened in London.

In the centre of , facing the [extra_illustrations.4.209.7] , stands the [extra_illustrations.4.209.8] , which was erected from the designs of Mr. John Bell. It consists of a massive granite pedestal, the front of which, some feet from the ground, is occupied by bronze figures, representing a Grenadier, a Fusilier, and of the [extra_illustrations.4.209.9] ,

in their full marching costume, as they fought at Inkerman.

Crimea.

Alma,

Inkerman,

Sebastopol;

To the memory of

2,162

officers and men of the Brigade of Guards who fell during the war with Russia,

1854

,

1855

,

1856

.

Honour to the brave.

Eastward of stands Her Majesty's Theatre, or, as it is generally called, the Opera House. The building occupies a vast space of ground, with its eastern side in the , and extends north and south from to .

The species of dramatic performance which we now style an opera, in which the various emotions incidental to the action of the piece are interpreted by the aid of music, vocal and instrumental, is supposed to have originated with the Chinese. Their dramas, almost interminable (a single representation of being an affair of many nights, and sometimes even of weeks), instead of being declaimed in the natural voice, have been, from time immemorial, delivered in a carefully intoned recitative, mingled with songs. The work of this description produced in Europe was , composed by an Italian artist, Francisco Barbarini, and performed in Rome in . England was at that period by no means a musical nation ; and it was not until about the commencement of the eighteenth century that, as Colley Cibber writes,

the Italian opera began

first

to steal into England, but in as rude a disguise as possible, in a lame hobbling translation, with metre out of measure to its original notes, sung by our own unskilful voices, with graces misapplied to almost every sentiment and action.

In a subscription was started by Sir John Vanbrugh to build a theatre for this special purpose, and was raised in shares of from each of persons, who, in addition to their interest in the building, were to have an admission ticket for life to all public entertainments given therein. The foundation-stone was inscribed with the words,

Little Whig,

triumph,

The King's.

In , says Hughson, the Grand Jury of Middlesex

presented

particularly the contriver and carrier on of masquerades at the King's Theatre in the Hay Market, in order to be punished according to law.

It appears that this species of entertainment has never been truly popular in England. The masquerade given in London upon the foreign plan, uniting, after the Venetian fashion, elegance with rude mirth and revelry, was given by Henrietta, the queen of Charles I.; but, as it was unfortunately fixed for a Sunday, the populace in front of the Banqueting House, , loudly complained of the profanation of the Lord's Day. A scuffle ensued between the soldiers and the people, ii which half a dozen of the latter and or of the former were killed.

The most splendid masquerade ever known in England, as we learn from Colburn's

Kalendar of Amusements,

In the Bishop of London preached a sermon against masquerades, which made such an impression, that orders were issued for their discontinuance. After the lapse of some years they were again introduced. Some excellent reasons for the renewal of the prohibited amusement appeared in the , . We have already spoken of masquerades in our account of Mrs. Cornelys' house in .

The oratorio ever performed in England was Handel's , which was produced at this theatre in , and followed, later in the same year, by his . The opera must, by this time, have made vast strides in the estimation of the public, as in the year we find the famous Farinelli-at whom the newspapers of the day directed many a pointed sarcasm-receiving for the season a salary of , as well as a free benefit, which realised an additional profit of . Such, however, is the uncertain tenure of the public favour, that scarcely years later Farinelli had the mortification of singing to a house containing but .

Horace Walpole, in a letter written in , gives a piquant criticism upon Vaneschi's opera of

It is,

in what they call the French manner, but about as like it as my Lady Pomfret's hash of plural persons and singular verbs was to Italian. They sing to jigs, and dance to church-music.

Phaeton

is run away with by horses that go a foot's pace, like the

Electress's

coach, with such long traces, that the postilion was in

one

street and the coachman in another. Then comes

Jupiter

with a farthing candle, to light a squib and a half; and that they call fireworks.

Reginello,

the

first

man, is so old and so tall, that he seems to have been growing ever since the invention of operas. The

first

woman has had her mouth let out to show a fine set of teeth, but it lets out too much bad voice at the same time. Lord Middlesex, for his great prudence in having provided such very tractable steeds to

Prince Phaeton's

car, is going to be Master of the Horse to the Prince of Wales; and, for his excellent economy in never paying the performers, is likely to continue in the Treasury.

In the year the usual fate of theatres befell the Opera House, which was burnt to the ground on the night of the . The fire was supposed to have been the work of an

Historical and Literary Antiquities.

of red brick, rusticated with good gauged work.

Ridant's Fencing Academy,

The stone of [extra_illustrations.4.212.4] , the entrance to which is shown on page , was laid in , by the Earl of Buckinghamshire, the architect being Michael Novosielski. The new theatre commenced its career under weighty liabilities, for which it was by no means fairly responsible, and of which there will be occasion to speak more in detail in our history of the Pantheon. Chancery or the Insolvent Court generally terminated the career of its half-dozen managers, as, in addition to its hopeless load of debt, the current expenses were so enormous as to swallow up all the receipts.

The great English tenor, John Braham--as mentioned in our notice of the St. James's Theatremade his here in , and rose at step to the height of public favour. The year was distinguished by great events in the history of this theatre--the introduction of Mozart's music, never before performed in England, and the of Madame Catalani. This marvellous singer, the versatility of whose talents rendered her equally admirable in a tragic or comic , received the sum of for the season of , her benefit and the various concerts which she gave amounting to more.

Catalani is pronounced by Captain Gronow, who well recollected her, the greatest vocalist that he ever heard. He writes:

In her youth she was the finest singer in Europe, and she was much sought after by all the great people during her

sejour

in London. She was extremely handsome, and was considered a model as wife and mother. Catalani was very fond of money, and would never sing unless paid beforehand. She was asked, with her husband, to pass some time at Stowe, where a numerous but select party had been invited; and Madame Catalani, being asked to sing soon after dinner, willingly complied. When the day of her departure came, her husband placed in the hands of the Marquis of Buckingham the following little billet-

For seventeen songs, seventeen hundred pounds.

This large sum was paid at once without hesitation, proving that Lord Buckingham was a refined gentleman in every sense of the word.

I visited Catalani in town,

and always found her the same elegant and amiable creature, with the same sweet simple smile and modest manners. She stood unrivalled in her profession. As an actress she was by no means remarkable; yet she looked so attractive on the boards, that the audience forgave any little fault of action. And then her voice was transcendent. She sang in a private room more charmingly than in the theatre. I had known her previously. Of all the females attached to the opera, before or since, that I have seen, she pleased me most. She was a kind generous creature, without a particle of pretension, an excellent mother, and exemplary wife, wedded to a narrow-minded man, who sometimes got her an ill name from his avarice. He managed all her money transactions, and used to call her ma poule d'or. I hear her now singing God save the King, with her heavenly voice and pretty foreign accent, set off by a person, one of the sweetest on the stage I ever saw. For mind she was not remarkable; I never met with a singer of either sex that was so. There was an openness and candour about her quite charming. Monsieur Redaing, I speak no language propre. I speak one Babylonish tongue. I speak not my own tongue, nor French, nor your tongue propre.

Her husband, before Junot entered Lisbon, used to blaze away in the pit of the opera in a dashing French uniform, speculating upon his future poule d'or, which to him she afterwards most fully proved. He was rarely invited with his wife to the houses of people of consideration. A person I knew, half a Roman, said one day to Catalani, My dear half-countrywoman, how did you come to marry Valabreque? -- I will tell you. I was at Lisbon; the Portuguese are fond of music. Great men, princes, and counts talk to me of love, and a number of fine things, but none of them talk of marrying. M. Valabreque talked of marriage--I marry M. Valabreque.

Captain Gronow writes thus in his

Anecdotes and Reminiscences:

When George IV. was Regent, this theatre was conducted on a very different system from that which now prevails. Some years previous to the period to which I refer, no

one

could obtain a box, or a ticket for the pit, without a voucher from

one

of the lady patronesses, who, in

1805

, were the Duchesses of Marlborough, Devonshire, and Bedford, Lady Carlisle, and some others. In their day, after the singing and ballet were over, the company used to retire into the concert-room, where a ball took place, accompanied by refreshments and a supper. There all the rank and fashion of England were assembled, on a sort of neutral ground. At a later period the management of the Opera House fell into the hands of Mr. Waters, when it became less difficult to obtain admittance; but the strictest etiquette was still kept up as regarded the dress of the gentlemen, who were only admitted with knee-buckles, ruffles, and

chapeau-bras

. If there happened to be a drawing-room, the ladies would appear in their court dresses as well as the gentlemen; and on all occasions the audience of Her Majesty's Theatre was stamped with aristocratic elegance. In the boxes of the

first

tier might have been seen the daughters of the Duchess of Argyle,

four

of England's beauties; in the next box were the equally lovely Marchioness of Stafford and her daughter, Lady Elizabeth Gower, now the Duchess of Norfolk; not less remarkable were Lady Harrowby and her daughters, Lady Susan and Lady Mary Ryder. The peculiar type of female beauty which these ladies so attractively exemplified is such as can be met with only in the British isles; the full round, soul-inspired eye of Italy, and the dark hair of the sunny South, often combined with that exquisitely pearly complexion which seems to be concomitant with humidity and fog. You could scarcely gaze upon the peculiar beauty to which I refer without being as much charmed with its kindly expression as with its physical loveliness.

The theatre was reconstructed, in , by Messrs. Nash and Repton, with great improvements. The interior was the in England to be modelled in the horse-shoe shape, so favourable both for sight and sound. The dimensions were within a few feet of those of the Grand Opera House at Milan. The length from the front of the curtain to the back of the boxes was feet; the extreme width, feet; the stage measured feet in length and in width. The edifice was of brick and Bath stone, with a bas-relief on the front representing Apollo and the Muses. It was in this year that the music of Rossini was presented to the English public.

A French nobleman remarks, in a letter to an English friend, in -

I must acknowledge that the whole universe does not offer a more splendid

coup d'oeil

than that which is presented by the Italian Opera in London on a Saturday night. The beauty of the theatre, the richness of the decorations, the loveliness of the women, the variety and brilliancy of their dresses and jewels, the blaze of light, the number of distinguished characters who are often found in the ranks of the audience, the general appearance of wealth and prosperity, and the total absence of all features of an opposite kind, form altogether such a picture of gaiety and magnificence as is indeed unrivalled.

From to the history of the King's Theatre is that of a series of triumphs. Pasta, Veluti (the wonderful male soprano), Sontag, Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, and Mario successively appeared upon the stage; the last named, who were all in their zenith about the same time, forming a brilliant constellation of talent unequalled before or since.

In the name of the theatre was changed to

Her Majesty's,

Omnibus

Off, off!

Tamburini!

Laporte!

Victory.

This battle royal is handed down to posterity in the

Ingoldsby Legends,

A Row in an Omnibus (Box):

Dol-drum, the manager, sits in his chair, With a gloomy brow and dissatisfied air; And he says, as he slaps his hand on his knee, I'll have nothing to do with Fiddle-de-dee. Though Fiddle-de-dee sings loud and clear, And his tones are sweet, yet his terms are dear. The glove won't fit! The deuce a bit-- I shall give an engagement to Fal-de-ral-tit!

The prompter bow'd, and he went to his stall; And the green baize rose at the prompter's call And Fal-de-ral-tit sang fol-de-rol-lol; But scarce had he done, When a row begun; Such a noise was never heard under the sun. Fiddle-de-dee, Where is he? He's the artiste whom we all want to see. Dol-drum! Dol-drum! Bid the manager come! It's a scandalous thing to exact such a sum From boxes and gallery, stalls and pit, And then fob us off with Fal-de-ral-tit!

Smooth'd his brow, As he well knew how; And he walk'd on, and made a most elegant bow; And he paused, and he smiled, and advanced to the In his opera hat, and his opera tights. [lights, Ladies and gentlemen, then said he, Pray what may you please to want with me? Fiddle-de-dee! Fiddle-de-dee!

Folks of all sorts, and of every degree, Snob, and snip, and haughty grandee, Duchesses, countesses, fresh from their tea, And shopmen who had only come there for a spree, Halloo'd, and hooted, and roared with glee- Fiddle-de-dee, None but he! Subscribe to his terms, whatever they be! Agree, agree, or you'll very soon see, In a brace of shakes, we'll get up an O. P.!

M. Laporte, who must have had rather a hard time of it among his imperious , resigned his uneasy throne in , and was succeeded by Mr. Lumley, who had long been his colleague.

The year was an eventful for Her Majesty's Theatre, which had been for more than half a century the only temple of Italian opera in London. Then took place the secession of Grisi, Mario, Persiani, and Tamburini, with the mighty Costa, to the new Opera in Covent Garden; then began the struggle to solve the problem whether Italian Opera Houses could be made to pay in London--a vexed question, which seems hardly settled even yet. The same year () witnessed also the appearance of Jenny Lind, who had been persuaded to break her engagement with Mr. Bunn, the lessee of , in favour of Mr. Lumley.

No words can describe the excited by this far-famed lady from the night of her until the time when she finally quitted the stage. As much as was frequently paid for a stall on a

Jenny Lind night.

Reminiscences:

The newspapers teemed with descriptions of wild scenes of

crushing, crowding, and squeezing; of ladies fainting in the pressure, and even of gentlemen carried out senseless; of torn dresses, and evening coats reduced to rags.

Alice,

In the chief stars of the Italian opera at Her Majesty's were native artists, Mr. Sims Reeves and Miss Catherine Hayes. An attempt was made in the same year to produce a sensation through the introduction of the . The lady bearing this pretentious title was Donna Maria Martinez, a negress, who appeared in a called , in which she sang quaint Spanish melodies, accompanying herself on the guitar.

Her songs,

were full of original charm, her execution excellent, her voice sweet, pure, and true; but the whole performance was small almost to meagreness, and, although it might well be regarded as a piquant musical curiosity, it failed in any real power of attraction.

Norma,

Lucrezia Borgia,

Semiramide,

Valentina

The year produced another

great

sensation

Once more frantic crowds struggled in the lobbies of the theatre; once more dresses were torn and hats crushed in the conflict. In what lay the charm of this new fascinator of all hearts? It would be difficult to tell, although this much is undeniable, that she exercised an almost magical power over the masses. The statistics of a

treasury

are indisputable facts. Her voice was a high and pure soprano, with all the attraction of youth and freshness, not wide in range, sweet rather than powerful, and not gifted with any perfection of flexibility. Her vocalisation was far from being distinguished by its correctness or excellence of school; to musicians she appeared a clever amateur, but never a really great artist.

Mdlle. Piccolomini sings with infinite charm, but is not a

cantatrice.

She acts with talent, but is not an actress. She is a problem--an enigma!

Mdlle. Christine Nilsson appeared in with great success; perhaps the only who has ever succeeded in realising to the full the poet's exquisite conception of

Marguerite,

King's Theatre,

Lord Dudley having decided upon rebuilding the theatre without loss of time, the site was cleared early in , and the works were commenced at midsummer. The architect was Mr. Charles Lee, and the contractors Messrs. George Trollope and Sons, who undertook, to complete their task in weeks, under a penalty of for every following week in case of failure. This promise was so strictly fulfilled, that before the end of , the new theatre, complete at all points, at a cost of about , was in a condition to open its doors to the public. The old edifice having been considered deficient in stage accommodation, care had been taken in the present case to increase the size of the stage, which had been effected, as it was stated, without materially lessening the area of the auditorium. There are tiers of boxes in front of the stage, and tiers on either side; the space above the tier in front being occupied by amphitheatre stalls, with a spacious amphitheatre behind them. As in the case of , the partitions between the boxes are constructed in such a manner as to be easily removed, so as to form the ordinary dress circle of a theatre, if required. Every possible precaution has been adopted to reduce the risk by fire, throughout the whole of the building, to a minimum. It is calculated that the new theatre will accommodate about for operatic, and for dramatic performances. So much stress had been laid upon the completion of the new edifice by the contractors before the commencement of the opera season of , that both the public and the press were daily speculating upon the probable date of the opening night; when the of the , published a notice from the

Directors

revival

Even the Italian Opera House has had its

ups and downs

The opera, on its

first

introduction into England,

divided the wits, literati, and musicians of the age. By those esteemed the best judges, the English language was thought too rough and inharmonious for the music of the opera; and by men of common sense a drama in a foreign and unknown tongue was considered very absurd. However, Addison, who opposed the Italian opera on the London stage, wrote the English of

Rosamond

, which seemed an attempt to reconcile the discordant opinions. But this, though a beautiful poem, is said by Dr. Burney to have shown Addison's total ignorance of the

first

principles of music.

[extra_illustrations.4.207.1] Improvements to Criterion Theatre

[extra_illustrations.4.208.1] Regent Street--Tallis

[extra_illustrations.4.208.2] Regent Street--West Side

[extra_illustrations.4.208.3] St. Philip's Chapel

[extra_illustrations.4.208.4] Regent Street

[extra_illustrations.4.208.5] sculptor Chantrey

[extra_illustrations.4.208.6] Regent's Circus

[extra_illustrations.4.209.1] Regent Street from Circus Piccadilly

[extra_illustrations.4.209.2] Regent Street from Quadrant

[extra_illustrations.4.209.3] Regent Street, East

[extra_illustrations.4.209.4] Regent Street, West

[extra_illustrations.4.209.5] Waterloo Place

[extra_illustrations.4.209.7] Duke of York's Column

[extra_illustrations.4.209.8] Guards' Memoial

[extra_illustrations.4.209.9] Coldstream Guards

[extra_illustrations.4.209.10] The Old Guard and The New

[extra_illustrations.4.212.1] Plan of Opera House

[extra_illustrations.4.212.2] Colonnade

[extra_illustrations.4.212.3] Leaving the Opera

[extra_illustrations.4.212.4] the succeeding structure