XXXI. Sir Roger at Vauxhall
Motto. "Their gardens are maintained by vice."
—Juvenal, Satires, i. 75.
[205]: 9. Spring Garden. A famous garden and pleasure resort (more commonly called Fox Hall or Vauxhall Gardens), on the south side of the Thames, near where the Vauxhall bridge now spans the river. There was a large garden covering about eleven acres, with arbours, walks shaded by day and lighted at night by lamps festooned from the trees, a miniature lake, booths for the sale of refreshments, and a large central "rotunda" for music. First opened in 1661, Vauxhall was a favourite place of resort all through the eighteenth century; all the lighter literature of that century contains frequent references to it. The Gardens were not finally closed until 1859. For fuller account, see Besant's London in the Eighteenth Century, Chap. iv.
205: 19. Temple Stairs. A boat-landing near the Temple gardens. The most pleasant way of getting from the east of London to the west, in Addison's time, was by boat on the river.
[206]: 16. La Hogue. See note on Sir Cloudesley Shovel, p. 251.
206: 29. How thick the city was set with churches. The "city" is that part of London originally enclosed by a wall, and extends from the Tower on the east to Temple Bar on the west. Temple Bar was the gateway over that great thoroughfare which is called Fleet Street on the east side of it, and the Strand on the west side. The Bar was demolished in 1878, and its site is marked by a rather ugly monument surmounted by the arms of the city of London.
[207]: 4. The fifty new churches. The Tories had been brought into power in 1710 very largely by the popular cry, "The Church is in danger." (See note, p. 249.) Accordingly, one of the first acts of the House of Commons, in 1711, was to vote the building of fifty new churches in London.
[208]: 4. Mahometan paradise, because the chief attraction of the Mahometan heaven is the houris, "the black-eyed," whose beauty never grows old.
208: 28. Member of the quorum. A justice of the peace.