Musical Festival.
Once in three years, during the month of October, the vocal and instrumental performers of the first class are assembled here in greater numbers than any other part of the kingdom can boast. They are collected together at a prodigious expense, for the purpose of performing oratorios, three successive mornings, in the church of St. Philip. In the evening of each day, select concerts are performed in the theatre; and when those performances are closed, the company who are assembled, whilst they are under the same roof, are ushered into an elegant and well-furnished ball room, where they amuse themselves for the remainder of the evening; refreshments being provided upon the spot. These performances are conducted in such a superior style, that great numbers of the nobility and gentry who reside at a considerable distance, are induced to attend. The profits arising from these musical entertainments being appropriated to the benefit of the General Hospital, many of them contribute in a very liberal manner by donations to that institution. The last performances took place in October, 1817, when the committee of managers, after they had defrayed all incidental expences, paid to the treasurers of the general hospital the sum of £4296. 10s. 10d. the total receipts being £8476. 6s. 9d.
The next festival is intended to be celebrated in October, 1820.
There being two rooms of large dimensions, that are each of them fitted up in a style of elegance, as ball rooms, one at the hotel in Temple-row, and the other adjoining the theatre in New-street, there are during winter, subscription concerts and assemblies held at each of them.
Independant of these, private concerts are occasionally held at each of them; those at the hotel being of some years' establishment, the room, although eighty feet in length and thirty-three in breadth, is so completely occupied, that any person who is desirous of becoming a member must probably wait two or three years before they can obtain admission.
Panorama.
A pile of building was erected in New-street, for the purpose of exhibiting paintings of this description, which has lately been converted into an auction room.
Deritend House.
This stone-fronted mansion was erected in 1786, as a tavern, under the name of the Apollo, and in consequence of its bowling green, was for several years much frequented. It was afterwards divided into two private houses; but in 1816 being purchased by Wm. Hamper, Esq. that gentleman greatly improved the premises and again converted it into one dwelling, which he makes his residence, and which, from its extensive gardens and pleasant situation, is much admired.
Duddeston or Vauxhall,