"Here then was a difficulty which had never been thought of. The old Drury was pulled down, and the money for the new House was not to be advanced without the patent. What was to be done? There was much cavilling on both sides; and the dispute had the appearance of being drawn into Chancery, to compel Mr. White to sell. All this time Mr. Sheridan was paying 5l. per cent. interest for the first payment that had been advanced for the new building, which was laying idle; his present Theatre in the Haymarket was filling every night with new Proprietors' tickets; and he was paying a heavy ground-rent to the Duke of Bedford. This was a ruinous business,—and at length Mr. Sheridan concluded a bargain a few days since at the price of 20,000l. for the dormant patent. It is believed that had he employed his usual finesse in the management of this affair, as well as in the dear bargain he made for the Haymarket Theatre, he might have saved himself full 20,000l.; for he has been likewise
outwitted in the agreement he entered into with Mr. Taylor, which we shall speak of to-morrow.
"The new Drury, however, now proceeds; and Mr. Holland has declared he will have the Theatre covered in by the month of January next. The plan is extremely magnificent, and will afford the most ample accommodation. It is almost a square. A very grand piazzi will be built round three sides of it, over which will be setts of chambers. The Theatre will be insulated, as there are to be streets all round it. An opening is to be cut from Bridges-street into Drury-lane, through Vinegar-yard; and as the Theatre will extend to Drury-lane, there will be on one side Brydges-street, on the other Russell-street, the third Drury-lane, and on the fourth, the street through Vinegar-yard. Thus will there be avenues on all sides; and then can the Theatre be emptied of its company in the space of a quarter of an hour, a convenience which is much required.
"The money raised for this building is 150,000l. payable in three instalments.—60,000l. of this is to pay off the mortgagees on the old Theatre——80,000l. is allotted for the new building, and 10,000l. for contingent expences. The mode of raising this money is by an annuity of 100 years at 5 per cent. and a free admission for every
subscription of 500l. which already bears a premium of 5l. per cent."
The Theatre is completed; but the East and West ends remain in a state of ruin, which must be injurious to the walls and foundations. The sides are faced with stone, and ornamented with pediments; and an unfinished colonnade protects the audience from rain, while waiting for admission; or their carriages are drawn before the doors on retiring from the amusements of the evening. A description of the interior is in a great measure unnecessary, and would be difficult to comprehend: the shape is that of the lyre, as indeed are all our present Theatres, and the decorations appear very splendid, though they are nothing more than plain boards well painted in relief; in short, the silvered pillars, and the beams, and the outward walls, are the only substantial parts of the building; and yet the effect is wonderfully magnificent, and far superior to Covent-garden Theatre, which underwent great enlargements, but in my opinion no improvements, at least in effect, about the time Drury-lane was completed.
The ensuing particulars were given in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1794: "New Drury-lane Theatre contains in the pit 800 persons; whole range of boxes 1828; two shilling gallery 675; one shilling gallery 308; total 3611: amounting to 826l. 6s. There are eight private boxes on each
side of the pit; 29 all round the first tier, and eleven back front boxes; 29 all round the second tier, of which eleven are six seats deep; 10 on each side the gallery three tier; boxes in the cove nine each side. Diameter of the pit is 55 feet; opening of the curtain 43 feet wide; height of the curtain 38 feet; height of the house from the pit floor to the cieling 56 feet 6 inches."
The proprietors deserve every praise for the precautions they have taken to extinguish fire, by providing reservoirs of water in different parts of the building, and an iron curtain to drop between the audience and the stage. Whether those in the hurry of so dreadful a moment, would be of any real use, is a question which I sincerely hope will never be decided; I cannot, however, help observing that many large doors seem so obviously necessary in Theatres, that I dare not attempt to account for the diminutive size of the two through which the audience actually creep in the pit of Covent-garden Theatre. An alarm of fire in that house must end fatally, whether it spread, or was immediately extinguished[310:A].
The amusements of the present day are very confined: the two Theatres and the Opera for the winter, and the Haymarket for the summer, are