CHAPTER XXII.
ROUGH SPORTS.
Bear-baiting — Bear-gardens — Bull-baiting — Description — Extraordinary bull-bait — Cock-fighting — Cock-pits — Value of matches — Training [223]
CHAPTER XXIII.
HORSE-RACING, HUNTING, SHOOTING, ETC.
The Queen's love of racing — Visit to Newmarket — Queen's plates — Value of matches — Race meetings — Tregonwell Frampton — His horse Dragon — The Queen's love of hunting — Sir Roger de Coverley — Fox-hunting — Stag-hunting — Hare-hunting — Coursing — Packs of hounds — Fishing — Hawking — Netting — The Game Act — Shooting sitting and flying — Match shooting — Archery [228]
CHAPTER XXIV.
SWORD-PLAY AND OTHER SPORTS — GARDEN, ETC.
Challenges — The stakes — The combatants — Description of fights — General combativeness — Boxing — Cudgel-playing — Pedestrianism — Tennis — Cricket — Football — Skating — Billiards — Country wakes — Bowling — Bowling greens — Formal gardening — Clipping trees — Books on gardening — Trees and Flowers — Town and country life — Country labourers [237]
CHAPTER XXV.
THE DRAMA.
The theatres — Dorset Gardens — Its demolition — Performances — Lincoln's Inn Fields — Theatre Royal, Drury Lane — Its company — Mrs. Tofts — The Queen's Theatre, Haymarket — Its foundation stone — Its operas — Pinkethman's theatre at Greenwich — The Queen and the stage — Her reforms — Strolling players — Behaviour at the theatre — Orange wenches — Stage properties — Actors — Betterton — Verbruggen — Cave Underhill — Estcourt — Dogget — Colley Cibber — Wilks — Booth — Pinkethman — Minor Actors — Actresses — Mrs. Barry — Mrs. Bracegirdle — Mrs. Oldfield — Mrs. Verbruggen — The ballet [243]
CHAPTER XXVI.
OPERAS — CONCERTS — MUSIC.
Introduction of Italian opera — Its rapid popularity — Mixture of Languages — Handel — His operas, and visit here — Singers — Abel — Hughs — Leveridge — Lawrence — Ramondon — Mrs. Tofts — Her madness — Foreign singers — Margherita de l'Epine — Nicolino Grimaldi — Isabella Girardeau — Composers — Dr. Blow — Jeremiah Clarke — Dean Aldrich — Tom D'Urfey — Henry Carey — Britton, the small coal man — His concerts — His death — Concerts and concert rooms — Gasparini, the violinist — Musical instruments — Musical scores [268]