COVENT-GARDEN MARKET.
The ground on which this market stands belonged to the Abbots of Westminster, and was called Convent Garden. On the destruction of the monasteries it was given to the Duke of Somerset; and, after his misfortunes, was granted to the Earl of Bedford, in 1552, who let it for building, and Inigo Jones designed the piazza, a portion of which occupies the north and part of the east sides. The origin of the market was casual. Persons came here, and stood in the centre of the square, until it grew to the establishment of a market, which consisted of rough sheds until about 1830, when the present market was built by the Duke of Bedford. One part is devoted to vegetables, and others to fruits, flowers, and plants.
THE COSTARD-MONGER
(so called from an apple of that name) is an itinerant vendor of garden stuff. He mostly transports his vegetable wares in a cart drawn by a donkey. His cry varies with the seasons and their produce: at one time we have “Cabbage plants,” “New potatoes,” or “Asparagus;” at another, “Fine young peas, fresh gathered,” “Ripe rhubarb,” “Baking or boiling apples:” he is now calling “Gooseberries! fourpence an ale-house quart, gooseberries!” In the background is a seller of
HEARTHSTONES AND FLANDERS BRICK.
Punch’s opera is proceeding along Bow Street with dog Toby in the rear, from whose petty stage we turn to one of the largest in the metropolis,
COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.
The former theatre was burnt down, Sept. 20, 1808, and the present one erected on its site, at a cost of £150,000, by R. Smirke, R.A., who has taken as his model the temple of Minerva at Athens, and the first stone was laid in September, 1809, by George IV., then Prince of Wales. It was built with great rapidity, having been completed in less than a year after the destruction of the former building. Along the front are basso-relievos representing the ancient and modern drama; and in niches at either end figures of Comedy and Tragedy, by Flaxman.
