[75] See Wallis’s Plan, 1808.
[76] Thus the grounds must at that time have covered the space now occupied by Eden Street and Seaton (formerly Henry) Street.
[77] There may be some exaggeration in this description (based on Wilkinson), for in the Picture of London, 1802, p. 370, the Adam and Eve is enumerated among the tea-gardens frequented by the middle classes, and is described as somewhat similar to the Jew’s Harp, with a small organ in the room upstairs where tea, wine and punch are served.
[78] Walford, v. 305.
[79] Stow’s Survey, p. 7 (ed. Thoms).
[80] At a depth of four feet was a bottom of “lettice” work under which the water was five feet deep.
[81] Watts’s building operations do not appear to have been completed till about 1811 or later (cp. Hughson’s London, iv. (1811), p. 414).
[82] Peerless Pool is mentioned in The Picture of London, 1829 (p. 370), as one of the principal public baths of London. Cunningham, Handbook of London, 1850, speaks of it as a then existing public bath. Mr. Hyde Clark writing in Notes and Queries (7th Series, viii. 214, 215) for 14 September, 1889, says that “it continued to be used as a bath until comparatively late years.” I am informed that after the death of Joseph Watts, the Bath was carried on by his widow, Mrs. Watts, and by the sons, Thomas Watts of the British Museum and his brother. It seems to have been built over at some time between 1850 and 1860.
[83] The grounds originally extended on the north-east to a tavern called The Fountain, which was frequented by tea-parties:—
And there they sit so pleasant and cool,