[258] The fireworks in 1792 were by Rossi and Tessier, of Ranelagh. On 25 September, 1792, “by particular desire, the Battle of the Fiery Dragons, and the line comet to come from the Rock of Gibraltar and cause the Dragons to engage.”
[259] This entertainment was probably first introduced in 1786, in which year (2 September) the Public Advertiser announces “the representation of the storming of a fort which with the fortifications cover (sic) 3 acres of ground, the rock being fifty feet high and 200 feet long.” From about 1789 to 1792 it was advertised as a representation of the Siege of Gibraltar. The writer of A Modern Sabbath (1797) gives further details. “On the north-east side of the gardens is a very fine lawn consisting of about three acres, and in a field parted from this lawn by a sunk fence is a building with turrets, resembling a fortress or castle.” At each side of this fortress at unequal distances were two buildings, from which on public nights bombshells, &c., were thrown. The fire was returned and the whole exhibited the “picturesque prospect of a siege.”
[260] Gent. Mag. 1800, pt. i. p. 284. Keyse’s house was a large wooden-fronted building, consisting of square divisions in imitation of scantlings of stone (J. T. Smith). The entrance to the Gardens was next to the house, beneath a semi-circular awning.
[261] Hughson’s London, vol. v. (1808), p. 60. The Picture of London for 1802 mentions in the “Almanack of Pleasures” under July 17, “A silver cup run for at Spa Gardens, Bermondsey, by gentlemen’s ponies.”
[262] Blanchard in Era Almanack, 1870, p. 18 (followed by Walford). Brayley and Mantell (Surrey, iii. 200, 201) say the Gardens were closed about 1805. Lambert in his London (iv. 140) published in 1806, speaks of the Spa as still open, but the passage may have been written a year or more before the date of publication.
[263] Picture of London, eds. 1802, 1829; Tallis’s Illustrated London, ed. Gaspey.
[264] In the Era Almanack, 1871, p. 6, it is stated that the gardens “disappeared in 1869.” Walford, vi. 138, says they ceased to exist in 1881.
[265] “The principal site of Finch’s Grotto Gardens appears to have been a triangular piece of ground forming the western side of St. George’s Street, Southwark, and bounded on the south by the road called Dirty Lane and on the north by a vinegar yard in Lombard Street, and the extremity of St. Saviour’s Parish.” Wilkinson, Londina. A way from Falcon Stairs through Bandy Leg Walk (now Guildford Street) led directly to the place, and Williams, Finch’s successor, made an entrance from St. George’s Fields. Those who came by water landed at Mason’s Stairs.
[266] Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer, act. ii.
[267] The Dukes of York and Gloucester, brothers of George III., are, however, said to have visited the gardens many times.