[277] Walpole’s Letters, ed. Cunningham, ii. 32, 24 June, 1746. Bad company was not unknown in the earlier days of the gardens: see Welsted’s Epistle on False Fame, 1732:—
“For Cupid’s Bowers she hires the willing scull ...
While here a ’prentice, there a captain bites.”
[278] The Complete Letter-writer, Edinburgh, 1773, quoted in Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 469.
[279] Twelve songs by Lewis Granom, as sung at Cuper’s Gardens by Miss Maria Bennett, published London, 24 November, 1752.
[280] The fireworks at Cuper’s in 1751 are described in the London Daily Advertiser for 10 September, 1751.
[281] ‘The Inspector,’ No. 448, in the London Daily Advertiser for 6 August, 1752. The details that follow are derived from the same journal for 4 August, 1752, where they are related of “one of the public gardens on the other side of the water.” Possibly Vauxhall is intended, but if not literally true of Cuper’s Gardens, they seem sufficiently applicable to them.
[282] Boswell, Life of Johnson, ed. Croker, chap. xli. p. 366.
[283] Nollekens, ii. 201.
[284] The Folly was occasionally moored off the Bank side (Wheatley, London Past and Present, “The Folly”).