The shows of London 9780674807310

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;wm ‘seMlese she se had inanher paid most liberally. It ap- - see Nace Derlife-time TECHN I in the number of London exhibitions of all- sorts at that

peared also she had erected a mausoleum, in which herhis demoment, Walpole certainly thought so, and testiceased husband was laid, and thatmony she1sprojected the depos- —not to be ignored, because he had a special in-

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rang her own remains, when death should overtake her, by , c for sl The lead ; the side of him. The plainuff was employed im fitting it up, stinct ane’ pene dant Tor shows. [he leading VirCUOso

* “Mammon” in the Times's ac- and ornamenung it with a tesselated pavement. This was also antiquarian of his time, he was as representative of its count of the case, 13 September paid for, and constituted no part of the present demand. This particular tastes as Sloane had been of those of the pre-

1802 action was brought against the defendant, her executor, to ceding generation. He began collecting in 1741, at the 24 The Shows of London

sale of the great library of the first and second Earls of administrators of the British Musecum.' Stall, his Oxford, Robert and Edward Harley, and six years Aceting connection with that institution at the molater he bought the lease of Strawberry Hill from the ment of its birth qualifies him as the firmest symbolic proprictress of a toy and trifle shop in Pall Mall: ‘‘a link between the well-established world of the little play-thing house that I got out of Mrs. Chen- eighteenth-century collector and the nascent one of the evix’s shop,” he told his cousin Henry Conway, “‘and public muscum. He wrote to Mann on 14 February is the prettiest bauble you ever saw.’"* Once he was 1753: firmly in possession, he transformed the plaything house into a “compact little Gothic villa” and then, by You will scarce guess how [employ my time; chiefly a successive additions over the next twenty years, more present in the guardianship of embryos and cockleshells Sir

> Hans Sloane 1s dead, and has made me one of the trustees to than doubled its size with an Armory, Chapel, his museum, which 1s to be offered for twenty thousand Cloister, Gallery, Great Parlour, Holbein Chamber, pounds to the King, the Parliament, the royal academies of Library, and Round Tower. Strawberry Hill was a Petersburg, Berl, Panis and Madnd. He valued it at fourshowplace in two distinct senses: by virtue of its score thousand, and so would anybody who loves hippopotarchitecture and decoration—an_ eighteenth-century amuses, sharks with one car, and spiders as big as geese! It is Gothick mansion in a confusion of styles—and by arent charge to keep the foetuses in spirits! You may believe virtue of its contents, which made it a combination art that those, who think money the most valuable of all curiosgallery and museum. Indced, as Walpole expanded it, ities, will not be purchasers. The King has excused himself, it became the first purpose-built exhibition structure in saying he did not believe that there are twenty thousand

the London area. pounds in the treasury We are a charming wise set, all phiWalpole, child of his age that he was, was a compul- losophers, botamsts, antiquarians and mathematicians; and , , a adjourned our first meeting, because Lord Macclesfield, our

sive collector.” Despite his repeated protestations that chairman, was engaged to a party for finding out the longi-

he lacked both of the collector’s requisites, money and tude." : ,

space, he kept on buying to the end of his life—antiquarian relics, paintings, sculpture, armor, down to the Although the royal treasury was bare, Parliament was ordinary truck of curio shops such as he brought home persuaded to allow a lottery to finance the purchase of

from Mrs. Kennon’s sale—oddments that would not the Sloane Collection. Of the £300,000 to be raised, have been out of place at Don Saltero’s a mile or two £200,000 was reserved for prizes. The rest was to buy down the Thames. Inescapably, as the national custom not only the Sloane collection but the Harleian collec-

of visiting stately homes began to take root, this tion of books and manuscripts and a building to house ever-growing and much spoken of museum-mansion these, as well as the antiquarian collection of Sir Robert also attracted sightseers, and Walpole, the first of many Cotton, which his grandson had bequeathed to the nasinularly situated house-owncers to do so, printed a full tion in 1700. Despite a fair amount of chicanery—a catalogue, from which he extracted a shortened ver- swindler named Peter Leheup sold black market tcksion for the use of servants who acted as guides. As ets with great advantage to himself—the scheme sucStrawberry Hill’s fame spread, Walpole’s initial pleas- ceeded. Once the money was in hand, it was decided to

ure turned to something like panic; parties of sight- purchase Montagu House in Bloomsbury, the propscers began to overrun the place. He therefore was erty of the Earl of Halifax. This clegant mansion, built forced to draw up a set of rules to govern his tourist at- late in the seventeenth century in imitation of a Paritraction: tickets to be applied for a day or two in ad- sian hotel, was itself.a showplace, but its unsuitability vance, only one party per day and each to be limited to for exhibition purposes illustrated the fateful contemfour persons (no children), limited hours of opening. porary fallacy—one that would shadow the history of Sometimes, when he felt like it, he took visitors museums and libraries well into the twenticth centhrough the house himself. His experience was that of tury—that in respect to architecture, arrangement, and every such proprictor; m= general, things worked décor such public institutions could not do better than smoothly, but sometimes there was trouble, as with a to be replicas of palaces and private mansions. Mr. Perkins who was “‘very rude, abused James, gave Opened in January 1759, the refurbished Montagu Margaret nothing, because his servant had been made House retained its palatial air, with a forecourt, a

to wait while I was at dinner.” garden behind, and a quadrangular court with a colon-

Walpole’s muscological experience caine too late for nade of Ionic columns. It had parquetry floors, and its him to have been of any practical assistance to the first ceilings bore allegorical paintings executed by HugucFrom Cabinets to Museums, IH: 1750-1800 25

not artists. One entered by way of a cupola-topped them and promote mischiefs that are to be more easily sup-

hall, which in the ensuing decades would become pressed than . . . prevented... No persons of superior congested with “oriental idols, marble busts, ele- degree will care to come on such days . . . a great conphants and sponges; polar bears, portraits, fossils, and course of ordinary people will never be kept inorder. . . If meteorites . . . and several stuffed giraffes.” The public days should be allowed, then it will be necessary for

oe , . . the Trustees to have the presence of a Committee of them-

upstairs was attending, “furnished with a curious selection Ives attend; h at Peace le ~ yn... ; ; ; ;saloon - selves with at Ieast two Justices of the and

of miscellancous objects . 7 including the first of the the constables of the division of Bloomsbury . . . supported Musecum’s famous collection of mummies, various by a guard such a one as usually attends at the Play-House, specimens of coral, a vulture’s head in spirits, and the and even after all this, Accidents must and will happen." stuffed flamingo.” In the remaining rooms there was

more semblance of system, although the display space In response to such fears as these, the world’s first immediately became overcrowded. In six rooms on “public” museum instituted rules that effectively frusthe cast side of the main floor were the manuscripts, trated its stated purpose. Tickets of admission were remedals, and coins; in the corresponding apartments on quired. Onc had to appear at the door in person and rethe west side were the “‘natural and artificial produc- quest the porter to write one’s name, social rank, and

tions” comprising the Sloane collection; and on the address in his book. The application then went ground floor, the Sloane books and the bulk of the through channels at a leisurely rate, and some days, King’s Library, given by George If in 1757." wecks, or months later one could call back and get the This was the first muscum in Europe to be explicitly ticket. In 1776 persons who applied for tickets in April

open to the people. According to the act of incorpo- were still waiting for them in August. As a conseration, it was intended “‘not only for the inspection and quence, scalpers appeared who sold the tickets they entertainment of the learned and the curious, but for had had the patience to obtain to visitors who could the general use and benefit of the public.”” Nowhere on not wait. The list of closed days was formidable: Satthe continent was any such provision made, although urdays and Sundays; the wecks following Christmas, the great collections in Paris, Milan, Madrid, and else- Easter, and Whitsunday (the very times when ordinary where were sometimes accessible under certain condi- people were most likely to have Icisure); Good Friday tions. In France one of the goals of the Enlightenment and all other feast and fast days appointed by public was to give all people continuous access to the royal authority. On such days as remained, the building was collections, but this was to be achieved only when the open between 9 A.M. and 3 P.M., except that on revolutionary government threw open the Louvre. Mondays and Fridays between May and August it was The principle of the national museum therefore was, open only from 4 to 8 P.M. somewhat surprisingly, established in England fully Not surprisingly, therefore, in its first years no more forty years before it was in France. But the reality was than sixty visitors a day visited the British Muscum.

another matter. From the beginning, the British But even so, the officials complained that guiding Muscum trustees, a deeply conservative body drawn tours took up most of their time. The fatigue of four from the ranks of ecclesiastics and “persons of rank hours’ attendance on visitors, they claimed, prevented

and fortune,” maintained that the museum’s over- their using to advantage the two hours left for their riding obligation was to promote “Science and the other duties. But they could not avoid giving tours, Arts,’ not to cater to “‘the curiosity of . . . multi- because tours were the only means of seeing the musetudes . . . in quest of amusement.’’!* Even before the um, free browsing among the exhibits was forbidden. museum opened, one of the trustees, Dr. John Ward, There was considerable question whether, under antiquarian and professor of rhetoric at Gresham Col- such conditions, looking in at the British Muscum was

lege, declared that worth the bother. The officials seem to have made , , reasonably clearpeople to visitors thatandthey were; .unwela general liberty to ordinary of all ranks denomu: Ly. nations, 1§ not to be [1.¢., cannot be] kept within bounds. come intruders. The visitors, for their part, disliked

Many irregularities will be committed that cannot be pre- the guides as—in the words of a German vented by a few librarians who will soon be insulted by such clergyman—‘‘venal praters who ten times a day repeat people, if they offer to control or contradict them. . . . If the same dull lesson they have got by heart.’"'® Other any such people are in liquor and misbehave, they are rarely guides seem not to have talked at all. In 1784 a substan-

without their accomplices . . . who out of an Idle vanity tial citizen from Birmingham, William Hutton, fulin exerting what they will call their hberty will side with filled a long-standing dream of seeing the muscum and 26 The Shows of London

its treasures. On a brief visit to London he was lucky belatedly summoned to quell the riots was bivouacked enough to be offered a black market ticket. He gladly in the garden, and parts of the basement were turned

paid for it, and presented himself at Montagu House over to the officers on duty. When the troops withwith glorious expectations. The party of ten (five more drew a month later, they left behind a sergeant’s guard than the regulations allowed) to which he belonged at the gates—a military presence that would remain until 1863, as a constant symbolic reminder that the museum was vulnerable to the destructive caprice of began to move pretty fast, when I asked with some surprize, the London populace, as well as an implicit rebuke to whether there were none to inform us what the curiosities the liberal public men of a later generation who advowere as we went on? A tall genteel young man in person, who cated free access to such national institutions.

seemed to be our conductor, replied with some warmth, Furthermore. the temper of the country toward the

“What! would you have me tell you every thing in the Mu- wt ‘ ; P y

scum? How is it possible? Besides, are not the names written end of the MUSsCUIN S first half-century did not favor upon many of them?” I was too much humbled by this reply the idea of public educational institutions. A writer in

to utter another word. The company seemed influenced; the Quarterly Review in 1850 recalled the effect of the they made haste, and were silent. No voice was heard but in Napoleonic Wars, when the survival of the nation took

whispers. priority over any effort to instruct the public. ‘‘Nor

If a man pass two minutes in a room, 1n which are a thou- did the nation at large take a tithe of the present intersand things to demand his attention, he cannot find time to est in purely intellectual subjects. Few comparatively

bestow on them a glance cach. thirsted after knowledge or hungered after educa| When our leader opens the door of another apartment, the tion—the modern panacea. The childlike uninstructed

silent language of that action 1s, come along... curiosity of the many was well pleased with the sort of

It grieved me to think how much | lost for want of infor- rae ,

mation. In about thirty mimutes we finished our silent exhibitions provided for them by our fathers; and the journey through this princely mansion, which would well government, compelled to be prodigal mn warlike have taken thirty days. I went out much about as wise as I expenditure, grudged grants to an institution whose wentin. .. .IT had. . . paid two shillings for a ticket, been ends and objects flourish best in peace.’!® For well hackneyed through the rooms with violence, had lost the over fifty years, the government’s funding of the Britlittle share of good humour | brought in, and came away ish Museun? was minimal; it spent about £2,500 a year

completely disappointed. on officials’ salaries and, at best, a few hundred pounds

Hope is the most active of all the human passions It is the on purchases. Onc of the few exceptions to this parsimost delusive. I had laid more stress on the British Museum, mony was the granting of £8,400 to buy part of Sir than on any thing I should see in London. It was the only William Hamilton’s collection of Greek and Roman

sight me. . curiosities, . . auities jn 1772 they anaquitics 10 In mythat visitdisgusted to Don Saltero’s at Chelsea,

furnished me with a book, explaining every article in the col- Thus such ordinary Londoners as had some desire lection. Here I could take my own time, and entertain my- for additional knowledge were hardly better off after

self. 17 the British Museum opened than they had been before. Although private collections had multiplied in the

wake of Tradescant’s Ark, none of them was readily The unfavorable comparison of the British Museum accessible. Entrée could be had only with credentials of

with Don Saltero’s was the cruelest cut of all. some sort, such as a letter of introduction to the Whatever hope there may have been for an owner. In the case of three famous collections in the improvement in conditions had already, by 1784, been second half of the century, only qualified medical men

damped by outside events, which convinced the and scientists, and sometimes laymen of superior social authorities that admitting the public indiscriminately standing, were admitted. In ascending order of size and posed a much graver threat than mere insults to the celebrity, these were the anatomical museums of three staff. Dr. Ward’s fear of the mob, far from being a eminent surgeons, Joshua Brookes, William Hunter, mere eccentricity, was shared by many trustees, and it and John Hunter. Brookes, a pupil of William Hunter, was melodramatically justified in the summer of 1780, in the course of a long career taught more than 5,000 when the Gordon rioters swept through Bloomsbury students. At his demonstration rooms in Great Marland burned Lord Mansfield’s house with his irreplace- borough Street he maintained a steadily growing colable manuscripts and library. Although no attempt lection and experimented so successfully with means was made to harm the museum, the York Regiment of preserving color and staying decomposition in his From Cabinets to Museums, II: 1750-1800 27

specimens as to win a fellowship in the Royal Society £15,000, about a fifth of 1ts estimated cost. The collecon that ground. His 6,000 items were said to have cost tion was then transferred to the Royal College of

him, first and last, some £30,000. !9 Surgeons, which provided it with a permanent home William Hunter’s museum, containing large assort- in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. ments of minerals, fossils, and shells in addition to the It was typical of the time that both Hunter brothers, specimens most closely connected with his medical far from limiting their collecting to their professional work, was housed in what a contemporary admired as interests, built up “‘gentlemen’s collections” as well. a “magnificent room, fitted up with great elegance and Each had his own preferences. Wilham’s ran to pic-

propricty’’ at Hunter’s anatomical theatre at 16 Great tures—he eventually possessed forty-three Old Windnull Street. His hope was to obtain a govern- Masters as well as three Chardins—and to books ment appropriation to build a separate museum and (12,000), ancient manuscripts (600), and old coins medical school, 1n return for which he would bequeath (30,000). John, by contrast, was a magpie who indishis collection to the nation. The government failed to criminately swept together “waxworks, portraits of respond, with the result that Hunter, reputedly at the freaks, Oriental scrimshaw, exotic weapons, scraps of suggestion of Dr. Johnson, left it (1783) to the Univer- tapestry, clectromechanical novelties.” Before he

sity of Glasgow.” branched out from anatomical collecting on his own

Hunter’s younger brother, John, a surgeon and account, he scouted for pictures and bric-a-brac on bemedical researcher with many interests, began his half of his former pupil and friend, Edward Jenner, muscum of comparative anatomy in the 1770s at his then a country doctor in Gloucestershire. In a number house in Jermyn Street.?! The collection soon outgrew of letters to Jenner, Hunter mentions his luck in the accommodations, and in 1783 Hunter, who like his picking up what he called ‘Don Salteros” for his corbrother had achieved wealth as well as renown in their respondent, among them a picture by George Stubbs

profession, took the lease of 28 Leicester Square, which he acquired for a thrifty five guineas. where, in the garden between two existing large

houses, he built a third. In this he arranged a great vari- Def ety of animal and vegetable preparations in scientific

order, not according to species but by func- When the Hunterian Museum was finished and occutlion—motor apparatus, digestive and sensory organs, picd in 1785, it faced, diagonally across Leicester reproductive parts, and so on—‘‘each series ranging Square, an already well established muscum of another the evolutionary scale from the simplest mechanisms kind, one which had been founded in the spirit of Sir

to the most complex,” a thematic emphasis which Hans Sloane and was at that moment beginning to be anticipated a basic principle of modern educational aftected by the spirit of Don Saltero. This was the Homuscology. In addition to this encyclopedic display of lophusikon, as it had been dignified upon its transfer to

comparative anatomy, the museum contained thou- London, though it continued to be more commonly sands of pathological specimens and congenital mon- referred to as Sir Ashton Lever’s Muscum.”? An enthustrositics and, under a glass canopy outside the build- siastic naturalist and curio collector, Lever had coning, the skeleton of a forty-foot bottlenose whale. ceived, in his own words, an ambition “‘to pursue NatThe Hunterian Museum, which by the time of its ural History and carry the exhibition of it to such an owner's death contained 13,682 specimens, was famed height as no one can imagine; and to make it the most not only in Britain but throughout Europe. For scope wonderful sight in the world.” At Alkrington Hall, his of contents and rationality of display it had no equal scat near Manchester, he had begun collecting on a anywhere. Intended primarily for teaching purposes, it grand scale. By late 1772 his aviary-cum-muscum was open to outsiders only in two months of the comprised 60 species of quadrupeds, 160 of English year—to “noblemen and gentlemen” in May, to scien- birds, 100 of foreign birds, similar numbers of English tists 19 October. The enthusiasm with which John and foreign quadrupeds, and 1,100 fossils. Among the Hunter collected (typified by his excited request one “imperfect conceptions, or what are improperly called day that a bookseller-patient join him in buying a Lusus Naturac,”’ according to a correspondent in the dying tiger fron’ a menageric) ran him deeply into Gentleman’s Magazine, were a pig with cight legs, two debt. After he died in 1793, three sales of other parts of tails, but only a single backbone and one head; a Jeveret

his estate were insufficient to pay his creditors, and his (no relation) with seven legs and cight feet; and ‘‘a executors sold the museum to the government for Pupp with two mouths and onc head.” The inevitable 28 The Shows of London

“artificial curiosities” included “‘a few pictures of birds The Holophusikon at once was the talk of the town. in straw, very natural,’ a basket of flowers cut in Apart from Sloane’s collection, which had been open paper, and the head of George HI cut in cannel coal.” only to selected visitors during its owner’s lifetime and The presence of the latter oddities did not obscure now was beyond the reach of most of the public in the scientific value that the rest of the specimens pos- Bloomsbury, London had never known so extensive a sessed. Gilbert White of Sclborne, who knew Lever museum of natural history, ethnography, and miscelthrough his brother, the Rev. John White, vicar of a lany. parish near Alkrington, considered Lever ‘“‘a_ very The well-to-do crowd came in abundance. Its adroit natural Naturalist,” although he added that “it enthusiasm for this novel show may possibly be is... pity he does not . . . call in the assistance of gauged from a set of “‘Verses addressed to Sir Ashton system.” In several letters exchanged by the brothers Lever by a little Boy of ten Years old, on being fathere is warm mention of the help Lever lent the voured with a Sight of his Museum, November 6, clergyman in his scientific studies, in gratitude for 1778,” which was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine which Gilbert gave Lever free use of his papers: “he is the following spring. Writing from Kennington, the aman of honor and will not suffer them to be tran- infant poctaster began, scribed.”""4

Lever’s generosity was not translated into. all- If Thad Virgil's judgment, Homer's fire, embracing hospitality, however. On 13 September And could with equal rapture strike the Tyre,

1773 he advertised: Could drink as largely of the Muse's spring, Then would I of Sir Ashton’s merits sing.

This 1s to mform the Publick that being tred out with the m- Look here, look there, above, beneath, around solence of the common People. who Ihave hitherto indulged Sure great Apollo consecrates the ground with asight of mv museum at Alkrington, Fam now come to Hlere stands a tiger—’° the resolution of refusing admittance to the lower class ex-

cept they come provided with a ticket from some Gentleman The rest can casily be imagined. For more spontancous or Lady of my acquamtance. And Thereby authorize every inventories of the collection we may comfortably turn friend of mine to give a ticket to any orderly Man to bring in to two wide-eyed ladies.27 In a letter to her sister eleven Persons, besides himself whose behaviour he must be Fanny, Susan Burney described what she saw on a visit answerable for, according to the directions he wall receive some months before the precocious rhymer from Kenbefore they are admitted. They wall not be admutted during nington: the ame of Gentlemen and Ladies being in the Museum. If it

happens to be inconvenient when they bring their ucket. The birds of paradise, and the humming birds, were I think

they must submit to go back and come some other day, ad- among the most beautiful—There are several peli nuttance in the morning only from cight o'clock to twelve.” cans—Hamingoes—peacocks (one quite white)—a_ pen-

; euin. the beasts a hippopotamus Another rule; immense excluded allAmong would-be who(sca-horse) came . of. an size, an clephant,visitors a tyger from the Tower—a

on foot, but this was circumvented on one occasion by Greenland bear and its cub—a wolf—two or three leopa gentleman who, being denied entrance, went down a ards—an Otaheite dog, a very coarse ugly looking crea-

country lane and returned aboard a cow. ture—a_ camelion—a_ young crocodile—a room full of Within the next year, finding that his expenditures monkeys—one of which presents the company with an Italwere outrunning his income and intent on steadily en- ian Song—another 15 reading a book—another, the most larging his collection, Lever moved it to London, horrid of all, 1s putin the attitude of Ics de Medicis, and 1s where he spread it through sixteen rooms and nu- scarce fit to be look’d at. Lizards, bats, toads, frogs, scorpions merous corridors of Leicester House. Dominating the and other hithy ercatures in abundance There were a great

north side of Leicester Square, this mansion, built in many things from Otaherte—the compleat dress of 4 the 1630s, was owned by the Sidney family (the Earls Chinese Mandarine, made of blue and brown sattin—of an

. Atrican Prince—A suit of armour that they say belonged : . . O Ver -TOMWwWe tne ress Worl AVATICS sts pied by a succession of princes and dukes. It now was tine—ete—ete. 28 of Leicester) and had long been a royal residence, occu- to Oliver C el—the Dre . "Charles Let's turned into a pay-as-you-enter museum, the admission

charge ranging from 2s. 6d. upward to 5s. 3d.—a scale The “room full of monkeys” was what chicfly caught sufficiently high to exclude the ‘‘common People” the eye of the young American scientist Benjamin Silwho had outworn their welcome at Alkrington and laman when he visited the museum, then removed to were personae non gratae at the British Museum. Lambeth, some years later. It would seem that, despite From Cabinets to Museums, IT: 1750-1800 29

5 y by his side. . ; ench. ,

his concluding comment, the display provoked more about in person: ‘‘a good friendly man of some fifty

laughter than thought: years or so”’ (actually he was fifty-seven). But Sophie

; was prepared to like most Fanny Not satisfied ,with what the Creator has people; done, inwhereas making : Burney, when she inspected the museum with; her

these.animals very ludicrous their appearance . fathersoseveral yearsin earlier, on theandlast

day of 1782,

manners; so much like men that we must acknowledge the had b h ‘th her th 1 and critical €

resemblance; so much lke a brute’s that we cannot but be a rous f with her the coo an critica eye for

disgusted at it; the artist has employed them as busied about human foibles that won her celebrity as a novelist of

various human employments. manners.

monkey sits, cross legged, threading his needle, .. ,The y .taylor y B5 B ; in Sirhis Ashton came and talked to us a good while. may be an with his work lap, and his scissors, bodkin ; Heyou ; admirable naturalist, butgoose, I think 1f inand other matters leave

; ; ;watchman the ist out, notwith much wrong He looks full sixty The stands awill corner, his cane and ,him. , years old [itathis is perhaps typical that Fanny cxaggerated lanthorn inyou hands. , . Lever’s age, while Sophie underestimated it], yet he had

The house carpenter monkcy is driving tne plane over the bench only two young but himself, in arrows a green , ; ; ; ;dressed jacket, anot round hat, with greenmen, feathers, a bundle of

The ballad singer, with his ballad in his hand, 1s very

gravely composing his muscles to sing.

under one arm, and a bow 1n the other, and thus, accoutred

as a forester, he pranced about; while the younger fools, who The clerk of the monkey room sits writing at a desk. ; were in the same garb, kept running to and fro in the garden, The shaver has one of his own species seated in a;. , ; carefully to shoot at some just astoany chair;—his beard contriving lathered, and the razor justmark, beginning ‘ of the company appeared at any of the windows.* After such a

slide over his face. ; , ; ; , none of his conversation.’

specimen of his actions, you will excuse me if I give you The dentist holds the patient by the chops, while he strains ; at

the turnkey, and produces all the grimace and contortion of

features, which tooth-drawing can extort, ' Even though it was often remarked that the Le| Crispin and i pushing the awl andhave Pointingour the prev . me verian Museum actua was superior in accessibility and shoe, thus we rivals in form acec - Sir ~:Ashton’s ¥ places arrangement to the British Muscum,

erect, and emulating human employments. ; out of debt and finance hope Nothing. that it would is pull; him wanting but Lord Monboddoc’s aid to free them from an h lized. Th | ff

appendage which this philosopher says our species have been new Purchases Was not reanzed. £ Ne Nove ty wore is , so fortunate as to drop, and they nught perhaps aspire even and the supply of fashionable visitors just as inevitably

to the wool sack.29 diminished. Although between February 1775 and February 1784 Lever took in some £13,000 at the door,

From this, it would be only a step to the Museum of most of this was earned in the earlier years. In 1781 he Humorous Taxidermy in Brighton, two centuries twice tried to sell the collection, which he was not re-

later. luctant to advertise as “the First Museum in the Uni-

Eight years after Susan Burney’s visit (September verse,’ but there were no takers. Two years later he 1786), a German lady, Sophie von la Roche, wrote her offered it to the trustees of the British Museum at a own impressions of the Leverian Museum. She re- price far below the £50,000 at which it had been val-

* Ti . fi I Cc “< ae t ut ~ . : ‘ .

membered most vividly the ‘heap of old armour and ucd, but again he was unsuccessful. He now had

ns performance Was NO’ pu guns from every age and corner of the globe” at the recourse to the device by which the British Museum

on merely for the diversion of the foot of the staircase: the “dried s f had b b ht | bej ¢ paying customers; Lever was a dedi- JOr © nes arcase, tne ree sca-monstcrs or every la een rought Into CIs, a lottery. An act o Par-

cated toxophilite. The American John Gescription” that festooned the surrounding walls; the liament in 1784 permitted him to offer to the public Adams, visiting the museum in 1783 “excellently stuffed young elephant” that welcomed 36,000 tickets at a guinea apicce, the winner to take all. while in London on a diplomatic her to the first room; and the collection of ‘musical in- But only 7,000 or 8,000 were sold.*? When, five weeks

other kmights, hisdifferent friends, ; ae , .onds .von la Roche, and... tpractising fin since the :— the ancient but as I thought long ; ifferent types of music since the discovery his friends, as he disc told Sophie thought mussion. nay or ashton and some struments of all nations, ancient and modern, after the drawing, no one claimed the prize, Lever and

forgotten art of archery In his of notes.”’ She also “‘enjoyed secing dresses belonging some magnanimous soul had won it and had decided garden, with their bows and arrows to kings and queens, lords and Jadics three hundred not to put in an appearance, either to enable the owner they hit as small a mark and at as years ago or more, offering a splendid selection of to retain it or Jet him make some profitable deal.”’ But great a distance as any of our sharp- models for masked fancy dress; some of their weird this hope was disappointed when a law stationer and rifles.” (Diary and Autobrooraphy of trimmings are just as preposterous as those of the estate agent to noblemen named James Parkinson (eviJohn Adams, ed. L. H_ Butterfield, Chinese, Turks, or Tahiti in the adjoining room.’”*° dently not a barrister, as he was said to be) appeared

shooters could have done with their . , . ,

Cambridge, Mass , 1961, III, 151) Sophie liked “‘good Sir Ashton,” who took her with the winning ticket, which his late wife had 30 The Shows of London

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bought and which he had come upon when going purchase. Parkinson was said to believe that Banks through her effects. “Popular sympathy,’ wrote So- “hated” Lever and so hated his collection (though phic, “was so hot on Sir Ashton’s side that some went Banks had nothing against Parkinson, and indeed gave to see the collection ten to twenty times to contribute him specimens).*7 If so, the animosity may have been an equal number of shillings towards his losses [evi- traceable to the two naturalists’ rivalry over the arti-

dently the former price scale no longer held]; and facts and natural curiosities brought back from Capnearly all showed a certain aversion to the barrister tain Cook’s voyages. Banks, who had sailed on the who had destroyed the fine ideal of generosity enter- first voyage as official naturalist, may have resented tained for so many weeks, during which time all had Lever’s possessing so many objects from Cook's expe-

rejoiced at Sir Ashton’s returning good fortune.” ditions that a separate room at Leicester House was sct The rest of the story is a sad anticlimax. While Par- apart for them. kinson attempted, unsuccessfully, to sell the muscum The British Museum being deprived of the collecen bloc to two interested buyers, the Queen of Por- tion, Parkinson proceeded to disperse it at a sixty-day tugal and the Empress of Russia,* he allowed Lever to auction.?* He probably got the ten or twelve thousand remain in possession for a while; as we have just seen, pounds he counted on. Although the war prevented he was there in 1786, when Sophie made her visit. But agents for continental museums from attending, Britat length Lever departed, to dic in January 1788 at the ish collectors were present in force. Many of the lots Bull’s Head inn, Manchester. A month earlier, having they bought eventually found their way to public decided that the rent paid for Leicester House was pro- museums; some other lots went in another direction. hibitive, Parkinson, or a company of speculators he As late as 1829 a portion of the Leverian collection was had formed, moved the collection to a new location exhibited at Camberwell Fair by an agent for “‘a Sociacross the river, a specially designed building at the ety of Gentlemen,” which probably means a cut-price corner of Blackfriars Road and Albion Street. Here, in syndicate of speculators. “Several com modious caraa dozen rooms in addition to the rotunda that gave the vans’’ were advertised as holding 1,600 cases of stuffed

structure its name, the “Museum Leveriarum” sur- birds alone, as well as twenty-five serpents, an vived, in increasing neglect, for some twenty years.” cleven-foot swordfish, the usual assortment of fossils The early Victorian journalist William Jerdan remem- and shells, and the heads of two chieftain warriors

bered it as “‘a most heterogeneous medlcy of stuffed from the South Pacific.*? Thus the tag ends of a animals, without order or classification, and savage once-distinguished museum wound up as a cheapyack costumes, weapons, and products,” a visit to which attraction at a suburban fair; it was a pattern often to be could possibly provide one with ‘a few desultory repeated in one variation or another. *

. facts . . . but as a means for solid or lasting instruc- It was on this not particularly auspicious note that ve ee Nheh palate tion, its miscellancous and aimless character rendered London muscums entered the nineteenth century. The

went through a wider gamut of it useless.’ virtuoso’s cabinet, in a way, had “gone public.”’ Colmetamorphoses than any other single The collection was, however, sufficiently valuable lections of natural history and manmade curiosities London exhibition place After the to induce a German prince to offer Parkinson £12,000 had entered the world of show business. The growing Levertan collection left, 1¢ was first for it, with the title of Baron for his son thrown 1n. popular interest in the stuff of which muscums are

sen I laberators at the Sarney Thomas Holcroft, the dramatist, heard at this time composed had made evident the commercial value of Institution, the South Bank counter- (1798) that Parkinson refused the offer because he such collections. That museums should become a conpart of the Royal Institution When planned to move the museum to Bond Street, “make cern of the government, in behalf of the people at this hopeful venture collapsed in scientific arrangements, &c., and exhibit it at half-a- large, was a notion entertained, if at all, only by those

1820, the building became a wine crown, or by annual tickets’—in other words, to few observers who took literally the lofty sentiments et ane concert tate the restore it to the status quo ante.” But this did not work expressed in the founding instrument of the British

thirties, as the headquarters of the out, and the institution continued to lose money. In Museum. | a

National Union of the Working 1804 or 1805 Parkinson offered the collection to the In any event, the museum as a cultural idea and instiClasses, it was a hotbed of radical- British Museum, but to no avail. A renewed offer, 1n tution had become so well embedded in educated ism. Thereafter, until 1858, 1t was a 1806, was informally accepted on condition that the men’s consciousness as to serve as a convenient and

quently disreputable entertamment, , ~ 6 . -

place of miscellancous and not infre- maximum price be £20,000. But now Pitt’s cabinet graphic metaphor for the variety of the world in which

housing waxworks, wild beast balked and sought the advice of Sir Joseph Banks, men lived. Suffering from a hangover on the first of shows, and penny gaffs, the lowest president of the Royal Society and an influential trustce April, 1775, James Boswell went, he recorded, ‘to Old form of the early Victorian theatre of the British Museum, who recommended against the Slaughter’s Coffec-house, and drank some brandy and 32. The Shows of London

water; was a sad being for while, but recovered pretty Carclessly well by walking in the streets of London, which is I gazed, roving as through a cabinet really to me a high entertainment of itself. I see a vast Or wide muscum (thronged with fishes, gems, muscum of all objects, and I think with a kind of Birds, crocodiles, shells) where little can be seen wonder that I sce it for nothing.’’*’ Attendance at Well understood, or naturally endeared,

Yet still does every step bring something forth showplaces, too, was beginningpleases, to produce a newand kindhere . y ore o s . -. That quickens, stings; of human experience, museum fatigue. When she was ‘ and there at Sir Ashton Lever’s, Sophie von la Roche com- And has its brief perusal. the Z | . d “ATI | | c i 1] | . j nd has its brief perusal, then Sives Way plained, the wonaers © nature, and all the mcred- To others, all supplanted in their turn.

.: , , A casual rarity 1s singled out,

ible artistic conceptions of form and colour, pleasant Meanwhile, amid this gaudy congress, framed and unpleasant, are SO tightly packed, that the mind Ot things by nature most unneghbourly, and eye are quite dazzled by them, and in the end both The head turns round and cannot right itself; are overwhelmed and retain nothing at all."!? When he And though an aching and a barren sense came to write The Prelude, Wilham Wordsworth was Of gay contusion still be uppermost, to seize on this novel affliction of urban life to image With few wise longings and but little love, his unsystematic intellectual progress during his “resi- Yet something to the memory sticks at last, ;

5 Cambridge” yo: : Whence profit may betoward drawnthein’ times dence at in those same years

to come ”

end of the century:

I'rom Cabinets to Museums, IT: 1750-1800 33

M

onster- Mongers and Other Retailers of Strange Sights ;

For I have always lookt upon it as a high Point of they sought, as a means of escape from their overIndiscretion in Monster-mongers and other Retailers crowded dwellings and the gencral penury and emp-

of strange Sights; to hang out a fair large Picture tiness of their everyday existence. Since few could over the Door, drawn after the Life, with a most read, books were of no use to them, and so they sought

me many a ireepence, TOr mM Juriosity Was fu : : ‘Lea: :

cloquent Description undemeathy Ths hath ne their diversion in the streets, at taverns, pleasure satisfied, and | never offered fo wo in, tho often a gardens, fairs—at all of which, exhibitions of one kind vited by the urging and attending Orator, with his Or another were a prominent feature. In the aggregate last moving and standing Piece of Rhetorick; Sir, this widening mass audience was large cnough and

Upon my Word, we are just going to begin. possessed sufficient purchasing power to encourage —Switt, A Tale of a Tub, 1704 showmen to supply it with what it quite plainly wanted, which was amusement with blunt, immediate impact uncomplicated by thought or the tenderer feel-

While museumlike exhibitions of curious natural and Ings. “artificial” objects brought something of the Enlight- Although Londoners constituted most of the audicnment spirit to the relatively uneducated members of ence for the shows, the number of provincial visitors the middle class, on a lower social level displays of liv- must not be underestimated. The midlands and north ing beings (and of beings which had once been alive) being as yet sparsely settled, the English population were catering to what today would be called the mass was concentrated in the southern counties, so that audience. At the end of the sixteenth century the popu- most English families lived relatively close to London.

lation of London and Westminster had been about It was to London that they traveled if they needed, for 125,000; at the end of the seventeenth, despite the rav- any reason, to be in a city, because London was the ages of the plague in 1665, the whole metropolitan area single metropolis in the kingdom, four times larger held some 750,000 people; and in the course of the than Bristol, its closest rival. The great difficulty, of eighteenth century this figure would approach a mil- course, was transport. As Macaulay showed in a lion. Although the new affluence which marked the famous passage in his History of England, the conditions century benefited almost exclusively the already of travel in late seventeenth-century England were dewealthy and a fortunate minority of nouveaux riches, plorable, and they seem, unbelievably, to have got it trickled down to the extent that most working pco- even worse until improvements in highway engincerple had an occasional copper or two, sometimes a ing began to have some effect after the 1750s. Nevershilling, to spend on amusement. And amusement theless, there was considerable traffic in and out of

town. County families arrived for the scason in their instant assent. In the middle of the second chapter of springless coaches, and rustics with mud-caked boots the voyage to Brobdingnag, Gulliver is a living curios-

carted produce or drove cattle into the capital’s ity described by his showman-master as ‘‘a strange markets. Ned Ward wrote of the “Reports of . . . In- creature . . . not so big as a splacknuck (an animal in ticing Rarities, to be visited at a small Expence,”’ which that country very finely shaped, about six foot long)

were taken back to the country by “‘Boobily and in every part of the body resembling a human Bumpkins, who had stolen so much time from their creature, could speak several words, and perform an Waggons and Hay-Carts, as to be spectators of these hundred diverting tricks’—the familiar idiom of

surprizing Curiositics.””' showmen’s publicity. A crier is hired to advertise the

These could be found in many places. The humblest living rarity’s presence at the Sign of the Green Eagle, and cheapest shows, and the Icast recorded because where he is exhibited in the largest room, twenty-five they never attained the minimum dignity of handbills, fect square.* Only about thirty persons are admitted at let alone newspaper advertisements, were those in the one time to witness Gulliver’s performances, of which

streets—human freaks, tame bears which often there are ten or a dozen a day, and which consist of danced, monkeys, even tigers and other wild animals. tricks actually done by lower primates on show in An edict in 1697 had forbidden the display of “lions, London. He stands on a table five feet in diameter, and lionesscs, leopards, or any other beasts which are ferae for his protection benches are placed round it to keep natura” on the ground that this was a monopoly re- him out of the spectators’ reach. Like many actual served for the keeper of His Mayesty’s lions at the exhibits in Swift’s England, the tiny Gulliver is taken Tower of London, but the prohibition was largely in- on tour, being exhibited for ten weeks “in cighteen effective.? Three years later Ned Ward observed that large towns, besides many villages and private famitigers were “grown now so common they are scarce lies.’ In Gulliver’s case, the London (Lorbrulgrud) run

worth mentioning,’ and in 1773 a catalogue of is the climax of the country tour. Often, however, London sights asserted, no doubt with some exaggera- shows went on the road only after they had exhausted, tion, that there were “Lions, Tygers, Elephants, &c. in at least temporarily, the London market.

every Street in Town.’”4 Had he been brought to the capital at the end of Itinerant showmen wandered through the thor- August instead of October, Gulliver in all probability oughfares, setting up their pitches wherever pedestrian would have been exhibited at the Lorbrulgrudian traffic was heaviest. One favorite stopping place was equivalent of Bartholomew Fair, which was held anthe vicinity of inns, where they competed head-on nually for two weeks beginning on 24 August—the with their brethren inside. In the absence of structures biggest and longest-lived of the London fairs, which specially built for the purpose, taverns were ideally also included “‘May fair’’ (in the district that now bears suited to be exhibition places, as Chaucer’s Pardoner its name) and those at Southwark, Stepney, Greenhad discovered centuries earlier. They were, by defini- wich, Tottenham, and clsewhere. It was a raucous, tion, places of entertainment, with a constant turnover free-spending fortnight, during which Londoners of patrons; they had large rooms, and their yards and flocked to Smithfield by the tens of thousands, to eat, stables could accommodate remarkable animals. drink, gamble, brawl—and, above all, to gawk. To Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these littered precincts gravitated exhibitors from all therefore, inns at Charing Cross, in the Strand and over the country as well as those who at other times Fleet Street, and at various other locations in the City operated in taverns and other hired rooms in London and Westminster rented to exhibitors both space and, itself. There the booths of living rarities had their place in effect, an established clientele as the nucleus of a among all the other performers and fair-haunters: con-

larger custom drawn from passersby. jurors, acrobats, rope dancers, religious fanatics,

Paradoxically, the most authentic particulars we quacks, whores, ballad singers, beer sellers, cutpursces, have of show-business practices at the beginning of the sharpers, and gamesters. Wordsworth’s panoramic

eighteenth century are found, not in any historical description of Bartholomew Fair as it was in 1802, source, but in Gulliver’s Travels. Seeking to endow his when Charles Lamb took him to see it, might, flights of fantastic invention with verisimilitude and granting the difference in literary style and the pres- * “Three hundred feet square.” his narrator with credibility, Swift was at pains to pro- ence of a few novelties, have been written by Ben says Gulliver. To convert Brobdingvide a base of realistic detail to which every reader in Jonson. Like Hogarth’s painting of Southwark Fair, it agian dimensions to London scale

touch with London life at the moment could give his is accurate as well as graphic social history: they must be divided by twelve. Monster-Mongers 35

.. . the open space, through every nook the hary Maid, or Woman whom twenty vears before I had

Of the wide area, twinkles, 15 alive also seene when a child: her very Eyebrowes were combed

With heads; the midway region, and above, upward, & all her forchead as thick & even as growes on any Is thronged with staring pictures and huge scrolls, womans head, neately dress'd. There come also two locks

Dumb proclamations of the Prodigies; very long out of Each Eare: she had also a most prolix beard, And chattering monkeys danghng from their poles, & mustachios, with long locks of haire growing on the very

And children whirling in their roundabouts; middle of her nose, exactly like an Island [Iceland] Dog; the With those that stretch the neck and strain the cyes, rest of her body not so hairy, yet exceeding long In compari-

And crack the voice in rivalship, the crowd son, armes, neck, breast & back; the Colour of a bright Inviting; with buffoons against buffoons browne, & fine as well dressed flax: She was now marricd, & Grimacing, writhing, screannng,—him who grinds told me had one Child, that was not hairy, as nor were any of

Phe hurdy-gurdy, at the fiddle weaves, her parents or relations: she was borne at Ausburg in GerRattles the salt-box, thumps the kettle-drum, manic, & for the rest very well shaped, plaied well on the And him who at the trumpet puffs his checks, Harpsichord &c ® The silver-collared Negro with his tmbrel,

Equestrians, tumblers, women, girls, and boys, Pepys, too, made the rounds, even more compulBluc-breeched. pmik-vested. . Lo ra ; ; All moveables of wonder, from all parts, oT , og

lue-breeched, pink vested, md with cowering plumes. sively than his friend Evelyn. Thus we have him

;painted inspecting the bearded lady eleven years after here—Albmos, Indians, Dwarts, ee . the elder -Are ; man had looked his fill; and going also The Horse of knowledge, and the learned | Ig, . , ; Che Stone-cater, the man that swallows fire, . , i Carle d How bupertantls the literati ia Cnants, Ventriloquists, the Invisible Girl, to EES TOSS there ° ee in Brea Boy a ra that

urcd the show mien s speaks estimate © tts are lately 5 ) he » |.ot .Ireland; yoht.thethe he total in antral audience f The Bust that and moves goggling eves,co ¢ Hately come. out latter,torm eg wwerT . the total potential audience for such yo. ; | vel] oe but four years old, of most prodigious bigness tor their age | exhibitions 1s Whustrated by an unThe Way-work, Clock-work, all the marvellous craft ; : 5 : ; ) tried to weigh them inBeasts, my arms, and find them twice as dated handbill:advertising a- “HerOt modern Merlins, Wildtwice Puppet-shows, ‘ yet All ; ~ heavy as people almost their age; and fam apt to maphrodite brought over out-o -the-w are ay, far-fetched, things, bel ’ ;‘s Pe , hac— . wey .(Lately . - yeHeve tNev verveperverted vo y—tne To /

from Angola)” who was to be- scen All freaks nature,mother all Promethean thoughts it h y ‘ol IThey “hg veer i oh, h. oh . cllow, andoftheir an old [Irishfallwoman. have at Charing Cross Halt the text, Of man, his dulness, madness, and their feats f ald a " NON ps woman r rey nave ih

the vener(WO of theOF ourcach children this bigness . ary . , .scribing ; _ . Whereor are of dead. as my “Cr= ‘

describmg the general nature of the All jumbled up together to make up . F . - ‘ : event TF OUT rane cn. It ect 1S ' nei. thento other | This Parhament of Monsters. Tents Booths F Y; ced neOlder, ny no Lord Ormonc alf, getting anatomic. - tifies) bewereand true that Tycere 5 TANS, SETET, COM AT FO the UVC AN ACOTT CA Meanwhile, as if the1¢ whole one vast mull, )thev are nOare WASolder Very MONSIrOUs

-- Are vonuting, recetving, on all sides,

specifics, in scientific Pati (BE,

S51 collection of seventyMen. Women. Child | 5three-years’ Four months later Pepys was back at thein show, where nmed 18—a handbills and newspaper adver-three-vears’ cn, Women, Children, Babes arms .

Hs aper « the giants had been joined by their normal-sized tiscments of freak shows ip the late seventeenth and carly eighteenth cen- . . “8i «° . Ye aMerence WW) danusston) fee “ . . i. . as low asa«penny, on rar- .; ‘poe: . ACC, . “IC depending 7 AVETARC . ‘ .. .. siblings: “‘but Lord, how strange it is to observe the

turics ) Although the fairs and at least some of the taverns difference between the same children, come out of the + The ditt , F where freaks were shown were primarily patronized same little woman’s bellv.’”*

between the elephant and tiger 1s. ann by the working class, they also attracted aristocratic On these excursions Evelyn and Pepys would often dication of Comparative rarity. Phe amateurs and learned men. Virtuosi’s cabinets and the have met fellow members of the Royal Society, such as range 1s fairly illustrative; prices mn booths at the fair were on the same route in the cdu- Robert Hooke, whose diary jottings referring to his general ran as high as a half-crown and cated man’s quest of oddities. A common curiosity attendance at shows, while more terse, further illusity, place, and chentele The average erased social distinctions: the quality and the rabble, trate the varicty of exhibitions to which men of science was probably a shiling Some show- the cultivated and the ignorant mingled to sce the latest repaired: “saw India catt, Japan Peacock, Porcupine,

men drastically reduced their scale marvel. Although most came because their innate rel- Upupa, Vultur, Great Owl, 3 Cassawaris’’ (1672); when they moved from the taverns ish for the sensational, the mysterious, and the gro- “Saw Elephant 3sh”’ (1675); “saw tigre in Bartholto the farr, the famous “Corsican tesque was titillated by stridently announced new im- omew Fair 2d” (1677);F “Saw Elephant wave colours,

Fairy’ (nudget), normally on display . in Cockspur Street at a stiff half- 7 ; _ ; : ; i 7 . ; ; ; hae portations, some—the educated minority—came out shoot a gun, bend and kneel, carry a castle and a man,

crown, could be scen at the fur more Of Genuinely scientific motives, to amplify and verify etc.’ (1679); “To firelelater in Gracechurch Street cheaply—threepence for “Working the descriptions they had read in learned treatises.* (1675/76); “saw the Dutch woeman in Bartholmew People, Servants, and Children” but Evelyn offers a striking example of this catholicity of fair, very strange’ (1677: she was a giantess); ‘‘saw

orley, Venous Bartholomew ; Tradescant’s Ark. Two davsof earlier he had been Sixteen Years ofbart, Age,~ born London, 1880, pp 336-37, Samuel ;;in;.Cheshire, '..; . .and; not above

pene ol the ae men interest. On 17 September 1657 we find him visiting bonclesse child” (1677).° This last was ‘‘a girl, above McKechme, Popular Entertainments Inspecting, with cqual if not greater attention, a peren- Eighteen inches long, having shed the Teeth seven sev-

through the Ages, London, n.d, p 46) — nial attraction among the London freak shows: eral Times, and not a perfect Bone in any part of her, 36 The Shows of London

only the Head[!]; yet she hath all her senses to Admira- handbills, prints, and newspaper clippings relating to tion, and Discourses, Reads very well, Sings, Whistles, London exhibitions that were assembled by the anti-

. . - * 7 the s men

and all very pleasant to hear.”’!? quarian Daniel Lysons is encyclopedic on the subject

Thus, too, Sir Hans Sloane studied the animals at of living creatures alone: clephants, tigers, lions, rhiBartholomew Fair and sent a draftsman to record their noccroses, orangutans, dromedaries, American clk,

. ; ~ - , with valuable pubhaty m the form of

physical characteristics. But the most extensive ilus- buffalo, beavers, bears, hippopotamuses, zebras, chim- ime the sh tration of the overlapping of the world of the Royal panzees, cassowarics, ostriches, pelicans, black swans, tus provicing te sowie

Society and that of Bartholomew Fair, and of the fact vultures, electric ecls, grampuses, dogfish, crocodiles, borrowed scientific prestige. Another that all things then were grist for scientific pondering, porpoises, sea hogs, whales—the list is almost as long —_handbill in the BL collection cited

is found in the many volumes of the society's Philo- as the whole roster of the then known animal previously (551.d 18) announced “a

“T° . - : : ron SuffolK, WhO coverlike d all Over ’ . his Body with1S Bristles a Hedge

sophical Transactions. Few of the freaks, human and sub- kingdom. res uvey Country Lad, a ove human, exhibited in London between 1665 and 1800 Of all these importations, the one that most excited gO unmentioned in those grave and lively pages. Restoration London was “‘the strange Beast called the Hog, as hard as Horn, which shoot Sometimes it was there, or at the society’s meetings, Rynnoceros.”’ Evelyn, like most of the learned, identi- off Yearly It went on to refer to

. . ° 2) 2 IQGC ,

ex P 1

that a new marvel was first heralded, before it went on fied the breed with the fabled unicorn, although the “the Put osopricar TRANSACTIONS,

=. ‘.;:seus . : the ROYAL SOCIFLY, underand tneother rec; tion of Sir HANS SLOANE,

show. Shortly after a letter describing them was read reality somewhat belied the myth, for “it more ressem- wom ee Pag. 29), pubis ‘ by

before the Royal Society (12 May 1708), Helena and bled a huge enormous Swine, than any other Beast ; ;

Judith, the phenomenal seven-year-old) Hungarian amongst us.”'? Arriving aboard an East Indiaman in gyyment Men of all Nations, where sisters, went on display at the Angel, Cornhill. These August 1684, the “Rhinincerous” (the spelling pre- they will find a full and particular were Siamese twins, although the term would not be sented insuperable difficulties to contemporary pens) — Account of this surprising Lad, from invented until another such pair, actually coming from was valued at £2,000—an impressive indication of its the Fime of his Birth But though

. . . . - - . . , most -People are acquainted with the . ; Credit of the PHITOSOPHICAL PRANS-

Siam, were the sensation of London in 1829. “One of worth as a commercial showpiece. The Rhinenceras ep

the greatest Wonders in Nature that ever was seen, was 1mmediately put up for sale and was ‘“‘bought for AC HONS. vet. as many are not furnish'd

ran the publicity, ““being Born with their Backs fastn’d £2320 by Mr. Langley one of those that bought Mr. with them, we think it proper to to cach other, and the Passages of their Bodies are both Sadlers well at Islington & ia day or two will be seen transcribe the following Lines for their

one way. These children are very Handsome and in Bartholomew faire.” But Mr. Langley was unable Satisfaction: by which 1¢ wall appear

Lusty, threeLanguages. different Language to raise tl {lost hishis £500 deposit; to every one,for that the various, Things sty, > two-headed mended to the attention of the public not only because men,”® hermaphrodites,*” and both children and adults she was thirteen inches shorter than the competition with either one head and two bodies (heteradelphi) or but on the additional ground that she was “‘in no ways two heads and one body.** On the other hand, there Deform’d, as the other two Women are, that are carwere the hideously crippled, who somehow managed ricd about the Streets in Boxes from House to House,

to perform a few human acts: a “High German woman for some years past.’ without hands or feet, who could sew, thread needles, Gulliver’s sufferings as he is conveyed from place to spin fine thread, and fire pistols” and an armless man place in Brobdingnag, before the queen buys him for a who combed his hair and shaved with his feet and sa- pet, echo the plight of those whose inherent misery luted visitors by removing his hat with his toes.®? The was compounded by the indignities visited upon them most accomplished of these was Mathew Buchinger, a by their exhibitors and, scarcely less, by the normal twenty-nine-inch dwarf who had been born without men and women who paid to see and handle them. hands, legs, or even thighs; it was said that he could Some preferred to do so in private. The proprietors of play an oboe, write and draw with a pen, play cards, the “‘“Farey Woman,”’ who was more presentable than

and dance a hornpipe in highland dress.*° her box-borne sisters in this deplorable trade, adverSuch were some of the attractions visited by tised that “if any Person has a desire to see her at their Londoners sharing the insatiable curiosity of men like own Houses, we are ready to wait upon them at any Pepys, who once wrote of himself that he was “‘with Hour of the Day.’’® Or, by a compromise arrangechild to see any strange thing.’’®! In the generation fol- ment, a private showing could be held at the regular lowing Pepys’s, a London visitor sometimes to be ob- places of business. Helena and Judith, the incorporate served at the freak shows, despite his ironic assertion Hungarian twins mentioned earlier, were available in that his curiosity could be satisfied at no expense this fashion, at double the charge for the public generwithout going inside, was Jonathan Swift. The impact ally.°° Gulliver’s exhibitor showed him at his own of London’s dwarfs and giants on the imagination that lodgings, charging a private party, regardless of created the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians need number, as much as he would make from a full room

hardly be remarked. It has been demonstrated that at an inn. Swift uses the shows of contemporary London con- The compassion for human indignity and outright stantly and variously in the episodes, motifs, and struc- suffering that is implicit in Gulliver’s reflections of the ture of Gulliver’s Travels. During his stay in Lilliput, trade in freaks was a harbinger of the fashion of sensi-

Gulliver is, in effect, the showman before whom a bility—extreme, self-indulgent feelings of sympathy community of midgets go through their laughable and pity—that began to make itself felt in the middle tricks; but in Brobdingnag, as we have seen, the erst- third of the eighteenth century. This reaction from the while showman becomes the show. The most impres- tyranny of Reason had at least something to do with sive borrowing Swift made from the show trade was the declining attendance of the ‘superior ranks”’ at the the box in which Gulliver, a curious exhibit, is carried popular shows as the century wore on. Another comabout Brobdingnag: a physical object, drawn from pelling influence, certainly, was social: the dictates of everyday London observation, transformed into a decorum became morc binding, and as the risk of complex literary device. Dwarfs were taken about unpleasant confrontations with the unruly and disreLondon in just such boxes. One famous passenger was spectful mob increased, the nobility and gentry were a thirty-one-inch Swiss dwarf named Hans Worren- more cautious in their patronage. Exhibitors secking bergh or John Womberg, “‘the little mannikin that was to attract them provided discreet ways to approach and

lately carried about in a box,” as Evelyn called him, leave their booths at fairs and promised suitable care Monster-Mongers 43

for their comfort while they were there. In 1728, for whenever he came to London 1n his later years, Mrs. example, the operators of a theatrical booth at South- Mathews would seat him beside her at dinner and, 1t is wark Fair, one of whom was Henry Fielding, adver- recorded, “‘sometimes in doing so put a playful kiss

tised that “there 1s a commodious Passage for the upon his delicate little cheek, round the rosy softness Quality, and Coaches through the Half-Moon Inn, and of which a profusion of snow-white hair curled and care will be taken that there shall be Lights, and People waved like that of a fair child.” He was then in his

to conduct them to their Places.”’% eighties. * This desire on the part of the crowd-shunning but

insatiably curious to eat their cake and have it too re- pzskeea sulted, in one instance after the middle of the cighteenth century, in carrying the private-show policy to its logical extreme, the general avoidance of public ex- The most populous and diverting of all London’s freak

hibition. The object of interest was the midget shows (as it was widely regarded) could not, however, “Count” Boruwlaski, actually an untitled member of be moved to people’s houses for private showing; nor the minor Polish aristocracy who was the protégé of a was 1t approved of by many who had no compunction

succession of countesses until he struck out on his about inviting the bearers of stunted and deformed own, at the age of forty, in 1780.°* An account given to human beings to bring their boxes into the drawing the Acadéinie des Sciences when he was twenty put his room. The public opposition to Bethlehem (or, as it

height at twenty-eight inches; since then, he had came to be spelled, Bethlem) Hospital’s open-door grown only cleven more. Already a favorite at various policy, however inconsistent with the toleration of European courts, including Vienna and Versailles, the commercial freak exhibits, was among the carliest tiny count arrived in London in June 1782 under the manifestations of English humanitarianism, although protection of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire many years would pass before it had any effect.” and the Duke of Gloucester, through whom he met, Bedlam, as this asylum for the insane at Bishopsgate and was petted by, royalty and most of the nobility. was universally called, was an entertainment center as Thenceforward, until he retired, he divided his time early in 1609, when it figured in Ben Jonson’s Epi-

between England and the continent. coene, or The Silent Woman, In that same year a typical Boruwlaski was sct apart from his fellow freaks upper-crust family party, that of Lord Percy, paid ten both physically and intellectually. The only abnormal- shillings to watch inmates of Bedlam’s twenty-one ity of his frame and features was their miniature size; rooms perform their unrehearsed antics. Closed fora he was well proportioned, had a bright and expressive period during the Commonwealth, Bedlam was re* Boruwlaskt lived the last decades countenance, and enjoyed perfect health. He was a opened after the Restoration and in 1676 moved to its of his life at Durham, where a witty conversationahst, full of high spirits, the life of new building in Moorfields, a structure so imposing as wealthy tradesman had made what any small fashionable gathering. Forced by circum- to be likened to the Louvre and as unsuited to its purhe deemed a shrewd investment by stances to exhibit himself for money, Boruwlaski suc- pose as Montagu House was later to prove when 1t be-

selling the already elderly midget a cessfully avoided the stigma of Charing Cross and came the home of the British Muscum. Here the hfe annuity mn expectation of his Bartholomew privateaistracted ‘“‘con- “poor,funatics distracted”were lunatics on sh resu resulting, Imminent decease Instead, while theFair, , 8 at8 first f C giving CO poor, onwere snow, &>as

speculator grew older and older, the certs” on his guitar. Later even this pretense of paid en- the governors repeatedly pointed out when the praccount retained the bloom and buoy- tertamment was abandoned. During appointed hours tice was criticized, in gate receipts of £400 a year as

ancy of youth The latter won the he kept to his house, with a butler to open the door to well as publicity which, they maintained, attracted longevity race by a number of years, his “friends” who left a tip—originally half a guinea gifts and bequests. surviving until the age of nmetv- but later reduced as low as a shilling when the pool of ~ There are numerous contemporary descriptions of Miscellany (2, 484) contrived a instant friends shrank. Or alternately, as John Gibson Bedlam and its inmates, by Ned Ward, Tom Brown,

nine When he died in 1837, Bentley's ; ; . .

sprightly epitaph Lockhart recalled, he would go from house to house in Sir Richard Steele, and Henry Mackenzie (The Man of A spirit brave, yet gentle, has dwelt, a sedan chair, “with a servant in livery following him Feeling) among others. Unfortunately for the historian,

as It appears, who took the fee—M. le Comte himself (dressed in a madmen and their odd conduct were all too conve-

Within three feet of flesh for near scarlet coat and bag wig) being ushered into the room nient a vehicle for the kind of satire in which writers of

Whe es yes ike his constr. like any ordinary visitor.’’®® George IV and Lockhart's the period delighted, SO that descriptions of Bedlam

tution, strong, father-in-law, Sir Walter Scott, were among his loyal are characterized by imaginative and pointed wit,

That one vo short alive should be alive acquaintances, as were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Mathews rather than by sober factual detail. What begins as ‘‘a

so long! of the theatre. When he visited the latter, as he did visit to Bedlam” quickly loses its descriptive valuc as 1t 44 The Shows of London

becomes a free exercise in caricature. Stall, the tumul- Letters Written to and for Particular Triends (1741) extuous atmosphere seems captured faithfully enough in pressed a revulsion that was becoming more gencral:

the beginning ofof Ned “We wereatad; aaasight, Lo. a . ; ; . nstead theWard’s concernnarrative: I think unavoidable such

nutted in thro’ an fron-Gate, within which sata sort of mirth appeared on their [the visitors’ | countenances, Brawny Cerberus, of an Indico-Colour, leaning upon and the distemper’d fancies of the nuserable patients most

a Money-box; we turned in thro’ another Iron- unaccountably provoked mirth, and loud laughter, in the Barricade, where we heard such a rattling of Chains, unthinking auditors; and the many hideous roarmgs, and drumming of Doors, Ranting, Hollowing, Singing, wild motions of others, seemed equally entertaming to them and Ratling, that I could think of nothing but Don Nay, so shamefully inhuman were some, among whom (1

Quevedo’s Vision, where the Damn'd broke loose, am sorry to say it!) were several of my own sex, as to and put Hell in an Up-roar.”’ The cells were arranged endeavour to provoke the patients into rage to make them in galleries, in the manner of cages in a menagerie or sport | have been told, this dreadful place 1s often used for booths at a fair, and in cach one was a chained lunatic, the resort of lewd persons to mect and make assignments: whose behavior, 1f it were not sufficiently entertaining But thac f cannot credit.

to begin with, was made so by the spectators’ prod- It was symptomatic of the new feeling that when anding him or her with their sticks or encouraging fur- other asylum, St. Luke’s Hospital, was established in ther wildness by ridicule, gestures, and imitations. 1751, its articles of foundation specified that “the paThe milder patients, however—those whom Von ticnts shall not be exposed to public view.” Finally Uffenbach, another visitor, described as ‘‘not mad but (1770), the governors of Bedlam required that admisonly deprived of their wits or simple’”’—were allowed sion be by ticket only, and one venerable source of to mingle with one another, though separated by sex, merriment was deleted from London’s list. In an open space, where they provided a show less violent than those of their caged fellows. Von Uffenbach

remembered especially a man who crowed all day like DICE a cock, and another who “imagined that he was a Cap-

tain and wore a wooden sword at his side and had sev- The same ships that brought exotic plants to Tradeseral cock’s feathers stuck into his hat. He wanted to cant and rhinoceroses to the showmen also occasioncommand the others and did all sorts of tomfool- ally delivered specimens of strange human beings from ery; we threw a shilling or two down to him, with distant shores—not freaks (though they were necessar-

which he appeared highly delighted.” This compara- ily regarded as such, being so rare) but typical tively inoffensive transaction, however, was the excep- members of other races. Three Eskimos scem to have tion rather then the rule, and other accounts suggest been brought to Bristol as carly as 1501, and a Brazilthat the atmosphere inside Bedlam during visiting ian chieftain appeared in Henry VIII’s Whitehall some hours resembled that of Bartholomew Fair, with nuts, three decades later, but it was not until after the middle

fruit, and cheesecakes being hawked, beer brought in of the sixteenth century, when the English age of from nearby taverns, and pickpockets hard at work. exploration really got under way, that American and ‘Mistresses, we found,’ wrote Ned Ward, ‘‘were to be African savages were added to the list of London exhihad of all Ranks, Qualities, Colours, Prices, and Sizes, bitions. Frobisher brought one American Indian back from the Velvet Scarf to the Scotch-Plad Petticoat; from his first expedition and two from his second, and Commodities of all sorts went off, for there wanted the dead body of one, if we may believe Trinculo in not a Suitable Jack to every Jill. Every fresh comer was The Tempest, was shown in London. From 1584 onsoon engaged in an Amour; tho’ they came in Single ward, Indians were nmported, partly for the exhibition they went out by Pairs. . . . all that I can say of it, 1s trade, from Virginia and New England.” this, “Tis an Alms-house for Madmen, a Showing These persons, physically so different from AngloRoom for Whores, a sure Market for Lechers, a dry Saxons, speaking an unintelligible tongue, bearing

Walk for Loiterers.’’75 with them evidence of strange customs and supersti-

The full horror of Bedlam was depicted by Hogarth tions, did more than merely cater to the curiosity of mn the eighth plate of A Rake’s Progress. By then the the London populace; in tme they fed the rising phil-

humanitarian spirit was making itself felt more posi- osophical interest in the origin, nature, and signifitively. The young lady who was the putative writer of cance of distant races. The ordinary Londoner staring the model letters Samuel Richardson published as at a dark-skinned tribesman in a Charing Cross tavern Monster-Mongers 45

had no notion that he was participating in what mod- age of high degree. This was ‘“‘the Indian King, who ern historians of ideas were to call the study of prim- was betrayed on Board of an English Interloper, and

itivism, nor would he have cared. The cultivated barbarously abused on Board of that Ship, by one Londoner had a somewhat clearer idea: the exhibit was Waters and his Men, and put in Irons; from thence cara Noble Savage, an exotic type of hero, the concept of ried to Jamaica, and sold there for a slave, and now Rewhom had been imported from France after the Resto- deem’d by a Merchant in London.” He could be seen

ration and who now was appearing, as an Aztec or a for twopence at the Golden Lion, Smithfield.”

Peruvian, in the plays of Davenant, Howard, and In 1710 arrived four Iroquois sachems on what was, Dryden and the romances of Aphra Behn. More than by design and in effect, a state visit in behalf of both dihalf a century later, under the influence of Rousseau, plomacy and public relations.*° The trip was part of a the Noble Savage was romanticized as a living ex- strategy devised by the governors of the northern colemplar of the personal innocence and innate resistance onies to recruit home support for a renewed expedi-

to the corruption of civilization’s institutions and tion against the French in Canada—a previous one had customs which flourished in a state of nature, a living ended disastrously—and to impress these influential reproach to what were taken to be the affectations and savages from the Mohawk Valley, on whose future arid systematizing of the Age of Reason. And so, good offices much depended, with the strength and though the grounds of their interest could scarcely majesty of the nation to which they owed fealty. have been farther apart, both the illiterate and the so- Although public display for gain was obviously not to phisticated flocked to sce the newest arrival from be thought of in this case, otherwise London gave the

halfway round the world. chiefs the full treatment. “They appeared,” writes

The nobility that was attributed to the savage of Richmond P. Bond, the historian of the episode, “‘in cighteenth-century philosophical theory was as much newspaper accounts and periodical comments, diplosocial—a matter of rank—as moral. Common jungle matic dispatches, official notations, letters and diaries; specimens of exotic manhood were less interesting or and they found their way into such varied publications significant than the negroid or Polynesian equivalent as epilogue, ballad, occasional poem, prose tract, annal, of dukes and marquesses. Hence, “noblemen” were and essay, composed on demand of purse or self by particularly prized, whether or not it was possible to Anonymous of Grub and Mr Hack of Fleet Street as document their exalted station in their homeland. One well as by Steele and Addison”—the former in the such was brought to London by the navigator William Tatler, the latter in the Spectator. One evidence of their Dampier, who described him in A New Voyage round fame was a production which the leading puppet imthe World (1697). The claim was that this ‘“‘nobleman”’ presario, Martin Powell, staged for the occasion: “A had been shipwrecked off his native land of Mindanao New Opera, Performed by a Company of Artificial

and, with his mother, sold and sent to Europe. The Actors . . . an incomparable Entertainment call’d quality could inspect him privately, by appointment, The Last Year’s Campaigne” (the Duke of Marlat their houses; ordinary people could find him at the borough’s engagement with the French near BlaBlue Boar’s Head, Fleet Strect. If we are to believe a guicrs). When they turned up at another playhouse, handbill describing this “‘Painted Prince,” as he came the mob would not let the performance begin until the to be called, he was a walking exemplification of “the Iroquois were seated on the stage: “‘since we have paid whole Mystery of Painting or Staining upon Human our money, the Kings we will have.’”” Momentarily, Bodies. . . . The more admirable Back-parts afford us therefore, the Iroquois monarchs figured in London

a lively Representation of one quarter part of the entertainment; they had a similar glancing contact World, upon and betwixt his Shoulders, where the with the coeval world of London collecting, in that Arctic and Tropic Circles centre in the North Pole on they brought for Sir Hans Sloane’s museum, in Bond’s

his Neck.’’”8 He seems, in fact, to have been an am- words, “‘a thin, sword-like purification stick for inbulant map, though how such up-to-date knowledge citing the eruption of foodstuffs, and tump-lines, with of geography as included the Arctic and Tropic headband plain and headband decorated by dyed porcircles—even if the latter was grossly misplaced—had cupine quill work, thought by their hosts to be cords penetrated to the Philippines is not for us to inquire. for tying prisoners.” Prince Giolo, to give him the more formal name he ac- The Iroquois were followed to London over fifty quired, died of smallpox after a few years, and his place years later (1762) by three Cherokee chiefs from the in the ethnological limelight was taken by another sav- Carolina-Tennessee mountains, accompanied by two 46 The Shows of London

young veterans of George Washington’s campaign in ‘“club-chair” (the sort of throne Dr. Johnson would the American interior—Henry Timberlake and Ser- have occupied). The writer went to the rival tavgeant Thomas Sumter, who was destined to be the ern to see how the cclebritics’ appearance was manlast surviving general officer of the Revolution.*? Ac- aged, but, he said, ‘I was too much shocked to cording to Timberlake, the journey was undertaken at stay long... reflecting upon a very just, though the behest of one of the chiefs, a friend of the Jefferson shocking remark, made by a vulgar fellow, in the family, who, being shown a picture of George II] room whilst I was present; “They are brought here,’ while at Williamsburg, expressed a wish to see ‘“‘the says he, ‘to be shewn like wild beasts.’”’ The letter king my father” in person. During their London stay, went on to describe the arrangements proposed for the

from mid-June to mid-August, one of them was Indians’ visit to the writer’s own establishment. The painted by Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith waited three beer on that occasion would be more expensive and of hours for the privilege of an interview with them, poorer quality than usual, ‘‘as people will be too much magazines published their copperplate portraits, a rib- taken up with the Cherokees to mind their liquor. We ald song ‘“‘on the Cherokee Chiefs, Inscribed to the are . . . to have a man stand at the door with a ConLadies of Great Britain”? went on sale at sixpence, and, stable’s staff, who is to cry, ‘Walk in, Gentlemen, see ’em

it was rumored, puppet showmen transformed Punch alive!’”’

into the hkeness of a Cherokee. Further protest, couched in nonsatirical terms, apThere were accusations, which Timberlake heatedly peared in the London Chronicle:

denied, that he admitted sightseers to the Indians’ Suf- , folk Street lodgings onlv upon payment of a fee. What .. . can apologize for people running in such shoals

ging y, toupon payment o hazard ee a.of health, life, or disappointall public places, at the

(Actually, it was the lodginghouse keeper who prof- ment, to see the savage chiefs that are come among ited in this respect from their presence.) They at- us? . . . These poor creatures make no more than theatrical tracted crowds wherever they went—at the Tower, St. figures, and can be seen with no satisfaction from the presPaul’s, the Houses of Parliament, Woolwich arsenal, sure of a throng: why then are people mad in their avidity to

and the other standard sights—and they were much in behold them? . . . to read in the papers, how these poor evidence at various taverns and pleasure gardens, wild hunters were surrounded by as wild gazers on them at whose proprictors, when they had advance notice of Vauxhall, and that three hundred eager crouders were made the Cherokees’ coming, ran newspaper advertisements happy by shaking hands with them. . | should hke to announcing that fact and raised their prices. On their read a letter (if they could write one) on that subject, to their second visit to Vauxhall Gardens, 10,000. persons friends at home, In order to learn what they think of the mad flocked to watch the copper-skinned visitors, adorned

= savages of Great Britain.

with shells, feathers, and earrings, get riotously drunk. As a consequence of the commotion at Vauxhall, if not “Swallowing by wholesale Bumpers of Frontiniac,”’ of the criticism in the press, the authorities forbade the said one newspaper, “they entertained themselves and Indians to be taken to any more places of entertain-

the gaping multitude by sounding the keys of the ment. Organ, scraping upon the Strings of a Violin, clapping The government intervened on another ground their Hands in Return for the Claps of Applause three years later (1765), when two Mohawks went on bestowed upon them.” They committed several exhibition for a shilling at the Sun tavern, Strand. The graver ‘“‘irregularitics’” which Timberlake, in his narra- day after the first advertisement appeared, the inn-

tive of the visit, forbore to specify, but which, he said, keeper and the impresario were hauled before the “ought rather to be attributed to those that enticed House of Lords. Evidently, there was no law on the them, than to the simple Indians, who drank only to books to cover their offense, so the Lords promptly please them.” The party, in any case, broke up passed one, not to ban such exhibitions, but “‘to prebetween two and three o’clock in the morning. vent any free Indian, under his Majesty’s Protection, The wanton exploitation of the Americans evoked from being carried by Seca from any of his Majesty’s severe criticism in the press. A letter purporting to Colonies in America, without a proper License for that come from an envious tavern owner described his Purpose. ’’®? wife’s insistence that he emulate another innkeeper After the Cherokees, the next sensation of the sort who posted signs at his door, ‘July 25. This day the was the arrival in December 1772 of Captain George King of the Cherokees and his two Chiefs drink Tea Cartwright with a company of Eskimos. Cartwright, here,” and proposed to ensconce the king in the inn’s the scion of an old Nottinghamshire family, was an Monster-Mongers 47

army officer, retired on half pay, who had gone to Lab- QOmai, the Tahitian youth whom Captain Furneaux, rador two years carlicr as partner in a London trading Cook’s second in command during his second voyage, firm. Now, on his first visit home, he brought an Es- brought back in the Adventurer in July 1775, two years kimo and one of his several wives, her daughter, his after the Eskimos departed.* Announced in the press youngest brother, and the brother’s wife. At Westmin- first as a “‘wild Indian, that was taken on an island in

ster Bridge, according to Cartwright’s journal, they the South Seas” but soon promoted to the rank of ‘‘a were “immediately surrounded by a great concourse private Gentleman of a small fortune,” Oma was an of people; attracted not only by the uncommon instant hit with the nobility and the literati, to all of appearance of the Indians who were 1n their scalskin whom he appeared to exemplify everything that was dresses, but also by a beautiful cagle, and an Esquimau nght in unspoiled society: full of agreeable sensibility,

dog; which had much the resemblance of a wolf, anda equipped with unexceptionable social manners and remarkable wildness of look.” Cartwright and_ his tact, unaffectedly dignified, considerate, cheerful, symtroupe took lodgings in Leicester Street, but so many pathetic, he was, in short, a true “‘nature’s gentleman.” visitors clamored to see the Eskimos that he rented a He was entertained by Lord Sandwich, Sir Joseph house in Little Castle Street, Oxford Market, where Banks, the Burneys (Fanny left a famous description of they could be inspected on Tuesdays and Fridays. “On him), George Colman the playwright, and Mrs. these days,” Cartwright wrote, “not only my house Thrale. Dr. Johnson approved of “the elegance of his was filled, even to an inconvenience, but the street was behavior.” Crowds followed Onniai in the streets, as so much crowded with carriages and people, that my they had the Eskimos. But eventually his novelty wore residence was a great nuisance to the neighborhood.” off, and after two years of honizing, which stopped Among the sightscers was the indefatigable Boswell, short only of formal exhibition, he was returned to the who reported to Dr. Johnson that he “had carried ona South Seas on Cook’s next voyage.

short conversation by signs... particularly with

one of them who was a priest.” Dr. Johnson refused to D3He $a

believe they understood him.*!

The inconvenience Cartwright noted was intensified The authenticity of the Iroquois and Cherokee saby the foul odor of the Eskimos’ skin dresses (as well, chems, Cartwright’s Eskimos, and Omai was beyond

one night hazard, as their persons). Cartwright there- question, but they were not, after all, the subjects of fore had the women make new costumes out of broad- commercial exhibitions. No exhibit, live or inanimate, cloth. Thus fashionably appareled, they went to a per- that was shown for profit was wholly free of suspiformance of Cymbcline at Covent Garden, where, like cion, and with good reason: deception was rife in the the Iroquois chicfs many years carlicr, they were London exhibition trade. Although the possibility, ingreeted with “thundering applause.” But they were deed in many cases the probability, of chicanery had little ampressed by the standard sights of London ex- long been taken for granted by more sophisticated obcept the view from the dome of St. Paul’s. At John servers—witness Trinculo’s doubts about the painted Hunter's anatomical muscum, the head of the group fish, Sir Richard Steele on Don Saltero, and every was disturbed by the bones. “Are these the bones of satirical description ever written of a virtuoso’s cabEsquinaux whom Mr. Hunter has killed and caten?” inet—the presence of some skeptics among the he inquired. “‘Are we to be killed? Will he cat us, and showgoers did little to reduce the chances of deccit. put our bones there?”’ But their spirits revived when The learned, we know, often were taken in as comCartwright took them to his family’s estate near New- pletely as the credulous masses or, to put the best face

ark. on it, were sometimes divided in their opinions. In After a refreshing interval in the country, where March 1701 Evelyn saw on view near Somerset House

they enjoyed a fox hunt, Cartwright brought his Es- , kimos back to London. They were summoned before little Dutch Boy, of about cight or nine years old, who was

~ dy his parents carried about to shew, that had about the

royalty and taken also to the houses of “several of the Circle or Iris of his Eyes, in one of them these letters Dens nobility and people of fashion.” They embarked for meus, & 1n that of his left Ins Elohim im the Hebrew CharacLabrador in May 1773, but not all reached home: both ter: how this was unpress’d, or don by artifice none could men died of smallpox at the very outset of the voyage. imagine, his parents affirming him to be so born, nor did it at The noblest savage of them all, however, taking the all prejudice his sight, for Aimging a small pm on the floore,

term in its fullest Rousseauistic connotation, was he mmediatly took it up, & seemed to be a lively playing 48 The Shows of London

boy: Everybody went to see this unusual phenomena: Physi- prematurely concluded by an untimely sneeze. Then

tians & philosophers with greate accuracy exanuming it, he pamted himself as an Indian warrior, frightening some affirmed it artficial, others tooke it for something al- ladies and children with his war whoop until he was

most supernatural. arrested for a debt contracted while he was a wax-

Seldom do we find reports of particular deceptions work. bemg exposed—ot showmen treated as, for example, After some time, being freed from gaol, he was now grown Swift dealt with the astrologer John Partridge. Non- wiser, and instead of making himself a wonder, was resolved

sense was more acceptable in the exhibition field than only to make wonders. He learned the art of pasting up clsewhere, or at Ieast less fuss was made about it. In mummies: was never at a loss for an artificial lusus naturae; view of what were unquestionably more flagrant de- nay, ithas been reported that he has sold seven petrified lobceptions, 1t seems a little hard that through the agency sters of his own manutacture to a noted collector of rarities;

of a physician-antiquary named James Parsons a but this the learned Cracovius Putridus has undertaken to reshowman was “turned out of town” for exhibiting ina fute ina very claborate dissertation... . elass case what he claimed was a mermaid taken on the By their tondness of sights, one would be apt to imagine, coast of Acapulco, but what was m fact a human fetal that instead of desiring to see things as they should be, they

gt are rather sohicitous of seeing them as they ought not to be. A

MONSETOSILY. . - 4. , cat with four legs 1s disregarded, though never so useful; but

In the total absence of any code of ethics and in the if it has but two. and 15 consequently incapable of catching presence of an urban population ignorant of the very mice, it 18 reckoned inestimable, and every man of taste 1s meaning of caveat emptor and furthermore with an al- ready to raise the auction. A man, though in his person faultmost stubborn desire to be deceived, exhibitors had a less as an aerial genius, might starve; but if stuck over with clear field, of which they took the utmost advantage. hideous warts like a porcupine, his fortune is made for ever, They had no obligation to tell the truth in their adver- and he may propagate the breed with impunity and applause.

sing, with the result that we who depend largely on Goldsmith cites an ordinary mantua-maker who could such evidence, are as ill informed as their customers. not get work until by an accident her arms were cut off Apart from those objects and creatures that could not above the elbow “She now was thought more fit for possibly have been what they purported to be, how her trade than before: business flowed in a-pace, and all

many were genuine and how many fabricated or mis- people paid for seeing the mantua-maker who represented? It is impossible to tell. But if there is any wrought without hands.” So too with a gentleman disposition to overestimate the effect that the gradual showing his collection of pictures and stopping before dissemination of scientific ways of thinking had at this one which his auditors regarded as “the most paltry

time upon the show business and its clientele, 1t can stece of the whole collection - No such thin “The casily be corrected by reference to Goldsmith's The nainter drew the whole with his foot, and held the Citizen of the World (1762), in which the fictive author, senal between his toes: | bou cht t at 4 very great

a Chinese philosopher resident in London, dilates upon tice for peculiar m rit l sul + be m ha

popular curiosity and popular credulity and the haz- pes pe se OE NIE BENE

ards and rewards involved in serving them. But these people are not more fond of wonders than hberal “From the highest to the lowest,” he says, “this in rewarding those who shew them. From the wonderful [English] people seem fond of sights and monsters. | dog of knowledge under the patronage of the nobility, down am told of a person here who gets a very comfortable to the man with the box, who professes to shew the most tmi-

; ; . ; tation of Nature that was ever seen: they all live in luxury. A

livelihood by making wonders, and then selling neing collect subse inown hecoach acl gingor woman shallhall collect subscriptions in her

shewing them to the people for money, no matter how and six, a fellow shall make a fortune by tossing a straw from Insignificant they were in the beginning; by locking his toe to his nose; one in particular has found that eating fire them up close, and shewing for moncy, they soon be- was the most ready way to live; and another who jingles sevcome prodigies!” First this resourceful showman eral bells fixed to his cap, is the only man I know of who has exhibited himself as a waxwork automaton, a venture received cmolument from the labours of his head.*8

Monster-Mongers 49

Wax work and Clockwork

While some exhibitions were bringing to seventeenth- roome nobly hung, & shining with innumerable Lamps and ecighteenth-century London tangible evidence of & Candles, this exposed, to the whole world, all the Nature's varicty and man’s ingenuity, others depicted Citty came to see; such liberty had the Roman Cathan illusory reality. Hovering sometimes on the distant olics at this time obtained.””! periphery of the theatre, with antecedents rooted in There were secular waxworks in England as early as earlier centuries, these exhibitions fascinated visitors the middle of the seventeenth century; the Tradescant by their mimetic effects and often, as well, by the me- catalogue lists, in its typically unclaborated way, “‘Sevchanical means by which those effects were produccd. eral sorts of impost [embossed, hence high or low re-

Of these, wax figures of human beings had the most lief?] wax-works curious” and “‘Phaéton with his enduring popularity, as the prosperity of claborate Chariot and Horses, excellent waxworks.”’ The preswaxwork muscunis in today’s world bears witness. In ence of waxworks at Bartholomew Fair is first reProtestant England waxworks were vestiges of a corded in 1647.” Halfa century later, Ned Ward visited form of religious art which had flourished in pre- a waxwork booth there. Billed as “the Temple of Reformation times and which continued to do so in Diana,” it drew trade with a barker in the form of ‘‘a the Roman Catholic nations on the continent. Small Comical Figure Gaping and Drumming,” which may wax figures then had been a kind of votive offering, indicate a primitive clockwork mechanism. He and the and much of the early statuary of saints had been in two wax babies flanking him, said Ward, wax. As we shall see in Chapter 7, effigies of English monarchs, made of wax as well as of wood, had been appear’d very Natural, insomuch that it induced us to Walk carried at their funerals, and since this custom did not in and take a sight of their whole Works; being much assmack of Romish idolatry, it survived into the Resto- tonish'd upon our first entrance of the Room, at the Live-

; ae . :;Waxworks . liness of thewith Figures, who sat in suchreligious easie Postures, and their ration. more emphatic assoye, ; arit oe hands dispos’d with such a becoming freedom, that Life, ciations, however, caused scandal when they were self could not have appear’d less stiff, or the whole Frame brought into the country by diplomatic missions more regular; the Eyes being fix’d with that Tenderness, under the tolerance of Charles Hl. In 1672 Evelyn which I apprehend as a great difficulty; so that the most ex“went to see the fopperies of the Papists at Somerset perienc’d of our Charming Ladies could not, after an Hours

house & York house, where now the French Am- practice in her Glass, have look’d more Soft and bassador had caused to be represented our Blessed Languishing.* Saviour, at the Pascal Supper, with his Disciples, in

figures & puppets made as big as the life, of wax The first artist-showman in wax to appear by name work, curiously clad, & sitting round a large table, the in the English records seems to have been Johann

,,

Heinrich Schalch (1623-—ca. 1704), a native of Schaff-

hausen, who obtained from the Lord Mayor of London in 1685 ‘‘a Permitt to make Shew within this City and liberties of divers peeces of wax worke representing severall Monarchs and potentates of Europe he

docing nothing prejudituall to his Majesties peace.’ To be seen in Exeter Change in the Strand, Schalch worked for the royal family and made a death as well in Christmas and other Holidays, and at-all.other Times, tho’ the

mask of Queen Mary in 1694. Evidently he modeled, ;

in addition, a tableau of the qucen on her deathbed, Change be shut, only then you must go in at that end towards Charing Cross. ‘surrounded by many persons, some of them impor-

tant personages at the Court of Denmark,”’ which he Just

toured extensively.° Not surprisingly, in view both of ) finish’d the early association of wax with funeral ef- and toab© figies and the fact that waxmodcling more closely approximated

the color of corpses than of living human flesh, repre- 2 seen. The present

sentations of recently deceased royalty and other “ Court of ENoxanp, | famous persons lying on their biers would be a staple © in Wax, after (and as ‘ of waxwork shows well into the Victorian era. e big as) the Life, in the = Another artist in wax to portray royalty and Pu !nner-Walk of Exeter Change .

members of the nobility was a Mrs. Goldsmith, whose in the Strand, much exceeding, tho’ °

best-known work was the funeral effigy she executed ce both made by the most deservedly famous s

of themade Duchess of Richmond, beauty. She the = Mrs. whom in am thatIngenious Art all j oF also effigies of William aII]famous and Queen Mary, « Fs.MILLS. » Whom in that &

former, according to a letter to a newspaper in 1702, 2 Persons own had never yet an equal. The Names So ‘dressed in coronation robe, with so majestic a mien Zz of the Chief Persons, are the Queen, his Royal wo that nothing seems wanting but life and motion.”’ (The - Highness Prince George, the Princess Sophia, his Grace 6 last seven words soon hardened into a formula which 5 the Duke of Marlborough, the Countess of Manchester, S was to occur in waxwork advertising for the next two 1 the Countess of Kingston, the Countess of Musgrave, &e. = centuries.) These were displayed, along with figures of 2 As likewise the Effigies of Mark Anthony, naturally 5

several other persons of quality, such as the Duke of 3 acting that which rendered him remarkable to the 1SS . wv ; . 1 : ity + ‘ so fnehtirully with the sweaty death-like C . . os ACI . ‘nts’ of ,

> oody appearances - us weds snes and ha ( “a court. Twenty years later, somcone showed three fig- tearing, cutting, spoiling, and de-

; , Sein 80 Eee ye ures of a single personage, the late King of Prussia, in facing the garments” of a young lady faces of the principal rivettedStreet. the scene It so 1s firmly on , ~ . = he met This con| oyfigures, Cockspur regrettable thatin St. weJames’s lack Street. particuoe my memory, that I have it now as fresh in my mind’s cye as | C4 sl £ S| L qd Fl viction was set aside on a technical-

when I first beheld it, forty-four years since. ars OF a SOW at tie commen OF oloe ©ane an cet ity, and he was then tried and conStreet in 1745. In April, three months before Joseph __victed on the charge of assaulting

., .. .Lo. . . .. }physical ne a > injury. >» . 1 The ay ™d res » ’ ad . case caused a across Fleet Street to the corner of Inner Temple tised a serics of tableaux depicting, with one hundred | . In 1795, when the house it had occupied for so long Highmore’s well-known sct of twelve engraved illus- with the intent to kill, even though was about to be pulled down, the exhibition moved trations was issued, the waxwork proprictor adver- Mss Porter evidently suffered little

L ' ; -_ i” sensation, not least because there was ane—the still extant half-timbered structure with an figures in miniature,’ Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded, widespread suspicion that she identi-

overhanging upper story that was reputed to have here renamed ‘the low life of Pamela,” and in De- fied the wrong man. Waxwork and Clockwork 53

cember it added a sequel, Pamela in High Life. This is ‘George and Charlotte.”’ Thanks to these manifold soas impressive evidence as could be wished of the phe- cial contacts, she built up a thriving business in the nomenal popularity of Richardson’s novel, adding cre- modeling of wax portraits, busts, and life-size figures. dence to such familiar stories as that of the village Some of these, along with historical groups, she exhib-

which rang the church bell when the latest volume ar- ited at her residence in Cockspur Street. An often-

rived with news of Pamela’s marriage. repeated story has it that she passed on to Franklin milToward the end of the century, the best-known itary information she picked up from her fashionable naine among the commercial waxwork artists was that and presumably well-informed acquaintances. This of Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester, whose “Cabinet of Royal cannot be substantiated, but a recent writer credits anFigures, most curiously moulded in wax, as large as other story, that she smuggled secret intelligence into Nature,’’ was shown at the Lyceum* between 1786 Philadelphia inside wax figures shipped to her sister, and 1789 and later on tour.'® In addition to the com- who was running a wax muscum there. plete British and French royal families, the show in- Whatever her accomplishments as a spy, Mrs. Wright cluded a sleeping full-length Venus, Warren Hastings, was not universally admired as a person; the forthright Franklin, Voltaire, and the Countess de la Motte (of Abigail Adams called her “the queen of sluts.’’** She Diamond Necklace fame). During a brief stand at Mr. was not lacking, certainly, in aggressiveness. In 1779 Ansell’s Large Room,f Spring Gardens, in 1788, “‘an she proposed to Franklin, then at Passy, that he help Exact Representation of a Seraglio” was an added at- her set up business in Paris, but that gentleman distraction. The Sylvesters, like Mrs. Mills and Mrs. couraged her, saying that the city already had two or Goldsmith at the beginning of the century, accepted three professors of the art (Madame Tussaud’s uncle, private commussions for wax likenesses; full-length ef- Dr. Christopher Curtius, was already conducting a figies being no longer in demand, they specialized in popular museum in the Boulevard du Temple). Six portraits, probably of the medallion sort. Each product years later she wrote to Thomas Jefferson, in Paris

was accompanicd by a money-back guarantee: with the American delegation appointed to sign the ‘Should the Portraits not be thought the most striking, peace treaty, suggesting that she come over to model and correct Likenesses, he will not expect any thing for the delegation for display in some public building in

his Trouble.”’?” the United States. Jefferson apparently did not reply. Portrait modeling in wax was no mere commercial Mrs. Wright dicd in London in 1786; her only surcraft in the latter part of the century. Examples of the viving work, as we shall have occasion to note in art were often included in the annual exhibitions of the Chapter 7, is the effigy of the elder Pitt in Westminster Royal Academy and the Society of Artists. Among the Abbey.

artists represented were such aristocratic ladies as Waxworks occurred in still another region of Horace Walpole’s lifelong friend Anne Damer, daugh- London life far removed from the fair booths, Mrs. ter of Field Marshal Henry Conway, and Lady Diana Salmon’s Fleet Street establishment, the art exhi-

, ; Beauclerk, daughter of the third Duke of Marlborough bitions, and the drawing rooms. By the end of the ards cot ct Petey Chane a few and friend of Ir. Johnson.” From Philadelphia came, seventeenth century it had been proved that expertly was built in 1772 by the Soucty of in. 1772, Patience Wright, a tall, sallow, masculine- prepared and durable anatomical pieces molded in Artists for art exhibitions, but at featured widow with three children who had toured wax were superior for medical teaching purposes to served only briefly in that capacity the colonies with a show of waxworks of her own the customary debris from the dissecting room. CaIn the 1780s and 1790s, 1t housed a making until it burned in New York.” Introduced to davers, in addition, were in chronic short supply (hence large variety of exhibstions—astro- London society by Benjamin Franklin, she soon at- the prosperity of the illicit and much denounced res-

nomiucal demonstrations, air balloons, . . Loo. .

waxworks, “philosophical tracted the attention of the Walpole circle; the talent of urrectionist trade). Among the leading makers of

fireworks,” boxing matches, circuses this “‘artistress,’’ as Walpole called her, was such that pathological-anatomical models in Paris was a surprograms of humorous recitations, Lady Aylesbury “literally spoke toa waxen figure of a geon, Guillaume Desnoués.2” In 1727 and again in

and concerts housemaid”’ planted in a drawing room.”? Mrs. Wright 1730 Desnoués brought numerous examples of his art } The term “large [or great] was also a friend of Benjamin West, who often painted to London for exhibition and sale; in the latter year room,” so often found in the records her daughter Phoebe, a famous beauty who later mar- they were shown, at the stiff admission price of five of London exhibitions im the eight- ried John Hoppner. For a time, until she became too shillings, at a chemist’s at the corner of PaJl Mall and was applied to any rentable room outspoken on the subject of the American war, Mrs. the Haymarket. Desnoués seems to have done a good large enough to accommodate con- Wright was on familiar terms with the king and queen, trade in these waxen representations of the human

eenth and carly nineteenth centuries, , . 26 ,

certs or exhibitions whom she addressed, Amcrican-egalitarian fashion, as frame in health, disease, and dissolution, but eventu54 The Shows of London

ally the collection became something of a white ele- dwarf, and Bamford, the seven foot—four inch Stafphant. In 1739 “the present proprietor,’ whoever he fordshire giant who was buried at nearby St. Dunmay have been, sent it to Dublin “‘for the instruction of stan’s. In time, the wax figures came to be surrounded

the curious,” and a friend of his wrote to Swift beg- with all kinds of oddments, from a whale skeleton to a ging him to encourage “‘such of your acquaintance as perpetual motion machine. There was the usual misare curious to see these figures” so that they would cellany of fish, birds, shells, skulls, skeletons, fossils, ‘excite the curiosity of the others.’’?7 Seven years later and so forth, as well as a mummy (said to be of the collection was back in London, displayed at the re- Pharaoh’s daughter), two stuffed crocodiles, a rhinocduced rate of a shilling. In 1753 Viscount Fitzmaurice eros hide, a pair of snow shoes, and Cromwell’s and

bought it for the University of Dublin. Before being Newton’s death masks. removed to Ireland, it was shown at ‘“‘Mr. Rack- Rackstrow himself died in 1772, but the museum, or strow’s, Statuary, facing Sergeant’s Inn, Fleet Street.” what purported to be his (there 1s some mention of the After a prolonged teaser campaign in the newspapers, dispersal of the original collection in 1779), continued

designed to squeeze every profitable penny from the in business for a number of years. Irrespective of exhibition before it entered academic life, Desnoués’s the unrelated objects it absorbed, from beginning models were duly sent back to Ireland and thus swim to end Rackstrow’s collection specialized in three-

out of our ken.?8 dimensional anatomical illustration, waxen and real.

We are Ieft behind at Rackstrow’s ‘““Museum of The void left by the departure of Desnoués’s collection Anatomy and Curtosities,”’ as it came to be called, a was quickly filled. One of the chief attractions in the combination of Don Saltero’s knicknackatory and the carly years was a wax model of a woman cight months reproductive-organ department of Dr. John Hunter’s pregnant. This was a dramatic piece indeed, because, museum. Benjamin Rackstrow was a well-known according to a handbill, ‘the Circulation of the Blood modeler and a substantial citizen. In the latter capacity is imitated (by Liquors resembling the Arterial and he held the rank of colonel in the Trained Bands (mi- Vcinous Blood, flowing through Glass Vessels whose litia) of the City of London and narrowly escaped Figure and Situation exactly correspond with the natuhaving under his command Samuel Johnson, who was ral Blood Vessels) also the action of the Heart and Moonce drawn for duty and, though he did not serve, tion of the Lungs in Breathing. The whole making a

kept in his closet the musket, sword, and belt he most wonderful and beautiful Appearance.’ bought for the occasion.”?® Rackstrow’s figures evi- Later there were two full-sized anatomical wax figdently set the standard by which others were judged. ures, one of a man and the other of a woman; the latIn 1763 Walpole, writing of Anne Conway’s ‘‘progress ter, showing all the musculature, was modeled during in waxcn statuary,’ predicted, perhaps not without the dissection of a woman who had been hanged. In

humor, that “by next winter she may rival Rack- one room were concentrated, preserved in spirits, a strow’s old man’’—an allusion to a particularly realis- variety of fetuses, human and animal abortions, and pla-

tic colored plaster figure of a seated elderly man which centas; figures “coloured to nature, and moulded Rackstrow showcd in that year at the exhibition of the from women who have died undelivered (occasioned

Free Society of Artists.*° by extraordinary and preternatural causes) shewing

The museum occupied a pair of Tudor houses at the various positions of the child in the womb, at nine sign of Sir Isaac Newton, in Fleet Street between months, and other periods of pregnancy, &c.’’; ‘“‘an Temple Bar and Chancery Lane. It was thus a near anatomical representation (in wax) of the urinary neighbor of Mrs. Salmon’s, with whose show Rack- bladder, and penis of a man,” and a similar represenstrow (or his successor) was at some pains that his own tation of “‘the urinary parts, and parts of generation of not be confused. “‘This Museum,” a newspaper adver- a woman’; and—not representations, but the actualtisement emphasized, “is not called the Wax- ity—‘‘the real parts of generation of a woman about work’’8!__the implication being that ‘‘Wax-work”’ thirty years old” and of a seventcen-ycar-old virgin, as was synonymous with ‘“‘Mrs. Salmon’s,” as in fact it well as of a penis ‘injected to the state of erection.” largely was in eighteenth-century London. But Rack- Whatever unwholesome instincts Rackstrow’s may strow’s was a waxwork nonetheless, and some of have obliged are not recognized in the establishment’s his figures were in direct rivalry with Mrs. Salmon guidebook, which discusses all the examples of obstet—Mother Shipton telling the fortunes of a young lady rical pathology and sexual anatomy in the most brisk and child, a Chinese mandarin, Coan the Norfolk scientific language available at the time. Nowhere does Waxwork and Clockwork 55

one find any explanation, pious or otherwise, of the ular amusement, and as such the popular name applied rationale behind the display except the obvious one of to them acquired, in educated usage, an indelible its educational value. Nothing 1s even implicd about suggestion of derision. To call any new form of visual

the audience to which it was meant to appeal. The entertainment or instruction a “‘raree show” was to obvious argumentium ab silentio 1s that ladies and gentle- disnuss any expectation that it be taken seriously.f The

men alike were expected to find it instructive, and device and the name were sufficiently current by 1681 neither embarrassing nor revolting. Only at the very for the term to serve as the ttle of a pamphlet which end of the muscum’s carcer, perhaps reflecting the portrayed Charles II as “‘a raree-show man with his slow but inexorable rise of pre-Victorian prudery, do pack on his back, a peep-show containing the Parliawe find Rackstrow’s advertising that ‘a Gentlewoman ment which he is carrying off to Oxford.’*

attends the Ladies separately.” The earliest portable peepshows seem to have been cut-out cardboard Nativity scenes, set in front of col-

DISKS ored isinglass lighted from behind by a candle; later an oil lamp might be used. Unlike the Marggraf and Van

No less familar to cighteenth-century Londoners than Hoogstraten boxes, these peepshows usually prowaxworks were peepshows, a representational enter- vided for the spectator’s looking at the scene directly, tainment of a different sort which had at Icast as long a not as reflected in nurrors. Mirrors were used, but history, though it can be only vaguely and fitfully dis- only to enhance the perspective. The scenes were made cerned in the scattered records. It is at least certain that, of various materials—painted wood or board, engravjust as waxworks served both art and Mammon, peep- ings mounted on board, or (possibly) cloth transparenshows at one stage existed on two distinct levels. At cies. As the box evolved, various designs and devices the end of the sixteenth century an Augsburg clock- were employed to achieve the combined illusion of maker named Marggraf made a number of combi- perspective and life size. Some elaborate models had nation clocks and peepshows, three examples of scenes painted in translucent colors on glass panels and + The seventeenth-century sompe which arc preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, mounted in a series to provide the illusion of depth; loci! vorue had another bearme on Vienna. lhe peepshow, framed and artificially lighted, others, representing, for example, the long vista of a the history of exhibitions Hlusion- consisted of modeled groups of figures placed against a formal palace garden with baroque fountains and stat-

Istic pamtings depicting cupboards painted background; they were seen not directly, but uary, were made of opaque and translucent papers, crowded with typical rarities were as reflected in a slanted mirror on the principle of the elaborately cut and folded, sometimes concertinasometimes hung on the walls of vir- camera obscura.*” Such perspective boxes were a fashion. It was frequently astonishing how many rized cabinets, where “cy core striking novelty at a time when discoveries in optics spectacular or delicate effects could be attained in the themselves “artificial curtoaties” and were Inviting adventurous artists to experiment with narrow confines of a box. The illusion of life size, they appeared to enlarge the collec- fresh devices and effects. In 1656 Evelyn, 11 London, achieved primarily by excluding the external surtion's scope, including as they did was shown “‘a prety Perspective & well represented in roundings and thus enabling the scene to have a scale representations of rarities which the a triangular Box, the greate Church at Harlem in Hol- of its own, independent of the outside world, was as-

sonata: hee kee land, to be scene thro a small hole at one of the sisted by magnifying glasses set in the apertures. With portrayed actual components of a Corners, & contrived into an handsome Cabinet: It larger models, several people could look in at the same collection which were kept in a vault was so rarely don, that all the Artists & Painters in time. Hogarth’s picture of Southwark Fair, for exbecause of their great monctary Towne, came flocking to see & admire it.’’8 A similar ample, depicts a two-hole peepshow ready for customvalue Sec Martin Battersby, Trompe trompe l'oeil box by Samuel van Hoogstraten ers, and later on there were four-aperture boxes. Often

74) on ee (New York, (1627-1678), portraying the interior of a Dutch house a penny bought a performance consisting of a scrics of by paintings on the sides and bottom, is in the Na- scenes that the showman successively lowered into

T “Raree show” entered the lan- tional Gallery. * view as the spectator kept his eyes glued to the hole.

ee oe re as sew Simple versions and variations of these show boxes Sometimes the box contained not a stationary scene cited by the Oxford English Dictionary were made both for home use as toys and for catch- but one with moving figures. Here the peepshow is in the title of the pamphlet men- penny shows.?’ Wandering showmen carried them on adopted another kind of visual entertainment that tioned in the text Dr Johnson, their backs or in donkey carts to the remotest districts had developed independently, the clockwork figure. aware that many peepshow pro- of western Europe and the British Isles, and like all Although these mechanical figures and scenes also chat “this word 1 formed in imita other portable entertainments, they found their way to were exhibited separately, it is not unlikely that they

prietors were Savoyards, explained . : “1: - .

tion of the foreign way of pronounc- __ the streets and fairs of London. They were, in fact, one were enclosed in pecpshows oftener than the advertise-

ing rare show ™ of the archetypal forms of post-sixteenth-century pop- ments, our chief source of information, reveal. No ad56 The Shows of London

vantage was to be had in adimitting that one was time to the music while it plays—which is simple operating a mere raree show when the carefully eva- methinks.”"#! As Pepys’s editors and others have sive wording of the advertisement allowed the public pointed out, Donne alludes to moving figures attached

to expect something grander. to an organ in his Satyre I]: “As in some Organ, The first English clockwork figures, those whose Puppits dance above / And bellows pant below, which motive power was supplied by actual clocks, were them do move.” (In this imstance, clockwork was called “jacks” in English (from the French jaquemarts) aided, or replaced, by air power.) In August 1663 and had an ancestry reaching back to the mid- Pepys attended “a puppet-play in Lincolnes Inn fields; fourteenth century in Milan, Padua, and Orvieto. where there was the story of Holofernes and other They performed their characteristic drills when clocks clockwork, well done.” The next month, at Barthostruck in cathedrals or churches at Wells (the best- lomew Fair, after inspecting “munkys dancing on the known and most elaborate English example still work- ropes” (“such dirty sport that I was not pleased with ing), York, Oxford, Exeter, Evesham, Rye, Bristol, it’) and a four-footed goose, Pepys went “to another

Norwich, Leicester, and elsewhere. As carly as 1478, place and saw some German clocke-works, the Salutaaccording to Stow, there was a clock mechanism in cion of the Virgin Mary and several Scripture storics; Fleet Street near Shoe Lane, the figures being angels but above all, there was at last represented the Sea, with hammers striking hymn tunes. From 1671 on- with Neptune, Venus, mermaids, and Cupid [actually ward, Londoners knew well and affectionately the Anion] on a Dolphin, the sea rolling; so well done, that jacks at St. Dunstan's in the West, Fleet Street—two had it been in a gaudy* manner and place and at a good wooden life-size figures of savages, cach with a club in distance, it had been admirable.” At the same fair his nght hand which struck the quarters on two sus- four years later, he saw a native product of the same pended bells as he moved his head.*9 After a hiatus of a kind: “a piece of Clocke-work made by an Engcentury (1830-1935), they are back at work at the old lishman, endeed, very good, wherein all the several

location. states of man’s age, to 100 year old, is shown very

By Elizabethan times derivatives of the clock jack, pretty and solemne, and several other things more whether powered by water or a wind-up mechanism, cheerful.’"! These clockwork performances seem to had been adapted to secular entertainment, claborated have been early examples of the mechanical theatre, to

Into scenes, and given a troublesome name, ‘“mo- which we will turn in a moment. tion.” To the permanent contusion of the record, Almost from the beginning, Mrs. Salmon had wax “motion,” along with related words such as “move- figures moved by wound-up clockwork in addition to ment” and “mechanical,” was applied indiscriminately the spring-actuated Mother Shipton. An carly handbill to exhibitions of clockwork figures and to puppet refers to her “Temple of Ephesus, of Apollo, the Viplays. The explicit distinction made in a document of sion of Augustus and the Six Sybyls, moving figures, the Master of the Revels dated 1663, which refers to Also an old woman flying from time who shakes his ‘“clock-work motions, ordinary motions [puppcts], head and hour-glass with sorrow at sccing age so unand extra motions,” whatever they may have been, willing to die.” The concurrent vogue in the new was seldom observed in practice, so that often it is century’s first decades for comedies and operas perimpossible to tell which is meant. A few references, formed by marionettes (puppets on strings or wires), however, are reasonably unambiguous. In 1573 the which Addison made much of, naturally encouraged Privy Council asked the Lord Mayor to allow “‘certain men of the theatre to work out fresh novelties. From Italian players to make show of an instrument of their normal miniature size the figures were enlarged strange motions,” and between 1619 and 1640 there to almost true human height and clockwork was subare repeated allusions to “Italian motions” touring the stituted for wires. These apparently self-acting figures countryside. These shows have been interpreted as impressed a visiting Frenchman in 1734 with the real-

being boxes divided into compartments, in cach of ism with which they performed “entire tragwhich small figures were moved by clockwork on the edies . . . with dress, gestures, walk, and living lips turning of a handle, the scenes depicting incidents and eyes, in every way resembling human beings.’’*® from the Gospels or the lives of saints. In June 1661 In the same year, at Southwark Fair, the long- * Presumably, Pepys meant “had it Pepys wrote of eating and drinking at the Globe tav- established firm of Pinchbeck and Fawkes exhibited een Presented moreThe brillant colorfulina manner” word or ern, Greenwich, where he “‘saw the simple motion that such a cast performing ‘‘the comical tragedy of Tom “gaudy” did not then possess 1ts is there, of a woman with a rod in her hand, keeping Thumb. With several scenes out of The Tragedy of modern disparaging connotation Waxwork and Clockwork 57

Tragedies.”*7 As George Speaight, the modern histo- in Shoe Lane, by one Christopher Whitehead. The title rian of puppct shows, observes, figures as tall as those of this show, according to a pamphlet written in that advertised—five feet—must almost of necessity have year by “I.H., gent,” was Paradise Transplanted and been made of wax rather than the conventional wood, Restored, ina Most Artfull and Lively Representation of the since wooden figures would have been too heavy to Severall Creatures, Plants, Flowers, and Other Vegetables,

manipulate cither by strings or by concealed clock- in Their Full Growth, Shape, and Colour,—a “‘Reprework. The actions in any case must have been very sentation,’ the text said, ‘“‘of that Beautiful Prospect rudimentary. As Speaight says, “The secret of these al- Adam had in Paradice.”’ ““Adam appeared naming the most life-sized puppets—veritable Ubermarionetten— animals, which ranged from the elephant to the mouse

has now been lost, and perhaps they diced, like the and from the crocodile to the glowworm, and Eve ap-

dinosaur, from lack of movement.’’** peared, taking the apple from the serpent.’’®! Evelyn But if there were practical limitations to the further saw the same show, or an imitation, on 23 September development of these play-acting “‘automatons’’—a 1673: ““we went to see Paradise, a room in Hatton term, originally designating clockwork figures, which Garden furnished with the representations of all sorts was immediately compromised by puppet masters’ of animals, handsomely painted on boards or cloth, & adopting it to add timeliness, mystery, and mere- so cut out & made to stand & move, fly, crawll, roare

tricious novelty to their traditional art of hand- & make their severall cries, as was not unpretty: manipulation—the showmen were not reluctant to though in it selfe a mecre bauble, whilst the man who make do with what they had. One form of waxwork shew’d, made us Laugh heartily at his formal poexhibition at the fairs represented a royal procession, etric.”’>? (Might the poctry have been excerpts from Parwith life-size figures, richly dressed 1n robes bedight adise Lost or Paradise Regained, published respectively

with tinsel finery and paste jewels, moving slowly six and two years earlier?) In 1680 a revival of the enacross the stage—in effect, the funcral effigies of Mrs. tertainment entitled Creatio Mundi; or, The World Made

Goldsmith and Mrs. Mills not only stood upright but in Six Days, was performed twice daily, again in given motion. This court scene remained a favorite of Hatton Garden. Thoresby saw it then (“multitudes of fairgoers for many years; between 1779 and 1794, for beasts and birds are lively represented both in shapes instance, the showman Jobson attended Bartholomew and notes’’)* and again in 1683 “‘(an ingenious and 1nFair with ‘‘a display of moving waxwork figures five nocent show’’). His religious scruples led him to prefer

feet high representing a foreign Court.’’4? it to the playhouse, a bias which must have been shared The alternative direction taken by makers of clock- by many.® work figures had wider practical possibilities, because What was billed as a “‘new” form of mechanical enit did not present the dead end of unmanageable size tertainment, the invention of a German artist named and weight. This was the mechanical theatre. It, too, Jacobus Morian, was introduced to London early in owed its origin partly to the puppet shows, because in 1709 at the Duke of Marlborough’s Head, Fleet Street, its carliest form it was simply a mechanized version of by William Pinkethman (Penkethman), a popular low a standard part of the puppet-show repertory. From comedian who was also a fair-booth impresario in the 1620s onward, puppets had often performed what season. The “moving [or mechanical] picture,” as it amounted to fragments of the medieval mystery was regularly called from the start, probably was not cycles: a series of episodes from Scripture beginning as complete a novelty as it was claimed to be. It cer* That 1s, both in physical form with the creation of Adam and Eve, running through tainly had affinities with the Creation entertainments and with imitated sound (at least of the stories of Cain and Abel, Abraham and Isaac, and as well as with the clockwork shows Pepys saw 1n the

bird song)? Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child, and ending, in same period, and if we had more information on these, t Three tableaux anmes dating one version performed at Bartholomew Fair in 1701, the family resemblance between them and Morian’s hry arein the ox Tate exten’ cone with “Rich Dives in Hell, and Lazarus in Abraham’s device would no doubt be clear. From such evidence tional des Arts ct Métiers, Paris The Bosom, scen in a most glorious Object, all in ma- as we have, including several considerably later expicture space enclosed by cach clabo- chines, descending in a Throne, Guarded with mul- amples in modern museums,f it appears that in the rate gilt frame ranges from about titudes of Angels, with the Breaking of the Clouds, moving picture, if not in its immediate antecedents, a 24 x 18 inches to 30 x 24 The me- discovering the Palace of the Sun, in double and frame enclosed a painted background against which a ranged on two or three separate ver- treble Prospects, to the Admiration of all Spectators. varicty of cut-out figures, activated by hidden clocktical planes, are between three and A clockwork adaptation of the Creation scene was work, performed characteristic repetitive motions,

chanized figures and objects, ar- oe 1950 , ,

six inches tall performed in 1661, at the Two Wreathed Posts tavern either fixed in one place or traveling across the scene. 58 The Shows of London

On the continent, such a mechanical picture was called coach that salutes the company; a hunter also and his a Theatrum Mundi. The closest modern analogics no dogs, &c. keep their course till out of sight.’’5* In other doubt would be the moving figures that act as targets words, Pinkethman’s animated painting did what the or incidental decorations in shooting galleries at fairs advertisements claimed. *

and amusement parks or, more elaborately, the ani- Pinkethman’s first show was an immediate success. mated displays assembled in department store show In May 1709 he moved it to the Hospital Tavern, windows at Christmas. One of Pinkethman’s pictures Greenwich, next to his summer theatre,** but he rewas said to consist of “‘above 100” figures, which turned with it to the Duke of Marlborough’s Head for “move their Heads, Legs, Arms and Fingers . . . like the winter season. By that time several rivals, or “‘imliving creatures,’’ as well as ‘‘Ships, Beasts, Fish, Fowl postures’’ as he called them in his advertisements, had

and other Embellishments, some near a Foot in appeared. One, exhibited at the Great House, Strand, height.’* This gives us some indication of scale. near Hungerford Market, was the work of ‘‘a famous Pinkethman’s first moving picture was described in engineer from the camp.’’? Nominally it depicted the

the greatest detail in a handbill: siege of Lille in 1708,F but in some particulars it bore a Part of this fine Picture represents a Landskip, and the other

striking resemblance to its unlocalized prototype:

* , - Len ‘ . ’ Te Te . Ce are concerne . . Swift's brief report to Stella on this

part the Water or Sea: In the Landskip you see a Town, out First, 1t doth represent the confederate camp, and the army of the Gates of which, cometh a Coach nding over a Bridge lying mtrenched before the town; secondly, the convoys and | Equally nnnformaaye so far . through the country, behind, before and between the Trees the mules with prince Eugene’s baggage; thirdly, the English Me OPeratlve Gerayls are CONCETNCE Is

: : : Is. lad . hict or a very simular exhibition m_ 1713

till out of sight; coming on the Bridge, a Gentleman sitting forces commanded by the duke of Marlborough; hkewise, ’

on the Coach, civilly salutes the Spectating Company, the several vessels, laden with provisions for the army, which “TE went to see a famous

turning of the Wheels and Motions of the Horses are plainly are so artificially done as to seem to drive the water before moving Picture, & | never saw anyseen as if natural and Alive. There cometh also from the them. The city and the citadel are very fine, with all its out- thing so pretty You see a Sea ten Town Gate a Hunter on Horseback, with his Doggs behind works, ravelins, hornworks, counter-scarps, half-moons, and miles wide, a Lown on tothr end, & him, and his Horn at his side, coming to the Bridge he taketh palisados; the French horse marching out at one gate, and Ships sailing in the Sea, & disup his Horn and Blows it that it 1s distinctly heard by all the the confederate army marching in at the other; the prince’s charging their Canon You see a spectators. Another Hunter painted as 1f sleeping, and by the travelling coach with two generals in it, one saluting the great Sky with Moon & Stars &c said blowing of the Horn awaking, riseth up his Head, looks company as it passes by; then a trumpeter sounds a call as (Journal to Stella, ed Harold Wilabout, and then lays down his Head again to sleep, to the he rides, at the noise whereof a sleeping centinel starts, and great Amiazement and Diversion of the Company. There are lifts up his head, but, not being espicd, lies down to sleep t This subject reflected the

- . ; hams, Oxford, 1948, II, 647 )

also represented and Painted, Country men and Women, again.” growing tendency of popular Londor

x >. 2— S > S recorded n ) > ~~ .that . *.“‘this ¢ . . . »Creci . 2PW>va Evelyn

Travellers, Cows and Pack horses going along the Road tll Other rival sh a the 1709-10 included shows to have topical content or at out of sight. And at a seeming distance on the Hills are sev- . ther rival snows 1n the ’ season Included one ae ae topical aliens In eral Windmills continually Turning .and Working. a next the Grecian’s Head Coffee-House, | ) ' “> | . ce De hana ve / ine evarFrom ‘vay 1 Door . x9,to 66 . ecartngqudake] OFover JalNalca, oO-

River or Sea port, you see several sorts of Ships and Vessels against Cecil-street in the Strand”: “a PICTURE " 6 P

hich s! by d , h h Gnelv d nb extraordin Master. which has phanely & Ludicrously represented in

putting to Sea, which ships by degrees lessen, to the sight as incly raw , DY an extraordinary via: cr, W cn vas a puppet play, or some such lewd they seem to sail further off Many more Varictics too long many curious and wonderfully pleasing and surprising pass-time in the Faire of Southwarke, to be inserted here, are Painted and Represented in this Pic- Motions in it, all natural.’’°* Still other moving pic- caused the Queene to put-downe & ture to the greatest Admiration, Diversion and Satisfaction tures, subjects unrecorded, could be seen at the Green abolish that idle & vicious mock-

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. . 2 . . : 1 y 2 y . : . . . . the puppet opera added to its bibperfecting it. It was designed for a present to a great Prince in ; ; :; 60 teal Scenes CTPIECE, a au Ingenious Spectators. The Artist Master of this Piece Man tavern, King Street, Bloomsbury Square, and at shew (Diary, V6) In mm yath employed above five years in contriving, making and David Randall’s—earlier, if not still, a dealer in wild - P Ppet ae hoce “the

. animals—in Row, Westminster. Glorious obtained 3: over Germany [theChannel Elector of Bavaria], to be put intoBattle hisSpamards, chicfest a ;the . ~L: : ) Pinkethman soon confronted the competition with a French and by his Grace Cabinet of Greatest Rarities, but that Prince Dying, the : Ib h” (Ble cate new picture of his own, which was advertised in the the Duke of Marlborough” (Blenmaker kept it to himself, and nowPostman presentsfor1t1-3 to March the View andinheim), and the nextcim), yearanaydroll at Diversion of all ingenious Persons.2® 1709/10 such general terms

, 8 . mee «cc Bartholomew Fair on (“drawn by the best hand . capitalized . . has the general appro; the ; € all wh ; ds th ‘inal Earl of Peterborough’s victory the P

Among the first to see the show was Thoresby, who bation of all who sce it, and far exceeds the origina previous October with The Stege of wrote in his diary on 11 February 1708/9, ““The land- formerly shown at the same place’’)*! as to leave us in Barcelona, or The Soldier’s Fortune scape looks as an ordinary picture till the clock-work ignorance of its subject. This show may or may not — with the Taking of lort Mont-Jouy

pode us}. .>. of Queen + ») + * Anne, + ~ + London, . . S ’ . ’3,

behind the curtain be set at work, and then the ships have been the one advertised in the spring of 1711 On Ashton. Socal Tae in the Reign move and sail distinctly upon the sea till out of sight; a as “‘Mr. Penkethman’s Wonderful Invention, call’d 193.94. Sybil Rosenfeld, The Theatre coach comes out of the town, the motion of the horses the Pantheon: Or, the Temple of the Heathen- of the London Fairs im the Lighteenth and wheels are very distinct, and a gentleman in the gods . . . being a most surprizing and Magnificent — Century, Cambridge, 1960, p. 144.) Waxwork and Clockwork 59

Machine, consisting of five several curious Pictures.’ the sweet Harmony of an Aviary of Birds, which 19 imitated It was this which claimed over a hundred figures, to so great Perfection, as not to be distinguished from Nature

some almost a foot high. In later years (1717-1724) itsclf Pinkethman exhibited an claborated derivative of the Uhe other Picture 1s a Landscape, with a View of the Sea, mechanical picture at his summer stands. Called a terminating msensibly ata very great Distance; with Ships

“musical Picture... the ke of which has never saling, plying to Windward, and duniushing by Degrees, as

been scen 1n England,” it was described as “ta machine they sccm fo “ further from the Eye, all at length they dis-

, yO appear, with Fish playing or tumbling in the Sea at the same

in a cabinet” with the Muses shown hovering about Time

the royal family, portrayed here in paintings by Pieter On the Land are Horse-men, Carts, Charses, &c., passing Tillemans of Antwerp, scene designer for the King’s along, the Wheels turnmg round as tho’ on the Road, the

Opera.” Men and Horses altering their Position, to keep themselves

At this tine, Pinkethman acquired a formidable upright, as they come down a steep Hill, and pass through a

rival im the person of Christopher Pinchbeck, who, Valley with his sons Edward and Christopher junior, be- Then, ma fresh Water River are seen Swans swimming, longed equally to show business and the clockmaking fishing and feathering themselves, their Mouons as natural as trade. As a clockmaker he participated in that remark- tho’ really alive. Likewise the sporting of the Dog and Duck

able surge of creativeness, initiated by Thomas Tom- is highly diverting. pion, which resulted im English astronomical clocks, Pinchbeck died in 1732 and his business passed to his chronometers, and other marine instruments being rec- sons, who inherited both their father’s mechanical ognized as the best in the world and gave English ingenuity and his showmanship. About 1742 they proseamen the accurate navigational tools they needed. duced a new version of the musical clock, the Panop-

Pinchbeck himsclf, however, was less interested in ticon:* a “Triangular Musical Machine with six making such instruments than in producing barrel moving Pictures, which is universally allowed, from organs for country churches and musical automatons its beautiful Structure, the vast Variety of its Motions, such as singing birds. The inclination that led him to and the Harmony of its Music, to be the first Piece of specialize in clockwork machinery for public con- Mechanism of its Magnitude in Europe.’’®* In addition sumption also led him directly toward show business; to a representation of a concert at a country fair, there and alone or in partnership with a veteran of the enter- were scenes of a shipbuilding yard, a founder’s shop, a tainment trade, one Fawkes, he was a well-known fig- snuthy, a stonemason’s yard, all in action, and a landure at the fairs. While Pinkethman displayed his scape with nulls working, carriages passing, and a dog moving musical picture of the royal family, Pinchbeck and duck hunting. showed “that most Delightful and Surprizing Piece of The Pinchbecks had started a fashion which merged ART, the GRAND THEATRE of the MUSES.’ the utilitarian (sophisticated clockwork mechanisms, Valued for publicity purposes at 700 guineas, this mas- casily adapted to practical uses) with the artistic terpiece of the creative clockmaker’s art was to be seen (baroque elaboration, with particular use of classical for a number of years at various locales—Barthol- themes). While a “Grand Theatre of Arts, or Musical omew Fair mm summer, at other times at the Great Machine Clock . . . which for its surprising MoveRoom in Panton Street and the old Tennis Court ments, and beautiful Musick on the Organ surpasses Theatre, James Street. It was most fully described in an all that was ever made of the kind” was on display at advertisement of 1729, inviting visitors to the former Mile End Fair in 1738,°° other craftsmen were conSouth Sea coffechouse, Bishopsgate Street: structing exhibition pieces in which the mechanical as-

1 lerfial and M ; MACHINE | | pect was subordinated to the artistic. The clock and the * Like some other words comed in oe pee i taf rovers Pretuare The On. ok, musical and figure-activating mechanisms having been

the Loidon exhibition trade. “baron. a . é oe 7playmg developed farLyre, as present resourcescxact allowed, + anor PHEUS 1ntric a Forest, onashis and beating A: attention ; :; .

con” 15 incompletely traced in the Time with his Head and Foot to every Punc, among a great HOW shifted to the cabinet. At the Mitre, Charing Oxford Lnglish Dictionary The Pinch- number of wild Beasts, who, by their various Motions. Seem Cross, was shown in 174 | | The Microcosm, or The

Beckum vccurence m not noted the to be animated and charm'd by his Harmony. wore m Nuniature, sant " the form of av Roman instrument mentioned by Benjamin At the same Time it performs on several Instruments, emipie Dy rrenty bridges, who 1S variously Franklin m 1768 Jeremy Bentham great Variety of fine Pieces of MUSICK, composed by Mr. described as the architect or the carpenter of Waltham used the word considerably later for HANDEL[,}] CORELLI, and other celebrated Masters, 1n so Abbcy. This was a complicated astronomical show-

his model prison ) excellent a Manner, that scarce any Hand can equal Likewise piece, the “outward structure” being “ta most beautiful 60 The Shows of London

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composition of Architecture, Sculpture, and Paint- showman Yeates (Yates) had “‘a curious piece of Italian ing.”’®® Some twelve hundred wheels and_ pinions machinery, nine feet high and eight feet wide” with combined to keep things moving. To a musical accom- either two or three hundred figures—the sources paniment, the stars and planets went through their re- differ—moved by clockwork. Ten years later Fawkes spective evolutions, including a solar eclipse; the nine and a Pinchbeck son had ‘fa machine showing the muses played on musical instruments; Orpheus was Siege of Carthagena”’ at Southwark Fair, and at Barseen in a forest, playing his lyre, as in Pinchbeck’s ear- tholomew Fair in 1747 there were mechanical rep-

lier machine; in a carpenter’s yard, a number of resentations of the sicge of Bergen op Zoom and of workmen addressed themselves to their various tasks; unbesieged Venice. At the same fair in 1758 the capbirds flew, perched, twittered, and warbled in a “‘de- ture of Louisburg and Cape Breton was depicted.”

lightful grove’; and across a capacious landscape Although after the early decades of the century memoved the by now standard array of ships under sail, chanical pictures were seen mainly at the fairs, they occoaches and carts with their wheels revolving, swans casionally reappeared indoors. At Exeter Change in swimming and feathering themselves, dogs and ducks 1769, for instance, there was a “Grand Illuminated Ex-

sporting.’? The makers’ inventiveness scems not to hibition in the Italian Taste’ portraying the death have extended very far in the direction of new subjects. of Sisecra. The “figures in relief as large as the life’’ “That noble pile,” as a later advertisement called it, moved against a background of ‘“‘mechanical perspec-

was displayed periodically in London, as well as tive’ including “ruins, water-falls, woods, hills, throughout England, Europe, and ‘the English lawns. . . . The whole illuminated with an innumerAmerica” for the next forty years. The music that able quantity of lamps on a new construction.’’7° A Handel was said to have written for it actually was later show at Exeter Change (1772) belonged to the composed for an organ of the Earl of Bute, to which same genre. The scene was a gentleman’s estate, with cylinders had been added in the Microcosm manner.”! buildings, grottoes, temples, alcoves, cascades, ponds, Another such edifice, unveiled the same year (1741) and so on, and the two-inch-high figures were of ladies

as the Microcosm, was the “Temple of Arts and Sci walking in the gardens, artisans plying their trades, ences” built by Nathaniel Edmunds of St. Saviour’s deer running in the park, and a six-horse chariot going Dock Head, Southwark: a mahogany Roman temple at full speed.” representing, on its four sides, the Palace of Harmony There was a distinct revival of interest in moving (geography and astronomy), Night (music), Phoebus pictures in the 1770s. In 1776 a member of a famous Going through the Twelve Signs (mathematics), and family of Swiss clockwork specialists, Henri-Louis the School of Athens (painting).”2 How much action Jaquet-Droz, opened his Spectacle Mécanique, or Meoccurred is not clear, but the Handelian musical chanical Exhibition, at the Great Room, 6 King Street, accompaniment, at least, was driven by clockwork. Covent Garden. The more traditional attraction was Contemporary newspaper clippings reflect a massive what must have been one of the most claborate melack of public encouragement. No doubt there was a chanical pictures ever devised, though it had an area of limit to the number of Temples of Arts people would no more than four and a half fect square. Spread across pay to see and hear. Even so, these imposing machines the lower part, or foreground, were a palace and formal continued to be exhibited at the fairs. As late as 1789 a garden, with fountains playing and a clock striking the

mixed bill at Bartholomew Fair that included con- hours. But most of the action occurred in what was

juring tricks, fantoccini (marionettes), and a miniature called a “grotto,” behind and above the palace. Here “opera” ended with the showman Flockton’s display scores of miniature figures went through an intricate of his “‘grand and inimitable MUSICAL CLOCK, at program against the pasteboard-and-clay background first view, a curious organ, exhibited three times be- of a Swiss landscape. The sun rose and proceeded fore their Majestics.”” Nine hundred figures, it was across the sky in accordance with the seasons of the said, could be seen working at their various trades.” year; a shepherd and shepherdess played tunes on a But it was the older mechanical theatres and moving flute and guitar; a dog barked and frisked, sheep grazed

pictures, usually devoid of musical accompaniment, and bleated, a cow fed her calf, a loaded donkey which had the most durable appeal to fairgoers. In plodded along a path, singing birds flew through a 1719 a Mr. De Lepine exhibited a clockwork theatre wood, fruit trees blossomed and bore fruit. Flanking which performed a pantomimic opera.“4 At both all these activities were a chalet and a mill with a Bartholomew and Tottenham fairs in 1731 the veteran running stream.”8 62 The Shows of London

In addition to this busy scene, Jaquet-Droz exhibited of the period, ‘“‘was an object of curiosity to all the three separate, almost life-size automaton figures; ac- amateurs of mechanical inventions, and must have cording to a newspaper advertisement, ‘“‘one figure been very lucrative to the ingenious artist, who could writes whatever is dictated to it, another draws and not have been more than twenty-five.’’*° (He was actufinishes in a masterly manner several curious designs; ally twenty-four.) Whether the exhibition drew as

another plays divers Airs on the Harpsichorde.’’” many patrons as it deserved, we have no way of ‘The tout ensemble,” wrote Henry Angelo, the fencing knowing. But Jaquet-Droz’s show proved to have master whose Reminiscences are a uscful but sometimes been the prelude to a new chapter in the history of unreliable source of information on some of the shows London’s automaton exhibitions.

Waxwork and Clockwork 63

Eeeeee

xhibitions of Mechanical Ingenuity

Jaquet-Droz’s Spectacle Mécanique exhibited to- ingenuity. “To collect the productions of art [i-¢., ingether what previously had been two rather distinct vention], and examples of mechanical science or manspecies in the broad genus of automatons.’ The ual ability,” wrote Dr. Johnson in the Rambler (no. 83), moving-picture, musical-clock tradition represented ‘4s unquestionably useful, even when the things themby his Swiss landscape involved a number of miniature selves are of small importance, because it is always ad-

figures, representing both living beings and inanimate vantageous to know how far the human powers have objects, which were part of a composition and were proceeded, and how much experience has found to be activated by a central power source, usually a clock- within the reach of diligence. . . . It may sometimes work. Although the program might be fairly clabo- happen that the greatest efforts of ingenuity have been rate, on the whole the action of the figures was so exerted in trifles, yet the same principles and expedirepetitious as to forestall any illusion that they were ents may be applicd to more valuable purposes, and actually alive. There was little attempt at verisimili- the movements which put into action machines of no tude. By contrast, the automaton writer, draftsman, use but to raise the wonder of ignorance, may be emand musician were independent figures, cach with its ployed to drain fens, or manufacture metals, to assist

own mechanism and belonging to no composition; the architect, or preserve the sailor.’ they approached life size; their actions were less re- Despite England’s eminence in clockwork manufacpetitive, more “realistic”; and they were explicitly ture, the first notable sclf-acting figure, like Pinintended to give the illusion of life. The fundamental kethman’s first moving picture, came from abroad. Its difference between the two categories, therefore, was inventor was Jacques de Vaucanson, of whom Voltaire

the relative emphasis placed on mimesis and mecha- wrote,

nism. Which was the spectator to admire more, the illu- . . ee sive representation of life or the sheer gadgetry in- we hardi Vaucanson, rival de Promethce, . . c Semblait, de la nature imitant les ressorts, volved in producing that illusion? Prendre le feu des cicux pour animer les corps.*

_ X po er les corps. The choice was typical of the age. The ill-educated

who gaped at automatons at the cighteenth-century No mere charlatan, Vaucanson was a serious scientist London fairs still retained vestiges of the superstitious and inventor who deserved the high regard in which awe with which their forefathers had looked on the contemporary savants held him. He belongs to the hisBoxley cross with its crude motions. The sophisti- tory of French science and technology rather than of cated, on the other hand, regarded the automatons and English showmanship, where his fame rests solely on other machines to be described in this chapter as dra- the figures he displayed in action four times daily in matic evidence of their age’s unprecedented technical the Long Room of the Opera House, Haymarket, in

1742: a flute player, a performer on the tabor (drum) Annals, by Dissolution, not Trituration, as some natural

and pipe, and a duck. Philosophers will have it. . . . | only pretend to imitate the The flute player had evoked much skepticism when Mechanism of that Action in three Things, Viz. First, to it was shown in Paris six years earlier, because people swallow the Corn; secondly, to macerate or dissolve 1t; still remembered an “automaton” harpsichord player thirdly, to make it come out sensibly changed from what tt

which taken in the1tlearned the court we: for .. . ae ihad Nevertheless, was nomen casyand Matter to finduntil Means ; 7 ® e three Actions, and those Means may perhaps deserve discovered a five-ycar-old girl inside. Vaucanson dis- some Attention from those that may expect more. They will Louis XV, insisting on examining the hidden works, those three Actions. and those Me haps deserve

armed his potential critics by allowing a committee of see what Contrivances have been made use of to make this the Académie des Sciences to inspect the flute player’s artificial Duck take up the Corn, and suck it up quite to its machinery for themselves. Having done so, they Stomach; and there in a little Space to make a Chynnical Elab-

promptly concluded in astonishment that no trickery oratory to decompound or separate the Integrant Parts of was involved. The inventor went on to create a more the Food, and then drive it away at Pleasure thro’ Circumvocomplicated figure, of which we have a fuller account, lutions of Pipes, which discharge it at the other End of the

because Vaucanson’s own description of it was copied Body of the Duck.’ in Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie and pub- For an explanation of how it was actually done, how-

lished in an English translation by the Prince of ever, we must turn to the great nineteenth-century Wales’s chaplain.* This figure, dressed like a dancing French conjuror Robert-Houdin, who makes it sound shepherd, held a pipe in onc hand and a stick in the embarrassingly simple: other, ‘‘with which he strikes on the Tabor single and double strokes, Rollings varied for all the Tunes, and A vase, containing seed stecped In water, was placed before keeping Time with what is play’d with the Pipe in the the bird. The motion of the bill in dabbling crushed the food, other Hand... . The Mechanism for this consists in and facilitated its introduction into a pipe placed beneath the

-o., . oo, lower bill. The water and seed thus swallowed fell into a box

an infinite Combination of Levers, and different placed under the bird’s stomach, which was emptied every Springs, all moved with Exactness to keep true to the three or four days. The other part of the operation was thus Tune.” The flageolet, though it had only three holes, effected: Bread-crumb, colored green, was expelled by a was capable of twenty tunes, which were made pos- forcing pump, and carefully caught on a silver salver as the sible by variations of the force of the wind, produced result of artificial digestion. This was handed round to be adby a miniature bellows, and the different degrees with mured, while the ingenious trickster laughed in his sleeve at which the holes were covered. The effect, 1t was said, the credulity of the public.*

was supcrior [0 that of human performers, whose Robert-Houdin may not have shown sufficient respect tongue could not articulate the notes with the speed of for his illustrious predecessor, but there is pleasure in

the machine.° . the notion of a group of French or English scientists Vaucanson’s gilded-copper duck was even More gravely examining the end product of an artificial

marvelous. “‘It executed accurately all [a natural bird s] duck: it 1s too bad that by 1742 Swift’s mind had detemovements and gestures, it ate and drank with avidity, riorated so far that he was incapable of appreciating the

performed all the quick motions of the head and throat scene. We do, however, possess the reaction of which are peculiar to the living animal, and like it, it Hogarth, who was unable to perceive even praisewormuddled the water which it drank with its bill.’’® It thy realism, Iet alone a scientific marvel, in Vaualso quacked. But its most spectacular accomplishment canson’s invention: was digestion. There was brought from France some years ago, a little I represent [Vaucanson wrote] the Mechanism of the Intes- clock-work machine, with a duck’s head and legs fixed to it,

tines which are employed in the operations of Eating, which was so contrived as to have some resemblance to that Drinking, and Digestion: Wherem the Working of all the fowl standing upon one foot, and stretching back its leg, Parts necessary for those Actions 1s exactly imitated. The turning its head, opening and shutting its bill, moving tts Duck stretches out its Neck to take Corn out of your Hand; wings, and shaking its tail; all of them the plainest and easiest

it swallows it, digests it, and discharges it digested by the directions in living movements, yet for the poorly perusual Passage. You see all the Actions of a Duck that forming of these few motions, this silly, but much extolled swallows greedily, and doubles the Swiftness in the Motion machine, being uncovered, appeared a most complicated, of its Neck and Throat or Gullet to drive the Food into its confused, and disagreeable object: nor would its being covStomach, copied from Nature: The Food 1s digested as 1n real ered with a skin closely adhering to its parts, as that of a real Exhibitions of Mechanical Ingenuity 65

duck does, have much mended its figure; at best, a bag of auditors. “She is apparently agitated with an anxiety hob-nails, broken hinges, and patten-rings, would have and diffidence not always felt in real life,” wrote one looked as well, unless by other means 1t had been stuffed out spectator; “‘her eyes then seem intent on the notes, her

to bring it into form.* bosom heaves.’’'? Apart from the “anxiety and diffiThe accomplished and indefatigable duck was toured dence,”’ this was no mere fancy; the figure’s eyes did for the rest of the century. Goethe saw it at Helmstadt move, her bosom did heave, her fingers did alight on

in 1805, by which time it could eat its oats but not the appropriate keys, her feet did beat time. She had a digest them. Its condition worsened until it was res- repertory of sixteen or eighteen tunes, the natural cued by the owners of a traveling museum of automa- notes of which she produced at the keyboard and the tons in Prague (1839) and rehabilitated by a specialist sharps and flats by pressing the pedal. At the end of a

in clockwork who required three and a half years selection she rose and bowed again. for the job. Thereafter it resumed its travels, which The automaton writer was a figure of a boy about ended obscurely at Dresden carly in the twentieth cen- eight years old, seated at a desk. With a card or sheet of

tury. !° paper before him, he dipped a pen into an inkstand, The second European mechanician to excite London shook off the excess ink, and proceeded to copy a sen-

with his automatons, thirty-four years later, was tence from a specimen of handwriting on the desk, Henri-Louis Jaquet-Droz. His three figures—the leaving the proper spaces between words and lines, writer, draftsman, and harpsichord player—repre- differentiating between capitals and small letters, and sented the highest state of complexity and sophistica- meticulously going back to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.

tion the art of automaton making had yet attained. The draftsman was capable of filling six successive When they were exhibited in Paris before being cards of “Dutch vellum’ with different pictures, brought to London in 1776, Vaucanson, it was said, beginning with portraits of the king and queen facing would have exclaimed, “Jeune homme, vous com- each other. Maillardet subsequently exhibited a combimencez par ou j’aurais voulu finir!’’"' After their nation writer-draftsman of his own creation, which London run, these first-generation Jaquet-Droz fig- was capable, in the course of an hour, of inscribing ures, along with the mechanical picture of the Swiss three landscapes and four picces of writing in English landscape, went on tour on the continent, spent the and French. years of the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, then resumed To the three classic Jaquet-Droz figures Maillardet their wanderings through western Europe; they evi- added a fourth, a magician, which sat holding a wand dently never returned to England.* But replicas, built in one hand and a book of necromancy in the other. A by the firm of Jaquet-Droz and Leschot in Geneva spectator chose one of a score of oval medallions, cach (makers also of elaborate clocks and watches, mechan- of which had a different question inscribed on it (for ical singing birds, and other novelties lavishly fash- example, ‘“What is the most universal passion?”’), and ioned from clockwork, gems, and precious metals), inserted it into a slot. The magician then rose, bowed, were shown in London well into the nineteenth cen- waved his wand, and consulted the book. Raising the tury. Their proprictor in earlier years was Henri Mail- wand again, he struck it against the wall behind him

lardet, another Swiss clock- and automaton-artificer and a pair of doors flew open, displaying the answer who managed the London branch of the Geneva firm (“Love’’). When the doors closed, the medallion was from 1783 to about 1790, when it was forced into liq- returned to stock. One winding of the machinery was

uidation. good for an hour. The secret was a simple one: “The

The harpsichord-playing automaton Maillardet medallions had holes, which did not precisely correexhibited was familiarly known as ‘The Musical spond, and these were brought into contact with

* After extensive tours during the Lady” in allusion to a popular farce derived from needles, so as to produce a different result with each rest of the nineteenth century, the George Colman’s The Jealous Wife (1761). Valued at medallion.’’'4 in 1909 at the Musée d’Art et d’His- £420), she was described in the accounts of Jaquet-Droz Maillardet’s rival in the mid-1790s was a man named torre, Neuchatel, not far from their and Leschot as “‘an organ mechanism with two regis- Haddock, who had a show at 38 Norfolk Street, birthplace at La Chaux-de-Fonds In ters and bellows; the figure of a girl automaton playing Strand, under the interchangeable names of the Mcperfect repair, they give public per- a harpsichord under instruction with wheel train, hand chanic Theatre and the Androides. Several of the autoevery month The mechanical land- movements, etc. The advertising and the testimony maton figures here had a lineage reaching all the way scape seems to have disappeared of eyewitnesses flesh out this prosaic description. back to a show by one Balducci which was at the Red during the troupe’s stay in Spain Seated at the keyboard, she began by bowing to her Lion inn, Pall Mall, in 1738 and subsequently toured

three automatons settled permanently 8 J ife ( ) edalllo

formances on the first Sunday of 1912 _ ; ; 66 The Shows of London

a a . jee 3 3 4 oo o - O VF ee ee ; abo Fok Lon 3 ee ‘ , 7eg & ry : arRee \; reeteoS4 “ ig |

erooeen a eey ee 2 { ow 10.. Jaquet-Droz’s Ss‘a;ee awa B writer, “ . . -. ofautomaton 2 ; ;player, and rare anewee agate -“selene *4 a. ge.oe \ 7 ¥“spB= a ~ at \: '}‘fe (H7 = nal harpsichord PO ae MR od a Pe CRN ac’ aie fn draftsman (unsigned, undated ena a ve aS os .. ants a y eA ‘| ‘. cas ee ce ee Pet 2 eS e al bs a y 4: N “he. i: ry . k |. a he: -. th . >» 2. Droz — | @a vo TA Ve, RE Cab graving). (2 Seo as. Te er4 eas : . cour aoa q Afw Saal a4 |Ee a . Re|od* oh a:ty, t EJ oe Wa + ~ me t f es =: f tab. he to an

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ges4ee -= t *Va SR eer tiie a iFo 2Os ne.gee toemo the NP ot FRR 8% phe osaUG AP hy ON Se Me SOS 4: Poe ees. w 4Se poy ea “age hog w/a TINO eS ie y rr , Ja Ry a ee * Oe oe ~ "eee sag ee 2 ey Re. oo Sat * i. > TX j ‘ ” oy

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she concludes ~otight to rec apture Merlin’sand. obvienele snot Tot chee hat he tion of the most delicate pieces of machinery [The same com-

in technology the supernatural world ; eee ys ‘ ‘ bination of the mechanical powers which made the spider it had lost.” (The Power of the Char- cernible utilitarian value; the rest, notwithstanding the crawl, or which waved the tiny rod of the magician, contrib-

latan, trans Mortam Beard, New Museu guide's spirited defense of Cox's productions uted in future years to purposes of higher import. Those Haven, 1939, pp 233-35, 241) in the scene in Evelina, were intended solely to amuse. wheels and prmons, which almost cluded our senses by their + Brewster 1s referrmg to the Yet, as Dr. Johnson intimated, the principles they nunuteness, reappeared in the stupendous mechanism of our gimbals, a device for mounting a embodied, and the craftsmanship required to build spinning-miachines, and our steam-engines The elements ot navigational instrument so that it re- them, could readily be adapted to useful purposes. the tumbling puppet were revived in the chronometer, tains its eqtuhbrium: despite the angle Even where technology could not be directly trans- which now conducts our navy through the ocean; fF and the

the ship assumes But his statement ferred, the mere example of clever mechamiec- shapcless wheel which directed the hand of the drawing au-

Is inaccurate The gimbals were not | i Ah d be suc ol tomaton has served m the present age to guide the move-

orginally a showman’s mechanism, ° rownten, on men ™ © PUTPOFres roe sie magnet ments of the tambouring cngine. Phose mechanical wonders

me oly first we about en or heat hee practies Ted. the the Re holneay at vine which in one century enriched only the conjyuror who ships’ lamps and compasses, thus ock in the summer o the Reverend Edmune moe : -used ae Pe ently ne them trom Cartwrieht. brother of the han who brought the Es. them, contributed tm another to augment the wealth of the

the sailor Moreover, the Hirst suc “« BNC, “ee ‘ 4 . C ES nation; and those automatic toys which once amused the cessful chronometer, made by John kimos to London, fell into conversation with some vulgar, are now employed mm extending the power and pro-

Harrison, did not use gimbals, gentlemen from Manchester on the subject of moting the avilization of our species. ! although he had mcorporated them in three preceding models (Rupert T Gould, The Marine Chronometer [ts History and Development, 1923, re-

printed London, 1960, pp 28, 50)

76 The Shows of London

W | Celestial Bed ater,| Fire, Air, and a Celestial Be

The serious world of learning and the lighter world of neering for the sake of beauty. In their formal gardens, entertainment shared the latest fruits of man’s progress water, channeled mto canals and basins and expelled in studying and beginning to master his environment. from fountains, was as vital to the total aesthetic effect While the clockwork pictures and automatons adapted as the work of the gardener and the topiarist; later, for the purposes of amusement some of the mechanical when taste turned away from the classical style, the

principles that were ushering in the age of industri- same water was diverted into cleverly constructed alism, London shows mirrored some of the advances “natural” cascades. Evelyn’s diary often reflects the being made in such diverse fields as astronomy, chem- rage for this typically Renaissance merging of science istry, microscopy, acronautics, and enginecring. Here, and spectacle. At Amsterdam in 1641 he visited a rich

as in the popular versions of virtuosi’s cabincts, Anabaptist who had the distinction between sheer entertainment and the sat-

isfaction of intellectual curiosity often was blurred. divers pretty Water workes . . . here were many quaint deSometimes, once imagines, the diversion-secking vices, fountaines, artificiall musique, noyses of beasts & showgoers picked up a scrap or two of knowledge chirping of birds ote; but what I most admir'd then, was a in spite of themselves and the learned, some amuse- lamp of brasse, projecting cight socckctts from the middle

ment. stemm, Tike to those we use in Churches, which having The seventeenth century’s ambivalent interest in hy- countertert lights or Tapers in them, had streames of Water

. i ar . issuing, as out of their Wieekes or Snuffs: the whole branch

draulics well typificd the indistinctness of that border- hanging all this while loose upon a [s]talk in the middst of a line. Although in the long run the primary treatises on beame, and without any other perceptible commerce with the subject, the records of experiment and invention, any pipe; so that unlesse it were by compression of the ayre were most important for their eventual contribution to with a syringe, 1] could not comprehend how it should be

the Industrial Revolution, in their own time a few also done!

served in effect as handbooks of magical illusion—how-to-do-it repositorics of tricks involv- In view of the widespread enthusiasm for scientific ing, among other things, the use of water to produce and technological novelties, especially if they were acstartling and mysterious effects. This newly acquired companied by a piquant air of mystification, it would

scientific knowledge of the properties of water have been odd if no attempt had been made to produce had reverberations, as well, in the life of the court and effects such as Evelyn described for a paying public. aristocracy in both France and England. Playing with One such venture was actually undertaken some years water was a delightful occupation for the leisured class, before the first clockwork moving picture was intro-

harnessing as it did the principles of science and engi- duced in London. Although it seems to have been

fairly successful, it left little record, and we have less Milk, Whey .. . New Butter, [and] Butter Milk” practical knowledge of how it worked than we would were added to the menu.® wish. The inventor, a retired mercer named William The water theatre’s program included a number of Winstanley, was an amateur mechanist. At his estate at other hydraulic and pyrotechnic performances, some Littlebury, Essex, he passed his time inventing various of which required, if the advertisements are to be parlor tricks—a method of raising a ghost from the trusted, as much as 800 tuns (200,000 gallons) of water. floor, an armchair that imprisoned anyone who sat in There were “two flying Boys with a flaming Torch, it—as well as designing a fantastic pagoda-shaped playing of Water out of the Burning Flame’; ‘‘a flying lighthouse, which was erected at the Eddystone rocks fiery Dragon, out of whose Mouth comes great Fire off the Cornish coast in 1696.2 This ‘‘Merlin of his Balls, flames of Fire,” and perfumes; a “Garland of day,”’ as he once was called, also experimented with Wheat playing of Water in a curious manner’’; and hydraulics. In the same year the lighthouse was built, ‘Bacchus squeezing the purple Juice out of the Evelyn recorded that he visited Lord Cheyne at Grapes.” The bill was heavily mythological in theme: Chelsea, where he ‘‘saw those ingenious Water works there were sea gods and goddesses, nymphs, merinvented by Mr. Vinstanley wherein were some things maids, and satyrs galore, a flying Zephcerus, a Flora

very surprising & extraordinary.’ who presented the spectators with a basket of fruit,

What these were can only be inferred from such evi- and ‘“‘Galuthetis’s [Galatea’s] Flight from Polydence as we have of ‘“‘Winstanley’s Water Theatre,”’ pheme . . . carried in state by Neptune attended by which was open in London at least as early as May many Figures playing of Water, and some with Fire 1703, six months before the inventor was swept away mingling with it.” The last program offered at the in a storm that destroyed his hghthouse. Thencefor- water theatre before its lease expired and it was forced ward, the theatre, with a windmill atop it to operate to close (August 1720) seems to have been the most the pumps, was managed by Winstanley’s widow and elaborate of all:

his former employees. Von Uffenbach visited it in ; June 1710: ... a Harvest Field, withsweetCorn and Reapers, Fruit and Flowers, playing Water, which a flying Cupid presents [t is ammediately behind St. James Park and 1s an Ordinary to the Spectators, with good Brandy, cool Tankards, Biskets,

theater, in which all kinds of water effects are represented. Beer, Ale, Milk, Syllabubs, Coffee and Tea. The curious They all depend on the vat that stands in the middle, but the Barrel plays its Part, then is broke in Pieces, leaving a Flame inner mechanism could not be seen. All kinds of tubes may of Fire that burns in the Water. Venus 1s with her flaming be set on the vat, yust as one pleases, and pulled towards the Heart that burns in the Water, after that she appears with the end of the theatre, while some fellow blows into them from Golden Ball in the triumphant Chariot, the Graces attending above. In the vat they have put a tea- and coffee-pot, from her with Garlands; Apollo 1s bathing; they are attended by the top of which water 1s tapped, as though it were springing Cupids, Doves and Swans; Daphny 1s turnd to a Tree, and

up out of it. Above on the ceiling there were pulleys, to Narcissus to Flowers; with many more Metamorphoses; Juwhich a coffee-tray was fastened with ropes, so that it could piter is there with his Thunder and Lightning; god Rivers be drawn hither and thither in the theatre and offered to the and his Daughters; Gods, and Goddesses, Nymphs, Merpeople of highest rank. Finally all the jets played on the stage, maids, and Satyrs, from Hills, Groves, and Fountains, mect and that, with the glass candle-sticks in which candles were in Triumph, all playing Water mingled with Fire, which falls burning, looked very well. The theatre 1s elegant, although it into delightful Cascades, to the Expence of 100 Tons of

is only made of painted wood.4 Water extraordinary.®

The “magic barrel” trick, which is none too satisfac- The “curious barrel,” so prolific, so inexhaustible, torily described by Von Uffenbach, was always the so versatile, seems to have been a sophisticated model main attraction. Usually a variety of beverages was of a device apparently first described in English in a dispensed from it—‘‘seven sorts of Liquors both hot classic work on conjuring, Mathematicall Recreations and cold,” promised one advertisement—but some- (1633). The text (“Problem LXIII: Of a vessell which times ‘“‘the Curious Barril’’ was enlarged into a containes three severall kinds of liquor, all put in at “Spring Garden, entertaining the Boxes and Pit with one bung-hole, and drawne out at one tappe severally Cool Tankards, Spaw Waters, Bisquits, Milk, Ale, without mixture’) and the accompanying illustration Beer, Sullibubs, Cake, and Cheese Cakes,”’ and when reveal that the vessel was divided into partitions it was made into a dairy, “several sorts of Creams, and that the separation of the several liquors was main78 The Shows of London

tained by a system of stopcocks. Only three liquors rockets whose flames emerged from both the mouth could be accommodated in the vessel shown, but the and the tail. Bate concludes with directions for conprinciple could casily be applied to as many as prom- structing a dolphin: Make a pasteboard body, fill it

ised in the Winstanley publicity. with rockets, smear it all over with “pap”? made of As for the busy mythological characters and their gunpowder, sulphur, and so on; then ‘‘binde unto it a feats with water and flame, sometimes accompanied large Rocket for the water, which Rocket must be by sound effects, a work published the very next year armed . . . that the water may not hurt it, then balafter Mathematicall Recreations, John Bate’s The Mys- last it with a wyre, hauing at each end a picce of lead teryes of Nature and Art, provides clues enough, of weight sufficient, and it is done.”’ although Winstanley obviously claborated upon the From such suggestions, found in these and possibly rudimentary devices described there. Bate gives in- later books, Winstanley evidently developed waterstructions for creating numerous effects by using and-fire tricks on a scale large enough to be seen by all systems of pipes, glass or brass vessels, pumps, cis- who paid 2s. 6d. to sit in a box, 2s. for a place in the pit, terns, floats, and fire to produce water under pressure and is. 6d. for one in the first gallery. Since a draft of or in the form of steam. The animals and mythological the beverage of one’s choice from the bottomless figures were, in every case, introduced merely to lend barrel was included in the price, this would seem to dramatic color to a series of conjuring tricks based on have been fair enough. hydraulic principles; in form and function they were Winstanley had no monopoly on his devices. In not far removed from clock jacks. Thus, appropriate 1710, a variation of the curious barrel, called the “new combinations of apparatus could make Hercules draw Mathematical Fountain,’”’ was exhibited at the Black a bow at a hissing dragon, birds chirp, trumpets sound, Horse tavern, Hosier Lane, West Smithfield. A handand wheels turn. Weather glasses and water clocks, bill described it as ‘“‘a large piece of Water Work, too, could be adapted to theatrical use; for example, a twelve foot long and nine foot high . . . made in figure of Time or Death (a skeleton with an hour glass) white flint glass, in which is a Tavern, a Coffee house pointed with his dart to a pillar on which the hours and a Brandy shop, which at your command runs at werc inscribed, and ‘‘the dropping of the water out of one Cock hot and Cold liquor, as Sack, White wine, the cock thorow the hole of the board whcron the Claret, Coffee, Tea, Content, plain, cherry and Rasimage standeth, causeth the same to ascend little by berry Brandy, Geneva, Usquebaugh [distilled spirits],

little.”’ and Punch. All these liquors of themselves rising much

The most elaborate trick Bate describes, the one higher than their level, and each liquor drawn singly at which brings us closest to what happened in Win- one Cock.” The proprietor, Charles Butcher, constanley’s Water Theatre, was produced by a com- cluded, in the poetic vein of Don Saltero on the other plicated device involving a “leaden moat,” several side of town:

cisterns, a three-level frame, pumps, jacks, weights, ; a ; For your own eyes believe, springs, andsatisfaction piping. When the machine was ,, “ ; ; ; Art cannot blind you, nor your working, taste deceive;

the water could be seen “breaking out into the fashions Com, and welcom my friends, and tast e’re you pass, and formes of Dragons, Swans, Whales, Flowers, and It’s but 6d. to sce ’t and 2d. cach glass.”

such like pretty conceits’’; other streams turned wheels, and at the top of the structure could be seen In one version or another, this automated cocktail ‘Neptune riding on a Whale, out of whose nostrils, as lounge lasted down to the end of the century and also out of Neptunc’s Trident, the water may be made beyond. In 1796-97 one of the automatons at Had-

to spin through small pin-holes.”’ dock’s Androides exhibition was a liquor merchant The second part of Bate’s treatise deals with standing at a cask from which it drew, “‘at the choice of fireworks, with special attention to devices which the Company, any of the following Liquors, Rum, went off in or atop water, “Rockets, Dolphins, Ships, Brandy, Gin, Whisky, Port, Mountain Shrub, Raisin Tumbling Balls.” Particularly appropriate for displays Wine, Peppermint, Aniseed, Caraway, and Usinvolving mythological figures would have been quebah.’’® Two decades later (1816-1818) a distiller “flying dragons’”’ such as were actually seen at Win- who drew cight different kinds of liquor from a single stanley’s. They were made with a painted framework barrel was among the automatons displayed by Jack of light wood or thin whalebones and energized by Bologna, member of a well-known family of acrobats Water, Fire, Air, and a Celestial Bed 79

. vr ca ol, ili ee gee efits, eee ag 15. Hydraulick Water Works (as , | , om gels i : sxhibite ixeter-Change in the boy | . on on * < .'*. _ sa Exhibited at Eixeter-Che x , PS ce “, MN ~— Sites Ss \p Se

Strand) by Mr. Jas. Bourter, AMe- a, ™ ~.. M we a S Ne PS Rg a ee “s at chanist to the King Poland, 7(unnay. TG |. :PL, ~ |er. MA a Me 2,| te ft i signed, undated chalkof sketch). yb sy Seat ae ome © Ss he ; ee 4) ws Mitts PO eee f, tae ce ei gat ae

ee I: |*3 i4g ’ ‘Nhe, nofF.5 SvV\ ~.Si a im’ 1@ni| ES wp: i" ¥ a: / ¥ea*oT B; 'i oA AS? Ae ‘yy ~ FX >NS Ld Boe | te rie ©, : R, 2. ~ he ' ~ fy tz a e i . } ij 1 r- Ra tow a fg Bit bit . A at \-

me tA 2!*y ~ Fe. yO “| nw > i |).Sy ee? i 34,8ee ‘ sey CNBR Ge : wk RL T2008 Se 4i xs ‘| oh anA {.|4.Pee Whi ce weo_O Sig tity : Por ¥, a yo t Xx Me;kee 8 ae re e. cate ; .. Ne woe... ~~, veh -* ¥ae. oe:serswy Sneeb\tyne» Pate

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and clowns who occasionally exploited his fame as a duced hydraulically: “in a very large bason, a vast star in pantonume by putting on miscellaneous exhibi- number of ducks, of a natural size, spouting the water,

tions in the off scason.® as well as a dog who pursues and dives after them.”’ Other hydraulic tricks turned up here and there. The whole show was “‘illuminated by a great quantity Early in the century, for example, a revival of the Cre- of reverberatories [reflector lamps] which the Sicur

ation of the World show at Bartholomew Fair added an Bourier has imported from Paris.” The engineer added

episode dealing with Noah’s flood, during which that he was available for consultation with noblemen “several fountains play[ed] water.”"'° But on the whole who contemplated installing hydraulic displays at their

there is less evidence of water effects than of pyro- country houses.” technics, which were widely used in spectacular enter-

tainments and in conjunction with water, as we shall DISK EA sec, in the mimic representations of sca engagements

which became popular toward the end of the eight- While one branch of the exhibition business was ineenth century. Seemingly the only full-dress water termittently exploiting the spectacular possibilities of show recorded in London after Winstanley’s, how- water and fire, another, much more didactically inever, was at Exeter Change in 1771. Instead of com- clined, was exploring infinite space in a little room. Its bining the antithetical elements of fire and water, the popular appeal, too, depended upon recently develengineer, James Bourier, ‘““Mechanist to the King of oped technology. The orrery, a machine for exhibiting Poland,” imitated pyrotechnic effects in water: “the art the relative positions and motions of the planets with of imitating by water what the greatest Fire-workers respect to the sun and to one another by means of have been able to perform as yet by Powder . . . rep- globes appropriately distributed on slender rotatory resenting Piramids, Turning Columns, Turning rods, had been invented by a Dutch mechanist, ChrisRocks, Turning Suns, the Game of the Ring, Cascades, tiaan Huygens, in 1682, but the most famous was built Blazing Stars, and many other Pieces too tedious to in- by John Rowley for the fourth Earl of Orrery, whence sert; the whole being composed of about 500 different the name. The device immediately delighted cultivated Pieces, entirely thru’ the Effects of Water.’’'' A later men and women, to whom, as Sir Richard Steele advertisement mentions other images supposedly pro- wrote in 1713, “it is like the receiving a new 80 The Shows of London

Sense. . . . It administers the Pleasure of Science to ent, luminous (candle-lighted?) globes of various sizes

any one. ... All Persons, never so remotely em- to represent the planets. The workings of the solar ployed from a learned Way, might come into the Inter- system could thus be seen by everyone in a darkened ests of Knowledge, and taste the Pleasure of it by this auditorium the size of the Lyceum, for example. A

Intelligible Method.” Every family, he concluded, newspaper noted that the machine “exhibits the should have one.! Few families, of course, did; but the diurnal and annual motions of every planet, and satelorrery made it possible for natural philosophers to give lite in the solar system, without any apparent cause or demonstration-lectures to small groups of Icisure-class support. Day, night, twilight, winter, summer, long men, women, and children.* The well-known paint- and short days; the waxing and waning of the moon; ing by Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving solar and lunar eclipses; the causes of tides; the transit That Lecture on the Orrery, in Which a Lamp Is Put in the of Venus and Mercury; and the descent of a comet, are

Place of the Sun (1766), affords an excellent idea of what so like nature, that a bare inspection of the machine those demonstrations were like—of the darkness in gives the clearest idea of these phenomena.”’!? The Ei-

which the orrery operated, so as to give maximum douranion and similar instruments were featured in effect to the place of the sun in the system, and of the astronomical lectures at London theatres and in profascination with which children watched the demon- vincial towns for many years. To judge from the syl-

stration. labi, the discourses themselves must have been pretty The best known of these popularizers was Adam heavy going for the average audience, but additional ilWalker (17312-1821), a self-taught inventor who, after lustrative devices to be introduced shortly after the making false starts in several occupations, became a turn of the century would sustain their popularity with

peripatetic lecturer on astronomy.'* He came to the that portion of the show-going public which conattention of Joseph Priestley, who arranged for him to sciously required to be instructed. deliver a course of lectures at the Haymarket Theatre Those who needed only a thin veil of Enlightenment in 1778. These were successful cnough to encourage ternunology to legitimate their attendance at exhibihim to take a house in George Street, Hanover Square, tions that were scarcely more than a series of conwhere he conducted a lecture series cach winter. jurors’ acts were well taken care of. Shows billed as Through them, he came to the notice of London’s in- ‘philosophical recreations” consisting (as the publicity telligentsia; he dined with Fanny Burney and _ her for such an exhibition in the mid-1780s had it) of “‘all

father, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the literary brothers the most favourite, surprising, and pleasing PhiloJoseph and Thomas Warton in 1783 (Fanny found him, sophical, Physical, and Mechanical Pieces,’'*® merely

“though modest in science . . . vulgar in conversa- shifted the nominal emphasis from old-fashioned tion’’).!° Walker also became a visiting lecturer at magic to new-fashioned science. ‘‘Philosophical”’ Westminster, Winchester, and other schools where sci- meant “‘scientific’’; conjurors’ tricks were dignified as

ence was not yet (nor would it be for many years) part “experiments” or ‘demonstrations,’ as if rational of the formal curriculum. At Syon House Academy explanations accompanied them—which they norand again at Eton, one of his rapt auditors was Percy mally did not. The programs consisted mostly of * Orreries were sometimes built Bysshe Shelley, who, as a recent biographer of the poet famihar optical illusions, mind reading, prestidigita- into the baroque display pieces says, was “completely captivated” by Walker’s dis- tion, and mechanical effects, but recent advances inthe | ~~ a. eo.: ;vas - 3.08 7 by ~— .: 5 cr“4aeayhe .iyi +-|-o* ‘ ¢one” s ’ be 3 *. $.. . “q . % . ; Ay oe . >, & , .

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it and dressed in my Coronation Robes and Coronett.”’ very strange, that a general should have a cap also! Pray friend, Mrs. Goldsmith was paid the great sum of £260 to exe- what might this cap have cost originally? That, Sir, says he, I

cute the figure, which was installed in Henry VII’s don't know, but this cap 1s all the wages I have for my Chapel in August 1703.27 Eighty years later Sophie trouble. A very small recompence, tnily, said 1. Not too small, von la Roche. had praise the for it,money. despite what must repmore ace ne for “very gentleman puts rome money into it, and . , ,only spend What, money! still more money! Every

have been its seediness by that time: “A beautiful P ; one HONE) ‘ oney CTY Duchess of Richmond.” she wrote. “seems to come gentleman gives something, Sir. Tl give thee nothing, re;owards 4 h thone, ; ¢when h, bthe1doors turned the guardians of the temple should pay you your of herI;cupboard have bcen 1 opened, fan infan hand h ie ¢ wages, friend, and not permit vou to squeeze thus from in Mana, wer court-aress of green every spectator. When we pay our money at the door to see a

‘ . * 7+ » 2» ' » 9°28

velvet embroidered in gold, as seen a hundred years show, we never give more as we are going out. Sure the ago; her stuffed dog and parrot are by her side. guardians of the temple can never think they get enough. In their decrepitude,* the old effigies were no credit Shew ime the gate; if I stay longer | may probably meet with to London showmanship. The more recent figures, de- more of those ecclesiastical beggars.*!

; . : c S.

void of ceremonial significance and commussioned by . .

the vergers, as Horace Walpole put it in 1761, “to draw But the ecclesiastical beggars, enduring this recurrent

- 7 a f he mob.’”29 ee criticism with steadfast spirit, continued for many

VISITS ang money Hom Enc Mod, “were more present more years to practice their specialty among the seven

able; and it was these that placed the Abbey most deadly sin decidedly in the category of catchpenny shows. As London’s other great church, St. Paul’s Cathedral,

Nollekens exclaimed to the verger he was conversing ; th] ler k h stuff why. at Ant was not yet as much of an attraction as the Abbey. It

w you keep such stuff: why, at Ant-‘ ;its. , wonder | est]where P. th : ymy h thifather was, after a comparatively werp, wasall,born, they put recent such building, things .and

werp y : pul ans historical associations were still few. Nevertheless, 1t

, alre: Wax-work, SSC a trac erited fro e; od: olc’ Mrs.; Salmon’s in Fleet Street, where

in silks outside in the streets. | don’t mind going to already possessed a tradition, inherited from the old

Mother Shivt 1G k . :gives structure, which united vergers the Abbey’s other Shipton you a kick asitsyou arewith going out. : in; Oh. dear! Pyou me _should “h bbehnot 5 chhave sympathetic communion. As acarly as 1606 a foreign , dear! such rubbish in the ; Abbey.” ‘Suill 4 th A , visitor, speaking of the King of Denmark’s ascent to stall + 71 . I y F Q b the base of the former steeple of old St. Paul’s in the

cy.’” 1 vere they were: Queen Anne, 1n- - _

rs. ue Goldsmith); Elizabeth 0, perhaps usin ; } ;beforehand, so y Cth 1 ef pe P 8 mitted to it, unless he pays his money

ha M "¢ Mdemith): Elivabeth ise. werk Pro ably company of James I, remarked, ““No German 1s ad-

— © onginals ey) ane the elder Pitt (finished intense is the avarice of the English, and I don’t know

whom Pitt sat for the purpose). .building 13: ; ,o 4: ;under Presid th Wwover P ter sh tofWestminster Germans!’’"? While Wren’s still residing the show was a suitwas ; aor

wh te eee vee pose) of Patience Wright, to whether the reason be not the simplicity of the

& construction—it had been opened for service in 1697,

it. This, (rwas the funeral armor (now in the Abbe ey dome, commanding as it did a superlative view of;the armor with, incongruously, a ducal robe thrown over but would not be completed until 1710—the great

muscum) of General Monck, the Cromwellian officer oe ; . lj Iread htseei therwise k bj he first Duke of Albe ever growing metropolis, was already a sightsecing at-

OUTET WISE KNOWN LO TUStOFY as the rirst 1UKC O - traction. Access to it could be had only by paying a fee

marle, which the vergers used as their final collection (““stairs-foot money") imposed by the contracting carpoint. From the armed fist hung what Nollekens eer penters, who carmarked the proceeds for a fund to aid

ingly to asAll ‘‘that nasty cap of Generalduring Monk’sthe kmen injured durjof he construc | hases of b referred ¢ , “ato.” : workmen injured last phases

begeliof people toand puttheir moncy into. accounts é ; . ; ;of the you Poop b;itDs : it tion families. Inapart, time, in emulation agree that was a filthy object. Dirt it was a -_ . . , 8crennial 4] € off Y cause Ose tid th Abbey, the initial singleas feeit to did visit as the the dome. proliferof offense, serving Pe 2 5 a. ated into a number, each governing a different part of climax of the Abbey tour. Goldsmith’s Chinese philos- the bujlding. and the revenue. no longer required for a opher described compensation his experience, fund, whichwas wasdiverted that of a to . Bod >P workmen’s the

countless others: kets of th 33 pockets of the vergers.

[The guide] desired me to consider attentively a certain suit D3o%$0 * Following the Second World armour, said he, belonged to general Monk. Very surprising, . mayor feat of archacological and ana-

of armour, which seemed to shew nothing remarkable. This War they were fully restored in a

that a general should wear armour. And pray, added he, ob- One famous eighteenth-century London showplace, tomical detective work and reconstiserve this cap, this is general Monk’s cap. Very strange indeed, however, incurred no reproach on the score of inap- tution. Sights and Resorts of Eighteenth-Century London 93

ee eter 2 BYee Ls) SST Oe ee

a . ; am won a - “Lt . 2 y IN SNR NA re ; ANY x A ‘ SS ; : \ aoe >. SS Se as RASS: BN FOF J SAI SR BRA RES SST SESS SESE SERB Cuomo fESIN SS SAY AES WW RRA AY:NY BSS ° SSS “SS SSeS Se SSeS oeaida x RENE ERS :aras \ ~~OSS ~ XN \ &. AY " SanRN 7 arene” yi ~ — aus_WSS SoS gS.NEE AS

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mutton as ever was sold in Leadenhall Market.” Nothing difficult art of portraying butcher’s meat; and he and that ever was painted surpasses this extraordinary pertorm- his chentele may have been pleased to contemplate ance ” ropa to the exact representation i vu Ue as Wwe how far superior his pictorial meat was to the pitiful

trust dead’ meat mayslices veryofproperly be called There is be also an- illu; y Properly ham, themselves so thin as to almost

other merit ‘belonging to the thissandwiches picture; thethat prgment employedfor ; ; -a cen;the . ’ appearance sory, in were notorious m. producing of cawls, white fat, &c. 18 won; , up. tury as the house specialty at Vauxhall Gardens

ancy . stream).

dertully pure and natural. The softness, which does not im-

perrits brilliancy asa colour, though it subdues it to a tone of pertect truth in its local application, 18 of a description which

we rather think it would puzzle the greatest painters of the day to parallel *!

98 The Shows of London

Art | rt on Display

In 1788 a newspaper advertisement announced: “There under the same roof. In the year before the Lawrence is now added to the elegant exhibition adjoining Som- advertisement, a newspaper proudly observed that ersct House, in the Strand (consisting of Automaton there were “‘no less than six places . . . open for the Figures which move in a great varicty of descriptions, exhibition of ancient and modern paintings.’ This by clockwork, with the Diamond Beetle, scarce and was a great step forward, and it had been achieved only valuable paintings, Needlework, Shells, Flics, Water in the past thirty years.

Fall, etc., etc., so universally admired) some of the In the carly golden age of the virtuoso, ordinary most beautiful and striking Pencil and Chalk Draw- Londoners had had little access to art; indeed, London, ings in the Kingdom, by Mr. Lawrence, late of Bath, In contrast with cities on the continent, had little

now at 41 Jermyn Street.””! “public” art of any sort apart from the pictorial signs One could not wish for more satisfactory symbol- of shops and taverns. Most of the stained glass, wall ism. Here in the Strand were juxtaposed two popular paintings, tapestries, and sculpture that had enriched

kinds of late cighteenth-century shows, the link be- churches at the beginning of the Tudor period had tween them being supplicd by the nineteen-year-old perished with the Reformation, and much of what surThomas Lawrence. Moving his family from Bath, vived—those elements of ecclesiastical art not so where his son had already earned a reputation as an closely identified with “‘superstitious idolatry’’—had artist, the elder Lawrence had used a £200 legacy of his been destroyed by the widened Puritan assault on daughter’s to buy a small museum next to Somerset every form of religious imagery that the church fabric House, headquarters of the Royal Academy and site contained. In London, the Great Fire of 1666 comof its annual exhibition. Two new worlds of London pleted the devastation. These losses were not made shows thus impinged: the world of the small catch- good when Wren built his City churches, because in penny museum of automatons, natural history speci- the aftermath of Puritan iconoclasm an influential pormens, and miscellaneous curiosities, and the more tion of the clergy continued to oppose pictorial art as exclusive, not to say more exalted, one of the art ex- an adjunct to devotion. Churches might be elegant and hibition. Not only did they abut: to the distress of some chastely splendid, as Wren’s were, but in general paint-

conservative inhabitants of the latter world, the two ings and, even more, statuary were disapproved. It is were already tending to overlap. A public which pa- true that Sir James Thornhill’s painted cupola crowned tronized exhibitions of “natural and artificial raritics’’ St. Paul’s, but it was too high to be seen well, and and examples of “‘mechanical ingenuity”’ now also had below it the bareness of the cathedral contrasted unfa-

the means of indulging its recently acquired taste for vorably with the rich exterior. pictorial beauty—in the case of Lawrence’s museum, In vain did English artists, as their sense of commu-

nity and power grew, protest this scanting of art by Two English noblemen also had built up extensive ecclesiastical policy. When a proposal was made in the collections. At York House the Duke of Buckingham,

early 1760s to erect a monument in St. Paul’s to a John Tradescant’s employer, possessed nineteen Tiformer Lord Mayor, the Bishop of London, Richard tians, seventeen Tintorettos, fifteen Veroneses, six Osbaldeston, was obdurate: “there had been no monu- Holbeins, and numerous other pictures of similar qualments in all the time before he was bishop, and in his ity; but he was assassinated in 1628, and his collection, time there should be none.’ Some years later several like the king’s, was confiscated and sold. The third of members of the Royal Academy, led by Benjamin the great seventeenth-century art collectors, the Earl of West, offered to paint a series of historical pictures, fif- Arundel, had brought back from his many trips to teen to twenty fect high, to fill the wall spaces Wren Italy six hundred pictures and two hundred objets d'art had provided for the purpose. The dean and chapter as well as a valuable array of Grecian antiquities. But welcomed the proposal, the dean, Dr. Thomas when he went into exile in 1642 he took most of the Newton, maintaining that “whatever might have been former with him, and the antiquities he left behind at the case in the days of our first reformers, there was Arundel House were severely damaged by neglect and surcly no danger now of pictures seducing our people what Evelyn called “the corrosive aire of London.’ into popery and idolatry; they would only make Scrip- The tide was reversed to some extent when Charles ture history better known and remembered.” But the II came to the throne in 1660. Using as a nucleus the new bishop, Dr. Terrick, took the same view as had small group of his father’s works of art which Cromhis predecessor: the artists’ project ““would occasion a well had reserved for Hampton Court Palace, he built great noise and clamour against it, as an artful intru- the royal collection to about one hundred pictures and

sion of popery.””? And so it too was dropped. one hundred sculptures, distributed among the palSmall reparation had been supplied for the losses the aces of St. James, Whitehall, Hampton Court, and Londoner’s eye for pictorial beauty had suffered across Windsor. But the temper of the time was not markedly

more than two full centuries. Such wall painting as aesthetic, and the virtuosi, those exemplars of Restorawas done in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth tion and early eighteenth-century culture, were little

centuries—and there was, to be sure, a goodly amount concerned with beauty. For the most part they of 1t—was confined to the royal palaces and the man- regarded paintings and drawings as they did coins, insions of the nobility, where only the privileged could scriptions, and other antiquities: as documentary reprewalk. It was a noteworthy, but isolated, breakthrough sentations or historical realia, not aesthetic objects. It is

when Hogarth painted the murals of the pool of Be- significant that when Evelyn returned from his exthesda and the Good Samaritan in the great staircase tended European tour in 1647 he found a cultured sociof St. Bartholomew's Hospital, to which the public had ety that was beginning to amass cabinets; when

free access. Horace Walpole returned from the same tour almost

There were no public art collections. The same exactly a century later, he found a society which now forces which had made the nation so long unreceptive boasted an abundance of such collections, Sir Hans to the Renaissance itself had delayed the advent of art Sloane’s indeed being unmatched in all Europe, but excollecting. Only with Charles I did the nation have a cept among a few men of taste there was no comparamonarch who possessed and exercised a taste already ble passion to accumulate works of art. The Royal identified with many rulers on the continent. But he at Society was flourishing, and its influence was pervaleast made up for lost time. In 1625 Rubens called the sive, but there was no Royal Academy of Arts. Prince of Wales, as he then was, “the most enthusiastic Those few men of taste, however, included Wal-

amateur of painting in the world,” and Charles was, in pole’s father, Sir Robert, who spent huge sums fact, a true connoisseur of the arts and a collector of the furnishing his Norfolk mansion, Houghton, with first rank. When political events put a stop to his col- treasures of art, and the Duke of Marlborough, who lecting, he owned 1,387 pictures and 399 sculptures, similarly filled the cavernous rooms at Blenheim. including the rich hereditary collections of the Duke of Once such influential men turned to connoisseurship

Mantua and the Raphael cartoons. But in a series of and collecting, many followed, encouraged by the sales ordered by Cromwell’s Parliament between 1649 spread of “‘taste’’ as a fashionable attribute and by the and 1653, this first and perhaps greatest of all English wealth that their fortunate participation in the nation’s

private collections was dispersed, most of it going expanded trade brought them, to spend, if they

back to the continent. wished, on luxuries such as art. Throughout England 100 The Shows of London

the stately homes began to include picture galleries; by The artists’ willingness to donate pictures to the 1776 the Duke of Devonshire had four, including one Foundling sprang, of course, from healthy self-

at Devonshire House, London. interest: it was an admirable way to bring their talents

In addition to the gentlemen who did their own col- to the attention of prospective patrons. Hitherto, they lecting as they toured Europe and the agents who col- had done so only by displaying their new pictures prilected for others, speculators bought up stock in the vately, in their own home-studios. Hogarth showed A continental art centers and consigned it to the London Harlot’s Progress at his house in the Great Piazza, Covauction houses, which, from the late seventeenth cen- ent Garden, in 1730-1732, and after his removal to

tury onward, served as the main channel through the Golden Head, Leicester Square, he exhibited his which works of art destined for English ownership successive pictures there. In 1749 and 1751 Canaletto flowed. Thus ordinary Londoners, if they lacked a per- had taken newspaper advertisements inviting the manent gallery, still could momentarily sce pictures, nobility and gentry to see his latest canvases of London sculpture, and other objets d’art before they disap- at his lodgings in Silver Street, Golden Square. Obpeared into the great private collections. The auction serving the success of the Foundling Hospital as a galleries were open two or three days before each sale, public showcase for their work, the artists who gathand at these times they became a kind of London ered for the 1759 dinner of the governors took the next equivalent of the Paris Salon, where persons of fashion logical step. They undertook to hold a free exhibition gathered as much for conversation as to see the pic- of their newest canvases from 21 April to 8 May 1760 tures. There was no admission charge, but a police of- at a room in the Strand occupied by the newly formed ficer was stationed at the door to exclude the mob—a Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, portentous figure, because the apprehensions of dis- and Commerce in Great Britain, a title immediately order which caused his presence were destined to color abbreviated in ordinary usage to the Society of Arts. thinking about the public’s mght of access to art for One hundred and thirty pictures were hung, and a six-

more than a century. penny catalogue was available—good value for the

Among those who qualified for admission, these money, because its frontispiece and tailpiece were by brief shows unquestionably sharpened interest in art Hogarth. According to modern estimates, based on the as well as the appetite for p@ssessing it. How lively sale of 6,582 catalogues, some 20,000 persons attended that interest had become by the 1740s was revealed by the show, but this figure does not include the unde-

the fortuitous success of Captain Coram’s new terminable number who entered without buying a catFoundling Hospital as an art gallery. William Hogarth, alogue and did not belong to a group who shared one.”

still at the beginning of his career, was one of the foun- Sharing the nervousness the proprietors of the aucdation’s original governors, and when, in 1740, he pre- tion galleries had felt over the indiscriminate admissented to the hospital his portrait of the benevolent sion of the public, the officials of the Society of Arts, captain, he set in motion a chain of events which re- the host organization, laid down strict rules. The attensulted, within a gencration, in London’s witnessing a dants hired by the exhibiting artists were empowered

veritable ‘picture mania,” as it was later to be called. “to exclude all persons whom they shall think Hogarth prevailed upon fifteen of his fellow artists to improper to be admitted, such as livery servants, foot contribute works of their own to the hospital, and in soldiers, porters, women with children, etc., and to 1746 no fewer than twenty artists were formally ap- prevent all disorders in the Room, such as smoaking, pointed governors. Once every year they dined at the drinking, etc., by turning the disorderly persons out.’’® institution, as a body which today would probably call Despite these rules, window glass to the value of 13s. itself “the Friends of the Foundling,” and by the end of 6d. was broken, and the artists complained of “‘the inthe seventies a notable collection of donated art had ac- trusion of great numbers whose stations and education

cumulated there: paintings by Hogarth, Gainsbor- made them no proper judges of statuary or painting ough, Allan Ramsay, Benjamin West, and Richard and who were made idle and tumultuous by the Wilson, and sculpture by Rysbrack and Roubiliac. The opportunity of a show.’® Modern historians of the Foundling’s gallery and court room became a ren- Society of Arts suggest that some visitors misbehaved dezvous for all ranks except the working class, and, out of “‘sheer excitement at discovering the works of although no charge was made for admission, most Reynolds, Richard Wilson, Cosway, Morland, Roubilpeople left a contribution in appreciation of the privi- iac, Paul Sandby, and sixty-three others,’’!® but such

lege. ecstasy in the presence of art does not seem very true Art on Display 101

ton t : t . ,

to the cightcenth-century character, and the probable in Pall Mall which had formerly been an auction room explanation is just what it was said to be: “the oppor- and printseller’s shop, drew 18,000 persons at a shilling

tunity of a show” attracted, among others, persons each. Here, too, the catalogue explained why an adwho had no idea of decorum, Iet alone of art, but mission fee had to be charged; the question was the shared the universal enthusiasm for secing something more pertinent because the Academy was “‘supported

* In 1762 the rivalry of the exhibi- for nothing. by royal munificence.’’ The Academicians’ answer was tions in the Strand and Spring In order to ensure propriety at the next year’s exhi- that “they have not been able to suggest any other rans inspires the were Bonnell bition the artists insisted that an admission fee be Means than that of receiving Money for Admittance Se oe a Parocy Snow @ charged, but the Society of Arts demurred and most of to prevent the Room from being fill’d by improper

his home in Bow Street. A prelimi- . . ; landscapes, fancy-pieces, flower- “aq: oo. . . ‘

nary teaser in the St James's Chroncle the group, now formally organized as the Society of Persons, to the entire exclusion of those for whom the announced ‘The Society of Sign- Artists of Great Britain, rented instead the Great Room, Exhibition is apparently intended.”!? Henceforth the Painters are . . . preparing a most Spring Gardens, which a decade later would house annual Academy exhibition, held at Somerset House magnificent collection of portraits, Cox’s Muscum. In the catalogue that was given with beginning in 1781, was the great event of the art year, pieces, history-pieces, night-picces every shilling admission the artists, noting that “‘an ex- as it also became one of the obligatory social events of Scripture-picces, &c. &c. designed by hibition of the works of art [was] a spectacle new in the London season. Since the history of the Royal the ablest masters, and executed by this kingdom,” explained why an entrance fee had to Academy, in large part the story of British art itself

the best hands in these kingdoms be charged: from 1769 onward, is a familiar one, it needs no re-

The virtuost will have a new oppor- telling here. The occurrence of the summer exhibition tunity to display their taste on this : { , d h h the vears. the ve occasion, by discovering the different Though we are far from wishing to diminish the pleasures, (to many persons” own ¢ rougn the years, the very styles of the several masters em- or depreciate the sentiments of any class of the community, word “exhibition” referred to this show and no other) ployed, and pointing out by what we know, however, what everyone knows, that all cannot be must be assumed to be a punctual and ritual accompahand cach piece 1s drawn.” The room, judges or purchasers of works of art. Yet we have already niment to all the other kinds of shows chronicled in according €9 another paper was found by experience, that all are desirous to see an exhibi- these chapters.

neh ‘UNOUS C -CT1ON O 5 :

hace let wit Peet “ “ tion. When the terms of adnussion were low, our room was As the Royal Academy set the style and the circle of NN TA CONS COTE throng’d with such multitudes, as made access dangerous, collectors continued to grow. the art market expanded

wooden originals 1s fixed flat, and and frie] 1. hos . Ss 8 ’ Pp: from whence hang keys, bells, swords, and ng atened away those, whose approbation was most de- and the number of London shows increased. In addi-

» > [OmMN OI . ,: . . . . rlec - pentchouses

poles, sugar-loaves, tobacco-rolls, sired. tion to the seasonal exhibitions of the several artists’ candies and omer ornamental nears socicties, there were more auctions. The two venerable dang t from the pent houses of she Under this arrangement, the attendance was kept auction houses which have survived into our own time different shops in our streets "Among Under control; whereas the first show drew well over had been established even before the Academy was the subjects were the Vicar of Bray, 2(),000 persons, this one attracted a more manageable founded—Sotheby’s about 1744 (though initially its the Insh Arms (Patrick O’Blarney 13,000. The Society also made more money, £650 main trade was in “‘literary properties”) and Christic’s pmxit), the Scotch Fiddle (M’Pherson from entrance fees, as contrasted with the £164 re- in 1762. Sometimes dealers, emulating the artists’ ceived from the sale of catalogues the year before. groups, charged admission to their preauction shows. Mischief (a woman, a magpie, and a Meanwhile, the artists who did not secede to Spring In 1787, for instance, an American-born auctioncer,

pinxit), A Man (showing tail-with oe , ; ors at work), and A Man nine Loaded

monkey on his back). Numbers Gardens, mediocrities except for Nollekens and Thomas Greenwood, charged d shilling to see The 49 and 50 were concealed by blue cur-_—- Cosway, banded together as the Free Society of Artists Adoration of the Magi, then attributed to Durer but later

fains, in the manner of “indecent and exhibited at the Socicty of Arts for four more identified as the work of Jean Mabuse.'® Two years pictures in some collections ’* When rs. then | oo c | h lth lat her displaced A . f-stvled “L one of the curtains was lifted, the years, then in a succession of rooms elsewhere until the ater another displace merican, a sclf-style oycurious connoisseur beheld a board organization was dissolved in 1783. From 1772 on- alist from Charleston, South Carolina” named John reading “Ha! ha! ha!” or “he! he! he!” ward they too charged admission. * Wilson, founded in King Street, St. James’s Square, the (John Pyc, Patronage of British Art The next in this series of organizations and projects European Muscum “‘for the Promotion of the Fine An Historical Sketch , London, proved to be the most momentous of all. In 1768 some Arts, and the Encouragement of British Artists.” 1845, pp_109-14n.) A decade later, influential members of the Incorporated Society of These lofty aims, which seemed to place the establish show, which burlesqued not only the Artists, as the original group was now called to distin- ment on an equal footing with the Royal Academy, art exhibitions but the name of Sir guish it from the Free Society, formed a new organiza- were actually window dressing for a merchandising

advertisements appeared for a similar a P ‘Y y , c p cs ish~

Ashton Lever’s museum “The Drol- tion for both the exhibition of the work of British art- venture. For a commission of 5 percent of the selling o-phusikon, a whimsical and original ists at Jarge and the training of promising young ones. price, an artist or other owner could exhibit a picture Taylor, Leicester Square: Its Associa The king granted it an ‘instrument of foundation” on there for as long as a year. The public was admitted for trons and Its Worthies, London, 1874, 10 December and the Royal Academy came into being. an annual subscription of a guinea.'*

exhibition of sign-painting.”” (Tom . . cee ogy .

p. 45in.) The Academy’s first show, held in 1769 in a building As a commercial enterprise the European Muscum 102 The Shows of London

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. a o een ”

Sophie von la Roche paid her sixpence and was ad- both a curio pure and simple—a demonstration of an mitted to “the shellwork of some honest lass, who by artisan’s deftness, like a frigate assembled in a bottle, this means helps to feed her poor mother’s many chil- but hardly more—and an important aid to the art of dren. This thought in itself would have lent beauty to architecture and the science of enginecring. There were the work, had it not been so pretty and varied in any two main reasons for their perennial attraction, apart case. It is hard to know which to admire more—the from sheer admiration of the artificer’s patient skill:

charm of thousands of shells or the industry with they were three-dimensional, and thus superior, for which the good creature composes lovely buildings, representational purposes, to flat pictures; and, while half-relicf pictures, birds and flowers. . .. Miss incorporating great detail, they compressed much into Phillips is very modest and simple with all this. The a small space, permitting onc to envision large buildinscription on the wall, where she applied a ground of ings or whole topographical areas more comprchenblack shells on which she announced in white ones that sively than did pictures.

there was something to see, we thought a clever in- Architectural models, either of buildings already in vention.””»! The impressionable and sentimental So- existence or of projected ones, were late in coming to phie was obviously easy to please. Still, an attraction England. An extant papier-maché model of the church that lasted forty years in one location must have ex- of St. Maclou, Rouen, dates from about 1432, and isted on something more substantial than sightseers’ Vasari and other chroniclers give considerable evi-

charitable impulses. dence of models’ being made in Italy from the fourIt was, as Sophie said, a question of which to admire teenth century onward. It may have been through

more, the intrinsic “‘charm”’ of a show or the sheer pa- the recommendation (1624) of Sir Henry Wotton, statient labor that had been devoted to the exhibits. Cer- tioned in Venice as a diplomat, that English architects tainly this was true also of the assemblages of minia- adopted the model as a means of envisioning what a

ture objects that were shown from time to time. finished building would look like and of foreWhether they were done well was less to the point sccing—and solving—difficultics in its construction. than that they were done at all. So it must have been in Wren made a model of Pembroke College chapel, 1745 at a watchmakcr’s shop near the New Exchange, Cambridge, in 1663, and in the same year exhibited where one could inspect through a magnifying glass a one of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, before the complete set of dining room furniture from chairs and Royal Society. Later he made models of Emmanuel table to two dozen dishes, twenty dozen plates, thirty and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, of Greenwich Hosdozen spoons, all contained in a single cherry stone; a pital, and a whole series of the new St. Paul’s.** landau, including four passengers, a coachman, two At this same time, architectural and topographical footmen, and a postilion, the entire equipage capable models were becoming popular exhibition picces, of being drawn by a flea; a flea attached to a chain wholly apart from their professional uses. A governmade of two hundred links; a camel that confounded ment notice in 1682 included displayers of “‘models,”’

Prophecy by passing through the head of a medium- not further described, among the ‘‘Mountebanks, sized needle; and scissors so tiny that six of the kind Ballad Singers, Newshawkers, Scotch Pedlers’’ and

could be wrapped up in a fly’s wing.” other showmen who had to be licensed to ply their These feats of miniaturization were among the trade.™ Five years later could be seen, at the newly standard curios which found their way into virtuosi’s built Exeter Change, an imported model of Versailles cabinets and, as here, into public exhibitions. In an- palace, twenty-four by eighteen fect, made of copper other category of reductive art, with a different class of “gilt over with silver and gold.” The gardens and subjects and made to a different scale, were architec- fountains that surrounded the palace must have been of tural models. Tradescant possessed a number of such compelling interest to everyone who was aware of Le objects, including models of the Tower of Strasbourg Notre’s recent work for the French king. Equally and the Holy Sepulcher; a model of the latter was also timely would have been the models of the Dutch palamong Du Puy’s collection of oddments. Such models aces of Britain’s king-by-adoption, William II]. In of buildings and cities constituted the most numerous 1701, at the White Hart inn facing the Haymarkct, cerclass of reduced-scale objects shown in London exhibi- tain ‘“‘outlandish men” (foreigners) exhibited models tions, and their popularity never waned. At their best, of Loo, Keswick, and Hunslaerdike.*®

their foundations rested in two worlds—the world of Henceforth, models thread their way through the utility and that of art. At their most typical, they were history of London exhibitions in two streams, one 114 The Shows of London

composed of faithful miniature reproductions, the the ample dimensions of twenty-five by fifteen feet, other of mere curiosities, devoid of authenticity or but visitors still were urged to bring opera glasses so power to instruct. Specimens of the latter were found that they could appreciate the detail.® at the Chelsea Bun House, which, as we have seen, had After mid-century, the fashion in models also turned a cut-paper model of St. Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, as toward the continent. A wood-and-pasteboard reprewell as one of itself.°* In 1741, at a butcher’s shop near sentation of Paris, eighteen feet square, with 50,000 Hyde Park Corner, patrons gazed upon a five-foot- houses as well as 20,000 trees fashioned from green high Tower of Babylon, made entirely of cards, silk—surely an impressive sight if it lived up to its “neither sew’'d, stitch’d, nor pasted.’’** At mid-century billnng—was in James Street, Haymarket, in 1764.6 Adams's Museum in the Kingsland Road displayed a Another Paris model, of wood only and on a scale of model of Lord Burlington’s seat at Chiswick made of 62 feet to the inch, could be seen at Exeter Change in ‘“Baccopipe Clay.””? A “Tower of Mark Antony built 1769.°° When the French royal family were imprisoned by Herod the Great,”’ five feet high and equipped with at the Tour du Temple in 1793, a model of that build-

2,500 figures made of enameled china, was at the ing was immediately placed on show at 1 Rupert

Golden Head, Haymarket, in 1756.°° Street.’®

In lack of particulars, it is often hard to differentiate Although the Alps would not figure prominently in between such oddities and models in conventional English imaginations for several more decades, a materials that were meant to be faithful representations model of the region, twenty feet long, six wide, and in miniature, although one probably may rely on the cight high, was on display at a cabinetmaker’s in Piccaadvertisers’ calling attention to any peculiarities of dilly about 1770.7! More attuned to the cultural intermaterial or construction if they were present. Among ests of the moment were the several models of Italian

the displays not distinguished in this manner was the cities and buildings, among them Signor Grimani’s elaborate model of Amsterdam, between twenty and Rome and Venice (Pantheon, 1788)” and a model of thrity feet long and twenty feet wide, that was shown Rome that was cofeatured with the circus at Bath in at the Bell Yard, Fleet Street, in 1710, ‘“‘with all the 1782.73 Churches, Chappels, Stadt house, Hospitals, noble Like most objects that figured in eighteenth-century Buildings, Streets, Trees, Walks, Avenues, with the commercial exhibitions, these models were not atSea, Shipping, Sluices, Rivers, Canals, &c., most ex- tached to any permanent show. They appeared in

actly built to admiration.’ somic suitable rented room, were advertised, attracted

The subjects of these cighteenth-century exhibition as much custom as they could, and then vanished from models add a trifle to our awareness of contemporary view. Only one established London exhibition was depopular interests. Scriptural sites were frequently rep- voted principally to models. This was the Classical Ex-

resented in the first half of the century; there were hibition, which first appears in the records in 1778 at models of the Temple of Solomon, thirteen feet high 24 St. Albans Street, Pall Mall: a collection of cork and eighty in circumference, with 2,000 windows and models of sites associated with classical literature, the 7,000 pillars (1729), the Tabernacle of Moses (1747), twenty-year labor of a native of St. Pancras parish, and the Holy Sepulcher (1752). From the 1740s on- Richard Dubourg. In April 1785 a miscalculated experward, models of English buildings and cities were in iment with a Vesuvius effect started a fire which particular evidence: the Mansion House while it was destroyed the whole show. A public subscription was being constructed (1741-1742), the Radcliffe Camera, taken for the unfortunate proprictor, who became a Oxford, and the Queen’s Pavilion in Richmond pensioncr of the Royal Academy.” Gardens (both 1753). One Signor Grimani, “‘Pro- In 1798 a new collection of cork models was at 17 fessor of Mathematicks,”’ exhibited a model of London Duke Street, Manchester Square. By what seems to be

and Westminster at the Fantoccini Room, Panton no more than a coincidence, the proprictor again was Street, Haymarket, in 1774. As Bath basked in its named Dubourg; he was said to be a Frenchman who reputation as the most fashionable watering place in had lived in Italy for nine years. Benjamin Silliman the kingdom, 1t too was depicted to stay-at-home was enthralled by his “perfect copies of some of the Londoners. The Circus there was shown at Spring most admired ruins of antiquity.”” To the models Gardens in 1782," and in 1790 there were two com- themselves, made from cork with a little help from cepeting modcls of the town as a whole, one at the ment and paint, Dubourg added theatrical effects in the Pantheon, the other at Spring Gardens. The latter had best manner of London shows as they were developing Art on Display 115

* It 1s surprising that one other at the turn of the century. The cascade of Tivoli was tion models provided a useful visual supplement to kind of model seldom figures in represented pouring down the precipice, “‘with co- books. It was with good reason that Wordsworth cighteenth-century exhibition pious foam and spray,” by mechanical means which praised the mind-expanding service of the model

records. Although was suffi: 5 ceartist’” ; - 95 ee doubtless something warfare to Vauxhall Gardens.” maker, a “‘mechanic who represented ciently presentowed in Enghshmen’s minds ,;

throughout the period—this was, Undeterred by his predecessor’s misfortune, the secafter all, the time when Corporal ond Dubourg, as we Saw in the last chapter, also put By scale exact, in model, wood or clay Trim built minature carthworks on on a sensational volcamc eruption. This exhibition From shading colours also borrowing help, the bowling green of Tristram continued for a number of years at various locations, Some miniature of famous spots and things, — Shandy s Vanek Foby— they fe and the name Dubourg itself would be retained by an- Iomestic or the boast of foreign realms,

not provided with models # The Firth well of Forth, and Edinburgh throned cations or battlefields One ofof thefortifiother kind of show into the Victorian era. re pire 8 | few references to such objects 15 1m Though architectural and topographical models do On ra fit empress of that mountain land;

Von Uffenbach’s journal and it not appcar in histories of eighteenth-century culture, t oa » Church; oP Rowe aa “

5 disparaging at that’ “We drove to their influence on the English imagination was by no p mucroscopic vision, ‘ome a bookseller’s i Common [Covent] Or else, perhaps, some rural haunt,—the Falls Garden, who had made great boast means negligible. As would be true also of the pan- Of Tivols and, high upon that steep, in the newsesheets of a model of a oramas that were yet to come, inspecting the models The Temple of the Sibyl! every tree fortification, which was to be shown of Paris and the Alps, of Roman ruins and the build- Through all the landscape, tuft, stone, scratch minute, for half a crown. But when we came ings mentioned in Scripture was a substitute for the And every cottage, lurking in the rocks— in, we perceived that 1f was not wide-ranging travel that was denied to most. In addi- All that the traveller sees when he 1s there.”

worth sixpence, for it was a model of a most ordinary kind, made of wood and lacking proportion and

accuracy.” (London in 1710 , London, 1934, pp 78-79 )

116 The Shows of London

‘The 1| e Eidophusikon

Exhibitors of moving pictures must often have re- From the mid-1770s, for some reason, interest in the gretted that no technical advance had as yet made it lantern became more lively. Though records of perpossible to bathe their scenes in appropriate lighting. formances before audiences outside the home are The illusion created by peepshows had long been en- lacking, the existence of some sort of vogue is indihanced by concealed candles or oil lamps which cated by the facts that in 1775 an exhibition of caricalighted the miniature paintings or colored engravings tures at the Great Room, Panton Street, was called the from the front or the transparencies from behind. Why Magick Lantern,*® and = that satirical printmakers, could not the principle of the lighted peepshow be always alert for timely topics, were repeatedly using adapted for displays on at Icast as large a scale as that of the magic lantern as a central accessory.* Between the mechanical theatres, with an audience of scores, 1774 and 1809 at least half'a dozen caricatures appeared perhaps even hundreds, rather than the mere handful which prominently featured it.4 It is tempting to think (at most) of spectators possible for the peepshow? that this increased interest had some connection with The magic lantern with its scenes painted on glass the invention in 1782 of the Argand lamp, which, by “‘sliders,”’ which suggested in part the direction such a replacing the customary oil-lamp wick with a hollow development might take, was already in existence. ! incandescent cylinder, provided a source of concenPepys recorded secing one in 1666, and among the trated light such as was required to project images ona many souvenirs the Six Nations sachems took back wall or screen from a moderate distance. with them from their London visit in 1710 was a A second type of optical entertainment which de‘Magick Lanthorn with Pictures.’’? Although there 1s pended on lighting was the shadow show, otherwise some evidence that wandering showmien carried small known as the Schattenspiel, Italian shadows, or magic lanterns with them as an alternative to the more Ombres Chinoises.® The principle behind it was illus-

familiar peepshow, the lack of a sufficiently powerful trated at the end of Ben Jonson’s play A Tale of a Tub ; . light source prevented the device from becoming a (1633), when, at a private merrymaking, a cooper pro- ial Of Warten Flestings, 1788) wee general public entertainment. Instead, it remained for jected shadows from an empty barrel across the top of sited Galante Shou: a . which many years nothing more than a domestic toy special- which was stretched oiled paper with cut-out silhou- now was joining “rarce show” as a izing in horrific effects. Edward Phillips’s The New cttes pasted on it. Behind the paper was a light whose — common token of disparagement. World of English Words (1696) defined the “‘magic heat caused it to revolve, and as it did so, the cooper —_— The 1788 use antedates by thirtylanthorn”’ as “‘a certain small Optical Machcen, that “interpreted” each of the five tableaux the silhoucttes three years the first cited in the Oxshews by a gloomy Light upon a white Wall, Spectres represented. A similar kind of show was occasionally Jord English Dictionary, and the ‘orm

probably is much older. It seemingly

and Monsters so hideous that he who knows not the brought to England by the Savoyards. At Bar- was derived from the old French Secret, believes it to be perform’d by Magic Art.” tholomew Fair in 1737, for example, could be seen _ galer, ‘to make a show.”

4‘ nee Rs aeEea er “1 aeePo ij ~e ee of iSN

zg. 7 i a i eeeNX . am. pS tas SER e 1 - i Be ote Pad Sa They

iYon aeR . >wis gt . be Sia sr any Praia \: ‘eee ‘| — ore . .wg FMagic Peeste 24 SSoeaay Sciam aoe eae3 “’ .. 26. The Lantern (engraving ae ee cer As, . . . . ee gah it ify AE ve a8 ah ae ey See, : . : by C. Willams, 1822). Another fap ae pe ron RS! (i ik “ne : 4 ma,

- ecco: So) Mn A reat, NWN” ih : .: :7oo:;Rab Re a A Ce Zz RS ee ra. ‘ww Y San 4 Sa |

political satire: the mandarin is cE % ral at why a | “Se | ‘ ;

George IV,offlanked by/ Hlseveral . AS political figures the day. The & 7 RE By es oe4beee kd ie i) 3 a a

man with the sword is the Duke Se A Smit ia See Ye, s of Wellington.‘ yikSache Xe 6,ByOrie aeye7|¥it. Le, 4, ’ERG Se ae a ;Ay on. 4~Ps: « ryAS iw ij :.

+sac ~?7Ue ot NRE Nafng>ea 4Le ¥ ete ae a ays “2 o> iy \\%&a ae) 3 i SH es) Cy ‘4© i. . =—f a: a: ,. a. aa e; :

Bis Ea a! te = ae pot ;Wn ce wN nia ae feMN ce a nfSSEPRS gh SS NG: \ -f ag et” ‘ m“@ : aral Eee a Ne SM SVR? AD |. we Noo: 0. TE el Od oe SRN ea” 5 me Sa ee : Mol eet Ena Ie Ma r Re oo

ee Pd i J . fog ek ook eo . eg wwe th It a oe. % “Sh are a SO by ij bots wae 2, en wt a ioo pete-eo. , Wi “Oe . BA 4 iByace ” ran as AS aes eda, y : "er on FY ~~.iy wagbe an "Ss ‘fy r, ug.i . in - . , Bet Soret: 7 a i. iy Erie yi 2 ~ as eae 4 Va 2 ” . . g wee : .. —

— Sneath car ae ae — eC alll as gaan oe poe Oe

SS .7ae cae mw ; : . ane.. a.. oa * i a oe ae a . ,

4 eeea faelaee icc»— ftwEye : wee ca ed Tee ad ares es ay auditory effects which Pyne called “the picturesque of

reprefenting the moft ftriking Effects of IN ature 5 the Works Eidophusikon not only were more realistic than any of that admired Aruft Mr. JERVats, and purchafed from him hitherto produced: they were carefully orchestrated

at a very .great wath visualdemanded. action, beng Like modulaced ane continued © 74Expence. - . é g as thethe action the lightning, the A Colle&tion of Mr. DEAN 8 ‘I raniparent Paintings of Mount thunder was produced in a number of forms to suit the

Vefuvius, and the Contlagrations in London Guring the Riots. occasion. This was the function of a thin sheet of And a Variety of novel and pleating Optical Efteéts in copper suspended by a chain and expertly shaken by

SToRER’s Delineators and other Infruments onethat of the lowerballs corners, in conjunction with a ma° chine “hurled and stones with indescribable To be opened for public Infpection from Eveven till Six. rumbling and noise.” So realistic were the thunder and

* Admiflion One Shilling. lightning combined that, according to one anecdote a among the several told of the Eidophusikon, when a . . 7 oo os renuine thunderstorm passed over the theatre during a And in the HITE Nv iN a voll be , Prgerteds erformance some odey members of the audience, ‘That elegant and highly favored SPECTACLE, : more impressed by the celestial display than by Lou-

‘The 3 I D QO p Hi U S ] K ¢: Nel therbourg’s,~denounced asinclined “‘presump9 tuous,”’ whilehis the exhibition more empirically went out Invented and Painted by Mr. DE LoOuUTIHERBOURG. on a balcony, compared the two storms, and conIn the courfe of which will be introduced the celebrated Sccue of cluded that Loutherbourg’s thunder was best. .

‘REC. 1) . nrwere I Theproduced rush of waves and the sound of raincylinders and hail ‘The STORM& SHI W by revolving or agitating ” . loaded with small shells, peas, beads, or seeds, deThe other SCENES as. ulual. pending on the effect desired. The whistling of the wind TO CONCLUDE WITH TIE came from pressing together, in a swift motion, two ~ KR OAS circular frames covered with tightly strained silk; and (srand Scene from NA ton to enhance the ‘‘awful din” large silken balls were : — ° rubbed over a drumhead. This ‘‘vast tambourine,”’

With the ufual Accompaniments. when struck with a sponge at the end of a whalebone . ; spring, imitated, with suitable variations of loudness, Firft Seats, 35: Second Seats, 25. the sound of distress signals from a foundering ship, The Doors to be opened at Seven, and the Performance to begin at ialf part Sycu. the answering shore gun, and the echoes they pro-

* * The Proprietors have paic the utmoit AttciGon to the elegant Accom duced. The same versatile drumhead, when an assis-

modations ofthe the Con:paay. ane ranspirits his thumb over it,the cmitted what purported to nr ePrinted the groans of infernal on burning lake by H. REYNELL, (No. 21,) Piccaduly, near the Hay-Morket in the Pandemonium scene. It is hard to tell how seriously Loutherbourg took all this, although a later passage in his extra-artistic career,

28, Handbill advertising the when he acquired considerable notoricty as a selfEidophusikon and added attrac- proclaimed faith healer, suggests that there was a defi-

tions, 1786. nite streak of showmanship in his character. In the Ei-

dophusikon, of course, no charlatanry was involved; modest pretensions. In the performances themselves, the machine did, and evidently did well, what it the introduction of a topical note with the Halsewell was advertised to do. But when the European Maga- wreck was only one of a number of devices intended to

zine proclaimed it to be ai “new species of increase patronage. The program was changed from painting . . . one of the most remarkable inventions time to time, and for the former musical interludes of in the art, and one of the most valuable, that ever was Arne and Burney were substituted readings and recitamade,”” we may perhaps detect a Loutherbourgian tions. It was appropriate, in a way, that on the might puff.4 Even if ridiculously oversold, however, as con- the show closed, 12 May 1786, the Pandemomum stituting a revolution in art, the Eidophusikon did cap- scene was preceded by the diminutive Count Borutivate many of the cognoscenti of the day, including wlaski playing the guitar. more than one celebrated artist. Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Eidophusikon turned up again at the Great Pyne tells us, was often in the audience, and recom- Room, Spring Gardens, in February 1793. Evidently mended that young ladies be encouraged to attend in Loutherbourg’s scenes alone were insufficient to atorder to cultivate their talent for drawing from nature. tract audiences, because the show's advertising was dePyne also declares that Gainsborough, an old frend voted chiefly to the live entertainment that took over

io ~ . ; aon ts often said that the kidophu-

of Loutherbourg—they painted portraits of cach in the intervals. A “Master Hummioell,” singing to his 7

other—was so entranced that for atime he thought of own pianoforte accompaniment, had a brief engage- os as the inspiration for Gainsnothing else—he talked of nothing else—and passed ment,f followed by George Saville Cary’s “Conic borough's famous show box, now in his evenings at that exhibition in long succession. Songs, Readings, and Inutations,” the latter being of the Victoria and Albert Museum an Gainsborough, himself a great experimentalist, could “many characters of the past and present age” m= oak box equipped with candle hold-

; . ; : ‘ whting, in which could be inserted

not fail to admire scenes wrought to such perfection by cluding contemporary actors and actresses. In May the he and a silk screen for back

the aid of so many collateral inventions."”* Eidophusikon featured, for one weck only, “the Sicur painted glass shdes to be viewed Except for one or two hints that it was on tour, Comus, who will display his astonishing performance through a movable magnifying lens nothing more is heard of the Eidophusikon from its on Cards, Caskets, Rings, Watches, Medals, Sympa- This supposition, however, seems to closing in Lisle Street in May 1782 to its opening at thetick Clocks, and many Magical Deceptions.” The have originated with GamsExeter Change on 30 January 1786.25 It now was next month the whole show was moved to the King’s bereugh’s early biographer, George owned by Loutherbourg’s former assistant, a man Arms Hall, Cornhill, for a hinited engagement, after tion the box Another, more plaunamed Chapman, whose wife was a minor actress at which it vanished from the advertising columns. No sible origin of the show box was also Covent Garden. The auditorium at Exeter Change was doubt the Eidophusikon itself, if not Sieur Comus, suggested by Fulcher and, much car-

, ¢ . . . Fulcher (1856), Pyne does not men-

just right for this show. Its capacity was two went on tour.78 her, by Edward Edwards (1808)

hundred—larger than the Lisle Street salon and proba- Six years later, in 1799, Chapman exhibited a Jervans 5 eubinons oe tae oe bly accommodating as many people as could conven- “New” Eidophusikon in a room in Panton Street, some small works illustrating the ef iently witness a performance on so small a scale. Haymarket. He made clear in his advertising that this fects of candlelight and moonlight Here the Pandemonium scene again was the finale, was not Loutherbourg’s show. Without saying what — were included. Gainsborough’s peep-

but the sca storm it had temporarily replaced was had happened to it, he declared that he had “been — show was no mere toy, preoccupred

; , ae - ; problems of hghting, he mtended the

retained. Introduced only three weeks after the East enabled to trace out its beauty, ona scale infinitely supe- 15 he was in his Tater years with Indiaman Halsewell had been wrecked off Dorsetshire rior in size, and, by the aid of accumulated light, and box and the slides he pamted for it, with heavy loss of life, and modified to suit this news power of mechanism, to exhibit the most interesting ten of which are displayed at the sensation, it was billed as providing an “exact, awful, operations of nature.’’*® The program, suggesting that Victoria and Albert, to help him deand tremendous Representation of that lamentable Chapman had no intention of deviating from Louther- sign his paintings The most authoriEvent,” a printed narrative of which might be bought bourg’s formula, included a view of the setting sun MUYE Heatment of the show box 1s

. og a . . \ . . Jonathan Mayne, “Thomas Gains-

from a bookseller downstairs.°° To publicize the from Dublin Bay, ‘Moonlight Contrasted with Fire borough's Exhibition Box,” Victoria nightly performance, during the dayhght hours the from a Light House,” the town and harbor of Liver- and Albert Museum Bulletin, 1, no. 3 auditorium) was used as an exhibition room for pool with “gradual effect of dawning day,” and the — (July 1965), 16-24 Jervais’s stained glass, “representing the most striking requisite storm at sea and shipwreck.” A planted news + Barring a comerdence of name, Effects of Nature,” and for the late Hugh Dean’s trans- item in April averred that there were “‘no less than this was Johann Nepomuk Hummel parent paintings of Vesuvius and of the Gordon riots seventy-four movements of action and reaction in the (1778-1837), a child prodigy and six years carlier.27 As we have seen, the Vesuvius pic- moving canvas of the Eidophusikon; and so volumi- PUP! of Mozart, who had been im

London concertizing and studying

tures had been shown with sound effects in 1780; now, nous are the component parts, as to take the Ma- with Clement. He would later

however, they were motionless and silent, the greater chinists nine weeks in putting it together fit for public achieve considerable celebrity as a wonders of the Eidophusikon having eclipsed their inspection.’ On the same bill were a Mr. Wilkinson, —_ composer and teacher. The Eidophusikon 125

va > : » Pp So : 3 . . .

* No account of the Eidophusikon performer on harmonic glasses; a young lady making authorities on J. M. W. Turner*™ have argued from a

mentions the fact that its fame soon her debut in several songs; a twenty-cight-year-old varicty of circumstantial details that the Flect Street crossed the Atlantic The Philadel solicitor’s clerk named John Britton, who was later to show was a hitherto unrecognized and admittedly un-

phia artist Charles Willson Peale, already an expert painter of transpar; a .7 .rs. . . . ‘ .

become well known as an antiquary and topographical typical episode in the painter’s career, but the evidence

encics as well as something of a artist, performing songs and recitations; and “Le against this hypothesis is fairly strong. In the Academy

showman—a role he would fully Chien Savant, or, the Learned Dog.’”?! show of 1800 another Turner—George—exhibited a realize later on—somehow learned of This second-generation Eidophusikon came to a painting of the same subject, the destruction of

. ‘ c a S » . x bY 7 » x ‘ > yx ay y oedty)

Loutherbourg's exhibrtion m the sudden end on the mght of 21 March 1800, when L’Orient;?> a third Turner was associated with Louinformant had actually seen how the chapman was burned ou cre may be more than therbourg in the mounting of mai (1785);3% an , Eidophusikon worked, because no coincidence in the fact that he had just installed a perhaps most conclusive, a certain “M. Turner, Jun. printed description went into the Mount Etna scene; might not the cruption have got is mentioned by Charles Dibdin the younger as “a

summer of 1784 Evidently his C} t Th ; be m th hert | . € Omai (1785):36 d

> fe nang aucu Peale added t - 5 - . pone: .

backstage mechanics of the show In out of hand, just as Dubourg’s Vesuvius had done fif- Gentleman who had invented an extraordinary nauthe following, aucumn Peale added to teen years earlier? One newspaper, it is true, reported machial exhibition, illustrative of the Battle of the

his existing gallery of portraits of that the f 1j by brothel i ntl Nil hich had Jall tl cosity h ; Contemporary military heroes a room na tne Ire started mm a near ay rote and not in the Me... wie 1 Nad attracted all tne curiosity unters

to house the equipment, the gallery Eidophusikon room. But start it did, in any case, and 12 London.’”" Although Loutherbourg’s influence on itself serving as auditorium, and in by the time it was quenched it had destroyed these the Turner, especially in the dynamic handling of hght May 1785 he opened his “Perspective buildings as well as the Hole in the Wall public house, and the dramatic treatment of storms at sea, may well

: thangeable Fffects; or, : - 1

ature lJchinecated, and in onon , 5 . . . . :

nn “en C i 7; M. - an several dwellings, and the house of a tallow chandler. have been profound, 1t was exerted by way of his gal(simplified a year later to “Moving Chapman s loss, uninsured, was said to have been lery paintings, not the Eidophusikon. |

Pictures”) This New World Fido- £600." The fate of the original Eidophusikon is unknown.*

‘ 1 offeeye* a performance : :ata : -x .ay. ;» x .re ‘ » > was ’ ~ we phusikon, like the original, presented During the same season of 1799-1800 at least one More certain 1s the persistence with which Loutherfive scenes, complete with movement other Eidophusikon-type exhibition was current, in bourg’s complicated toy was remembered and referred ind sound effects, ma performance Silver Street, Fleet Street: a muimiature naumachia in the to in the next several decades. The Eidophusikon so

lasting two hours The climactic scene | tradit f the B f Spa’ td deeply j 1 itself Lond b was, not surprisingly, Pandemonium, genera ; rac ION O 1 crmondsey opas outdoor ecply 1m pressed 1tse on ondon memory that it be

ar . , As Ava . N .Change N oeand . .1°: ; . volved at Exeter

with Milton’s text printed im the Siege of Gibraltar but framed (twenty-nine feet wide came a veritable legend; its fame was disproportionate program and additional verse by and twelve high) and evidently with added motion and to the number of persons who could actually have seen

Peale that was recited as the picture noise: it. As will be noted in a later chapter, exhibitions pur-

vos cter Change and in porting to use its unique combination of mechanical Panton Street the meervals Were Bt WING UP OF L'ORIENT, with the R f 1 lighti 1 sound effects would

. w] P . we ~ pP “~ . . C cellair-c - rin ~e r butr went . The whole f/ he , he : . ence at Drury Lane, far beyond to conmachinery ; vo - . struct a fully operative mechanical maquetteit,represent> + \ y B y » » wt S + S re ~ ecoruary ry, Ne created a Maritime ~ : “Te > . pyareray > + scene, this one on the patriotic theme ; ‘ ‘ .. . + ; s achinve 1171 reralp cupied by variety cntertamment, no- . rh : : . with ¢ I¢ Kepresentation o action anc 1g ung anc soun cifectS would reappear

tably readings from classic English the whole of the BATTLE OF THE NILE, aided by the from tine to time down into the early Victorian era. authors reheved by humorous pieces united Powers of Mechanics, | anting, and Optics, from its As tar as the theatre itself was concerned, the EidoEncouraged by popular success, Peale commencement on the Evening ot Amrack, until its glorious phusikon would prove to have been a model for the went on to air-condition his show termination on the ensuing morning. The whole in motion, future. Loutherbourg drew upon his fruitful experi-

place by hanging twelve large fans the respective vessels taking their stations in the order in

rom the ceuing and swinging them which the combat began, with the State of the Fleets on the truct a full t hanical tt t by machinery, and added a barrel ensuing Morning; part of the French Fleet effecting their Es- ; h y P be furtl , ; 4 i “cal organ me thirty runes In cape; the zealous Capt. Hood bearing down on them, and ae at mig it be furt | beneath 1¢ as We ahach ; las the patriotic them hiring and receiving their Broadsides as she passes; the craftsmanship progressed beyond the point to whic

of the battle between the Bonhomme Enghsh boats rowing in different directions, taking posses- he had brought it. He achieved on a miniature scale a Ruhard and the Scraphis After a spec- sion of the vanquished ships, and saving the Frenchmen from serics of spectacles uniting form, perspective, color,

tacular, noisy encounter the Ameri the wrecks.*% movement, and sound such as was yet impossible in

can ship, of course, trrumphed the theatre, despite the advances represented by The

-curre wy fi - comfe : “a ‘ MC . 7) . e audicnce, and after resenaing OC=- . . - YO y :

Eventually, mechanical difficulties This advertisement appeared on 13 June 1799. Later in Wonders of Derbyshire and Omai. In effect, the little Ei-

casional shows durmg the Constitu- . - ,

occurred 600 fren an the comfort of the year the bill included “BUONAPARTE’S LAST dophusikon was the way-station between the theatre

: aes ANID MOST DESPERATE ASSAULT UPON of Garrick and that of Phelps and the younger Kean

tional Convention of 1787, Peale sold ACRE” and a Loutherbourgian tempest, and in the producers of the most claborate spectacles the the whole outfit to a peripatetic following February, inspiring the rivalry which led nineteenth-century London stage was to witness. It showman and returned to his great Chapman to produce his ill-fated Etna eruption, an- raised the sights of stage designers, giving them a new Project of assembling 4 ane | other fearsome “ERUPTION OF MOUNT VE- magnitude and audacity of effect to aspire to when the Coleman Sellers. Charles Willson SUVIUS VOMITING forth Torrents of Fire.’’ “The means became available in the form of more powerful Peale, New York, 1969, pp whole,”’ 1t was said, was “‘designed and exccuted by, and controllable lighting and of more efficient machin188-211.) Some additional details, and under the direction of Mr. Turner.” Two modern ery. To a large extent, the history of English theatrical

museum of natura istory AVATICS _ y . ’ . . 126 The Shows of London

staging during the next half-century would represent scale of the Eidophusikon was abandoned and magnithe realization of the Loutherbourgian ambitions. tude became a desideratum: the bigger the picture, the Outside the theatre, apart from the minor result of better. The illusion of perspective was sought, not by § ———— giving the old clockwork theatre a tenuous extension ranging successive ranks of objects and side scenes to dtawn from Peale’s unpublished of life, the general result of the Erdophusikon was to give the effect of distance, but by experimentation letters. diaries, and autobiography, intensify interest in other forms of pictorial entertain- with trompe loeil techniques on a flat surface. When Silverman, A Culnral History of the ment which created, above all, the illusion of reality. Chapman's New Eidophusikon was burned in 1800, American Revolution (New York,

- yo. ~ have recently appeared in Kenneth

With one exception (the Cosmorama) the miniature the age of the panorama had already arrived. 1976), pp 452-54, 571-72

The Eidophusikon 127

Th | |

e Panorama in Leicester Square

Shortly after Loutherbourg first exhibited his minia- vogue of illusionistic painting in the middle of the sev-

ture solutions to certain problems of theatrical per- enteenth century. In 1663-64 both Pepys and Evelyn spective and hghting, an Edinburgh portrait painter recorded their admiration of the “perspectives” a Mr. was developing, on a grand scale, another novel means Povey had had painted at his house in Lincoln’s Inn of producing the illusion of reality. Drawing upon two Ficlds—one a deceptive vista of porphyry vases and older artistic techniques—the portrayal of landscapes fountains on the garden wall, the other, hung on the on interior walls and of wide outdoor scenes in en- wall of a small room, an interior view down a long graved “prospects” —he added his own discovery, the corridor. The latter, still extant at Dyrham Park, trick of painting a broad scene on a cylindrical canvas, Gloucestershire, is thought to have been the work of and the result was the panorama.! Insofar as the new Samuel van Hoogstraten. One can savor the moment method was immediately put to commercial use, the when the proud Mr. Povey dramatically opened the episode belongs to the history of entertainment rather door for Pepys, ‘‘and there I saw that there is nothing

than of art. but only a plain picture hung upon the wall.’

The idea of decorating interior walls to give the Elaborate landscapes were included in the décor at

impression of outdoor space had attracted artists as Montagu House (later the British Museum) and in Sir

early as the fourteenth century B.c. and again in James Thornhill’s trompe Poeil work in the saloon at Roman times.” In Renaissance Italy, particularly as the Rochampton House, Surrey. At Standlych (now Tranew art of scene design influenced domestic decora- falgar) House near Salisbury, about 1766, the neotion, a room with walls painted to represent a continu- classical painter Cipriani omitted the usual architecOus landscape or a series of vistas—thus denying that it tural framing and painted 4 continuous landscape was a confined space—was frequently found in villas. around the four walls. Another Cipriani room, this The earliest surviving English cxample, at Eastbury, one at Norbury Park, near Dorking, was described by Barking, Essex, dates from the first half of the seven- William Gilpin, the peripatetic connoisseur of the picteenth century. A room so treated at a Fleet Strect tav- turesque, as representing “‘a bower or arbour, admitern is briefly described in the title of a poem by Henry ting a fictitious sky through a large oval at the top, and Vaughan (1646): “A Rhapsodic. Occasionally written covered at the angles with trellis-work.”’ upon a meeting with some of his friends at the Globe Sir George Beaumont, the art patron and friend of Taverne, in a Chamber painted over head with a poets, was so much impressed by the room at NorCloudy Skic, and some few dispersed Starres, and on bury that in the 1770s he commissioned the artist the sides with Land-scapes, Hills, Shepheards, and Thomas Hearne to paint a similar one for the banSheep.”? Such landscapes were a part of the general qucting room at his seat near Keswick, with the signif

icant difference that the room, instead of having the nated. As early as 1804 an advertisement in the Times rectangular shape which prevented the accomplish- listed among pictures for sale ‘““Cannalletti’s Panorama

ment of total illusion when surrounded by a painted of Venice.’ landscape, was circular. Robert Southey, who saw The first artist who discovered how to paint a realisHearne’s twenty-foot-long sketch, regretted that the tic landscape on a cylindrical surface was Robert * Two other contemporary artists, painting was never made. “If the execution had not Barker, born at Kells in 1739, who had become a suc- one American and one German, conalways been procrastinated,” he wrote many years cessful portraitist at Edinburgh.* There are at least ceived the idea of panorama painung later, ‘Shere would have been the first panorama.’ three versions of how the discovery was made in the melspendently ot Barker tens Meanwhile, the same technique of representing mid-1780s, but the essential point is that Barker, 4. painter Walham Dunlap was conwide vistas in perspective had been adopted clsewhere, walking atop Calton Hill (or sitting under an umbrella, versing with “an English gentleman,” by gardeners and artist-engravers. At the end of long according to one account), conceived the idea of fixing most unfortunately not identified, walks, seventeenth-century French landscape design- a square frame on the spot and then rotating it, so that © who “asked me,” Dunlap later ers had placed painted canvases extending the view still he could sketch segments of the entire 360° view in an ieee fe Lad any rea ot a preture farther. These false perspectives became a valued fea- unbroken sequence. He put his twelve-year-old son, rounding objects as they appear in

ture of formal gardens, and at Vauxhall, as we have Henry Aston Barker, to work on the project and ins jature when we turn and look from seen, there were a number of such outdoor deceptions. duc time possessed a view of Edinburgh and its envi- a central spot? I answered, ‘Yes It These were necessarily limited in the breadth of the rons from the observatory on Calton Hill. But when has been fanuhar with me from

scene portrayed. But during those same years, topo- these flat drawings were hung in a circle, the horizon- coo, rouge Tee nor an graphical representations of much greater compass tal lines appeared curved except at exact eye level. This when standing sie enunence, and were being produced in the form of elongated was the crucial problem presented by circularity; and looking around me on the bright and drawings and engravings. As early as 1543-1550, Barker solved it by inventing a system of curved lines glorious obyects, here a landscape, Anthony van den Wyngaerde had produced a “‘pros- which would neutralize the distortion created by a there a bay and shipping—a city ghit-

pect”’ of London, Westminster, and Southwark ten fect concave surface. * | . . one the wong ath nthe sober long and seventeen inches high. This was followed in Having proved that it was possible to painta circular tors of the opposite horizon —1 the next century by more famous bird’s-cye views of picture without sacrificing realism, Barker began to have imagined myself surrounded by London and its vicinity—J. C. Visscher’s in 1616 and consider the commercial possibilities of his discovery. an upright circular canvas, and deWenceslaus Hollar’s numerous renditions in_ the On 19 June 1787 he received a patent for ‘‘an entire Pleting the scene just as nature dismiddle decades of the century, among them prospects new Contrivance or Apparatus, called by him La Na- played it, and I have regretted that | of the city both before and after the Great Fire. ture a Coup d’Oeil, for the Purpose of displaying Views vay in. iat was his unmtelhgsble exAs heavy folios of local historical and topographical of Nature at large, by QOil-Painting, Fresco, Water- cdamation He then told me. asa works proliferated in the cighteenth century, among colours, Crayons, or any other Mode of painting or — thmg unknown, that an artist in their distinctive features was one or more fold-out en- drawing.” The specifications included a circular build- Edinburgh had conceived the plan, gravings illustrating broad expanses of country or ing; lighting admitted exclusively from the top; an en- made ae drawings. and we hd town. These engravings had an obvious affinity with closure to prevent the observer from going too near helped him an funds, and by that Canaletto’s paintings of London and the Thames, of the painting; over the enclosure, a shade or roof “to means became acquamted with the which the two classic examples, the view of Westmin- prevent an observer secing above the drawing or — fact This was the first ume | ever

. . : on eye , , could not make the experiment

ster from Somerset House and that of the Thames painting when looking up’’—so as to conceal the heard ofa panorama, a species of from Somerset House toward the City, were engraved direct-hght source—and a similar obstruction, such as Py en uwnown eae he in 1750-51. None of these, however, attempted to a wall or paling, at the bottom; an entrance to the en- Rise and Prem ‘fl the Ark of Deen portray the entire circle of the horizon from an cle- closure from below, so that no door would interrupt in the United States, ed Frank W vated vantage point. They were limited by the conven- the continuity of the scene; and adequate ventilation Bayley and Charles L. Goodspeed, tional ‘“‘rule of forty-five Lor at most, sixty] degrees,” without the use of windows.’ Obviously, Barker had Boston, 1918, 1, 315-16 ) Dunlap, which allowed a view to embrace only as much as the thought it out completely. But between the conception however, did NO’ AbreMPE 0 solve painter could see without moving his head. But their and the execution intervened the problem of capital. did the German artist Johann Adam

; ; ; ; : the technical problems involved, as

role as precursor of the panorama was recognized It appears that at this point, or possibly before he Breysig (1766-1831) at the very end as soon as the panorama itself was invented. Immedi- took out his patent, he went to London and laid his _ of the century; see S Hausmann, ately, and retrospectively, the word ‘tpanorama’”’ was plans before Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose approval = “Per Erfindung der Panoramen,”

applied by extension and, one might say, by diminu- would go a long way toward getting Barker the ater ae ' ee) ae tion, to these painted and engraved representations of a sponsors he needed. Reynolds listened politely but named the fist panorama a den wide topographical sweep, in time replacing the word doubted that the scheme was practical. Barker, unde- signed the first structure to house

“prospect,”’ by which they had formerly been desig- terred, returned to Edinburgh and, using the guard such pictures The Panorama in Leicester Square 129

29. Panorama of London from the Albion Mills, Southwark (six aquatine engravings by Robert Barker, from original sketches by Henry Aston Barker, 1791). Notice that the left margin of the first segment coincides with the right margin of the last segment. The SIX parts constitute a 360° view.

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ported by the colunin which rose from the center of frame and standards of size and distance external tothe — 30. Burford’s Panorama, Leices-

: .5. . .. . :. : .anorama . Scot .;S § architect.

the ground floor, was a smaller platform, reached from picture itself—were climinated in the panorama, as ter Square: cross section that level by three flights of stairs placed at one side they were, perhaps more crudely and at the opposite _‘(aquatint from Robert Mitchell’s of the building. (These staircases were reputed to be end of the scale of magnitude, in well-made peep- — Plans and Views in Perspective of

among the hardest climbs in a city which also con- shows. The intrusive elements of the spectators’ sur- anne ee Eagan and

tained the Monument and the dome of St. Paul’s. Ata roundings being blacked out, the world in which they conang, ” - itchell was the desperate point in his love affair with Fanny Bolton, were enwrapped consisted exclusively of the landscape P Thackeray’s Pendennis climbs them, arriving, pant- or cityscape depicted on the canvas suspended thirty ing, at the top only to discover that ‘‘care had come up feet away, in the case of the large circle.* with him, and was bearing him company.’’) A second While the building was still under construction, picture was hung around this smaller circumference. In Barker and his son had painted in a temporary wooden

the center of the roof was a skylight, which was the shed in the center of the rotunda a panorama, based on only source of illumination for either picture. A black sketches made at the scene, of the grand fleet lying at * In 1841 a third circle, smaller canopy concealed it from the spectators on the upper Spithead, with a capsizing boat in the foreground and than the others, was added, but it platform, so that the picture was lighted by an unseen Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight in the distance. was not a success. The reduced wall

ee©, ". 7; )4geffect, spectators were roughtand toothe close to the painting.

sun. The floor of the upper platform served a similar This, hung in the lower circle, and the London picture —_SP¢e Prevented the full panoramic

purpose for the area below. The building was so de- in the upper circle constituted the new house’s first. ; ae

signed that two of the forces which militate against bill. The royal family came for a preview. ‘‘The king, The circle was retained, however, perfect illusion in a gallery painting—the limiting Henry Barker recalled many years later, ‘‘asked many _ until the building closed. The Panorama in Leicester Square 133

: - - a . . Ky bid : : , 31. Burford’s Panorama, Leices-from o . a gg =i oyTr ; ter Square: The entrance a a i Cranbourne 1858 (un| aia : ee. | , ote signed pencilStreet, sketch). The surBay ees” + TBs on

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questions; and when answered, turned round to Lord 1 May 1795, as it got under sail to escape the vicinity of Harcourt, to whom he gave the answer verbatim, the warship Boyne, which had caught fire. The proprialways beginning with ‘He says’ so-and-so. His ma- etor claimed that the artist, a marine painter named In 1823 the European Magazinc jesty had a large gold-hcaded cane, which he pointed Robert Dodd, had out-Barkered Barker. He gave no

(83,rer447n.) said that ‘“‘the first Pan-forone ‘th d . .; but.; ;perhaps with,ever and sometimes put into my hand, making me reason this assertion, orama scen [in Paris] was of ; : ; the; sort ; ;of people

London, painted by Mr. Barker, and stoop down in a line with it, to be informed of an ob- who accepted his classic etymology did not expect sold to a person who took it over to ject so small that I could not otherwise understand reasons. ‘“The peculiar manner in which [the painting]

66 9 1 IC . - o . S 5S

France on speculation.” Nothing him.’ Queen Charlotte said she felt seasick. is exhibited, as well as the richness of the subject, is

It actually toOK place, but It 1s certain . . . . .

more is Known id this transaction, if From London the panorama vogue spread across the superior to whatever has hitherto been shewn under that a “person” took the panorama continent, to Paris, Berlin, and as far away as St. Pe the title of PANORAMA (or great sight) as spectators

idea to France in 1797. This was none _—«tersburg—an episodc in the history of European urban may suppose themselves looking through a window at

other than the American painter- culture in the nineteenth century which has yet to be real objects.’’'4 It is possible that this may have been a inventor Robert Fulton, who went described authoritatively and in detail.* In London, the kind of uneasy blend of panorama and large-scale from London to Paris in that year, original panorama soon had competition from quickly peepshow.

primarily effort toAmong interest the : Eee . to na painted imitations. 1796,an for example, atfor the Great the. young artists who turned their skill Directoire inInin his scheme submaag ae

rine navigation. In April 1799 he and. Room, Spring Gardens, under the title “Campus Nau- panorama painting at the turn of the century were two his close friend Joel Barlow, the tica’”’ a 100-foot canvas depicted the fleet at Spithead on friends of Henry Aston Barker who were, like him, 134 The Shows of London

enrolled in the school of the Royal Academy: Robert more than one female was carried out swooning. The oricn-

Ker Porter and Thomas Girtin. Porter’s contribution tal dress, the jewelled turban, the curved and ponderous to the panorama vogue in 1800 is best recounted in the scymitar—these were among the prime objects with Sir best-selling novelist (Thaddeus of Warsaw, The Scottish very spirit and letter of the truth. The colouring, too, was

Chiefs): good and sound throughout. Thewater, accessories were strikingly —— characteristic—rock, carth, and had its peculiar and The historical picture of the Taking of Serimegapatam [in the happy touch; and the accompaniments about the sally-port, fourth Mysore War, 1799] was pamted by my dear brother halt choked up with the bodies of the dead, made you look Robert, at the age of ninetcen. It was two hundred and odd on with a shuddering awe, and retreat as you shuddered. The feet long; the proportioned height I have now forgotten. But public poured in by hundreds and thousands for even a tranI remember, when I first saw the vast expanse of vacant sient gaze—for such a sight was altogether as marvellous as canvas stretched along, or rather m a semicircle, against the it was novel. You carried it home, and did nothing but think wall of the great room in the Lyceum, where he painted it, | of it, talk of it, and dream of 1t. And all this by a young man

was terrified at the daring of his undertaking. I could not of NINETEEN!'® conceive that he could cover that immense space with the

subject he intended, under a year’s time at least, but—and it Little wonder that the young man immediately went

1s indeed marvellous!—he it inonSEX WEEKS! he - .of; Acre (1800), . on todid paint, a similar scale, But the siege

worked every day (except Sundays) during those ; ; shown - . . on theitbattles of Agincourt and Alexandria (both weeks, from sunrise until dark. It was finished during the a 1801 he battl € Lodi (1803 we Is

time the committees of the Royal Academy were sitting at mn f ), the battle of Lodi (180: ), and KWreneral ou ——_—_— Somersct-house, respecting the hanging of the pictures there vorov’s defeat of the French at Novi and crossing the American poet, diplomat, and busi-

for that year’s exhibition; therefore, it must have been Alps by way of Mount St. Gothard (1804). None of nessman then residing n Paris, retowards the latter end of April. No artist had seen the paint- these, however, was as popular as the first, and Porter ceived a French patent of ten years

~ . . tion. In the following ecenioer,

ing of Seringapatam during its progress; but when it was soon cut back his production to easel paintings and be- luration h. expion Barker 5 en completed, my brother imvited his revered old frend Mr came a professional traveler, serving fourteen years as Fulton assigned his nights to another West (the then President of the Royal Academy) to come and British consul in Venezuela and wandering through American businessman, James look at the picture, and give him his opinion of it, ere it Persia, Armenia, and Russia, where he died in 1842. Thayer, who was adding to his Showid be opened to ue public view. - + an went over In Porter’s room, which had been Reynolds’s studio, already considerable fortune by

My: . ; . . houchet, “h Ss 7 . ., :.~“: . .: ‘. .ec

rom the Lyceum, on the morning on which he had called to ; ; :

® ; gathered a sketching club to which belonged the pro—-¢¢¢!oping land in central Pans. see myy.brother and his finshed painting, to Somersct-house, ; Among the commercial buildings , lific and extremely talented watercolorist Thomas where the Committee had been awaiting his presence above a ; 7 . Phayer erected on the Boulevard

Mae .. . ‘. . ..» .. ’ €:

an hour. ‘“‘What has detained our President so long?” en- Girtin. Turner’s remark, “If Girtin had lived I should Montmartre, lending their name to quired Sir Thomas Lawrence of him, on his entrance. “A have starved, iS probably apocryphal, but his estimate the still existing Passage and Rue des

WONDER!” returned he. “a WONDER OF THE of his friend’s genius is sustained by modern opinion. Panoramas, were twin “cupoles”’ in WORLD!—I never saw anything like it!—a picture of two Given the delicacy of both his physical constitution otannas painead by Jean Mocch . hundred foot dimensions, painted by that boy KER and his watercolor art, there is some irony in the fact Demis Fontaine, Pierre Prévost, and PORTER, in six weeks! and as admirably done as it could that at the very end of his lfe—he died of consump- Constant Bourgeots. One depicted

have been by the best historical painter amongst us in as tion in November 1802, at the age of twenty- Paris seen from the central dome of

many months! seven—the particular work of his which was before the Tuileries, the other the British

The bibliophile Thomas Frognall Dibdin, the writer the London public was a huge oil painting, measuring Thayer and he ile tanaped the for whom, many years later, Jane Porter set down her 108 teet by 18: the Eidometropolis or Panorama of two houses, sending a portion of the memories of that heady season, described the huge pic- London from the terrace adjoining the British Plate receipts to Fulton, who used them to

ture which caused all the excitement: Glass Manufactory, shown from 2 August at the Ly- resume his marine engineering exper-

. . - ; Lae . . is Life an orks, London, ,

ceum.!’ Displayed in the Lyceum’s foyer as an adver- _—s! ments at Le Havre. (H. W. Dickinson,

ihe fearne were amazed, and the unlearned were enrap- tisement of the next attraction, which was never to Mee wee and Arise tured. I can never forget its first impression upon my own materialize, were the sketches he had made in Paris for oe oy 103. G ne ‘

mind. It was as a thing dropped down from the clouds—all ; PP. 79~ 77, BW; Germain Dapst,et des a panorama intended to competeYou with a view of the sur ’histoire panoramas fire, intelligence, and animation. a des sec, ; ;Essar “a ; ; , energy, city which had been showing at the Haymarket — dioramas,looked Paris, 1891, pp. 14-15; Heinz ond time, the figures moved, and were commingled in hot i 18 Th; , k of D Buddemeter. Pan Di

, - er, Panoramal/Diorama

and bloody fight. You saw the flash of the cannon, the glitter rT catre since May.” This was the work O James c Photographie, Munich, 1970 of the bayonet, the gleam of the falchion. You longed to be Maria, formerly a scene painter at the Birmingham pp 167-70: Yvon Bizardel. American leaping from crag to crag with Sir David Baird, who 1s hal- Theatre, who was also a student at the Royal Academy painters in Parts, trans. Richard looing his men on to victory! Then, again, you seemed to be and a friend of Turner. Among other so-called pan- Howard, New York, 1960,

listening to the groans of the wounded and the dying—and oramas on display in these years was one of Edin- pp. 65-67.) The Panorama in Leicester Square 135

burgh, the work of a young artist named Saunders, many when he wrote in 1805, “I am fond of panwhich was shown at the Great Room, Spring Gardens, oramas, especially of battles. Their magnitude, the in 1803.'9 Two years later, at the same place, the attrac- consequent distinctness of the objects, and the circular

tion was John Thomas Serres’s 150-foot canvas of position of the canvass, corresponding with the real Boulogne, showing the staging facilities for Napo- horizon, all tend to give one the strongest impression leon’s projected invasion of England and the flotilla he of the reality of the scene.’*! Panoramas became the had assembled for that frustrated venture.”° newsreels of the Napoleonic era. When Robert Barker None of Barker’s rivals, it must be noted, exhibited met Nelson at Palermo in 1799, the admiral told him pictures that could be called panoramas in the strict that he was indebted to him “for keeping up the fame

original sense of the word, that is, paintings hung of his victory in the battle of the Nile for a year around the entire circumference of a wall. Ker Porter’s longer than it would have lasted in the public estiSeringapatam was a semicircle or, according to one mation.’ Nelson was too modest, but he did underwriter, three quarters of a circle. The others probably stand the panorama’s value as a means of sustaining were cither mildly concave or else unambiguously flat. and gratifying the London public’s absorption in the But at least they could claim the other attribute of pan- events of the war. The roll of panoramic subjects in oramas: they did use up a large expanse of cloth. those years echoes, but goes far beyond, the roster that That complete circularity soon ceased to be part of would be inscribed half'a century later on Wellington’s the popular definition of the new word was duc to the funeral car: the Glorious First of June . . . the Battle panorama’s affinity with another current fashion, that of the Nile... the Siege of St. Jean d’Acre.. . of large historical paintings. In practice, the distinction Alexandria... Malta... the Straits of Messina

between the two often was blurred. Panoramas repre- .. . Copenhagen... Lodi... St. Gothard ... sented logical extensions—or magnifications—of the Boulogne ... Trafalgar . . . Flushing . . . Corunna

recently developed school of English historical art in .. . Badajoz... Lisbon... Salamanca . . .

two respects. There was, for one thing, the matter of Vittoria... Paris . . . Waterloo. size: epic subjects, it was agreed, demanded epic scale, Not all the subjects were depicted in the Leicesand no scale could conveniently be larger than the one ter Square panorama; a few were shown elsewhere. Barker and his rivals adopted. Moreover, a new Nor were all the carly panoramas devoted to military subgenre of history-painting had emerged, a kind of topics. Some, such as those of Windsor, Weymouth, pictorial journalism that portrayed contemporary Brighton, Dublin, Rome, Berlin, Naples, and Florevents, often subjects so current they were still in the ence, were purely topographical in interest. But it newspapers. This combination of physical magnitude was upon its portrayal of the events and places of the and topicality had been responsible for the popularity Napoleonic Wars that the initial prosperity of Barker’s of West's Death of General Wolfe in 1771 and of Cop- panorama rested, and a solid foundation it proved to ley’s Death of Chatham a decade later. The violent turn be. In time Barker was able to buy out his backers, and of events in the mid-nineties added pertinence to this to Londoners in the next several decades his was “‘the thriving branch of British art. Every year brought new panorama,’’ just as the Royal Academy’s annual show battles whose critical importance to the nation’s sur- was “‘the exhibition.”” There were several reasons why

vival made them prime material for artistic exploita- it continued to flourish when so many imitators and tion. In 1794—95 crowds paid a shilling a head to enter appropriators of the name came and went. Being first the Historic Gallery, where the newest of Louther- in the field was not necessarily one of them; in show bourg’s canvases were hung: The Battle of Valenciennes, business as in other fields of endeavor the mortality to paint which he had followed the allied armies in the rate among the pioneers is as high as among the folcompany of James Gillray, and Lord Howe’s Victory, or, lowers. To be sure, once established, the Barker pan-

The Battle of the Glorious First of June 1794. orama had the advantage of being a familiar instituWhat the first panoramists did, in effect, was to tion, such as Madame Tussaud’s would later become. bring this kind of instant-history painting to a some- But even so, it would not have been proof against the what broader public—to translate the drama of the notorious fickleness of entertainment fashion had not great struggle into huge pictures which, whatever their the managers had a constantly reliable sense of the sub-

artistic merits might be, had the forthright appeal of jects their clientele were interested in at the moment. topicality realistically and dramatically presented. Ben- They could scarcely have gone wrong by presenting jamin Silliman no doubt expressed the preference of pictures of wartime subjects, but in 1815 they faced a 136 The Shows of London

problem: what would most profitably attract a peace- painting suits his ideas of the art itself, and his defects time public? Their guesses over the years, as we shall are not so apparent in it—that is, great principles are

sec in Chapter 13, proved accurate enough. Barker and neither expected nor looked for in this mode of his successors kept a steady finger on the public pulse. describing nature. He views Nature minutely and cunBut above all it was their ability to provide a supe- ningly, but with no greatness or breadth. The defects of rior illusion that guaranteed a steady box office. How the picture at present are a profusion of high lights, and thoroughly the artist-proprietors were able to monop- too great a number of abrupt patches of shadow. But it olize the secret of Barker’s distortion-correcting tech- is not to be considered as a whole.’’”?

nique is hard to tell; probably most of it could have Robert Barker died in 1806, and his painter son, been mastered fairly quickly by experienced scene Henry Aston, took over the business, assisted by John painters. But even if the method could easily be cop- Burford, who had been his father’s pupil and, in addiied, 1t would have been useless without the kind of tion to helping paint panoramas in the following years, building specified in Barker’s patent, which expired in was an occasional exhibitor at the Academy shows 1801. With no more than one or two exceptions, no- (1812-1829). Meanwhile, the rival operation in the tably the Colosseum in Regent’s Park (Chapter 11) and Strand got into difficulties. On 1 January 1807, T. E. perhaps the secessionary establishment in the Strand, Barker dissolved his partnership with Reinagle. The to be mentioned in a moment, the rotunda in Leicester latter told Constable, who told Farington, that he “‘lost Square was the only structure having complete facili- a great deal of money” in the venture.” A decade later, ties for showing a picture that portrayed, without any in 1817, Henry Aston Barker and John Burford bought

extraneous clements to dispel the illusion, what an ob- the Strand house and continued to operate it, ex- ;

server might sec in all directions as he stood on an ele- changing pictures back and forth between the two " cee enorme ees vation. Other exhibition halls, such as the Lyceum and houses. Barker (who, incidentally, was married to the hrohtfic topographical itis, BAS the Great Room, Spring Gardens, may have provided daughter of Captain Bligh of the Bounty) retired carly LT Parris, pamter of the London pana rudimentary and makeshift imitation of the arrange- on a competence (1822), though he would live on until oramia at the Colosseum, was shown ments at Barker’s, but structurally they could not be 1856, leaving both businesses in the hands of Burford at a specially constructed building

, ace, New Road It was said to be

adapted to provide the panorama’s full effect.* and his son, Robert, who also exhibited at the Royal pega’ by Parris in Coromandel In 1801 or 1802 Barker’s elder son, Thomas Edward, Academy.} Upon his father’s retirement in 1826, Rob- of “most ingemous construction,

who was associated with him in the business although ert Burford became sole proprictor of the Leicester and, by raising the base of the platnot himself an artist, left Leicester Square and set up a Square panorama. The Strand panorama closed in form a few feet, the staircase 1s so rival panorama in the Strand, near Surrey Street, in 1831, and the building soon thereafter was occupied contrived as to admut the visitor

partnership with Ramsay Richard Reinagle, artist son by the much longer-lived Strand Theatre; the Ald- sirece'y sien 30 Lan of an artist father, Philip Reinagle. Both Reinagles wych Underground station 1S on the site today. p 684: sce also Literary Gazette > and seem to have done some painting at the original pan- During their various terms as proprictors and artistic 30 October 1830, pp 642-43, 707, and orama; the son did most of it for the Strand house. By directors of the panorama, Henry Barker and both Times, 30 October 1830.) Another an accident of circumstance, the younger Reinagle had Burfords were constantly in the field making drawings — Unusual feature of this wooden struc-

lately (1799-1800) been the intimate friend of John for their next big picture. In the earlier years especially, ture was that it could be taken apart Constable, freshly arrived from Suffolk, with whom Barker's travels brought him into contact with some and reassembled within a few hours. he shared rooms off Portland Place. Constable the ide- of the most famous people of the age. On the way to ceived m the press, surprisingly httle alist quickly took the moral measure of Reinagle, an Turkey to make drawings for the panorama of Con- more 1s reported of it or of the unprincipled and cunning operator. (Not only was stantinople (1799) he called upon Sir William Hamilton, — bulding The show closed in Febru-

’ ee : . Although the panorama was well re; ; j ; ; opened (Literary Gazette, 4 February . ; aan . t Some accounts say Robert was

Reinagle involved, like his father, in questionable the ambassador at the Court of Naples. Sir William =“ 1832, sommes months after 1 transactions by way of buying, restoring, and selling was not at home, but Barker dined that evening with 1839». 7%) paintings; in 1848 he sent to the Academy, under his Lady Hamilton and Lord Nelson. He met Napoleon in . own name, a picture he bought at a broker’s, and was Paris in May 1802, and again on Elba. John’s younger brother, but the date forced to resign his membership.) Although the two Each of these panoramists had his share of adven- of his birth (1791 or 1792) seems to soon drifted apart, Constable was invited to a preview tures. Robert Burford could tell of being locked in the substantiate the assertion of others of Reinagle’s panorama of Rome, to which his reaction spire of the Karlskirche, Vienna, from which he had that he was John’s son There is an was lukewarm—as regarded both the panorama as a been making sketches of the surrounding territory, appreciation of their casel landscapes form of art and Reinagle’s personal talent: “I should and finally being rescued when passersby saw his franti- tory of the Old English Landscape think he has taken his view favourably, and it is exe- cally waved handkerchief; of being snowed in for Painters (London, 1926-1943), II,

. ’ bc . . in M.H Grant, A Chronological His-

cuted with the greatest care and fidelity. This style of forty-eight hours in a chalet in the Bernese Alps; and 317-18 The Panorama in Leicester Square 137

32. Burford’s Panorama: Naples a.wi-_ _ a os ,otns, qa . : ; . . by moonlight (painted by Robert a Burford and H. C. Selous; en- al os . my ; . a

graving Illustrated - ; ;a; co. News, 11 in January 1845). ,London so Ail ata,ae on_Poe en . 7

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Salzburg and its vicinity from the heights of the castle. naval officers, government officials on foreign station.

In all, over thirty of the Leicester Square panoramas The proprictors painted most of the panoramas were painted from drawings made by one or another themselves, with the assistance of subordinates such as of the proprietors: Messina, Flushing, Lisbon, Badajoz, Ramsay Reinagle before he seceded. From 1844 onVittoria, Elba, Waterloo, Dover, Paris, Venice, Na- ward almost every canvas at Leicester Square was the

ples, Lausanne, the Bernese Alps, Pompeii, Malta, work, at least in part, of Henry Courtney Sclous, Edinburgh, Constantinople, Amsterdam, Geneva, a well-known painter and illustrator who during Florence, Milan, Antwerp, Stirling, New York City, his long career showed some sixty pictures at the anNiagara Falls, Lazo Maggiore, Mont Blanc, Rome, the nual exhibitions in addition to painting thirty panoRoman Colosseum, Coblenz, Vienna, Switzerland ramas. Except for the two earliest panoramas, which from the Rigi, Killarney, and Salzburg. The remainder were painted in distemper and thus gave rise to the were painted from sketches brought back by travelers. complaint that panoramas were nothing more than Some of these contributors to the edification of stay- enlarged examples of theatrical scenery, all the Barkerat-home Londoners belonged to the numerous carly Burford-Selous productions were done in oil and varnineteenth-century breed of artist-travelers who, nished like gallery pictures. Painting them, of course,

moved by the romantic passion for the remote, the required special equipment of the kind Copley had sublime, the picturesque, and the antique, wandered used when painting his mammoth Defeat of the Floating across the continents in search of subjects.”° Probably Batteries at Gibraltar—a platform and a roller by which the only one whose name is recognized today was the canvas could be raised or lowered as required. The

Frederick Catherwood, the antiquary-architect who Leicester Square panoramas were painted in large spent a number of years sketching Egyptian sites and structures expressly built or adapted for such work: contributed the drawings for Burford’s panoramas first a wooden rotunda near Barker’s home at 14 West of Jerusalem, Thebes, Karnak, and Baalbec.*® Other Square, St. George’s Fields, and later a tall building sketches were provided by men who were abroad for that was long a landmark in Kentish Town. In such cav138 The Shows of London

eee PSSST 70 33. Burtord’s Panorama: Cairo cen oeeT EES ES 2S7 SSS (painted by Robert Burford and

- rrr _ cee OE eg ates Orig fue _ oe H. C. Selous from drawings

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many points in the park and as far away as Baker and prospectuses, provision was made for still another

Strect.’° viewing gallery, as well as for two levels of entertainment rooms adjacent to the ball and cross, one for a

“refectory” other lifted D3$4 from the coolserving cellar,ices theand other forrefreshments music or balls, though the space would have been, to say the least, But the supreme experience at the Colosseum was to rather restricted. These top-of-the-dome extras seem see the imitation London from the top of the imitation never to have been installed. St. Paul’s. From the floor of the rotunda rose a circular All the lighting came from a seventy-five-foot skystructure of timber which supported the viewing gal- light at the top of the dome, which was concealed from leries, the first of which was higher than the four- the spectators. The picture, of course, was brightest at story terraces in nearby Portland Place. If they wished, the top, the light duninishing toward the bottom. The

visitors could make the ascent by conventional means, gradation of lighting enhanced the illusion, but one of the two spiral staircases enclosed within the nothing could be done, by way of movable shadows, shaft, each of which led to a separate gallery. The to inntate the changing direction of the sunlight acclimb possibly was not as constricted as the familiar cording to the time of day or the season of the year. In one in the Monument or as steep as the one 1n Leicester this vision of London, as in the land of Tennyson’s Square, and it was certainly less taxing than the se- lotos-eaters, it always seemed afternoon. quence of tight staircases and rude ladders that Hornor The painted canvas represented London and _ its had negotiated so many times in the real St. Paul’s. But cnvirons as they could be seen for twenty miles in all it did not have to be attempted at all, because inside the directions, under absolutely ideal conditions, cloudcore of the staircase was a miraculous “ascending less, smokeless, and fogless (though Hornor introroom,” the very first passenger elevator in London. duced a suggestion of mist in the far distance). Benches Holding ten or twelve persons, it was worked by hy- were provided on each of the galleries, as well as spy-

draulic power.* glasses by which one could discover distant details that

The ascent by foot had a considerable advantage in would have been invisible to the naked eye either in verisimilitude, because on the way up one could look situ or from this substitute vantage point. From the out at the lower part of the panorama through an imi- City to Windsor Castle, Epping Forest, and Greentation of the scaffolding that had enclosed St. Paul’s wich, everything was depicted with microscopic parwhen Hornor was working. Whether arriving by ticularity. An American naval officer summarized as stairway or by lift, spectators stepped out on the lower well as anyone, in those early years, the hypnotic effect

of the two circular balustraded galleries from which of the whole arrangement: they could inspect the panorama at their Icisure. These

Tf Extarline canbrdlulike hon the cater e You insensibly draw back from the balustrade, Separating * This was Hornor's own mven, the spectators from [the picture], as from the fearful parapet, tion, announced as carly as 1826, in

lower one was a replica of a portion of the outer from which, on the cathedral itself, you cast a glance into the the August issue of the Gentleman’s dome of St. Paul’s, so that, bending over the railing, a terrific depth around. And are obliged almost to reason with Magazine (96, part 2, pp. 100-61) “Tt spectator would sce it closest at hand and then, beyond yourself, to be persuaded that it 1s not nature, instead of a wil be furnished with vee obit in the immediate foreground—the three-dimensional work of art, upon which you are bestowing your admura- Jects sufficiently ang °° vrare

, the cunosity of the company for a

mockup blending into the painting—those portions of tion. few moments In the mean time, by

the cathedral’s roof and towers which would be seen The winding river, with its craft and numerous bridges, a strong mechanical power, and by a from the corresponding place on the real gallery. the undulating sea of brick and mortar, sweeping widely on movement wholly imperceptible, the The second gallery was thirty fect above the other, every hand; the long vistas here and there, marking the grand spectator will be raised to a proper

with a corresponding alteration in perspective. The avenues—by Fleet street and the Strand, Oxford street, and aon tor viewing tne pee city below and the horizon were farther away, though the new road—through the city; the unnumbered public edi- vant yeh “ fhe ende *

; fices; the parks, the palaces, the gardens, and the distant, but P

the detail of the portrayal was no less sharp; and above, lovely regions encircling the whole, for twenty miles in Persons who a few moments before

to extend the illusion, was the original ball which had every direction, are all presented to the view, as distinctly wee eke n canbe ih _— been replaced during the repair work in 1821-22, sur- and minutely, as faithfully to themselves and to their col- imagined, ve parks can Hardy to mounted by a facsimile of the cross. The final touch of ouring in the finest shades of the purest atmosphere, as if the attraction and interest which the verisimilitude was provided by Hornor’s frail hut, seen under the best possible advantages, from the giddy panoramas, of itself, well calculated

which was rigged atop the cross. In the earliest designs height itself." to excite” A Panorama in a Pleasure Dome 149

So compelling was the illusion that more than a few what later: the completed structure, as shown in archispectators insisted that the people depicted in the tectural drawings, was the mise en scene for a group of streets and the parks actually moved. A visiting Per- engravings illustrating the season’s fashions.2! An sian (whose account of the sights of London in 1836, to equally bright side of the Colosseum’s presence was be sure, is the most fanciful one can conceive), claimed stressed to a different audience in 1833, when the Penny

in addition to have heard “‘a great noise . . . of car- Magazine, a new weckly dedicated to enlisting the riages, coaches and horses.”’!” For this latter fancy there minds and wills of the working class in the cause and is some independent evidence, because a writer in the conviction of British Progress, interpreted the ColosPeople’s Journal in the mid-forties said, “‘there is a low scum as symbolizing “‘the best possessions of civiliza-

murmuring, as of a busy countless multitude, in eager tion’ and the accumulated advantages of the British motion far down beneath you,” as well as ‘“‘sound of people.** It was, in short, a sermon in stucco. numerous clocks striking the hour simultaneously, or But it did not pay. If, as was said at the time, Hornor in quick succession, and occasionally you hear a merry left £60,000 in debts behind him, it would have taken peal of bells from a church steeple near or distant.’’! an extraordinary flood of five-shilling patrons, coming When Hornor made his sketches, the site of the fu- day after day and year after year, to put the Colosseum

ture Post Office in St. Martin’s-le-Grand was empty, in the black. After the first flurry of excitement, the and he so represented it. By the time the panorama was novelty wore off, a development that must have been painted, however, the Post Office had been built, and hastened by the nervous public climate of the moment. he and Parris decided that 1t would be “‘more interest- The agitation for electoral reform had thrown England ing’ to compromise and show it still scaffolded. Parris into a fever of political anxiety. The nation had not retherefore went up to the Golden Gallery at St. Paul’s, covered from the financial crisis of 1825-26, and the

made sketches, and in seventeen days painted in the amusement industry was in a particularly depressed unfinished edifice, minutely portraying every plinth condition, as the general lowering of prices at the theand frieze.'® Apart from this addition, the finished pan- atres demonstrated. The reduction of the Colosseum’s

orama showed London as it was in 1821-22. This admission fee in 1832 to two shillings (one for the meant that the Colosscum itself was missing—an panorama, the other for the rest of the building and omission of no little importance, because this massive grounds), though required by the special circumbuilding, with its “heavy, huge, and dome-crowned stances in which the establishment found itself, was walls,’’ was now conspicuous in the middle distance as part of a widespread trend.* In addition, the Colosse-

one looked west-northwest from atop the real St. um’s well-publicized association with the peculating

Paul’s. Stephenson did not noticeably contribute to its presBut if, at the Colosseum, the Colosseum could not tige; 1t is possible that among the potential subscribers be seen from St. Paul’s, from the Colosseum one could who did not sign up were members of the nobility and

see St. Paul’s. From the very top of the rotunda, even gentry who had had money with Remington, Steabove the ball and cross, a final short stairway led to an phenson, and Company. * Late in 1829, notwithstanding open-air gallery that ran along the circumference of the After only two years, therefore, the managing com-

the lesson one would think Hornor's dome. From this breezy vantage point could be mittee was glad to unload the Colosseum on the catastrophe had taught prospective inspected the newest “improvements”’ in fashionable famous tenor John Braham, who paid £40,000 for it

speculators, plansambitious were announced Regent's in the Hyde opposite Hyde Park € the cfortune ‘derable heamassed had sed Ffrom build an cqually hall withtoTk, ppositePark: direction, Par direct; out of the considerable he fjhad special emphasis on the drama A and Westminster Abbey; and, not least, the real St. his singing career and from the first English produc-

singing master at 11 Liverpool Street Paul’s, its dome and cross shining atop Ludgate Hill. tion of Der Freischiitz and other popular operas. When with the charming name of Gesualdo This, then, was the Colosseum in its first years: a Braham and his partner, the actor-manager Frederick

Spal Created’ s prospectus tora London sensation, the most celebrated entertainment Henry Yates, took over, the Colosscum’s future was clude a “grand panorama” not fur- spot of the moment. How far it pervaded the public predicated on its ability to compete with other popular ther described, a subscription theatre, consciousness is illustrated by the quite different uses entertainments on their own terms. Thus they added, an “academic” theatre for aspinng that were made of its topicality. As carly as 1827, a for example, a ‘‘Panoramic Painting’ of the South actors, an assembly and concert scene in the Covent Garden pantomime, Harlequin and African Kaffir country, showing, among other suborks nan Ay Call, Lonclon Play Nuniber Nip, had a quartet of beggar boys singing a jects, the massacre in 1829 of a party led by the aptly Places box 7) Nothing more 1s heard sad complaint against a backcloth depicting the named Lieutenant Farewell. Entrance to this exhibition of the Panarmonton or of Signor Colosseum.”° No such dimly implied social criticism was through an African glen, a reconstruction of wild

Lanza. was present in another use made of the building some- and rocky scenery populated by stuffed yourg animals 150) The Shows of London

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° ° : ‘ . . ” 5 ) - && T. NN yy 1 ~ ’ “hie structures,’ Win our admiration, while there is nothing of

The Colosseum, A Building which stands proudly pre- ancient OF modern days that can compete with it cither in eminent amid all and everything that has been erected Classic Elegance, Grandeur of Effect, or Beauty of Propor-

throughout Europe. Its renown obviates the necessity of a ens Ane hecrchitect ae to RUE aBCS 3 eects or the

lengthened announcement, and the individual to whom the BETIS © te architect, as an Cutshining and o erwhemung conduct of the Sale is committed is fully aware that it is on edifice.” The Dome, It 1S believed, is of larger dimensions Classic Ground He is about to enter, and, therefore, he may aan hae of any ome of a simiiar nature, am t 1S * admira-

well fear that by his imperfect attempt to strengthen and de- ¢ © i . he : Ps poe * Oeee bene “L ae y

oe . . ; ; ; ity 735

fine its worth, he may but weaken the sensation that has so or the grandeur oF its external citect, being 10 arta model, long existed. The Colosscum, in the Regent’s Park, Is so de- Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime, / It looks tranquilsigned trom Its Colossel Dimensions, Which equal, if not ex- ity.

ceed, Elegance” The most celebrated . ae 8in_“Gigantic When the sale took place in MayConstruc1843, all.

the auc. . oneer Ss rnetoric cou ring was uineas, no space of a Particular of Sale, even the most prominent fea- h han half of B fe yl i , tion of Antiquity. It will be difficult to condense, in the usual tj 5 thetori Id bri 33,000 eu; '

tures connected with this Cyclopaean Structure, where much more than halt o raham s original! investment. Description Fails to Portray ‘Its eloquent proportions, / Its The purchaser was David Montaguc, a member of a mighty gradations,” which, even when scen, ““Thou scest firm of cement merchants, who closed down the not all, but piecemeal thou must break, / To separate contem- whole dilapidated establishment and commissioned plation, the great whole.”’ The Exquisite Proportions of the William Bradwell, a mainstay of the Covent Garden 154 The Shows of London

scenery department, to give it a thorough face- distance of the panorama, the parts which had been

lifting.*° worst obscured by smoke and dirt. No attempt was

When the Colosseum reopened in 1845, it was evi- made to bring the scene up to date.** The new managedent that Bradwell had worked hard and to good ef- ment, however, hedged its bets—and sought to get fect.?” Upon entering, the patron was first impressed more use out of the attraction, which hitherto had been by the fresh luxury of the rotunda, now renamed the open only during the daylight hours—by commisGlyptotheka. Hung with silk instead of the former cal- sioning from the theatrical scene painter George ico, it was encircled with a 300-foot frieze of the Danson a new panorama, London by Night. This was Panathenaic procession in the Elgin marbles, below made by tracing the whole of Parris’s picture on linen, which were “nine large Looking Glasses in handsome with apertures cut at numerous places where windows Gilt Frames, seats covered with Utrecht velvet, and and strect lamps were represented, and then transfertwelve three-light gas branches supported by Groups ring the new picture, section by section, to twentyof Cupid and Psyche.”’ Placed about the room were eight frames that folded out of sight below the day picstatues and busts of Canute, Bacon, Chaucer, Carac- ture. At the end of the afternoon these frames were tacus, Richard the Lion-Hearted, Nelson, and other drawn up to the horizon, across the original picture, personages ancient and modern; all of the works of art with space left behind to illuminate the cut-out displayed, amounting to some two hundred items, windows and lamps. On the sky (the dome) a magic were for sale. The ascending room had been converted lantern projected clouds which passed over a lighted to steam power (supplicd by a sixteen-horsepower canvas moon. The Examiner was delighted by the engine housed in a shed 1n the north garden) and redec- show: orated m Tudor style, with stained glass pancls m its We see the lighted streets and shops; the people clustering ceiling and its walls covered with CrHTsSOn drapcrics. It and crowding in the roads and footways, the warm firesides

provided, wrote one visitor, “the notion of being in- of private dwellings shining forth a jovial red upon the outer closed in a large and very gorgeous Chinese lantern.” night; skylights of factories and warchouses bright with the

The former conservatory had become an aviary, busy life within; church towers and steeples rising up lke

half-Gothic, half-Moorish in tendency. ghosts among the short-lived creatures fluttering about In the grounds, which had become a ‘‘weedy desola- them; and, over all, a bright moon sailing proudly through tion,’ Bradwell retained Hornor’s devices that made the sky, and winking stars attending it. There are clouds, too; the four acres seem many more, but with new centers not obdurate masses of wood and canvas [as in the theatre], of attention: a scattering of property antique ruins— but mere shadowy vapour, flying fast before the moon, and

. . out.

the Arch of Titus, the Temples of Theseus and Vesta. for the moment quencing the lustre ae mtlection " the The former marine grotto now was a replica of the mons Water, and in tne stagnant mud where the fide 1s caves at Adelsberg, filled with fantastically shaped stalactites and stalagmites. The Swiss cottage re- ‘How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon the Bank,”’ as mained, but from one of its windows could now be a character in one of Planché’s extravaganzas mur-

seen a magnified working model of a silver mine. mured.*” The panorama of London had been especially in London by Night seems to have drawn fairly well at a need of attention. Once the top drawing card of the half-crown admission. (During the day the building Colosseum, it had latterly proved something of a liabil- and grounds, including the original London panorama, ity. Whereas Burford could, and did, change the sub- could be seen for two shillings, with the stalactite cav-

ject of his picture at least once a year, Parris’s pan- ern one shilling extra.) But a timely new canvas was orama still depicted a rapidly changing London as it already in preparation. In February 1848 Louis Phihad been in 1822. It therefore attracted litte of the lippe had been dethroned, and Paris was plunged into repeat business which kept the Leicester Square oper- revolution. The English watched the bloody course of ation prosperous. Except for those small portions ac- events with horrified fascination; they were the more cessible to broom or cloth, the canvas had been un- at liberty to do so after they survived the threat of a touched since it was finished in 1829, and the sky was Chartist takeover of London in April and felt their so badly cracked that a whole new plastering and re- own institutions to be secure. Both the Colosseum painting job was required. Parris was therefore called management and that in Leicester Square immediately back to the scene of his carly labors. Assisted by his put their painters to work. At virtually the same moson, he spent a year repainting the extreme and middle ment in May that Burford opened a panorama of Paris A Panorama in a Pleasure Dome 155

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by Daylight, the Colosseum replaced the Loridon by surpass the uniformity of appearance which every spire, and

Night show with one of Paris by Night. house, and wood, and river—yea, which every shopAs the revolution continued into the summer, spec- window, ornamented, presented. All seemed natural, from tators could locate the action on the canvas. Even those the twinkling of the stars above us, 0 the monkey of the with no interest in current events were delighted by organ-man in the market-place below.

,cause,orwrote: 4: . .;

the painting, which assumed that they were hoverin . attention to detail that the the cords hanging from the bal- . . ; - netting Street side Royal Colosseum loon’s intervened between them and the view . Saloon and Hall of P 5the wee Y 8 Ininthis busy year, however, there was a still more over Tuileries anovelty balloon; assiduous was the ‘On . . sensational atsothe Colosseum. the Albany

below! An Ameri black man named William Mirrors, of tarnished memory, gave way to a new

“ow nme oes aeinbuilding called the Cyclorama.* Entered .through Wells Brown, England to promote thebronzed abolitionist . ; andaa wus rot corridor lighted by twenty-six tripods, “rustic armory” foyer in which refreshments were

.here, 4: .all. sold, this was a luxurious little auditorium laden with brilliant with gas-lights, and favored by the shin- hy bellish ly Vi an t

. . ° ee ; > oy :

ing moon, Paris lay spread far out beneath us, though the can- the embens ments proper to carly Victorian _

vas on which the scene was painted was but halfa dozen feet The eighteen benches and tier of boxes were arrange from where we gazed in wonder. [This probably is an error. ] to suggest “the vestibule of a regal mansion, fitted up The moon herself seemed actually in the heavens. Nay, bets for the performance of a masque, or play.” The stage were laid that she had risen since we entered. Nothing can area, separated from the seating by an entablature exA Panorama in a Pleasure Dome 157

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1850 the Paris panorama gave way to one of the Lake conveniently neglecting to state that the period in of Thun, but the London show was restored for the question probably was more than twenty years carlier Crystal Palace crowds the following summier. In the and omitting to specify how much of that sum was Cyclorama itself, the Lisbon production was after a earmarked to pay off the creditors. In the event, the long run replaced successively by a series of huge property failed to make the reserve price of £20,000 paintings of the Crystal Palace and the dependable old and was withdrawn." Once more a salvage operation subject of Vesuvius in eruption. In the latter show, an was mounted, this time under the auspices of a paper attempt was made to recapture the excitement of the group calling itself the Colosseum of Science and Art Lisbon earthquake, with offstage voices and machines Company, Ltd., and consisting chiefly of the prospecimitating the thunder of the explosion and the cries of tive managing director, George Bachhoffner, Ph.Dr., the victims, but the Times, at least, found the sound cf- F.C.S., etc., former professor of natural philosophy fects ‘in bad taste, and in no way aid[ing] the efforts of at the negligible institution of Queen’s College,

the painter.”"° Guernsey, and for many years a well-known figure in

Again the Colosseum found itself in straits. In 1855, the educational entertainment ficld. The company was after being closed for some months, it was put up for to be capitalized at £10,000, with shares, entitling the sale again, this time in connection with a suit in Chan- owner to free admission, offered at £10. Despite the cery, Phillipson and another versus Joseph Turner, evi- failure of the “Gallery of Natural Magic’’ in 1839 dently David Montague’s partner, and twenty-five Bachhoffner evidently wanted to make another stab at others. The auctioneer declared that “150,000 persons imitating the Polytechnic Institution and for that pur-

have paid for admission in One Year and as much pose proposed to spend £2,000 on scientific equipas £20,000 been received during the same pceriod,”’ ment,*! A Panorama in a Pleasure Dome 161

But if the equipment was actually bought and used, For to hear the rafters shaken it made no difference. By the Christmas season of 1859 By the Choir in the Abbey. the Colosseum was once more a variety house with a Nor the service, nor Te Deum, bill including dissolving views of China, a magician, Nor the sights of Christmas time,

; , , Lo ,

, ; Save, perhaps, the Pantomime. pair of playlets entitled Distant Relations and Honie for [ remember, T remember, ; the :Holidays and starring two daughters of the Terry A Ml res “um " the vee *: ’ :latend tnePrincess’s classic Oroken pillars family, of the Theatre. One girl, Nelly P pounds.) vs ; (Sold for something like three and a clairvoyant. Though otherwise undistin- cou “proach ue oo ssc

guished, the program was memorable for one item, a perap ‘

‘6 9 .

(later Ellen), was “fly-by-night, cigark hoolbov.” and cast wh has ld aAnd the statues! One of ;Jason

rec . ave shec

smo ne SC roo) oy, and when not on stage she coulc Was a noble work of art. be found studying the part of Julict in the old stalactite They were knocked down to a mason, cavern. “To me,” she wrote in her autobiography, Who removed them 1n his cart. the gloomy horror of the place was a pertect god At the Panorama great 'm send! Here | coulc cultivate a creepy, eerie sensation, Looking back with sad delight, and get into a fitting frame of mind for the potion It was London Seen by Dav- Time. scene. Down in this least imposing of subterranean It was London Seen by Night. abodes I used to tremble and thrill with passion and But it suited no one’s coffers terror. Ah, if only in after years, when I played Juliet at On the selling afternoon, the Lyceum, I could have thrilled an audience to the And | heard of no great offers,

“the go > plac as < ‘rrect god- ,

same extent!’ For old MISTER BRADWELL’S “Moon.” In thirty nights the Terry family played to 30,000 A statue of KING WIL-LI-AM persons, but this success was too late to save the Col- THE FOURTH was then knocked down,

osscum. Even the arrival of the Underground | weep—perhaps I silly am—

wi Che declined not dowy so. IfTf the .crowds wantedauctioneer music hall programs, :

to let . oa . [t go for next to 1X, such as the presented during its lasthe season . a .Colosscum But took the highest could get— Railway, with a nearby station at Portland Road, could __The bid was a half-a-crown.

(1863: Burford’s panorama closed almost simultane- -

ly) Mi In” dissol It fetched justten one-pound-six. ously)—“Neapolitan Munstrels,”’ dissolving views, . y P—N ; . i;i SIR ROBERT PEEL, feet in; height,

. - ce Ms From pedestal to nob,

conjurors, comic monologists, juvenile flutusts, “‘chansonettes” by a “Swiss comique,”” and so on—they had ,

etl ently located or marble, purely bob. white, < y¥ hy » -‘ “er » ~ x| Twas ~~ - stone +houses S >< im me!—ten a larger choice at thepa moreay convemiently located It fetched—ah. in Leicester Square and the Strand. And so the building The end—five pounds or under stood sadly moldering, its stucco crumbling to expose Bought a lot which all ears dinned, the rough bricks underneath, until it was again put up ‘Three Rain Barrels and One Thunder,”’ for sale, along with all its contents, in August 1868. “Then Two Crashes and One Wind.” Punch solemnized the occasion—this time inspired not Fit ending, awful, fnght’ning!

by Byron but by Thomas Hood: For the place now gone to smash,

IWhen remember, Itheremember, ; | little b boy, AndBut ironin thunder-crash. en f was a little sunk thunder crashes How came home in December , - ItIfond hes, Like on Regent's plain; My parents to annoy. a Phoenix from its ashes, But my pretty maiden Aunty : ; 334 ) ; Shall it ever mse again?

Stricken down by resin-lightning,

Was kind and gave to me

A sort of show galanty, Although the demolition may have begun in 1868, it A funny thing to see. was not completed, and the site cleared, until 1875. [ remember I was taken Whenever the great dome was brought down, the panBy my aunt’s peculiar cabby, orama of London vanished with the rest of the debris.

162 The Shows of London

lhe D1

On 10 February 1824 John Arrowsmith, of Air Street, and effects for thirteen melodramas at the Théatre Piccadilly, was granted a patent for ‘‘an improved Ambigu-Comuque were masterpieces of trompe l'oeil Mode of publicly exhibiting Pictures or Painted Scen- realism, and his sunbathed sets for Nicolo’s Aladin ou ery of every Description, and of distributing or di- la lampe merveilleuse, produced at the Opéra in Febru- * His inspiration may have been recting the Day-light upon or through them, so as to ary 1822, were destined to be remembered for decades. duc at least parually a Swiss picto: - 4: ial entertainment, the toDiaphan-

produce many beautiful Effects of Light and Shade, When Daguerre conceived the idea of his Diorama, ue WhICN hich Was wnCXHIDICeC hil a Pari OralMla, ? Faris

+ » >» 1 > 1 D) . +77 x > > By BY > : Saad + eC BY ‘ yal . ; , . . . , .

which he denominates Diorama, artly communicated therefore, he brought to the project the same IMPFes~ iy 1821. The invention of a Swiss to him by certain Foreigners residing Abroad.”! The sive experience that Loutherbourg had amassed in the landscape painter and scene designer Diorama, arriving in England thirty-seven years after London theatre before he embarked on his Eidophu- named Franz Niklaus Ko6nig, it in-

; : +: ae : ratercolor on sheets of paper at » ~ ay a ey » y F x y .» > ~ » .

Barker had taken out a patent for his panorama, took sikon. And like Loutherbourg, he was fascinated by volved rasp ares painted win pictorial entertainment in a different direction. Like the the dramatic potentialities of light.* pelenetbnieainmiaanaanign dn eniniaie allya specially des; d designed build; building Fs Onfor 11n 11 Tuly D , 1D; dj shown darkened The panorama, .itred required July 1822. 1822, agucrre’s Diorama opened inin an anovelty seems toroom. have been that a fully realized performance; but it went beyond the expressly constructed building at 4 Rue Sanson, now Konig “achieved various degrees of panorama in its capacity for dynamic effects. The the Rue de la Douane, just off the Place de la Répub- transparency . . . by oiling and [Diorama was, 1n essence, a flat picture with an illusion ligue. It was an immediate sensation, and Daguerre partly ean nee “ ac of the

an ison Gerns. . . . . ~; .>. 5yaper.”” . WM, £2.(Helmut fo ave. AGHEIYe, CW It originated the panoramas thatconnection, swept proceeded at once to establish a similar exhibition in oo or . :, ;.in;Robert , ;vogue . c.Fulton’s The if any, Paris introduction of London. Daguerre had English connections by mar- ys. ’ afollowing ;for+the English patentee, Johnbetween Arrowof depth and, most important, capable of changes in and his partner, Charles-Maric Bouton, a pupil of PS LM Donen New

lighting so dramatic as to alter its whole aspect. David who had also been one of Prévost’s assistants, York, 1968, p. 14.)

Barker’s invention there. One of the leading French riage. His wife, Louise Georgina, belonged to an gmith, and the French family is uncerpanorama painters was Pierre Prevost, whose huge English family settled in Paris; its true name, Arrow- tain. A John Arrowsmith canvases of European cities and Napoleonic events (the smith, was sometimes shortened in French to (1790-1873) was a prominent camp at Boulogne, the conference at Tilsit, the Battle “Smith.”’> Early in 1823 one of Madame Daguerre’s London mapmaker. Another of the O agram) were shown m layer S twin Frotun as roters, Waarles ATTOWSMUEN, al artist, was sent Co brothers, was a Parisian art dealer. and later (from 1807?) in Prévost’s own building in the London to find an architect and a location for the 46 often visited London in these

FW J Tl , das brothers. Charles A mith. an artist tt name, one of Mme Daguerre’s

Boulevard des Capucines. Among Prévost’s assistants branch Diorama. The architect chosen was the ¢migré _ years, but since he presumably was a

was a theatrical scene designer named Louis Jacques Augustus Charles Pugin, father of a more celebrated French citizen he would not have Mandé Daguerre, who was achieving considerable son. Pugin was then working for John Nash, who was _ been chigible to receive a patent. As a

, “yy: British subject, London Ar) ;. :) rowsmith couldthe have takenJohn one out

reputation as a worthy successor—at long remove—of building terraces of mansions in Park Square and Park aan

the great Servandoni and would, in his later years, be- Crescent, respectively north and south of the New in behalf of “certain Foreigners recome one of the fathers of photography.” His scenery Road at the southeast corner of Regent’s Park. Since __ siding abroad.”

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this was the most fashionable neighborhood on the likely that its swift erection and conspicuous prosperoutskirts of London at the moment—a consideration ity contributed to the rumor-breeding impatience with

which, at the same time, was also determining which the London public watched the Colosseum’s Hornor’s choice of site for the Colosseum—it was slow progress. almost inevitable that Pugin, Arrowsmith, and Although some refinements may have been introDaguerre should have decided to locate the Diorama duced in the design of the new building and the techthere, with the entrance hall occupying the center of nique of the exhibition, in all important respects except the west-facing terrace in Park Square East and the capacity the Regent’s Park Diorama was a duplicate of show building proper in the space behind, toward Al- the original.? In the circular viewing area 200 persons bany Street. Assisted by a civil engineer named James could be accommodated—a significant reduction from Morgan, Pugin built the new Diorama at a cost of the Paris building’s capacity of 350, probably because £10,000, reportedly in the short span of four months. experience had proved that the picture was too small The show opened on 29 September 1823, and thus to be satisfactorily viewed at the required distance by was the first in the field of the two famous Regent’s so large an audience. (It will be recalled that the Exeter Park pictorial exhibitions; ground was broken for the Change room where the Eidophusikon was displayed

Colosseum, a few hundred feet to the north, only the also seated 200.) .

next summer, and during the next five years The ceiling was of transparent fabric painted in (1824-1829), while the imposing Greek revival build- colors, with portraits of Reynolds, West, Poussin, ing was going up and Parris and his house painters Ruisdael, Rembrandt, Vernet, Claude Lorrain, Bergwere doggedly working away at the London pan- hem, Leonardo, Teniers, Rubens, Raphael, and Gainsorama, the Diorama was open and flourishing. It is borough: a combined pantheon of Old Masters and 164 The Shows of London

modern British ones was invoked to consecrate this tending at a slight angle toward Albany Strect. These latest attempt to expand the boundaries of fine art. corridors were so contrived as to obliterate themselves Although there was a skylight above them, these por- from the spectators’ consciousness. Perhaps their walls traits were only dimly visible, because the show’s suc- were painted black. Their ceilings, invisible to the cess depended heavily on darkness in the viewing area. viewer, were ground-glass skylights which threw all Just as the patrons of the Leicester Square panorama illumination on the flat picture mounted at the far end. were required to climb dark stairways before they Each picture, measuring (according to which source emerged on the viewing platform, so the people who one consults) 72 by 42 feet, 70 by 50 feet, or 69 by 45 came to see the Diorama were conducted to their seats fect, was made of calico or lawn, painted partly in trans-

through a corridor lighted by a single lamp. Almost lucent, partly in opaque colors. The opaque portions every cyewitness account mentions the odd, some- were lighted by frontal reflection from the skylights times disquieting experience of cither groping or being over the corridors. In the wall of the building wing be-

led by an attendant to a place inside the darkened hind each picture—that is, at the end of the coramphitheatre. There were two reasons for this exclu- ridors—were tall ground-glass windows, the light sion of light apart from that which emanated from or from which shone through the translucent portions of was reflected by the picture itself. One was that by the picture. Thus the Diorama artist had at his comcontrast 1t permitted maximum use of the available mand a greater intensity and flexibility of lighting than natural lighting: ilumination concentrated on a single was available to painters of gallery pictures or to the areca is brighter, and also capable of greater variations makers of panoramas, who worked only with opaque in intensity, than light that has competition from clse- surfaces. The combination of reflected and mediated where. The other, more important, reason was that, as illumination resulted in the impression that the brilin the panorama, it climinated from the spectator’s liance was inherent in the picture itself. consciousness all the extrancous objects by which size The Diorama’s dynamic effects were produced by

and distance could be measured and the illusion working, according to a predetermined program, a thereby destroyed. In Barker’s and Parris’s panoramas, combination of lines and cords, pulleys and counterthe painted scene enveloped the spectator, and with the weights, that activated an elaborate system of screens, source of light in the top of the cupola concealed from shutters, and curtains positioned at both sources of

him by an umbrella structure, he was cut off from the light—the skylights in front of the picture and the “reality” in which he had existed before entering the windows behind it. Some of these interceptors were place. In the Diorama, the same end was attained in opaque, to shut off light completely from certain porpart by another means. The effect on the showgoers of tions of the picture; others, made of colored fabrics, the time was all the more dramatic because they were served to modify the color and intensity of the light. not accustomed to it. In the regular theatre the audito- The various shutters and shades could be made to pass rium lights were not extinguished during a perform- by and overlay one another, thus producing an unlimance; not until late in the century did it become stand- ited number of momentary colors. The same mechaard practice to darken the hall so that the audience’s nisms also made possible variations in the distribution attention would be fixed upon the brightly lighted pic- of color, light, and shade on the wide picture, de-

ture area, as 1t was in the Diorama. pending on the manipulation of the contrasts between

The amphitheatre was the inner one of two concen- the opaque and translucent details. There was no artifitric rotundas. Mounted on a ten-foot-square platform cial lighting. Mere daylight was all that was needed; built on eightcen-foot piles, and so delicately balanced the colored screens and curtains seem to have provided that, even when loaded with a capacity audience, it the effect of sunlight even on a cloudy day—an advancould be moved by a boy and a ram engine, it could tage over the panoramas that the Diorama’s propripivot on a 73° arc. In the portion of the wall the audi- etors were not loath to stress. London fog, however,

ence faced was an aperture resembling the picture was as much a bane to the Diorama as to the panframe opening then being adopted on the London orama, and when it hung heavy over Regent’s Park on stage. During a performance, this aperture was succes- the day a new picture, Ruins in a Fog, was being presively aligned with two similar apertures in the wall of viewed inside the building, one can understand the re-

the enclosing shell. Each of these two rectangular mark of a Times critic that conditions prevented an windows, which were adjacent to cach other, served accurate evaluation of the artist’s effect.4 as a frame for a tunnel, thirty or forty feet long, ex- When the show was under way, the single aperture The Diorama 165

in-law. Like his judgment of Reinagle’s panorama of

wa Rome, Constable’s opinion of the Diorama was . Sf ~ ambiguous. To his friend Archdeacon Fisher he wrote: 51. The Diorama: floor plan LP “I was on Saturday at the private view of the (from Pugin and Britton’s Mlus- BP at Fo, 7 ‘Diorama’—it is a transparency, the spectator in a dark

trations of the Public Buildings of 4 wt on \ | on chamber—it is very pleasing & has great illusion—it 1s

London, 1838). The circular salon | re a ‘ without the pale of Art because its object is decepin the center, enclosed in a shell, tn ' . tion—Claude’s never was—or any other great land-

is seen positioned so that the 4 , scape painter’s. The style of the pictures is French, spectators on the three rows of WY, A which is decide[d]ly against them. Some real stones, as benches and in the boxcs at the eS bits of brown paper & a bit of silver lace turned on a

rear of the room an couldaperture view, - oo Se oe in wheel glideswall, through the stone—to help. The place,” through the Cea ar , ee ) / Constable, the bluff countryman from Suffolk, was| the painting stretched across the ; | oblived to add “ Glled with foreieners—&

far end of the “tunnel.” When PLAN OF TRE jai ais cH eS Peevenms sory Bed tO ade, was tied WI ne Orelgncrs

the second scene was to be viewed, Vesabule scemed to be in a cage of magpics. ; the salon pivoted clockwise pr | Every year from 1823 to 1830, except for 1825 when until the aperture faced the right- | ee ee part of the previous year’s bill was retained, the hand tunnel, the one on the left ec 6 Diorama brought over a pair of pictures from the Paris now being concealed by the a a house, one by Daguerre and the other by Bouton. salon’s wall. The rotating salon Most of the subjects were landscapes, with particular could be entered when one of its emphasis on architectural interiors and Swiss scenes: doors coincided with one in the of the inner room was aligned with one of the two the Valley of Sarnen and Canterbury Cathedral (1823);

enclosing shell. openings in the wall of the enclosing shell. The audi- Brest and Chartres Cathedral (1824); Holyrood Castle ence thus would sec the picture at the far end of the (1825); Roslyn Abbey and Rouen Cathedral (1826); “invisible” tunnel. After the fifteen-minute perform- Ruins in a Fog and St. Cloud, Paris (1827); the Valley ance featuring that picture was completed, the viewing of Unterseen and the Cloisters of St. Wandrille (1828);

room rotated, swinging its single aperture away from the village of Thiers and the Basilica of St. Peter’s, the first of the twin frames, which then disappeared, Rome (1829); Mt. St. Gothard and Rheims Cathedral and toward the second; when the two coincided, the (1830, continued in 1831-32, probably because the July

second picture was wholly in view and its display Revolution of 1830 prevented the completion of the

commenced. scheduled pictures); and Paris from Montmartre and

These, then, were the novelties which brought the Campo Santo, Pisa (1832). In contrast to the subcrowds to the Diorama in its first years in London jects of the panoramas shown in London during the —the location of the picture, the only visible area Napoleonic Wars, the Diorama’s were seldom topical. in a world of darkness, isolated from all means by They catered instead, as the panoramas also now were which ‘‘real’’ size and distance could be estimated and doing, though somewhat less consistently, to the the illusion thus dispelled; and the imitation of nu- public taste for romantic topography, the stuff of picmerous natural and artificial lighting effects. On its turesque art and of sentimental antiquarianism. The first Easter Monday (1824) it took in £200, and later it shows at Park Square East were the colorful spectacuwas reported to gross £3,000 to £4,000 a year.® The lar counterpart of the albums of engraved scenes that press greeted it as warmly as it had the Eidophusikon. were so popular as the Regency faded into the Victo-

But praise from leading artists was not forthcoming. rian cra. Whereas Loutherbourg’s show had been admired by The opening bill was typical of those to come.’ First, his fellow Academicians West, Reynolds, and Gains- the interior of Canterbury Cathedral was seen unborough, among the painters of this new epoch only dergoing repair, with two or three workmen resting John Constable seems ever to have expressed an and planks of wood strewn on the floor. The building opinion. Constable was invited to the preview of the was alternately bathed in sunlight and cast into shadow Diorama because John Arrowsmith, the Parisian art as clouds were understood to be passing; when the sun dealer who was about to introduce the English land- shone through the windows, it threw colored shadows scapist to the French public by exhibiting three of his on the floor, and remote objects, otherwise hidden, paintings at the 1824 Salon, was Daguerre’s brother- were momentarily illuminated. After the audience had 166 The Shows of London

taken in all the details, even to the damp-stains on the came visible, and at the end the whole valley, with its pillars and arches, there were sounds underneath the variety of tints and shades, was revealed.!! round hittle theatre (less alarming, to be sure, than those

of a Lisbon earthquake), and the cathedral seemed to D3Se Ed be moving out of the field of vision. Actually, it was

the theatre that was in motion, as it turned from the Like the panorama, the Diorama soon had its imitaopening of one tunnel to the other. Slowly a new tors. Since the tunnel wings and the lighting equippicture came into view, the Valley of Sarnen in Swit- ment were protected for some years by Arrowsmith’s zerland, with a lake in the foreground and snow- patent, these could not be adopted elsewhere, even if capped mountains beyond. Initially, it was seen in the an entrepreneur wished to make so substantial a capital serenity of a summer afternoon, but gradually the sky investment; but there were no property rights in the

became overcast as a storm approached. On the surface word “diorama” nor in the general idea it conof the lake the reflection of the sunshine gave way to a noted—pictures shown under variable lighting.* Acdark shadow; the rivulets that owed into the lake cordingly, a ‘“‘diorama’”’ was set up late in 1827 or carly developed a glassy black tnge; and the snow on the in 1828 at the Bazaar in Baker Street, Portman Square. mountains stood out more distinctly in contrast with It showed two pictures, one of the recent Battle of Na-

the gloom. The performance ended as the storm was varino, the other of the interior of St. Peter’s. The

about to break. latter, according to one critic, was in some ways supe-

This was the sort of annual double bill that would rior to Daguerre’s."” occupy the Diorama for the next decade. Each picture This exhibition, however, was immediately outoffered variations on a single basic scenario, the shone by the British Diorama at the Royal Bazaar, Oxfleeting changes caused by the alternation of sunlight, ford Street. The bazaar, which opened in the spring of moonlight, and shadow on diverse surfaces. In the 1828, was the undertaking of Thomas Hamlet, a silverRoslyn Chapel scene, for example, as a German visi- smith with a high-society clientele who intended it to tor, Prince Puckler-Muskau, described it, one saw be the premier “fashionable lounge’”’ in the metropolis. The British Diorama consisted of four pictures by the the interior of a large abbev-church, appearing perfectly in its well-known theatrical scenery painters Clarkson Stan-

real dimensions. A side door 1s open, tvv climbs through the field and David Roberts: St. George's Chapel at windows, and the sun occasionally shines through the door, Windsor, The Ruins of Tintern Abbey, The Kent East In-

and lightens with a cheering beam the remains of coloured diaman Afire, and Lago Maggiore. Each scene was

windows, glittering through the cobwebs. Through the op- ; ° ‘ : :; 13

posite window at the end you see the neglected garden of the twenty-seven feet high and thirty-cight feet in width, monastery, and above it, single clouds m the sky, which, flit- A year later the sae team painted four new Scenes for ting stormuly across, occasionally obscure the sunlight, and the bazaar— The Temple of Apollonopolis and The Intethrow deep shadows over the church—tranquil as death; rior of St. Sauveur, Caen, both by Roberts, and The Enwhere the crumbled but magnificent remains of an ancient trance to the Italian Village of Virex and The Burning of

knight repose in gloomy mayesty.* York Minster—a recent news event—by Stanfield."

This last subject was admirably suited for the kind

Similarly, in Daguerre’s Interior of the Cloisters of St. of spectacular treatment the diorama provided. ‘‘A

Wandrill, a portion of the desolate ruin was seen as faint reddish light,’ wrote a witness, “betrays itself lighted by the midday sun, while the rest was thrust through some of the windows of the minster; by deinto darkness. Outside, as fleecy clouds passed across grees it increases in vividness; until at length the flame the sun, the leaves of the shrubs that half-covered the from which it proceeds bursts fiercely forth, illuminadecaying mullions rustled in the wind and their shad- ting the adjacent towers, and mingled volumes of ows were reflected on the adjoining columns.® In the smoke, and masses of brilliant sparks, now rapidly asRouen scene, following an early morning storm, a rain- cend to the skics; a great portion of the roof of the bow appeared and the roofs of the buildings shone as if building falls in; and the dreadful conflagration is at its

recently wetted by the rain.'° The next season’s picture height when the scene closes.’ Most of these effects .

, ; . ic: ; diorama”’ as a generic term will not

of a ruined chapel began with a thick February fog could not have been produced by the Daguerre ,, 1° ™numize confusion,

enveloping everything beyond the wall; then gradu- machinery, even if it had been available for use at the, capitalized, “Diorama” bemg really, as if dispersed by the wind, the fog lifted, the tops Royal Bazaar; but the Oxford Street showmen, more served for the original exhibition at of the trees and the snow on the distant mountains be- resourceful than prudent, knew other ways of repre- _Regent’s Park. The Diorama 167

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senting a fierce conflagration, and one of these proved tion. This was commercially, if not artistically, a defatal to the show. During 8 a performance on 27 May, cided advantage, for it enabled the show to be preless than a month after the York Minster scene was sented at night as well as during the day, and without first presented, some blazing turpentine ignited the regard to weather. An initial shortcoming, which “transparency, and within hours the clegant new probably was remedied as gas technology improved,

bazaar was in ruins.!® was the flickering of the jets. And, of course, there was

Hazardous though the dioramic depiction of great the ever present danger of fire. In July 1841 Charles fires was, the subject was too well adapted to the Marshall’s ““Kineorama’”’ at 121 Pall Mall, a combinamedium and too popular to be abandoned. Five years tion panorama and diorama showing views of Turkey, later (1834) another conflagration of the era was the Syria, and Egypt, caught fire during a matinee. The subject of a dioramic exhibition, as it was also of a audience, composed mostly of ladies, including the famous picture from Turner’s luminous palette. At the Countess of Blessington, escaped in good order, and Cosmorama Rooms, Regent Street, could be scen workmen managed to put out the blaze before the fire Kenny Meadows’s “Grand Tableaux, of the Interiors brigades arrived, so that the Kineorama was spared the of the Houses of Lords & Commons, As They Ap- fate of the second edition of the British Diorama. From eared Previous to Their Destruction by Fire, with a the press reports of the incident we learn something of Correct Moonlight View, of the Exteriors of the Late the dioramic technique employed by the rivals of the Houses, from the River Thames, And a Splendid Rep- Regent’s Park operation. The picture was lighted from resentation of the Conflagration with Dioramic & Me- above by a batten of 150 gas jets, below which was “‘a chanical Effect. Also a View of the Ruins, as Visited by piece of machinery called a medium . . . comprised

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their Majesties.’7!” of several large frames of coloured oiled silk,’’ which Presumably all the dioramic presentations except the was operated by pulleys.'* This sounds like a simplioriginal one used gas rather than daylight for illumina- fied adaptation of Dagucrre’s mechanism; it is unlikely 168 The Shows of London

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1333). Spring Garden Rout, Despite their carly emphasis on recent events and tions, but that acquired added interest from the current

) their frequent return to such subjects later on, from the headlines. In addition to following the headlines as ex-

outset panoramas were, almost by definition, portray- peditiously as possible, Burford had a happy ‘knack of

als of scenes rather than of actions; in the long run, anticipating them. Repeatedly, his choice of topothey were more topographical than topical. Ideally, of raphical subjects was praised for its almost uncann course, the two interests were combined in a single timeliness. In 1840 the Athenaeum spoke of his current picture. At Leicester Square, as elsewhere, there was a show, the picture of Macao, as “singularly well178 The Shows of London

timed.”’ ““Who is there,” it demanded, “‘taking the News commented in August, ‘All the points where most indolent interest in the storm now brewing in barricades were erected in the June insurrection, and ‘the world’s Teapot,’ that will not be cager to take a where the carnage was hottest, are clearly indicated, look at Macao?’’’ Later in the same year, the Mirror of thus giving a greater degree of historical interest to this

Literature found the new panorama, Damascus, ‘‘an- great picture. ’’?6

other convincing proof of Mr. Burford’s judicious se- In the absence of a detailed record of Burford’s lection; for, it is umpossible he could have chosen one activities in the early months of 1848, it is hard to tell in all respects so vitally interesting, particularly at the whether his twin successes that year were the result of

present moment, when the East is pregnant with such luck or of his demonstrable instinct for impending startling events.’’*? (The Quadruple Alliance of Russia, events. When his own Paris panorama was put on Britain, Prussia, and Austria was helping Turkey con- view late in May, it displayed, according to the Times, front Mehemet Ali in the ever restless Middle East.) the city as it was on “the fourth instant,’ when the ReMore frequent, however, were topographical sub- public was proclaimed from the steps of the Assembly. jects whose time had already arrived or whose interest ‘The view on every side is animated by groups characwas perennial. Such a one was Constantinople, which teristic of the present state of France. The Pont de la entered the panoramic repertory in 1801, Barker Révolution and the front of the Chamber are thronged having made drawings for it on the scene two years by a multitude hastening to hear the determination of earlier. The subject recurred no fewer than three times the Assembly. In another part a group is parading a at Leicester Square (1804, 1846, and 1853-54), as well tree of liberty, which is about to be crected.’’?” Perhaps

as once at the Strand house after Barker and Burford Burford had begun to paint the canvas soon after the took over. At the time of the Strand run (1829) it drew revolt broke out in late February and added fresh crowds because, as one reviewer wrote, of “‘the present timely touches as he worked on. The result, in any critical situation of the Turkish Empire, when no one case, was a twin bill of surpassing timeliness, for in the can tell how soon this magnificent city, with its second Leicester Square circle Burford had already insplendid palaces, superb kiosks, swelling domes, ex- stalled a panorama of Vienna—at the end of March, tensive terraces, lofty mosques, pointed minarets, glit- when the newspapers were full of the “revolutionary tering crescents, and populous scraglios, may be ex- proceedings” in the Habsburg capital. posed to the ravages of an almost barbarous army.’””4 Recurrently, the state visits of royalty provided ocParis was another city of constant interest, appealing casions for topical panoramas. Burford’s Valetta (1839) as it did to a complexity of emotions ranging from fear acquired most of its interest from the recent visit there

and distrust (on political grounds) to envy (for its of the Queen Dowager. His Christmas show in 1843 architecture and, among less parochial Londoners, its was ‘“‘Tréport, the Surrounding Country, and the “civilization’’). In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars, Chateau d’Eu; with the Arrival of Her Majesty Queen in 1802, two panoramas of the city were displayed Victoria on Her Visit to His Majesty Louis Philippe, in London—lDeMaria’s and Barker’s—and a third, on Saturday, September 2, 1843.” The queen’s visit Girtin’s, was promised, though it never materialized. to Ircland in 1849 was portrayed the next year at the The Battle of Paris in 1814 was duly illustrated at Chinese Gallery. Sometimes advertisements reached Leicester Square. In 1828 the Strand panorama had a inordinately far to locate a topical tie-in; the Diorama’s Paris painting on its bill, possibly one or the other of picture of the Rhine from the Castle of Stolzenfels Barker’s old canvases. In 1832 the Queen’s Bazaar dis- (1850), for example, was recommended because the played “eight grand diorama views, painted on many queen and Prince Albert happened to have toured the thousand feet of canvas,” of events during the three- vicinity several years earlier.?8 day revolt in July 1830, among them the battle at the

Porte St. Denis, the attack on the Hotel de Ville, the DISC Ed taking of the Louvre and the Tuileries, and the French

troops’ embarcation at Toulon.”> In July 1832 the That the panoramas flourished as long as they did, in Diorama presented a view of Paris from Montmartre. spite of the emerging competition in the 1840s of illusAnd in 1848, as has been noted, the Colosseum had trated print-journalism that could produce engraved one of its few bits of good fortune when it opened a representations of current events far faster than the view of Paris by night during the season when that city specdiest painter, was due to an abiding interest in was convulsed by revolution. As the Illustrated London foreign lands for reasons other than their prominence Panoramas: Topics of the Times 179

aeegea aBE ees ee Gi i eal ee a TE se se cag saet ae Botca ss a cg ns, TNA ghee tts y “me SS abe ef ES

ee a ee eT ™S =

in the headlines. Throughout the period reaching from homeland. Many, however, could only afford to visit James Cook’s voyages in the 1770s to Thomas Cook’s the panoramas, which fed upon this frustrated yearn-

pioneer conducted tours of the continent in the ing for romantic experience among those who were, mid-1850s, the English mind had a particular interest to borrow Keats's phrase, in city pent. in geography, manifested, among other ways, by the The yearning spread as the middle class grew more enthusiasm for travel which eventually was democra- prosperous and more receptive to the appeal of foreign tized into “‘tourism.”’ In part, this was duc to a recogni- places. To a few, the end of the war and the consequent

tion that the sources of the nation’s present and pro- freedom to travel in Europe meant that their ambition spective supremacy, economic as well as geopolitical, could be realized; to many who were less well off, the lay overseas. She was, above all, the workshop of the same aspiration could be satisfied only vicariously, as world, the imperial trader, the guardian of the sea before. One obvious means was through print. Every lanes: this was her manifest destiny. The popularity of year saw more engravings of forcign scenes—landshows like Burford’s, therefore, reflected a marked scape vistas, picturesque or stately cities, architectural strain of curiosity about all the realms lying beyond monuments—on sale in the print shops. Hundreds of the tight little island in which her power was felt and volumes appeared that were devoted solely to topo-

upon which her prosperity largely depended. graphical or architectural illustration or else were the Equally important, the topographical panoramas as travel narratives of antiquarians, artists, soldicrs, diplo-

a group were a bourgeois public’s substitute for the mats, copiously interlarded with plates. Pictures of Grand Tour, that seventeenth- and cighteenth-century scenes designed to stir the romantic sensibility were a cultural rite de passage of upper-class society. Although main attraction of the silk-bound ‘‘keepsakes”’ that

it gained a new fashionable motivation and a changed adorned the drawing room tables of the relatively perspective with the spread of enthusiasm for the pic- well-to-do during the Regency and the early Victorian turesque and sublime, the Grand Tour for the most years. The convergence of these two streams of cultipart could not be undertaken in the war conditions of vated public interest—the subjects of romantic topo1793-1815, and persons in quest of natural beauty and graphical and landscape art, and travel to the scenes antiquarian ruins had to limit their wanderings to their themselves—was exemplified by the appearance of 180 The Shows of London

series of gift books specifically devoted to landscape shop;—and now Pompen, reposing in its slumber of two and travel: the Landscape Annual, the Picturesque An- thousand years, in the very buzz of the Strand. There 15 no nual, Turner’s Annual Tour, Campbell’s Scenic Annual, exaggeration in talking of those things as really existing.

is literature an ravel., , > , . . > scale xe scene > same ects that fami, ‘e to “visit” half: 2S > > > >: ozen SUC aces 1n the course of a

the Annual of British Landscape Scenery. perney wasbut a metaphysicran: andtime, therefore his wore BOCs ; or nothing waste of brains, and printingThe panorama was the show-business equivalent of Onnins ¢ oF Drains, ame, and printing-1nk, Dut it *Atace “xpense of cab fare this literature and art of travel. Its painters depicted. on we have not the waters of the Lake of Geneva, and the bricks At a certain expense of cab fare,

h le of hy P biect r eE a and mortar of the httle Greck town, tangible by our hands, m addition to separate admission

1 > ne + 1 > a cna erse-Ietter Oo

the scale of stage op the 1 . vd books: L we have them tangible by the eye—the fullest impression ees. " ch possible 4 visit nal : lies dreamed over in their illustrated books: Lago that can be purchased, by our being parched, passported, ; vA h eo 7 se] " — na

Maggiore, the Rhine, the Alhambra, Milan, Luccrne, pummelled, plundered, starved, and stenched, for twelve Youne Lady in Town to Her Friend St. Petersburg, Mount Rigi, Venice, Cairo, Athens, hundred miles cast and by south, could not be fuller than the in the Country * printed in the Lausanne, Niagara. It is significant that none of the work of Messrs Barker’s and Burford’s brushes. The scene is Come Almanack for 1842, tells how at

panoramas showing locales like Ramsgate, Brighton, absolutely alive, vivid, and true; we feel all but the breeze, was done Bath, St. Michacl’s Mount, Killarney, and Stirling and hear all but the dashing of the wave. Travellers recognize You cannot conceive, if ts not made much impression. Such places were accessible the spot where they plucked grapes, and fell sick of the mias- pointed out, with relative case, the more so as railways reached nates newhich crangnisman woul’ swear ro ane stone the on How quickly in London you travel he stretched himself intovery an ague; m< -pa about;

them, and the true province of the panoramist was the . t guc, the man OF Nali-pay, a . the identical casa in which he was fleeced into a perfect So Pll tell you, all fabulous narratives

remote scene which relatively few favored travelers, ornine

; i knowledge that roguery as expensive taxation at scorning, such as “y: families of unlimited means and was Icisure, itiner- homeas22 The various places we saw i one

ant artists, soldiers and seamen, and foreign merchants, morning!

could hope to visit.* Our lodgings we left about half after Toei nine,

. . . . . °.: in° Franc Pp

. . . : . . rs . na, ta Ing a coach, Wwe drove Oo O

But travel, however delightful in the contemplation, To put it in less philistine terms, the panoramas A i k h wed Pa

had definite drawbacks in practice, and it was often re- were an expression in popular art of the spirit which the Shrine

marked of panoramas that they offered the pleasures of permeated much of literate English life in those dec- Of the Chapel at Bethlehem, whence

tourism without its cost or hardships; it permitted ades. In painting and poetry, romantic artists sought we could glance

xenophobes to enjoy its adventures comfortably and to fix for their audiences, to make permanent for con- — At the fine church of Auch, which

safely at home. stant refreshment, the emotions both turb-the YOufamed KNOW Js My nTanee ; :tranquil Next,andinto Polytechnic ulent which contemplation of nature—and of old dropp'd

we

Panoramas [wrote an unidentified contributor to Blackwood’s buildings—inspired in the heightened sensibility of And there, a few minutes, at Canton

Magazine mn 1824] are among the happiest contrivances for the era. In their necessarily cruder form, panoramas we stopp'd,

. : atch theinto same, . : . , ; . , y the .route of just Pa all, Syria

saving time and expense in this age of contrivances. What of romantic locales—an Alpine pass, Roman ruins, a — Then eens this spot, with descost a couple of hundred pounds and halfa year half'a century Niagara cataract, an Irish lake, a medieval French town, r pa J ‘ t - me L anto & ago, now costs a shilling and a quarter of an hour. Throwing a Levantine city—appcaled to the same tastes that were we came out a the on acount the innumerapic miseries of travel the drawn to the poctry of Wordsworth, Scott, Byron, At the Kincorama—a tour rather

» 7 > 2S » » ws "Ty .

the visitations8 recollections of banditti, charged toromanticism the muzzle with sabre, ; -without 5 of favorite authors, the of | Simce to Egypt you pass,

mms ence of pu ne unctionaries C rogucry ° inn eer S, and Moore. But except insofar as such scenes evoked flcet,

pistol, and scapulary, and the rascality the custom-house ; ; and quitting your seat the of Leicester Square panorama the Diorama was

; tally, . : ence. . bd

officers, who plunder, passport in hand, the indescribable ; lasively p; al (It; h From whose ancient relics, tiumedésagrémens of Itahan cookery, and the insufferable annoy- allMOst CXCIUSIVCLY pictorial. ( Cis curious that no scene worn and corroded, ances of that epitome of abomination, an Italian bed. in the Lake District, famous as its pocts had made it, We reach’d St Jean d’Acte just as 1t

Now the affair is settled in a summary manner. The seems ever to have been transferred to a panorama. exploded.

: . . . . . . e€ frorcres ove

mountain or the sea, the classic vale or the ancient city, is Perhaps, like the native locales that were actually de- (To make my accounts with localities transported to us on the wings of the wind. And their loca- picted in the earlier years, the lakes lacked the neces- Th cover ; I mean overlooks tion here 1s curious. We have seen Vesuvius 1n full roar and sary glamor of distance.) While English painting in Cranbourne-alley ) torrent, within a hundred yards of a hackney-coach stand, the first Victorian decades was tending heavily to lit- And after we'd travell’d these scenes

with all its cattle, human and bestial, unmoved by the phe- erary subjects—scenes from Shakespeare, Goldsmith, to explore, nomenon. Constantinop c, with its bearded and turbaned Fielding, Scott, Tennyson, Moliére, Cervantes—the We got home to dine, at our lodgpanoramas gencrally avoided specific literary referand offering neither persecution nor proselytism. Switzer- + Perhaps Byron had something of land, with its lakes covered with sunset, and mountains capped and robed in storms; the adored of sentimentalists, Milton, to be sure, was a possibility, and the scene in ing of Don Juan as a proposed “epic and the refuge of miry metaphysics; the Demisolde of all na- Pandemonium had been one of Loutherbourg SmOSt oem,” he promised among the

multitudes, quietly pitched beside a Christian thoroughfare, ; ; ings, by four.

, , 7 the sort vaguely in mind when, wnit-

tions, and German geology—stuck 1n a corner of a corner in admired creations. Burford took courage in 1829 and other episodes ‘‘a panoramic view of

London, and forgotten in the tempting vicinage of a cook- produced his own version for Leicester Square. hell’s in training ” (Don Juan, I, cc) Panoramas: Topics of the Times 181

; str -

During the forty years that this species of painting has been Sites associated with antiquity were a bit more so liberally patronized [he explained, not without pom- common. Reinagle showed his picture of Rome at the posity, in the souvenir guide], the Views have consisted of Strand house in 1804, and Burford had panoramas of cities, remarkable for the magnificence of their public build- Pompeii (1824), Karnak and Thebes (1835), the inte-

ings, the beauty of their situation, or circumstances con-

. rior of the Roman Colosseum (1839), and Baalbek

nected with their history, which rendered them objects of 1844 The st . h € arch

general attention, varied occasionally by the most striking . a dic ongest Impact (he Progress o arene and interesting events of the day; such as battles, naval ological Ciscovery made upon the entertainment

engagements &c in which his countrymen have gloriously world, however, was in 1851-1853, as a result of the supported the fame of British valour, and 1mmortalised their publication of Sir Austen Henry Layard’s works Ninnames by the most splendid and honourable achievements. It eveh and Its Remains and Nineveh and Babylon. The having been long and generally admitted that no style of immediate celebrity of these books and the arrival of painting could portray these subjects with so much interest the famed winged bulls of Nineveh at the British and appearance of reality, 1t occurred to him that it might be Museum touched off a brief but intense vogue of Asadapted te he higher branches of the ar with mnereased ef- syriana. While Kean’s production of Byron’s Sardana-

ect, and embody, with unrivalled boldness and grandeur,

’ 5 palus crowds who, like Robinson, the most sublime anddrew imagery. WithCrabb this Burford view hedisplayed ; ; 31 wanted aestupendous , to view the lavish scenery,*! a panwas induced to seek in works of imagination for a subject Nj d which had ly |

. ~ ee .

hke the present, for which the Panorama 1s_ peculiarly Orama O MTU waite mac an unusually tong run, adapted, offering a ficld of sufficient magnitude to do ample and at the Gothic Hall, Lower Grosvenor Street, a Justice to the most vivid and splendid conceptions. With this diorama of Nineveh was presented, with an accomimpression solely, the present attempt (in the execution of panying lecture by F. C. Cooper, “the Artist sent out which he has received the most valuable assistance from the by the Trustees of the British Museum to assist Dr. * Martin’s mezzotint of Pandemo- abilities of Mr. SLOUS) has been made, the success of which Layard.”

nium had been among the engravings he leaves to the impartial judgment of his best friends, a lib- In the British population during these years there

of Paradise Lost he published in 1825 eral and enlightened public. were hundreds of thousands of Evangelical and Dis-

¢ Panoramas had the additional, if - , senting familics whose scruples forbade their entering

incidental, advantage of serving as a The liberal and enlightened public's impartial judg- a playhouse, but whose Scripture-centered religion

topographer could expatiate ‘ 5In the— >the.Middle . . East pographe ( et OXE reason, that Burford and further Mr. Slous—whose name trating the Holy‘Land. forties,

handy ean by wie traveler or ment was discouraging. Reviewers suspected, with made them a natural clientele for panoramas illusupon his subject to a group of was soon afterward euphonized into ‘‘Sclous’’—had as replacing Rome and Pompcii as the favorite locale

acquaintances At TPhomas Moore's ht to take advantage of the current popularity of w P 8 pe ;

behest, John Gardner Wilkinson, SON FO TARE BEV AIA EO popularity of artists specializing in historical topography. Burwhose book The Topography of John Martin’s huge, calamitous canvases. As the Ath- ford’s picture of Damascus thus had a double attrac-

qad been“The published, took him . . . soit rer ofjust the Bible. sacred interest of the subject,”’

| hehe, a C rene View of bye enaeum wrote, tiveness, as a topographical show and as an illustration and several other friends to the Milton’s painting 1s historical, the panorama is landscape; in | “s d th ds of

. former, the animate objects are ‘pal; the scene :

Thebes panorama for a fuller expla- the for Ps th ane te ob cts at a . 1] th h ° ad was reported some time later, ‘attracted thousands 0

nation “Nothing,” wrote Moore, 1 ches anys , ne vr © See C i . visitors who were not profane enough enjoy ordiue Neon ~intelligent, architecture areveaccessory; in the latter, the view ofdouble-effect the in- to. picture 05 could be moretime fernal abvss 4 ” the . tes picture, act a subordinat nary sights.’ unaksatisfac~ ernal abyss forms its inmates actRenoux’s a subordinate ar _ . __.of the

tory, and at the same time unaf Y Pe . Shrine of the Nativity at the Diorama had a similar apfected, than his manner of explaming part. The panorama, in fact, as those more penetrating di- | Butth k of bus; a Holy Land

to us all the localities, antiquities, vined it would be, is a picture of the capital of Satan, some- peal. Dut t ¢ pea ~ USINESS IN TIO'Y Lane panoramas &c, of the place, which he has every what in the style of Martin.* It abounds in massive architec- occurred in the Crystal Palace year, when three such reason to be famuhar with, having re- ture and lofty and rugged mountains, floods and rocks of exhibitions were available to the heavily Nonconformmained no less than twelve years i every hue, and of every temperature, from the fiery Phleg- ist throngs from the provinces. One was Burford’s,

also a simular, though rather ;; ; ; and the ,;personal, work of theuse resident scenic artist at_the more.noted Mary Shelley ooLyceum Egypt” In the same diary Moore cthon to the cold and oblivious Lethe.*” probably the old one (1835) reshown. Another, the

made of a panorama After visiting The Times dismissed the show in a paragraph. Bur- Princess’s Theatre, William Roxby Beverley, was at

the Academy exhibition in June 1827 ford, who had learned the hard way what Fuseli dis- the St. George’s Gallery, Hyde Park Corner. The third, he and she went to Burford’s Geneva covered twenty-nine years earlier, that the public first seen at the Society of Painters in Water-Colours show. where she “pomted out tome Would not patronize a Pandemonium when there was gallery in Pall Mall and then moved to the Egyptian

the where Lord yron] . . original 4 . .sketches by three . . . aplace Scringapatam—or, in the and present case,Bl Martin’s new Hall,lived. was ;painted from (Memoirs, Journal, Correspondence

of Thomas Moore, ed Lord John Rus- Fall of Nineveh—to see, never attempted another ex- artists—Henry Warren, Joseph Fahey, and Joseph

sell, London, 1856, VII, 150; V, 178 ) cursion into literature. Bonomi, “the distinguished traveller in the East.” It 182. The Shows of London

was this last show, bitterly competing with the one at the criticism illustrates the truth that the lot of a VicHyde Park Corner, which evoked from the Times the torian panoramust was never a predictable one. Among comment that “some of the scenes exhibited (for in- all the geographical subjects he could select from, the

stance, that of Mount Sinai) trench so closely on the Holy Land would scem to have had the most nearly descriptions of Sacred Writ as to be decidedly im- universal appeal. If it was not invulnerable to criticism, proper.’’*4 It is not casy to Imagine what impropriety what, then, was left? could have been introduced into a picture of Sinai, but

Panoramas: Topics of the Times 183

lhe ‘Vheatrical Art of the P

Writing The Prelude in 1804, William Wordsworth, re- noble fakery. This of a branch of picture making which calling his first residence in London thirteen years be- detractors in those same years, and later, dismissed as fore,* briefly mentioned what can only have been the glorified theatrical scene painting!

Exeter Change menagerie and then went on to de- The truth was that panoramas did derive from, or

scribe the panorama: reflect, two worlds. They were a commercial enter-

. oo tainment which appealed to both the playgoer and the

At leisure let us view, from day to day, art fancier, a unique blend of the spectacular and roAs they present themselves, the spectacles mantic impulses that characterized English theatrical

Within doors, troops of wildthe beasts, andthe beasts :; . and pictorial art during first birds half of nineteenth

Of every nature, fromThe allpanorama’s climes convened; , . stage was or century. affinity with the

And, next to these, those mimic sights that ape . . . bent that plain cnough. The topical:and topographical The absolute presence of reality, ; _. Expressing, as in mirror, sea and land it shared with the pantomime in particular was actually And what earth is. and what she has to show: the least important link between the two kinds of en-

I do not here allude to subtlest craft, tertainment. Not only did they have a large audience in By means refined attaining purest ends, common; the panorania also served as a much-needed But imitations, fondly made in plain alternative to the theatre in a period when playgoing

Confession of man’s weakness and his loves. was unthinkable to the “‘serious’”’ families of London.

. .. . the Painter, fashioning a work The Evangelical fervor which reached its peak in those

literally. In general, Book VII of The : - va ae : : ; ) 5 passag a A whole horizon on all sides, with power, . . .

The date need not be taken too To Nature’s circumambient scenery, decades had revived the old Puritan hostility toward Prelude. where this passage occurs And with his greedy pencil taking the stage. Even those middle-class families who had no

describes Wordsworth’s experiences ; - . suchor scruples still had their comfort and their are Like that of angels commissioned spirits, y: respect;;

and observations during his first ex- Plant(s] 7 lofty pinnacle ability to consider, and both were imperiled when

tended stay in in 1791. By Joie hints ote Or pea many theatrical the time ofLondon writing, however, these ina ship on audiences waters, largely with aconsisted, world as; athey

had probably coalesced in memory Of life, and life-like mockery, to east, then did, of rowdy and sometimes actually riotous with some later ones. The only pan- To west, beneath, behind us, and before . . .! working-class men and women, whose proximity was

oraina in London in 1791 was offensive to car, eye, and nose, and when, in addition, Barker's picture of Edinburgh, but A lofty concept indeed, this linking of the panoramic prostitutes haunted the premises. At the panorama, by this was soon replaced by the art with the “‘subtlest craft’’ of the imaginative easel contrast, morality and respectability were not in questhe fleet at Spithead. By 1804, of painter. If “‘imitations” were not themselves fine art, tion; any head of a family could treat his wife and chilcourse, there were a number of so- Wordsworth attributes to them a dignity of their own, dren to a visit, secure in the knowledge that they called panoramas on display. inferior no doubt, but scarcely to be dismissed as ig- would be edified, never corrupted, by the sight and the

London picture and by the scene of . cent » . . . .

surroundings. Thus panoramas enabled the public to was, furthermore, this important difference: stage scenenjoy at least one of the charms of the contemporary ery, theoretically at least, was subordinate to the ac-

theatre without any of the risks that going there tion; 1t was not meant to be closely inspected but was

entailed. intended simply to provide a general effect of locality

That charm was the spectacular scenery. One of the and atmosphere, and anyway it was too far from most inexorable facts of their profession with which manag- of the seats to be subjected to close examination except ers had somchow to cope was the cavernous size of the by spyglasses. Panoramas, on the other hand, were ex-

two patent theatres. Drury Lane, rebuilt after it burned pressly meant to be studied close-up. None of the in February 1809, seated 3,200, and Elliston raised the places where panoramas were shown approached capacity to 3,590 in 1821. Covent Garden, rebuilt at the the dimensions or the capacity of the patent theatres. same time, held well over 3,000. Both had huge stages: At Leicester Square and the Colosseum, the spectators’

Drury Lane’s was ninety feet deep. These imposing arca was only a few feet from the canvas, as was true

theatrical barns were too big for the comparatively also of the “‘great rooms’ where panoramas and subtle effects of traditional acting. As the address dioramas were shown. As the center of attention rather

delivered at the opening of the much smaller New than the background, they had to be painted with English Opera House on the site of the Lyceum in greater care than stage scenery; coarse effects accept1816 put it, this was a house, unlike the Big Two, able at Drury Lane would be intolerable at Leicester Square, where a single painting was intended to be Where you can sec the Stage and hear the Play. examined for as long as one wished. Where you with case can mark our real faces. It is true that the theatrical scenery men had at their

Without the aid of glasses or grimacces! dj | hnical hich enabled th t And each inflection of the voice 1s heard, isposal tec nical Tesources wintey enable cm to Your ears preserved, and our poor lungs are spared! mount three-dimensional spectacles that were beyond

the capability of the panoramists. To the painted

In these circumstances the managers of Drury Lane scenery, consisting not merely of backcloths but of * The comparative economics of

and Covent Garden had little choice but to supplement wings, raking pieces, ground rows, and other devices the situation 1s worth a note. From the broad acting now required with spectacular scen- for creating perspective, were added various kinds of __ the viewpoint of management, the ery; nothing less would succeed in such theatres. Loutherbourgian lighting tricks. The introduction of — panoramusts had the better of therr Thus Loutherbourg’s pioneering between 1771 and gas about 1817 made it possible to light the stage more —_—"¥4I8: their capital investment was 1785 had the unforeseen result of providing the stage brilliantly more flexibly and (in time) more steadily confined to the picture, and their with an attraction which threatened to overshadow the than ever before, and the later addition of limelight en- than the rental and maintenance acting. In pantomimes and extravaganzas especially, hanced these advantages. Portions of the stage could be of the exhibition room, whereas the

. ; , , ’ running expenses included no more

much of the appeal henceforth would reside in the highlighted while others were cast into shadow; the theatrical men had not only to mainclaborate settings, which could be appreciated from brightness of sunshine could be contrasted with the tain large theatres but to lay out the farthest seats, where the actors could be seen and subdued illumination of interiors; changing times of tie and to pay the large companies heard only with difficulty. Unconverted playgoers day could be indicated. Outside the theatre, only the and expensive stars that were rewho regretted the consequent downgrading of acting best of the dioramas, perhaps only the original one, quired by the triple bills then cus-

, ae ; , substantial sums for every new spec-

and of the divertissements and mechanical novelties that were able to use manipulated lighting with anything — tomary. For the amusement secker, a were a staple of pantomime would have subscribed to like the same effectiveness. The theatres, however, _ ‘Shllng bought admission to a single the obviously exaggerated statement in the twenties, largely wasted this superiority by keeping the audito- perhaps a half-hour’s amusement, ‘“‘Pantomimes are now virtually extinct; Stanfield and rium fully illuminated throughout a performance.* whereas a theatrical evening lasting

. : . ; Lo. .; panorama, which might be good for

Roberts have made picture galleries of them.’ The panorama’s greatest influence on the stage was _from seven o’clock to well past midTo many, at all events, the proper place for lavish its encouragement of the realistic tendency already set — ™Mght would cost one or two

scenic effects was not the theatre but the panorama. In in motion by Loutherbourg. The panoramists’ original shallings an the gaveni * vray 1830 the Examiner commented, ‘‘beautiful as these insistence on topographical accuracy, typified first by more (Up 6 6d.) in the better [theatrical] paintings are . . . we feel that they inter- Barker’s work and then, unsurpassably, by Hornor seats Prices were lower in the minor fere with the business in hand; we can sce as splen- and Parris, had much to do with the developing zeal theatres; by mid-century a leading did works in the Strand and Leicester Square for one for antiquarian authenticity in staging. Although no _ Fast End theatre, the Britannia, had a shilling; more beautiful at the Diorama; and most other panorama attempted the sharpness and wealth of sae from Is. 6d. down to 4d_ and beautiful at the Colosseum, which last place, with its detail that made the Colosseum’s picture of London {, ¢ 3d. (Michael R Booth ct al., fairy-like enchantments, leaves all the pantomime sce- such a marvel, every panoramist knew that the public The Revels History of Drama in nic illusions we ever beheld in the distance.’’* There expected to be shown places and events as they actu- English, VI, London, 1975, pp. 9-10.)

. . . . for the galleries, and the Victoria, The Theatrical Art of the Panorama 185

ally were. Hence Barker’s and Burford’s constant orama itself was declining. The public had finally bestress, in their advertising, on the fact that their pic- come sated with large theatrical pictures wherever turcs were based on drawings made on the spot and, in found. the case of some battles, from official maps and dis-

patches. In the theatre, this graphic source material had DIE its first counterparts in the sketches that Loutherbourg

made in the ficld for The Wonders of Derbyshire and The panorama’s other affinity, with the fine art of William Capon made of the Tower and Westminster painting, was also, in part, a matter of size. The “cult for the series of plays on medieval themes he mounted of immensity,” as the art historian T. S. R. Boase for Kemble at Drury Lane carly in the century. called it,® dated from the time of Copley’s Defeat of the The zenith of drama-as-panorama was reached in Floating Batterics (1786-1791: 25 by 18 fect); Fuseli’s the 1850s, when the settings in Charles Kean’s and series of Milton paintings (1793-1800), which ranged Samucl Phelps’s Shakespearean productions, whose in size from 10 by 7 to 13 by 12 feet; and Benjamin « The most lavish use of pano- antiquarian details were correct down to the finest West's Christ Rejected by Caiaphas (1814: 34 by 16 fect), ramic techmques, however, occurred point of shape and color, Ied to the remark that the which led to the remark, attributed to Hazlitt, that not on the restricted contempo- plays consisted of a succession of magnificent pic- West was ‘‘only good by the acre.”’ In 1815 the British rary stage but later, in the limit- tures periodically interrupted by recitations from Institution offered a prize of £1,000 for a canvas, 16 by able visual imagination of Thomas Shakespeare. Their cumulative effects clearly outdid 21 feet, ‘expressing in an allegorical spirit the triumph drama, The Dynasts (published anything a panorama was capable of achieving. But of Wellington.” James Ward, thinking to give the

Hardy as he composed his epic . a . ” Lo .

1904-1908). The Dynasts owed much by that very fact the theatrical producers overreached donors good value for their money, produced a picture of its spectacular, fluid staging (never themselves. Of Kean’s production of Byron’s Sardana- whose final measurements were 35 by 22 fect. The

realized, of course, 1n practice) to the palus (1853), George Henry Lewes wrote: prize was his, and the canvas therefore was the British

various nincteenth-century pictorial Institution’s; but this body, unable to accommodate it,

entertainments, which had made a among those who think scenery and costume the “be-all and gave it to the Chelsea Hospital, where the antiquarian

profound impression on Hardy He the end-all” of the drama. . I will suppose the spectacle i h hn TI - Smith saw it, “not onl

described the work as “a panoramic to be as effective as to us It was wearisome; | will suppose the and topograp’ er John romas oman saw M, horomy show” and “the diorama of a ; : suspended without a frame, (just as a showman in a dream,” and this conception 1s borne winged bulls (in flats) to have had a truly massive grandiose cir would put out his larze canvass to display ‘the true

out in ‘nts directions for the settings effect; I will suppose the conflagration at the end to be some- dhiva p eas. 8 ae the pi eee d Lad

of many of the 130 scenes, which thing more than a rival of the eruptions of Etna and Vesuvius and lively portraiture oO a giant, re Pipetaced Lacy: were to encompass not only battle- at the Surrey Zoo Gardens [see below, Chapter 23]—some- or the Fire-cater,) but with its lower part projecting fields but enormous geographical thing more than red fire and collapsing “‘flics””—and still say over a gallery, just like the lid of a kitchen salt-box.’’? tracts——‘“‘panoramic” or “bird’s-cye cui bono? Is the Drama nothing more than a Magic Lantern Before it went to Chelsea, however, Ward’s form1views” as he called them—and in his ona large scale? Was Byron only a pretext for a panorama’ dable picture was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in Picindications ot porannic “tices such It 15 a strange state of Art when the mere accessories be- cadilly, which in those years housed a succession of

ee eee ar anaeans come the am and purpose of representation when trae immense canvases: Le Thiére’s Judgment of Brutus

on scenes QMeny picor“winged bulls” dwarf heroic natures! ; pp Dynasts 1s theEe phantasmagoria Widow of Naim (1817: 30 by 21), and David’s Coronaf scene. Equally conspicuous in The BY supplants fru of Human’ passron——winen (1816: 26 by 10 feet), Chevalicr Wicar’s Son of the

magic-lantern show (sec below, And so, in the opinion of many amateurs of the tion of Napoleon (1822: 33 by 21), which was claimed to Chapter 16), represented not only by theatre, the ultimate effect of the panorama on the be “‘the largest picture ever painted,’’® but which, in

the oFand “spirits | as was London stageit.was to degrade it. Acceding to the tast fact ty-se ller than tl theychorus-characters constantly materialize fade stage to degrade Acceding to the taste act, was seventy-seven square feetfeet smaller

away but in metaphorical references of audiences brought up on the panorama (and now re- Ward’s canvas. Although no contemporary British to the device (Part I, Act IV, Scene 5) turning to the theatre itself as conditions improved), painter of any eminence attempted canvases on quite Older forms of pictorial entertam- Kean and Phelps pushed the spectacular element of the same extravagant scale, several had excellent crement also Bgure wi fe Dynasts drama beyond endurance.* After the fifth-act “grand dentials as members of the cult of immensity: Haydon puppet shows, Hardy refers at least panoramic procession” in Kean’s Henry VIII (1855), (The Judgment of Solomon, 12 feet 10 inches by 10 feet twice to mechanical pictures (Part I, representing a sweep of the Thames from the City to 10 inches; The Raising of Lazarus, 15 by 10 feet); John Act IV, Scene 5, and Part III, “After Greenwich that seemingly covered as much territory Martin (The Fall of Nineveh, 11 feet 2 inches by 7 feet; Scene”). In the latter passage, consti- as the eastern view from the Colosscum St. Paul’s, the The Last Judgment, 10 fect 8 inches by 6 feet 6 inches);

drama, the Spirit Ironic climactically ; : - .

tuting the last Iines of the vast stage had little left to do by way of scenic coverage, Francis Danby (The Deluge, 15 by 9 feet); and William

refers to the Immanent Will as “the and most managers quickly returned to what was gen- Etty (The Combat, 13 feet 3 inches by 10 feet 4 inches; dreaming, dark, dumb Thing / That erally regarded as their proper line of work. It may not Beniah, 13 by 10 feet; Ulysses and the Sirens, 14 feet

turns the handle of this idle Show!” have been accidental that at this same time the pan- 6 inches by 9 feet 9 inches). Many of these pictures 186 The Shows of London

were shown individually, at a shilling admission, in the lanches, tempests—werc also portrayed time and again

manner of panoramas. An even bigger canvas by a by Turner. No one, of course, ever claimed that even minor artist, Pieneman’s Battle of Waterloo (27 by 18 the most impressive panorama had the poetic quality fect), was exhibited in 1825 in an ugly shed in Hyde of a landscape by either master; by Ruskin’s useful Park. In such circumstances it was inescapable that definition, panoramas were examples of ‘“‘simple’”’ or the contemporary mind would belittle the commer- “historical” topographical painting—that is, they cial exploitation of big paintings as a branch of show merely recorded, as contrasted with the ““Turnerian”’ business. The Literary Gazette dourly predicted that or “‘poetical” mode, which interpreted the scene Picneman, if not restrained, would set a precedent through the painter’s sensibility. But it must not be which would result in “booths spread from the Ride forgotten that many panoramas originated in sketches [Rotten Row] to the Serpentine, to receive and exhibit made by artists whose intentions reached beyond

pictures of a similar kind.’’® simple documentation, members of the numerous

The demarcation between such exhibitions and breed of pilgrim-painters—Roberts, Bonington, those of panoramas was hardly perceptible. Was a Prout, Holland, Lewis, and the rest—who roamed painting occupying, say, three or four hundred square through Europe and Asia in the first half of the cenfeet of canvas an object of fine art or a small-scale pan- tury. It was such artists who provided the Barkers and orama? The charge made to sce it was the same, at Burfords with drawings of locales which the panoram-

least. The relationship between the panorama and ists did not visit personally. products of the cult of immensity deserves to be But were they really art, these mass entertainment looked into. Gerald Reitlinger, the historian of the eco- equivalents of the topographical engravings that were

nomics of taste, correctly remarks that “the logical lingered over in London drawing rooms? Those who progeny” of enormous exhibition pieces such as dismussed them as mere scenic backcloths looking for a West’s Christ Rejected by Caiaphas and Death on the Pale theatre or as monstrous gallery paintings fit only to be Horse “‘was not a picture at all but a panorama,” and he exhibited in a Hyde Park shed obviously did not think may also be right in believing that once the initial esti- so. In 1830 the Times asserted that “the persons emmation in some quarters of panoramas as a legitimate ployed upon them have, for the most part, had no rep-

form of fine art had subsided, ‘it became unwise to utation to sustain as artists, and their chief object scems drag historical painting down to the same level in to have been to emulate, by very gaudy and exaggercompeting exhibitions.”' Unwise or not, there was ated colouring, those paintings which are introduced money in such exhibitions, as we shall see in a later into the Christmas pantomimes, where red and yellow chapter, and large pictures continued to be shown as blaze in the lamplight, and, at the distance from which commercial speculations well past the middle of the they are seen, produce an effect which is more pleasing

century. to the eye than satisfactory to persons of taste.”"!!

As Boase observes, immensity was an unportant at- On the other hand, Wordsworth was far from distribute of romantic art. Sheer magnitude, combined paraging them, and Ruskin conceded their legitimacy. with the powerful feeling inherent in the subject and Both the quantity and the tone of press comment, esamplified by the artist, was intended to overwhelm the pecially in the first decades of the century, suggest that spectator. Size was the chief characteristic which panoramas usually were granted the possibility of acstended to draw the panorama toward the stream of thetic appeal. When the Diorama opened in London, it contemporary romantic art, but it was not the only was regarded in some quarters as a highly promising one. Another was its frequent subject: not primarily new form of art, as 1s evidenced by the comparisons a great battles or public events, for these were as much writer in the European Magazine chose when he looked the topic of classical (more currently, historical) art as forward to its further refinement: “In unskilful hands of romantic, but picturesque or sublime topography. it would degenerate into a mere child’s galantee-show, Panoramas were, 1n effect, the magnified continuators, from which de Loutherbourg’s Eidophusikon was as in popular art, of the tradition stemming from Paul remote as the acting of Garrick [was] from that of the Sandby, Richard Wilson, Joseph Wright, Louther- wretchedest mummer at Bartholomew-fair, or as ‘The bourg, and Gainsborough; in their most prosperous Last Supper’ of Raphael Morghen, from the coarsest early years they were contemporary with Turner and wood-cut ever prefixed to a St. Giles’s ballad.”’” If the

Constable. It was hardly accidental that some of the show in its present form was not itself great art, it favorite subjects at the Diorama—Alpine scenes, ava- clearly contained the seeds of greatness. The Theatrical Art of the Panorama 187

In those years, critics in the daily and weekly papers would detract from the panorama’s illusion. So long as reported on and judged the newest panoramas with the a picture has discernible edges, no matter how oversame earnestness and, in general, the same criteria that whelmiing its size, it remains a palpable counterfeit; no they brought to their reviews of the annual shows of one mistakes it for a manifestation of the real world. It the Royal Academy, the British Institution, and the has, instead, its own integral reality, a carcumscribed

Water-Colour Society. Their notices of panoramas are world existing only within the boundaries of the in no way inferior to their criticism of gallery art. This, canvas. But a circular panorama, far from being an in the context of contemporary art journalism, may artist’s flat, rectangular insert in the limitless surface of appear to be faint praise, and it 1s. But the point 1s that the spectator’s world, purported to be that reality itpanoramas as an artistic genre were taken scriously, self, cnwrapping the spectator on all sides. The fact even if, sometimes, the ultimate decision was against that the “reality”? existed only on painted canvas was them. Most reviews, naturally, were routine and per- obscured by the absence of anything besides the canvas. functory, but they were seldom frivolous. On a few Barker’s illusion consisted of substituting for the real occasions, moreover, the anonymous critics showed reality an artificial, but, so long as no outside clements genuine perspicacity, the panorama under discussion intruded, a complete one. At the Colosseum, the illusuggesting important questions of aesthetic intention sion was strengthened by the elaborate structure which and effect. The Times’s full-column review (5 April imitated the top of St. Paul’s. Spectators were per1828) of the new Diorama show of the Cloisters of St. suaded that they were, in fact, atop the real dome and

Wandrill and the Village of Unterseen, for instance, not inside a totally different building two or three was as careful and judicious as an article by Hazlitt; the miles away, looking, not into space but at a circular writer, whoever he was, approached the pictures as canvas wall. At the Diorama the illusion of reality was new examples of a form of representational art which sought by the blacked-out tunnel which erased the surmerited and demanded his full attention and his best roundings of the picture and enforced single-minded

analytical powers. concentration upon the scence itself.

At a conservative estimate, 90 percent of the criti- The result was what Constable called, 1n effect, the cism of panoramas throughout their history was con- art of deception. True art, he said in denying the cerned with their success or failure as realistic repre- Diorama’s claim to such dignity, “pleases by resentation. Of the literally hundreds of assertions, minding, not by deceiving.’’'* Had he written about the across the years, that the artistic purpose of panoramas special effect of the panorama, Constable perhaps was to convey the illusion of reality, this one, occur- would have expatiated in the vein of Sir Ernst Gomring in a rapturous Times review of Burford’s Geneva brich’s discussion of the “‘ambiguities of the third dipicture in 1827, was typical: “The efforts of art were mension” when he speaks of never, perhaps, directed to a more enchanting result than in the pamting of panoramas, presenting, as they .. . the power of a curved surface to create that illusion of do, so perfect and illusive a representation of na- reality we experience in the circular panorama painting be; ; ; , loved of the nineteenth century, or under the vaulted dome ture. . . [T]he pictorial beauties of the present view of the Zeiss Planetarium, beloved of the twentieth. Here could not well be exceeded by those of the original. there are two illusions interacting which must be carefully . . . The beholder is involuntarily transported to the separated. The first is the illusion that the real sky 1s vaulted identical scene of his admiration—he believes himself or even (though less obviously so) that a real panorama from contemplating not a draught, but in reality the over- a mountain top is circular. What 1s real in such life situations powering majesty of Mont Blanc and the luxuriance of is our freedom to turn round and to assign imaginary equal the vallies and hills which are strewed at its feet.’ distances to all remote objects 1n our field of vision. Enjoying The insistence on verisimilitude which was a cardi- the same freedom of movement in the panorama or planetarnal tenct of nineteenth-century English aesthetic doc- ium, we experience the second illusion that even to the artrine was intensificd by the special conditions under rested gaze the curved picture will be more truthful than the

; , ; flat one. This is not so.’

which panoramas and dioramas were shown. By its

very nature, the circular panorama enjoyed in this The raison d’étre of the panorama, however, was prerespect a great advantage over conventional art as well cisely this: that, no matter at what expense in illusion as theatrical scene painting: it had no frame. Instead, (the falsifying of experience), the artist should depict a the heart of Barker’s novelty was the special precau- scene faithful in every detail to what one would behold tions taken to obliterate all physical circumstances that if he were actually there. The more minute and accu188 The Shows of London

rate its detail and the more credible its perspective, the marble” were “true enough. The workmen,” he conbetter the picture was. Intrinsic beauty—the truc aes- tinued, “‘certainly did not deceive me; but I confess thetic consideration— was almost entirely neglected in that I took the planks and trowcls, (they are at a dis-

criticism of panoramas. Here, in fact, Truth was tance, understand, from the figures of the men,) to be Beauty; the aesthetic satisfaction received from part of the preparations used in putting up the picviewing a panorama resided in the conviction that the ture.”’ The illusion was just as persuasive when the picpicture was utterly faithful to external reality. The ture was presented in London. Like the French general, panorama in fact was the largest conceivable expres- a London spectator was reported to have been “so consion of the trompe l’oeil principle. If it looked like a pic- vinced that the two workmen were actually flesh and ture, it was a failure. One criticism of the Diorama’s blood, that he threw some halfpence at the lazy fellows Chartres scene was that its distances were “‘too unreal to rouse them.””!* and pictorial to confirm the prepossession with which Anything that endangered the illusion was of course the foreground fills the spectator’s mind, that it 1s actu- to be deplored. The only recorded criticism made of ally a building you see, and not a painted superficies the Eidophusikon (in the Morning Herald and the Whitewithout depths or other perspective than the skill of hall Evening Post, 1 March 1781) bore on this point. The the artist has given it.”"'® Even when a so-called pan- waves in the tempest scene, represented by wooden

orama was nothing morc than a great flat canvas, cut-outs turned on opposing axes by a windlass, were shown under conditions in which the ideal suppression “too abruptly angular’; the ruddy reflection on the of any conflicting “reality” was neither sought nor buildings in the Greenwich scene persisted too long achieved, verisimilitude was insisted on, to the near- after the sun had set; and the shipping “frequently

neglect of all other qualities. sailed . . . in the wind’s eye when all their sails were

The anecdotes told of the panorama’s effect on spec- filled a-back!”’ This set the tone for virtually all of the tators belong to the vein of trompe l’oeil stories stem- adverse criticism the panoramas later evoked. Eyes far

ming from that of Zeuxis, the artist whose painted less captious than those which today spot small cherries and grapes were so “real” that birds came to anachronisms in films on historical themes noticed peck at them. Indeed, the anecdote of an imperious Inconsistencies. A reviewer of the second half of the lady at Burford’s panorama who demanded that her Diorama’s opening bill, the Valley of Sarnen, pointed escort pluck some of the painted flowers and fruits for out that only the stream appeared to move. “But the her was obviously inspired by that ancient fable. At the question immediately and naturally arises,—why is same Spithead show of Barker’s at which Queen Char- this the only moving thing? Especially as the storm lotte felt queasy when she beheld a capsized boat with comes on, why do not the trees wave? Why 1s not the sailors struggling in the waves, a gentleman’s New- lake agitated? Why are not the clouds hurried forward foundland dog was said to have sprung over the rail of in dense and voluminous grandeur? Either the current the platform, bent on rescuing the drowning men. of the brook should be arrested, or, which would be Many visitors to the Diorama’s first bill could not be- infinitely better, motion should be imparted to every lieve that the workmen’s tools, planks, and mounds of object in the scene that is susceptible of it.” In one mortar in the foreground of the Canterbury Cathedral picture on the following bill, Daguerre’s City and picture were merely painted. To be sure, when the pic- Harbor of Brest, the play of light made the water seem ture was first shown in Paris, some of these were real, to move and one or two chimneys to smoke. “Now for, as a writer in Blackwood’s Magazine reported, the this,” said another critic, “is a mixture of principles in building was still unfinished, “full of masons and extremcly bad taste. The diorama ought to stand upon bricklayers, and their matériel de guerre.”’'” It was hard its own ground of affording a more irresistible decepto distinguish the real workmen and their debris from tion to the eye, and through the cye to the underthose in the picture. (“‘Maman,” piped a little girl, standing, than any other disposition of painting; but it “pourquoi met-on toute cette cochonneric-la devant le should not attempt to go beyond this. For example in tableau?”’) But the illusion needed no extrancous aid. this picture, when the waves rise and fall, why are the The Blackwood’s writer affirmed that the Paris newspa- vessels stationary? When one chimney smokes, why per reports of the surpassingly realistic appearance of are the other ten thousand houses of Brest condemned “the scaffolding on the Chapel view,—and_ the to show no sign of firing within? The artists must workmen at which the French General threw either do more, or be content with doing less, and that stones,—and the pots, and the tools, and the broken less quite enough to satisfy the public.’’?° The Theatrical Art of the Panorama 189

The trouble was that the artists’ attempts to do more water in the Sarnen scene. This represented Daguerre’s

were sometimes misguided. Not content to let the effort to cope with the most intractable problem every lighting apparatus do the work, Bouton used a me- panoramist had to face: the representation of light chanical device to create the effect of a gentle breeze on on water. This difficulty was most acute when some the trees in the St. Wandrill picture. This struck some, attempt also was made to suggest water in motion. though possibly not the man who regretted the Vauxhall’s tin cascade had been much oftener ridimotionlessness of the trees in the Sarnen scene, as a culed than admired. Loutherbourg’s varnished wooden gratuitous and unconvincing detail. In the course of waves in the sea scenes were not among the effects the performance of the same picture, a door suddenly singled out for praise, and for all we know, the Niagara opened and a “beautiful perspective’ was revealed. cataract in his second program may have been no more This was clearly too much. The reviewer in the Liter- sophisticated technically than the one at Vauxhall. Reary Gazette, finding the event “destitute of meaning or flecting the romantic infatuation with bodies of water, consequence,” bluntly recommended that the door be a remarkable number of painted panoramas, which nailed up.”! It was gencrally thought that such touches had no moving parts or manipulated lighting, por-

detracted from the overall effect. trayed a sea, lake, bay, river, or waterfall. To critics, the standard touchstone of an artist’s success was the The leaves [wrote someone in the Mechanics’ Magazine} arc realism of his representation of water, with its motion, not agitated, though they may scem to be so—it 1s an optical its limpidity and liquidity, and its constantly shifting

deception accomplished by very simple and obvious means, reflection of light. Although no panorama painter and though a door does open and close in view of the spec- sought to imitate Turner, if the panoramist mastered

tator, 1t reveals nothing to his sight.* Thescenery less the propnetors :or ; gallery * ly. he missed th water effects as well as any painter Apparently, he missed the of the Diorama say about such mechanical devices as the Hist Id do in th Tu ‘an mode. he usual] “beautiful perspective” that the artist could do in the pre-Turnerian mode, he

- as home clear.

beautiful perspective” that the crit- shaking leaves and opening door, the better. Lither the brush h P y

ics noted. and canvas should have been left to produce their own w ° “ed i ¢ ¢ dar + This bold but unsuccessful usc of © Impression (with the help always of the coloured screens, Measured in square Tect, one o the more daring ef-

Langlois, wh ‘sically “d real objects was trumped im 1830 by which are very allowable auxiliaries), or mechanical motion, forts to come to grips with this recurrent problem was Daguerre’s near neighbor in the Ruc if called in at all, should have been employed to far more pur- the pair of pictures of Niagara, cach thirty-two by forty

des Marais, Colonel Jean-Charles pose than it has ever yet been at these exhibitions 7? feet, which an artist named Sintzenick painted for dis-

anglois, who physically involvec play in 1832 at the Pantechnicon, the newly built

the spectators in by hisfitting panorama Although modern museum , “4 3 dinsales nn Bel | a truc Battle of Navarmo up the gofdcthe scum “dioramas,” particulounge”“di and oy salesroom Belgravia. It was

approach to the viewing area to rep- larly natural habitat scenes with their meticulous simu- diorama of sorts, its effects being produced by playing resent the mterior of a ship and lation of the physical environment, make extensive use various hues of light on the scenes.”8 disguising the platform itself as the of real objects in the foreground, the original Diorama Poop (a real one, extracted from an had none. The repairmen’s litter in the Canterbury pic- We confess [said the Athenaeum | that we were startled on

old man-of-war) Jn the foreground, . : ; heari f th . ane

: ture was certainly painted in;aConstable’s iearing of thecat attempt—we not conceive a few before thealmost painted picture, were .. ; i a feetmenof motionless ‘ould. bycould the hand of art.how be mad

.swabs eethata ass . . . . y r r * “nN ; *V » » ‘ we 7a » ~ S an : oe sublime from the very llfe and energy of nature, and strikes were half real and halt years, however, Daguerre felt that the addition of y BY ngging made of real cords which tion of ‘“‘some real stones” may imply that he was de- © - Mess Ca on COunGS DY :. a. Of art, hich c faded into the “‘ficuf” ngging, deck ceived, just as the little Parisienne was. Within a few ‘ ; iP ~F "he nm \ bond, an) ne a scene 4 kee

. ’ > ~ > 7 > mor . y : ,

image, and other such palpable acces- ; with objects awe and would astomshment beyond all others, three-dimensional enhance the Dioq ; . from the tre-

sores (Helmut and Alison Gerns- 1 ; 898 for his V7 ay BI mendous power which 1s made visibly and audibly present heim, LJ M. Dagnerre, London, ramas realism. In 1 » for his View of Mont Blanc by the rush, and whirl, and thunder of a mighty torrent of

é t a che -hyhe : . ’ : .

1956, p 32n, Heinz Buddemeier, Taken from the Valley of Chamonix, he brought to Paris uncontrollable waters. We regret to add, that the justice of PanoramalD1orama/Photographe, a complete chalet and outbuildings and erected them at our opinion has been proved 24 Munich, 1970, p 187) But Langlois the end of the tunnel as a framing foreground to the Was DOL TEREINB CORD BIBT BD picture. A live goat eating hay in the shed provided the Burford’s portrayal of the same subject, displayed a

diorama, and there were practical nal h. Wi ked that “only the £ half of £ hs ] kind! ‘ved. Th

as well as aesthetic objections to emu- inal touch. Wits remarked that ‘‘only the front half o cw months later, was more kindly received. These lating him at Daguerre’s establish- the goat was real and . . . the rest formed part of the Niagara shows were part of a short-lived vogue for ment Possibly Langlois had been back-cloth.”’+ But the Mont Blanc show was not sent cascade scenes initiated in 1829 at Covent Garden, inspired by the similar rmaration of to London, and Daguerre sought novelty in a new and, where the leading marine artist of the period, Clarkson

> 7 5) 3 : ' ‘ :

actual surroundings at the Colosseum, : : oe where the panorama of London with doubl €F hni f h } b in the B Har] j dth 5 arene as it turned out, more profitable direction, toward the Stanfield, painted a scene of the Falls of Virginia Water

its mock-up of the topmost elements ouble-effect technique. or the pantomime Jack in the Box; or, Harlequin and the

of St Paul’s had opened the pre- Constable also mentioned Daguerre’s use of “‘a bit Princess of the Hidden Island. Its sensational novelty lay

ceding year of silver lace turned on a wheel” to represent flowing in the fact that it featured real water, thirty-nine tuns of 190 The Shows of London

which (almost ten thousand gallons) gushed forth at ceptions of pure landscapes, panoramas had subjects cach performance. Rival houses immediately retaliated that necessarily implied the presence of human beings,

with representations of Niagara, followed shortly by worshiping in a cathedral, walking the streets of an the panoramas. In April 1830 the new Diorama bill in- [talian town, fighting a battle. Sometimes the people cluded Daguerre’s Mount Saint Gothard, with a mighty rather than the topography were the center of interest. cataract depicted by what the Times described as “‘the Of Burford’s picture of Paris in 1828 the Examiner said,

trickling of a small fountain.””° Such effects, it said, ‘You not only see Paris before you, but a good speci-

were better left to the imagination. But the Diorama men of its lively, helter-skelter, joyous, gallant, continued to experiment with real water. As late as good-natured, intelligent, out-of-door living but not 1838, Bouton’s Tivoli show included a wet simula- over-cleanly population. The Artist has presented to crum of that famous garden’s cascades. It, too, failed to the eye a varicty of groups, which are exceedingly pic-

impress anyone with its realism. turesque and characteristic, and which, even more than But motionless ships at sea, smokeless chimneys on the style of architecture, give you the idea of standing land, leaves that were unconvincingly fluttered by ma- in the midst of a foreign people.’’? In a concurrent chine, doors that opened without the intervention of a panorama of Sydney, New South Wales, were seen not hand, and cataracts insufficiently supplied with water only “many European figures [and] several groups of (if, indeed, they were not merely composed of wrin- Natives, employed in their exercises and sports,” but

kled silver paper or tin) were comparatively small de- “that useful animal the kangaroo. . . playfully tails that militated against the panorama’s artful effort sporting on the turf.’’** Under the special assumptions

to deceive. More important were the two linked con- of the panorama, the convention which permitted siderations mentioned by the painter Charles Robert frozen action in an ordinary picture offered some diffi-

Leslie in a lecture at the Royal Academy in 1849: culty. To accept a kangaroo arrested in mid-bounce as part of a living scene or to assume that one was I would ask whether others have not felt what has always oc- watching an actual battle when neither man nor horse curred to me in looking at a Panorama,—that exactly in the moved and the smoke issuing from the silent cannons degree in which the eye is deceived the stillness of the figures never blew away, required a considerable suspension

and the silence of the place produces a strange and somewhat of disbelief. Fortunately, all but the most literalunpleasant effect, and the more so 1f the subject places us in a minded spectators were capable of this assent to decep-

city. We then want the hum of population, and the din of tion; otherwise the panorama would not have lasted as carriages, and the few voices heard in the room have an long as it did. unnatural sound as not harmonizing with the scene. Even in To judge from the number of times it was men-

the Diorama, where the light and shade 1s varied by move- ; ,

ment and the water 1s made to npple, there are still many tioned in FENICWS; the problem of the presence OF ab-

wants to be supplicd, and these are indeed suggested the sence of life was most vexatious at the Diorama. The more In proportion to the attainment of deception. | have no one clement in the Village of Unterseen picture that wish to disparage the ingenuity of these contrivances; the destroyed an otherwise perfect illusion, according to Panorama 1s an admirable mode of conveying much infor- one critic, was the unlikclihood that “‘on so beautiful a mation which by no other means can so well be given.* My day, and in so lovely a neighborhood, no human being object 1s merely to ascertain how it 1s that there 1s always was moving about in any direction.’ But there could something unsatisfactory—to speak from my own feelings I be trouble if human beings were introduced. In the should say unpleasant—in all Art of every kind of which de- midst of the ruins of Holyrood Chapel, for example,

ception is an object.” Dagucrre represented ‘“‘a female, dressed in a white

robe, with a black girdle, praying near a tomb on Leslie here restated, specifically in respect to human which she has placed her lamp.”” The Times reviewer * Leshe had expressed a less refigur riticism already noted in connection with bserved that it was improbable that a woman, how- — “CrV¢4 0Pimton much earlier (1812)

su CS, a Crucis ca y note co 1eC on Ww ODSETVE w Pp after secing three panoramas, 1n-

the Diorama’s Sarnen picture. No one objected to the ever decply bereaved, would remain “standing per- cluding Barker’s Lisbon “They are presence of unmoving people in any other kind of pic- fectly motionless, and not in an attitude of repose,— certainly perfect in their way,” he torial art except that ultimate form of realism, trompe without moving a muscle, for half an hour together.’’3° —_ wrote to hus sister. “The obyects ap-

. ; ,; . . ; . , imagine at what distance the canvas

Poeil, where it was agreed that they endangered if they The Diorama sought to enhance the effect of the — P¢#" 80 real, that 1t 1s impossible to did not actually destroy the illusion. But it was dif- praying figure by having a flute played softly behind is from the eye.” (Autobiographical ferent with panoramas, which did, after all, aspire to the scene, “‘breath[ing] forth an old Scotch air.”*? This Recollections, ed. Tom Taylor, the trompe l’oeil effect. With the comparatively few ex- doubtless was an admissible touch, but it did not really Boston, 1860, p 174.) The Theatrical Art of the Panorama 191

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panoramas. communicating useful knowledge in a delightful

What contribution, to take a famous case in point, manner.’’®* There was no more agreeable way of did repeated attendance at Burford’s panorama make learning geography and history.* But the panoramas’ to the development of Ruskin’s aesthetic faculty? We educative value might reach beyond this, since “‘useful

know that Ruskin was among those whose mental knowledge,” liberally defined, had room for a cauimages of various locales were formed at the panorama tious, nonaddictive smattering of aesthetic experience.

(as well as by paintings and engravings) before the In an era when more and more people were being scenes were themselves visited. Late in life he recalled added to the potential audience for exhibitions of all the impact his first view of Milan had on him as a boy kinds, the panorama was the form of pictorial art that

of fourteen: was most accessible, in two senses of the word. During [ had been partly prepared for this view by the admirable the earlier years of the ninetcenth century, mn the abpresentment of it in London, a year or two before, in an ex- sence of permanent art galleries and other institutions hibition, of which the vanishing has been 1n later life a greatly where paintings could be viewed by the London public felt loss to me,—Burford’s panorama in Leicester Square, at large, regularly and at no expense, panoramas were which was an educational institution of the highest and pur- the only means by which it could indulge whatever est value, and ought to have been supported by the Govern- interest it had in art. To most ordinary Londoners, not ment as one of the most beneficial school instruments in accustomed to attending the annual exhibitions, paintLondon. There I had seen, exquisitely painted, the view from ings of any size were a novelty. At the same time—and

the roof of Milan Cathedral, when I had no hope of ever much was made of this point—the panorama was a seeing the reality, but with a yoy and wonder of the deep- form of art that was readily intelligible to the untuest;—and now to be there indeed, made deep wonder be- tored mind and the unrefined sensibility. James Baillic

come fathomless.” Fraser, the man who escorted the exiled Persian

Tantalizingly, he says no more; our estimate of the princes from show to show in 1835 and 1836, expected panoramas’ artistic quality would be much more con- that because they were so delighted by the Diorama fident if he had claborated upon the phrase ‘“‘exquis- and the London panorama at the Colosseum they itely painted.” But there is reason to assume that many would derive equal pleasure from the summer show at impressionable visitors to the panorama came away, as the Royal Academy. By no means: Ruskin scems to have done, with a heightened appreci- Had I reflected on the important difference which must sub-

ation of the real scenery that was so appealingly sist to an unpractised eye, between an immense collection imaged on those great canvases, as well as of Jand- of works of art, to appreciate which requires a species of

scape art itself. positive education,—and a single chef d’oeuvre, the great Marcel Brion, touching on the panorama in his book merit of which depends less on strict adherence to rules of

on romantic art, distinguishes—following Ruskin— art, than on presenting to the senses, by a very wonderful * “The wars of Marlborough,” re- between the “landscape of feeling” and the “landscape optical lusion, a fac-simule of reality, and is therefore palpmarked a journalist at mid-century, of instruction.’>* It was the latter which was the pan- able to all, I should have probably calculated upon the diswhen 2 dorama of Napoleon 5 career oramists’ forte, and though it was a lower form of art. appointinent which I experienced In sceing the feeble 1m-

gent Street, ; ; shensible and ble | pression which this magnificient exhibition produced. . . .

“were perpetuated in Art by the skull it Was more comprenenstole an accept ne fo a large They were bewildered rather than delighted.*® of workers in tapestry and Arras,— portion of the public than were the subjective interpre-

and the wars of Wellington and Na- tations of a Constable or a Turner. As the anonymous Angled somewhat differently, this was also the poleon are now commemorated and author of a guide to London put it in 1851, in the opinion an unnamed “‘memoirist” attributed to the

in part made intelligible to the public ; , : .

by the dexterous brush of the theatr1- course of an extended discussion of the several pan- American artist John Vanderlyn, who painted a well-

cal scenc-painter.” (Athenaeum, oramas then being exhibited, ‘“The same fecling that received panorama of Versailles. Vanderlyn, he said,

26 February 1853, p 264.) makes [the Englishman] prefer Shakspere to every concluded from observing the popularity of pan196 The Shows of London

oramas in London and Paris in the first years of the of art offer, but which is not appreciated by the untucentury that “panoramic exhibitions possess so much tored cye.’’®! of the magic deceptions of the art, as irresistibly to cap- Such was the feeling at a moment when faith in the tivate all classes of spectators, which gives them a de- redemptive powers of education for the adult masses cided advantage over every other description of pic- was nearing its peak. But irrespective of their nominal tures; for no study or cultivated taste is required fully commitment to the linked causes of utile and dulce, for to appreciate the merits of such representations. ’’®° practical purposes the panoramists regarded themIn the progressive climate of the day, however, this selves not as educators but as members of the highly was not enough. Some of those who had no illusions competitive London amusement trade. If they were to that panoramas were a new form of fine art still clung make money on their speculation they had to keep up

to the hope that on their modest level they would with the competition, whatever form it took, and cncourage a taste for something better. Their accep- surpass it whenever possible. Burford alone seems to tance by a large public which had no prior experience have been exempt from this pressure; even Daguerre of art and no means of judging it was a healthy sign responded to it by devising the double effect, and failthat people could be pleased by some kind of art, infe- ure to introduce any novelty into the London pan-

rior though it might be. Beginning with the same orama at the Colosscum—even to dust it off—was premise as the preceding writers, a review of the new responsible in part for that establishment’s decline. bill at the Diorama in the Examiner (30 September 1832) Apart from the unsuccessful addition of the third circle went on to express the cautious hope that the Diorama in 1841, the Leicester Square house remained in 1860 would lead to the improvement of popular taste in art, what it had been in 1795, a place for the exhibition of

if, indeed, it had not already done so: large circular paintings, with no gimmicks or frills such as motion or sound. That this operation prosIn proportion, as works of art are capable of arousing the pered as long as it did is proof of the existence of a desympathy of the uncultivated, so do they require artistical pendable, self-renewing clientele which preferred the powers of an inferior grade, to those which higher branches panorama in its pure state—a public intent on deriving of artdemand . . . The introduction of Dioramic paintings from it the socially and culturally approved benefits it

we do not regard as evidence of any advance in art, but they y Y aPP ,

may be considered as a useful and general vehicle of pleasure, was widely pronounced to offer, and needing only a particularly to large classes whose education may not have periodic change of bill for it to be brought back year

induced in them much taste for works of a superior kind, after year. As the proprietor of an old-established and it is not unlikely that many would be tempted to notice London institution, Burford could afford not to keep the imitation, who would have passed the original without up with the times except in choice of subjects. But observation, and may thus receive a gratification by a second- London evidently had room for only one such show, ary process, which they would not have received from the and Burford’s fellow entrepreneurs soon learned that primary object projecting even always before them. The unadulterated, sedate instruction was not good box ofDiorama seems to be a division of art, expressly invented fice. The truth that Albert Smith discovered when his for the gratification of the many—the general dissemination Ascent of Mont Blanc became an instant hit in 1852 had

of taste, and a means of stimulating the appetite, for the enjoy- b a ; ‘al sh f ment of the higher branches of art; their popularity 1s an evidence en apparent fo veteran pictoria’ s ownmen for many of the improvement and extension of a taste, and that too, years: the diffusion of knowledge, instead of enteramongst many, who, a few years ago, were wholly indif- tainment, was getting rather tiresome; in fact, there

ferent to such subjects [italics supplied]. was great danger of instruction becoming a bogie to

frighten people away rather than attract them.’’® Or, as the same paper had put it more tersely a few During all the years that the Leicester Square panmonths earlier, “It is no small step towards the orama went its routine way, therefore, a ccaseless improvement of taste for the Fine Arts, to know of a search was on for noveltics that would keep pictorial beginning which may lead to the enjoyment of the shows competitive with the liveliest forms of enter-

luxury physical and mental, which the higher branches tainment London could offer.

The Theatrical Art of the Panorama 197

P | U1

anoramas in Motion

In their carly decades, panoramas were repeatedly if with no necessary suggestion of circularity or even of somewhat unfairly compared with the Eidophusikon, unusual size. Most often, in earlier years at least,

and they came off second best in two respects. One “moving panorama” seems to have referred to was their lack of motion. This point was made about nothing more than an old-fashioned moving picture, 1815 in the advertising of a mechanical picture: ‘‘Paint- perhaps with Eidophusikon accessories. This was cer-

ing is one of the attractive arts cultivated by the inge- tainly true of a show thus advertised in 1808 in New nuity of man; but in order to complete the pleasure to York City, which lagged behind English usage only be derived from it, it’s necessary that motion should be by the time it took a ship to sail there from Liverpool;?

imparted to the Sublime Scenery it copies.’’ Where- and it was true also of the “animated Panorama”’ fore, “every object with which [the landscapes in the shown in the Strand in 1814: ‘the Town and Fort of show] are embellished appears animated. The Man, the St. Sebastian at the period of the Bombardment, with Horse, the Carriage, and the Vessel, are emphatically the Troops and Vessels in Motion, performing the impressed with movements peculiarly [sic] to each, whole of the Mancuvers of that Celebrated Sicge.’”? sO as to imitate preciscly the operations of Nature.””! Exhibitions competing with the painted panorama The panorama’s second shortcoming was somewhat made a special point of advertising the clement of morelated to the absence of motion: it offered little vari- tion as carly as 1799. A planted news item on 25 April ety. One scene, or at the most two, was all that a single reported, without elaboration or explanation, that admission bought. Various as the contents of one large there were “‘no less than 74 movements of action and canvas might have been, they all belonged to a single reaction in the moving canvas” of Chapman’s New locale. At the pantomime, meanwhile, one could see a Eidophusikon.* In 1800, “moving panorama’ was rapid succession of pictures, thanks in part to Louther- used to describe the series of topographical scenes in

bourg’s inventiveness. the Christmas pantomime at Drury Lane, Harlequin

As a result, ““moving panoramas’’ soon were an- Amulet: “ta moving Panorama of the most magnificent nounced. What these were, it is sometimes hazardous buildings in London,” said the European Magazine.” to speculate, because the nature of the new devices, if The rival pantomime that season at Covent Garden, they were in fact new, is hidden in the cloudy termi- Thomas Dibdin’s Harlequin’s Tour; or, The Dominion of nology of which complaint has already been made. Fancy, had scenes of ‘‘Margate Pier, Dandelion, Road

Both parts of the term were used elastically. from Margate to Tunbridge, Tunbridge Wells, ‘“Moving”’ was stretched so far as to mean “‘in quick Charing Cross, Scarborough, Ullswater Lake, Bath, succession” as well as ‘in actual motion,” and ‘“‘pan- Weymouth, Forest Landscape and Fancy’s Pavilion.’’® orama”’ could refer to virtually any kind of picture, Both productions, then, featured a succession of topo-

graphical and architectural scenes. The ‘‘moving pan- with a Banquet; a Theatre—Scenes from Johnson [sic; orama”’ could have consisted of a series of flats, opaque Ben Jonson was meant] and Shakespeare; A Music Saor transparent, for which the constructing and chang- loon—Opening to a View of the Elysian Fields.”’

ing technique had been available at least since Louther- All this constituted what John Britton, who had bourg’s Wonders of Derbyshire and Omai, if not before. provided the songs and recitations at Chapman’s ill(The scenes were changed behind a drop curtain.) Or it fated Eidophusikon and soon afterward wrote and

could have been a continuous strip of canvas which delivered the script for gyptiana, was to call in his was rolled horizontally across the stage from one large autobiography a “‘moving panorama.’ Unfortuspool to another, an enlargement, in effect, of the Ei- nately, he does not specify what the ‘System of dophusikon’s clouds-over-Greenwich device. Either Machinery upon a plan entirely new” consisted of. By type of ““moving panorama”’ would have been suitable the time he wrote in 1850, ‘“‘“moving panorama’”’ had

for the series of discrete scenes in both pantomimes, come to mean primarily a lengthy series of related the continuous strip being required only if the scenery scenes painted on a single cloth. But there is no way to portrayed was consecutive, as in the representation of a tell whether Lonsdale’s pictures were of this kind, or

journey. whether, on the contrary, they were individually One or the other of these two devices was used in mounted. Given the date, the latter is more likely.

1802 in a self-described “new species of entertain- In any case, A:gyptiana was a resounding commercial

ment” performed in the Lyccum’s upper room, re- failure; it made, as Britton said, “‘a pleasing and named for the occasion the Scenic Theatre.’ Agyptiana rational exhibition, but was not sufficiently attractive was produced by Mark Lonsdale, a well-known figure to draw remunerating houses; indeed the unfortunate in the London theatre who had been employed for a adventurer was unable to pay his creditors.”

number of years as resident director and producer at And so it was at the pantomime, rather than at exhiSadler’s Wells and more recently in a similar capacity bitions, that the so-called moving panorama developed at Covent Garden. The name was derived from the in the next two decades.? By 1820 there is no question first portion of the program, a three-part spectacle that a rolling cloth was used. In Covent Garden’s Harconsisting of “‘cighteen scenic pictures, upon a large lequin and Friar Bacon; or, The Brazen Head a cut-out scale, with explanatory readings.”’ The pictures, com- vessel was drawn across the stage while, behind it, a missioned from several leading scene painters, were painted scene rolled in the opposite direction to reprebased on prints contained in a recently published book, sent the crossing from Holyhead Bay to Dublin. Dominique Vivant Denon’s Travels in Upper and Lower “Twilight darkens,’’ wrote a magazine critic, ‘‘and still Egypt in Company with Several Divisions of the French the packet sweeps along, and still remote vessels pass

Army, which was among the first products of the large her; the steam-boat is seen smoking on its way; the complement of scientists and archaeologists who had moon rises, throws its rays upon the water, and with accompanied Napoleon in 1798. One handbill con- it midnight is gone; the sky brightens, and morning tinued: “This Part of the Evening’s Entertainment, in- shews the mountains round the bay of Dublin. . . . tended to give an amusing Turn to Information, and to this whole scene received great applause.’’!®

exhibit Fact in its most picturesque Form, will be re- Henceforth the theatres vied with one another in lieved by a few Productions of Fancy, uniting the more mounting such panoramas and inventing variations. sportive Efforts of Poetry, Painting and Spectacle.” Drury Lane’s “‘extravaganza opera’ Giovanni in Ireland

These included an “intermezzo” of readings from at Christmas 1821 had a ‘“‘moving Panoramic view of Gothic romances “‘Illustrated by Machinery and Paint- the coast to Milford Haven.’!! The 1822 Covent ing, in Six Picturesque Changes” and, as the climax of Garden pantomime, Harlequin and the Ogress, had two

the bill, ‘‘an Embellished Recitation of Milton’s L’Al- moving panoramas of the king’s recent tip from legro, Including a Scenic View of the Imagery of the London to Edinburgh, and its successor the next year, Poet. In Ten Successive Pictures, produced by a Harlequin and Poor Robin, came up with a vertical cloth System of Machinery upon a plan entirely new.”’ The “representing bird’s eye views of London and Paris Milton pictures were composed of ‘‘the Poet’s Study; supposed to be seen from a balloon.” The balloon asA Rural Scene, at Daybreak; Sun-rise—An Open cended from Vauxhall Gardens, the chief launching Landscape; A Rustic Noontide Repast; The Upland pad for this popular kind of spectator sport. After it Hamlet and Holiday Sports; Evening—The Cottage passed over the main sites between London and the Fireside; A Splendid Tournament; An Ancient Hall, channel, the stage was blacked out to represent the Panoramas in Motion 199

MOVING PANORAMA . . a. GRAND 1CORS (DIE , | , , _ oD . ee Painted by the MES S*®S GRIEVE inthe Pantomime of

PUSS LY BOONS., X # 17 Ne\N 74% 13 1615 HH fo12 ee10 9 8lgAyy fh) 7 . INow, ra / if | , rans _ y, , / fj y C \ \ Trew ui wid >” Cee \ ° =. i Oe . i f r ag) SAWN iT Tag! wyies = |A . Re \ Cea? BAN ap a AE COA roast ree: We eer ijte vats | ye) ) IRS BE rap 6 Sf go N7 2 a ee WC NG

NS . ws ; : Ley . | 7s ‘> 3 / ’ AWS CALAIS. FLEET UNDER weicH — 7 THE DOWNS

RR nCAee Ss ee ION I, RIeat RSS Ss

f] - 6Fy rt eT Sa ANE nde ‘>. +f We, h JA,Nhe AgititoSHAK --we ~ A” b/ fie xtim) 50)Lhyt=BLY ViaWRN ate 4 \a Me “ an cube ‘ y \~*% seniSLAH TRH = ae You 7oge = ahh yey) yt 4N ARAN en oe fat ° offBU) - es i B ee Although during those years the theatrical diorama a “eee 3 ~ ren. ieee MER anc was found chiefly in pantomime, its ee popularity ea eet? aig. ' J Coo. . salem’ oe Pawas ee,in-atRE = go osee*SR aegis RS creased by the sensational use made of it in the revival ears eae om ey ee

; chicfly j mej , , Mee ee

. ; ee ee gO

of Mazeppa at Astley’s Amphitheatre in April 1831. At eee ey Re ona oe) Vel tan ae

the beginning of the second act, Cassimir, bound to a Pen a Mi ei i en*" 7 horse, hurtled along on a treadmill between a ground on ee: "gait eee row representing the banks of the Dnieper and a * Sow Saga a crs ee a +e

moving of the stormy countryside, the whole 3oo! Regn ae . ; . . cloth . enhanced . wo in by . Sm ey oe ge — os etlef-«ee. fect :being copious thunder andZlightning. apie=aeie4d"

Thanks to this wild ride with moving pictorial accom- Ca a A ne FB ie eS

paniment, Mazeppa remained in the repertory of the BP ee, mF ee" } oT ia ie

English and American stage for the next half century." pins ae ou 4 ¢ diorama reached the highest level of the drama PB OE tg RO aay aa deen st

cight years later, when Macrcady’s production of issmwiate san ase a a BF ey

Henry V included three much-praised pictures by Stan- Loe ad field—the English flect’s voyage from Southampton be, ye g es Pa nbc Fs to the siege of Harfleur, the French and English camps ed 8 2 he og, NG a

turn to .London. | ‘ Bg {ei Acai re In the exhibition world, meanwhile, the moving ei at Pac” ee ser . Oe na Be See

on the eve of Agincourt, and the king’s triumphal re- sa eM Sar a wt \ i P

panorama was appearing under the newly invented ey wee a term “‘peristrephic” (“turning round, revolving, rota- caged I, RS SE

tory The show bearing ——| , a. y af’—Ovxford & y) * 8 . yLnglish Wee - Dictionary). iy’ * This Marshall has not been identi-

that name, belonging to one Marshall,* was appearing a a | - fied. Charles Marshall. who had a

.. );. .;. :~ Pee oe IES } Be ea - was also identifie ae \ "4 with the panorama tradc, however,

in provincial towns as carly as 1819." In 1823 it was a a) eee Qa \ " - long career as principal scene painter

Marshall who exhibited or in Moving LondonPanorama” the ‘Original Pe .aa. eesSale Stee. only =) the born Grand New Peristrephic of Be in London 1806. Hetheatres, was alsowas identified

George [V’s coronation with its alleged 100,000 an painter Ok IN aes: as tl ; -such wachcan« Lome a: afigas &the of ee described as being a show in which

. «. .ve . Hall . ~; ;.“‘at Letthead ehinteresting ee 1aei aeae the picture passes before thescom specminster moment His Majesty’s 4inVithe i uemanner ie ial a vaofththe the coe eg ee ee ~~.Pa f— tators, scenic

Champion is giving the Challenge’’—an ancient ritual oy a nit at Pel Os ioe N ay .- displays in our pantomimes of late then performed for the last time.!® The coronation ae oe or a een mei § re . \= —- aa; ” years” (Mirror of Literature, 7, 1841, show was succeeded in the spring of 1824 by a r . Ane ve ccM dal TF Memes’ = 253) suggests not only that the

. . ; Sess we, gon ‘Se oae ~ ON —— OM “Z - ; : . :

twelve-view survey of the battles of Ligny, Les 3 ny wed A ore Tes year) 2° - former peristrephic panorama had Quatres andanWaterloo," thisIngave . T ~~ Guet oe Vie re, beenand rechristened but that the peries ,Bras, crioo, Ss gave and way, ae AE 1 aPeLe r hy: the’Bet . - “te strephic kineoramic Marshalls

December of the same year, to another Napoleonic ex- ete, See wo > 8 were related, perhaps as father and hibition, beginning with four scenes of the Battle of n son.

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61. Clarkson Stanfield’s diorama Pr - Rane phat R\} ‘yr hen LLADCACEL YY Pi ais ~ Sa ab C1 pantomime Harlequin and Little AK Be a oP PR 98 9? ac Maa Ne Pea betalee tate Wee eee ey! Adon ;

show’s ‘‘Book of ie Songs Choruses’’). 7 ‘and - Me eee a 17R TOT NTYO BT. AAD At 7TL. yP} >rtfer, 23 @ vila AF ADEA cid Fy 1 is ero Ss BR Pen areVener 4 ‘: Yeh|. Thovama Morama ofhsof Venice. Thumb, 1831 (engraving in the Ce eres + S' Marco. 6. The Piaxaa. 5 The Bridge of Sighs Smee

~ «@& { , ‘ y ° . Ass oe anes arorFFey o1fs004) 5cK| Jas a ns < ey me VPP AS (2) BTe§og eq 8 a" i iPM ea“eWe es ae 3ntse+oeOY os ae aeEe ““ ~ ee 2 - ‘By an Artist attached to the Reyal Academy of St. Petersburgh. 1831.

} . . Travelling ua those inclemen' jens.

ently spelled handbill invited fairgoers to ‘“The Grand Chorater, Stature, Religious Rites nad Centon aeiusnillzetratire of thee Physiognomical

. . ~1: lew 2.—Portraits of Two Rassiz re ‘ .

Moving Dioramic Collosseum Introducing a variety View 1.—The Frozen Market of Podnesh Late Ewrenon of all the Russtane of British Views of Clifton Rocks &c. TOMB OF ent of Rank and an Infant Noble, View 5.—A View in the City of Simberaki

DEATH with a variety of subjects too numerous to ™ or Smolensk Burial Ground View 1aloeeran Lapland oa Wind's mention.”’ On the same program was ‘“‘an entire, new Wt tony brett Ponce eee aor ia Wht elling « Lady's Forten and elegant medium, 6 feet by 6,” showing bo varicty Imperial Highness, Alexander, View 8,—SamoyedesArmed fur the Chase,

of subjects Fun, cd + consisting 2 * : 1 66 of Dp) » BWit, Wim, Humour, and A View of London Laughter, to wit, Joey Grimaldi, “‘the Phenomenen of THROUGH AN ARCH OF

Pantomime,” Death on the Pale Horse (from West’s PRAT ERILOO BRIDGE. painting), Earl Grey (“the Staunch and Patrotic friend After which, a Grand Original Peristrephie; or Moving of the People of England in the Cause of Reform’’), the

Bleeding Nun of Lindenburgh, Lord Brougham, and é\o, the Enchanted Skeleton, with appropriate music and , EMBRACING A VIEW OF fireworks afterward.”! Phe CHAIN PIER at BRIGHTON, Together with the PALACK.--The STEYNE and OFREPRESENTS BRIGHTON DIE THE CONTINUATIONTOWN OF WHICH 4° VOYAGE UP THE MEDITERRANEAN. In the pantomimes, the miniature tours by rolling Pasig BEACHY HEAD,—SHIPS SAILING UP AND DOWN CHANNEL,

diorama were no more than divertissements, fanciful ROCK OF. GIBR pictorial cameos attached to a larger entertainment, Ext |OCEAN geoossscir AND RALTER, : -XTENSIVE EXPANSE OF V

Just as a quick tour of the Clyde was appended as an af- Une the CaN AND VARIETY OF SHIPPING, terpicce to Marshall’s coronation show. The idea of a The TOWN, HARBOUR and FLEET at NAVARINO. journey as the sole subject of a panoramic exhibition coanns a Magnificent Representation of the ener He

. . . wpe: ewoels Satis t, taking their Stati avi , ion, — ‘

seems to have occurred first to the German theatrical BATTLE oF artist Carl Wilhelm Gropius, who had opened a Berlin

version installed of the Diorama in 1827. Five years later, Gropius in his small auditorium, renamed theMAY | | id ALBINIO

| . . . . ; Ina which other interesting is displayed,bythe dangerous siteation of the Pleorama, replica amongst of an excursion boat, and inobjects, it Asia, commanded Admiral Sir Edward Codrington,

presented an hour-long pictorial voyage around the von ce Lunchored between the Ships commanded by the

Bay of Naples or down the Rhine. Perhaps because the TURKISH AND EGYPTIAN ADMIRALS, h failed he ship’ limited And Engaged in the full Vigour ef Action with Both, show failed to pay—the ship’s capacity was limited to . And includes Portraits of the

a mere thirty persons—Gropius soon restored the GENOA, the DARTMOUTH, the GLASGOW, the ALBION,

diorama.” Ships of War, Gallies, Galliots, Explosion of Fire Shipe,

. : INCLUDIN

But the Pleorama may have inspired a show at the rene ea abush, Erench,& Russian Men of War,

Baker Street Bazaar in 1834. The Padorama, as it was The abore was Exhibited ut Portsmouth in the course of a Fortaight to wpwerds of

called, was a combination mechanical-pictorial exhibi- TEN THOUSAND P ERSONS, tion. The background consisted of a 10,000-square- The Right Honorable the Port Admiral, foot dioramic strip wound on drums, showing “‘the AE Oe eee x etammtted of the Officers, Marines & Seamen,

. . all of whom testified thar unqualified Satufection and Delizht, amd prousunced it to he a3 complet. Liverpool and Manchester Railway,” the first passenger line, which had been opened four years earlier. In front of this moving scenery were miniature mockmost interesting parts of the country traversed by the aind correct u d: lineation of thet Glenews Achueremeut ws was possible te he

ups, also in motion, of various kinds of rolling stock—locomotive engines and wagons filled with goods, cattle, and passengers.”? ‘The mechanism of Panoramas in Motion 203

the steam-engines,”” said the Times, “is accurately rep- The first moving panorama to be seen in America resented, and the pigmy passengers by whom the car- (May 1828) was the ‘“‘Moving Panoramic View from riages are crowded might easily . . . be mistaken for Calais to Dover, by various Painted Flats to the Scene”’ living people of the full size of life.”** An advertise- featured in Planché’s and Moncrieff’s Paris and London;

ment added its praise: ““The Locomotive Engines or, A Trip to Both Cities, which had been performed . . . give a more correct idea of the mode of transit several months earlier at the Adelphi in London.’* In on this great work of art and science than can be con- November of the same year William Dunlap’s A Trip veyed by any description, however elaborate. Every to Niagara—written, as he said, simply to provide a veone of our juvenile friends ought in particular to see hicle for “‘dioramic scenery’’—portrayed a steamboat It, aS it is very instructive for youth.’’?° Ingenious and journey up the Hudson (with storm and fog effects), instructive though it was, however, the Padorama set through the moonlit Catskills, and then by way of the

no fashion.* Erie Canal to Niagara.*° This is rather odd, not only because the railway, a This show’s success led to the painting of similar revolutionary kind of transport, was a lively topic of rolling canvases to be displayed separately. The doyen the moment, but because it was the railway which, by of the trade was John Banvard, a self-styled “poor, undemocratizing travel, lent additional relevance to cer- taught” New York—born painter whose panorama of tain kinds of exhibitions. As extended travel, initially the Mississippi set the London entertainment world within Britain and then abroad, came within the reach of 1848-1850 in a turmoil.?° The picture, Banvard

of more and more people, popular interest in the claimed, was the largest ever painted: a full three scenes depicted in panoramas increased. There is little miles long. Evidently no disinterested party was ever

sign, however, that the London entertainment in- allowed to measure it, but simple arithmetic suggests dustry realized what attractive possibilities lay in dra- that if a strip of that length were unrolled during a matizing in pictorial form the idea of an extended two-hour performance, without any intermission, it journey—that is, of stretching into a full-length pro- would have had to pass before the audience at the rate gram what had hitherto been an incidental feature of of 132 feet a minute. Furthermore, so big a roll of the pantomime. The showmen awoke only when an canvas would have been extremely hard to transport American entrepreneur brought across the Atlantic a and mount in any existing hall, even if cut into sections. moving panorama of a trip down the Mississippi—a The leading authority on the Mississippi panoramas canvas so big and so stridently advertised that London- has said, without giving a source for his information, ers, forgetting that the mechanical principle was the that the pictorial cloth “sometimes attained a length same as that of the by now familiar theatrical diorama, of more than 1,200 yards (actual, not claimed length) were persuaded to believe the rolling panorama was by four yards in height.’”*!

an American invention. It was indisputable, at least, that the canvas depicted

Panoramas of the original one-piece, static variety no fewer than thirty-six scenes of the Mississippi from had arrived in the United States not much more than a the mouth of the Missouri River to New Orleans. year after Robert Barker opened for business in Leices- Banvard had painted it at Louisville, Kentucky, where

ter Square.2* A set of the aquatints made from the he made expenses by doing decorating jobs for the drawings for the panorama of London was brought to local Odd Fellows Lodge. On the opening night, he re-

New York City by a man named Laing, who lent counted, not a single person turned up to see it. But by them to William Winstanley, an Englishman of “‘good distributing free passes among river boatmen he man* The show relocated in the family [and] gentlemanly education’’ who “twas un- aged to attract audiences, and the word-of-mouth pubsummer of 1835 in a purpose-built derstood to have come to New York on some business licity thus generated turned the tide.

Street, Brooklyn, New York From . . . . . . . .

structure at the foot of Pierpont connected with the Episcopal Church.” Winstanley The subsequent American tour was a triumph. At the publicity at that time we gam immediately copied the pictures on canvas, which he Boston, to which special trains brought customers

extra details: the field of view was exhibited in Greenwich Street in 1795.27 A number of from all over New England, Banvard cleared $50,000 between forty and fifty feet long and other panoramas, including two of Ker Porter’s, were in six months. In New York the picture—one must twenty-four high, and the miniature shown in New York in the following twenty years, make constant allowance for the fact that these claims rolling stock was propelled by a and in 1818 a special rotunda was built to house Van- were made in a day when Barnum had no monopoly

ania me en vue derlyn’s panorama of Versailles. This was the first of a on exaggeration—attracted 400,000 customers in nine feet instead of the former 10,000. number of such structures to rise in American citics months, enriching Banvard by $200,000. State legis-

(Odell, IV, 48-49.) during the first half of the century. latures and the United States Congress passed res204 The Shows of London

olutions applauding this stupendous enterprise, as across the Atlantic, John Rowson Smith, son and

patriotic as it was artistic.” great-grandson of English painters, who had been a

In the autumn of 1848, Banvard brought his mam- scene painter successively at New Orleans, St. Louis, moth canvas to London, where it opened at the Egyp- and New York.** In the summer of 1848 Smith had intian Hall shortly before Christmas. It was an immediate troduced his own Mississippi panorama at Saratoga, sensation. The London audience was treated to a com- New York, and that autumn had gone into partnership

prehensive view of a portion of western America in with a Professor Risley, a New Jersey-born, internaall its incredible variety. There were scenes of bluffs tionally famous acrobat, for the purpose of challenging with lonely cabins perched on their edges, and prairies John Banvard.*% with bison grazing in the thick grass; rice swamps, Banvard alerted London by an advertisement headed corn fields, levees, cotton fields, sugar plantations with “CAUTION TO THE PUBLIC,” which quoted their slave quarters and imposing mansions; there were ‘several late American papers’? as warning England rough waterside hamlets thrown together, it seemed, to be on guard against ‘“‘a spurious copy of Banvard’s overnight, and thriving little cities with steeples and great painting . . . which has been got up by a party domes, theatres and warchouses; there were Indian en- of speculators, who had already sailed for Europe with campments with their wigwams and campfires. Many the intention of palming it off on the British public as “episodal groups” showed Indians, emigrants, and the original.’’?? Smith and Risley opened on schedule scttlers in their characteristic activities, and, to add the (26 March 1849) at “the Grand American Hall” in indispensable spice of excitement, there were steam- Savile House, their “ORIGINAL GIGANTIC AMERboat races and wrecks. For still further variety, the ICAN PANORAMA” being advertised as ‘“‘extending painter portrayed the various locales under different over four miles of canvas, and depicting nearly four aspects of light—dawn, full daylight, moonlight, an thousand miles of American scenery, being one-

approaching storm. third larger than any other moving panorama in the As the canvas passed across the stage (instead of world.’’38

rewinding it after every performance, Banvard simply This intra-American rivalry engaged the attention of reversed the direction of the trip for the next show), all London. Banvard won at least a temporary advanthe artist, perched on a little platform at the side, ex- tage over his competitors by ostentatiously closing his plained the points of interest and, as one reviewer put room at the Egyptian Hall for several days so that the it, interspersed his narrative ‘“‘with Jonathanisms and canvas could be taken to Windsor for a command jokes, poetry and patter, which delight his audience showing. Smith and Risley, for their part, met Banmightily.” The performance, the writer concluded, vard’s accusations of plagiarism by flourishing Ictters not without condescension, was ‘“‘well worth the pa- from Baron von Humboldt and the Indian painter

tronage of all who delight in doing justice to self- George Catlin, himself a seasoned veteran of the taught genius.”’*? The attendance at the two shows London exhibition business, attesting to the originality daily left no doubt that there were many such generous and authenticity of their canvas and denouncing Ban-

spirits in the London public. vard’s as ‘“‘an utter imagination”’ filled with “glaring

Apart from the novelty of so gigantic a panorama, omissions and incongruities.’’°® Later on in this acriBanvard’s success owed something to the fact that monious exchange in the Times’s advertisement colAmerican subjects were more or less unhackneyed as umns, Banvard quoted an item from a Boston paper far as panoramas were concerned. Down to this time, reporting a mecting in that city of a “fashionable besides a few pictures of New York and Niagara, there assemblage of ladies and gentlemen,”’ who evidently had only been such ephemeral attractions as the had convened for the sole purpose of attesting their ‘American Exhibition” in 1843 at 218 High Holborn. admiration of his painting.*® To this unanimous exThis “‘grand Moving Panorama,” ‘the MICRO- pression of confidence, according to Banvard’s souveCOSM of the Shores beyond the Atlantic,’’ consisted nir booklet, was added the authority of Charles of eleven scenes, eight of New York City and its en- Dickens, who had once inspected a stretch of the upper virons and the rest portraying such decidedly fringe Mississippi from Cairo, Illinois, to St. Louis. Dickens’s subjects as the Bay of Gibraltar and the York Minster testimonial, which reads as if someone wrote it for

fire.*? him, ran, “I... cannot refrain from saying that |

But it soon became evident that Banvard was run- was in the highest degree interested and pleased by ning scared. He had had news of a rival on his way your picture, by its truthfulness, by your account of it,

Panoramas in Motion 205

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ay Ge ae He nm /‘ miter eee aoe On a on lin, a a! ee oe

63. How to paint a monster panorama. These drawings, tures in the face, particularly when some of those features from Punch, 14 July 1849, illustrated a brief sketch, ““The include the mouth and teeth of that dental phenomenon Monster Panorama Manias,”’ inspired by the preliminary —whom we should not like accidentally to encounter—the publicity for the Warren-Fahey-Bonomi panorama of the Crocodile. . . . We cannot, of course, look for any high Nile. “We can imagine the exertions made by the artists in degree of finish in these paintings, whose merit is meatheir process of taking their sketches from the spot, and we sured by their mileage rather than by the talent the artists can fancy one of them mounted on a camel, the camel’s have displayed, for we presume that the colours can be hair being from time to time cut to replenish the brushes, laid on with nothing more delicate than a mop in the producwhile the hump of the brute might be converted into a tion of these works, which literally illustrate the maxim as sort of easel very casily. Whatever may be the intrinsic to Art being long and Life being short, for he must have a merits of the forthcoming picture . . . we ought to take long life indeed who hopes to see the end of the lengths into consideration the courage of the artists in exploring which our modern artists are going to.” such a river as the Nile, and looking all its perilous fea-

by its remarkable characteristics, by the striking and The Athenaeum devoted a warm and unusually long original manner in which the scenes it represents are review to the show, commenting that “‘in all the qual-

plainly presented to the spectator.’""! ities of Art the English work far surpasses its transatWhile the feuding Americans lobbed defamatory lantic compeers.’"4 (Dickens, writing in the Examiner, shells at each other between Piccadilly and Leicester had earlier taken this same patriotic line in respect to Square, the London panorama industry, which for Banvard. The Amcerican’s splashy art, he said, had no years had been languishing for want of novelties, resemblance to “those delicate and beautiful pictures quickly came to life.” All this publicity over lengthy by Mr. Stanfield which used, once upon a time, to pass moving panoramas was too valuable to waste. The before our eyes in like manner.’’# It may be noted that first feature-length British-made panoramic river trip, his testimonial had said nothing about the specifically the work of the Warren-Fahey-Bonomi team, who artistic qualities of the panorama.) Despite the picture's were shortly to paint the Holy Land panorama men- critical and popular success, the proprictors found it tioned in Chapter 13, opened in another room of the advantageous to sell it to George Gliddon, a noted Egyptian Hall on 16 July 1849. This, appropriately Egyptologist, to show during his forthcoming Amerienough, was a panorama of the Nile. Unlike Banvard’s can lecture tour. But they immediately painted a dupli-

opaque cloth, it was a transparency. During the first cate, and the Nile trip resumed. half of the show, going upstream, the audience saw the Moving panoramas multiplied in the 1849-50 west bank of the Nile. When the head of navigation at season. The brazen rivalry and puffery of the Missisthe second cataract was reached, there was an intermis- sipp1 shows, said the Illustrated London News,

sion, after which the return journey passed places of ]

interest on the cast bank. Two of the most admired has excited what would appear to be insatiate taste for that scenes were a tableau of the interior of the Abu Simbel class of artistic productions in our own metropolis. Strange it

temple, seen by torchlight, and a representation of a is that we should have received such a hint from a nation by sandstorm overtaking a caravan in the Libyan desert.” no means distinguished for its school of painting; and we 206 The Shows of London

suspect the explanation will be traceable to certain broad mid-January. He was Thomas Waghorn, an officer in effects which alike characterize Transatlantic scenery and the Bengal naval service and later in the Royal Navy, manners. How far this species of attraction will be realized in who had niade the direct route between Britain and the success of the English Moving Panoramas and Dioramas India, via the Mediterranean, Alexandria, and Suez, which have just burst upon the town for its holiday novelties, more practicable by setting up a chain of resting places

we will not venture to predict As regards composition, and hotels at strategic locations along the rigorous

drawing, colour, and other means of art, our own pic- dese € the route. He had thus cut the time of

tures are, unquestionably, of the highest class; whilst they are esert Portion ©

as remarkable for their freedom from exaggeration, and the journey from the threc to four months required on adherence to nature, as their American prototypes were char- the longer but less uncomfortable voyage by way of

acterized by these equivocal recommendations *% the Cape of Good Hope to less than a month. Waghorn therefore, like the engineers Brunel and Stephenson, was a culture hero of the day. Thackeray fan-

So much for Messrs. Banvard, Smith, and Risley, and cifully reported glimpsing him at Cairo: “‘The bells are

the nation whose art they represented for better or ringing prodigiously; and Licutenant Waghorn 1s worse. By this time, Banvard was secking to dupli- bouncing in and out of the courtyard full of business. cate the success of the Mississippi panorama with He only Ieft Bombay yesterday morning, was scen in one of the Ohio River. Its accuracy also was chal- the Red Sea on Tuesday, is engaged to dinner this aflenged, but, as one paper said, “‘in the absence of any ternoon in the Regent’s Park, and (as it is about two authentic evidence of imposition, the public flocked in minutes since I saw him in the courtyard) I make no crowds” to sec it.47 Another American importation doubt he is by this time at Alexandria, or at Malta, say, fared less well: a four-part journey from Washington, perhaps, at both. I/ en est capable. If any man can be at

D.C., to Oregon, the “Overland Route” of Colonel two places at once (which I don’t believe or deny) Fremont, indifferently painted by three American art- Waghorn is he.’’*?

ists named Kyle, Dallas, and Lee. One chilly notice It was Waghorn’s route that the panorama at the complained that it was mercly ‘‘a clever map or survey Gallery of Illustration illustrated in paintings made by a of a tract of land richly diversified with wood, water, consortium of artists, the theatrical scenery specialists and noble and fantastic shaped mountains.’’4* The top- Thomas Grieve and William Telbin, the Academician

. . . . 4 . ; e show was called, almost as

ical interest of this show was heightened when news (and collaborator in the British Diorama) David Rob- «Th

arrived of the gold strike in California, and the route erts, and assistants who painted the human figures and often, the Overland Mail to India.

was altered accordingly. the animals. The program began with stationary views “Route” will be used here to avoid

Although the Fremont show presumably had been of the earlicr stages of the journey, at Gibraltar and confusion with Albert Smith’s enterin preparation carlier, its name, “the Overland Route,” Malta; then a moving panorama took over for the seg- tanment the Overland Mail to India, was chosen in an obvious attempt to participate in the ment (the overland route proper) between Cairo and which opened two months later (28 May) and will be discussed in fame of another panorama which had opened just a Suez, and the final stages, Ceylon and Calcutta, were Chapter 23 Part of the Overland month earlier, Easter 1850: the Overland Route to India, represented by further flats. ““The great feature of this Route’s success was due to the eleat the new Gallery of Illustration, 14 Regent Street. * work,” declared the Times, “*. . . is the combination gance of the setting. The Gallery of The Illustrated London News found this production of the vastness of the American dioramas with the ar- Hlustration was the house which “superior to any work of its class hitherto produced in tistic perfection belonging to the best English produc- John Nash had built as his home, and

. > ; . 1958 . cc . the exhibition room had been fur-

this country,’ and Edmund Yates, a_ professional tions.”** Another paper praised the “sublime and |g yg and decorated by him in the man-about-town closely associated with the entertain- picturesque scenery, beautiful aerial effects, character- style of one of the Vatican galleries.

ment world, later declared in his autobiography that istic grouping, variety of incident, richness of color, Under its conveniently evasive title,

. . . . . more innocent pleasures of the con-

the Overland Route to India was “‘by far the best of all and tone or atmosphere skilfully varied with the several _ it became a little playhouse where

these panoramic shows.’’*? By the first anniversary of countries.’ middle-class families could enjoy the

its opening, it had been shown 900 times and there had That would seem to cover it. But there was more. temporary stage, such as one-man been over 200,000 admissions.°° Before it finally Down to this point in the history of panoramas, we entertainments and readings from the closed, the number of performances had exceeded hear little of lecturers. Although Puckler-Muskau — drama, secure in the knowledge that 1,600 and the attendance, a quarter of a million.*! mentions one at the peristrephic Battle of Navarino they were not inside a real theatre The man whose achievement this show commem- when it was showing in Dublin, there is no evidence of listening to performers who were orated—an achievement which also was partly re- their presence at Burford’s—the sixpenny booklets Jane W. Stedman, Gilbert before Sulsponsible for the fresh interest in Egypt, so profita- were meant to serve their purpose—nor were there livan (Chicago, 1967), Introduction, bly catered to by the Nile panorama—had died in any at the Diorama. The first expositor to be singled _ especially pp. 5-6

. . . ; . identified as actors and actresses. See Panoramas in Motion 207

out in the press for his contribution to the proceedings wide traveler who never left London’s amusement dis-

was Banvard, with his “‘Jonathanisms and jokes, trict, and whom, a few months earlier, Dickens had poctry and patter,” and he would shortly prove to represented as saying, in a sketch in Household Words: * have set an important precedent. But his novel role was obscured by the larger novelty of the canvas’s When I was a boy . . . the gigantic-moving-panorama or monstrous length, and it was at the Overland Route diorama mode of conveyance, which I have principally show that the lecturer’s presence first was as note- adopted (all my means of conveyance have been pictorial), worthy as the panorama itself. The affable guide there had then not been attempted. It is a delightful characteristic

was Joachim Heyward Stocqueler (pen name: J. H. of these times, that new and cheap means are continually

.. ; ; , being devised, for conveying the results of actual experience,

Siddons), whom a recent writer credits with being to those who are unable to obtain such experiences for them-

“the Baedeker of early Victorian India.”*® Having selves; and to bring them within the reach of the gone out to India in 1819, at the age of nineteen, Stoc- people—emphatically of the people; for it 1s they at large queler spent twenty-four years there as a journalist and who are addressed in these endeavours, and not exclusive author of books, including a guide to the overland audiences. Hence . . . even if I sce a run on an idea, like the route. On his return to London in 1843 he set up an panorama one, 1t awakens no l-humor within me, but gives

‘East India Institute’’ and general information office. me pleasant thoughts. Some of the best results of actual He was therefore well qualified to be the tour guide at travel are suggested by such means to those whose lot 1t is to

the Gallery of Illustration. Yates wrote that the ‘‘clear, stay at home. New worlds open out to them, beyond their concise, and most pleasantly delivered descriptive little worlds, and widen their range of reflection, informa-

comment on the passing scene by Mr. Stoc- tion, sympathy, and interest. The more man knows of man, the better for the common brotherhood among us all.** queler . . . enhanced the success, which was tremendous.’”** After the long run of the Overland Route A program composed exclusively of travel pictures, show, he appeared as narrator in a short-lived sequel, however, involved more unrelieved instruction and the Oriental Diorama (not a travel show, but a picto- more concentration on the purely visual than most rial representation of the social life of the English in audiences were capable of at a single sitting. To India). Subsequently, after a bricf bout of bankruptcy lighten and diversify the show, as at the Eidophusikon in 1851, he lectured at panoramas of Wellington’s cam- half a century carlier, live entertainment had to be inpaigns (1852), the Ocean Mail to India (1853), and the troduced in the form of recitations and music, even if

Danube and the Black Sea (1854). their tone and content were not always in keeping with Although Stocqueler’s lecturing style seems to have the relatively sedate nature of the pictorial production. been devoid of any suggestion of mere “entertain- Theoretically, this did not necessarily mean the new ment,’ his prominence at the Overland Route pan- panoramic show had to be vulgarized. Shortly before orama, coinciding as it did with other developments, Stocqueler began escorting his audiences to Calcutta, signaled that the panorama business had come to a fork some distance up Regent Street another journey was in the road. Panoramas had always hesitated between undertaken in what was described as ‘‘an elegant little the claims of cducation and amusement, reconciling theatre, capable of holding some 250 persons.”’ This them as best they could. The spirit of popular educa- was the Picturesque Exhibition, a scenic trip from tion which had lent the panorama a utilitarian rationale Primrose Hill to Holyhead by way of the London & a generation earlicr was still alive, and to some con- North Western and Chester & Holyhead railways, firmed belicvers the panorama, now turned into a with stops at, among other places, Wolverhampton, pictorial tour, continued to represent a welcome con- Coventry, Chester (by moonlight), and two new tribution to the edification of the masses. Reviewing bridges.°® The scenery was well spoken of, but the the season ending in August 1850, the Illustrated London accompanying “viva voce precis’’ was regretted, not News declared that ‘‘the extraordinary increase in the because it was facetious in the Banvard manner but be* In the course of the piece, “Some Number and variety of pictorial exhibitions illustrative cause, on the contrary, 1t was couchcd in fine language.

Account of an Extraordinary Tra- of scenery in various parts of the world” was a whole- ‘We could spare the story of Godiva and the rapture veller,”” Dickens describes most of some sign of ‘‘the anxiety for information when con- about Shakespeare,” said the Athenaeum, recomthe panoramas then running—Mis- veyed through this most effectual and impressive mending that the blanks be filled with “some figures traha, Nile, the Overland Route to medium.’’>” That the didactic value of the panorama and facts less transcendental. India, and Burford’s two-part Arctic remained strong after the passage of fifty years was The paper was only half right. The taste of the day

sissipp1, Ohio, New Zealand, Aus- , 1957 ; . ; 1360

show. also the opinion of the elderly ‘““Mr. Booley,” a world- among showgoers bent on amusement decidedly did 208 The Shows of London

not run to Elegant Extracts; on the other hand, there is Wandrill scene. Commenting in 1851 on a sequel to no reason to think it ran to figures and facts, cither, the Overland Route panorama, a guidebook author even if the show was, as is not impossible, a covert voiced the conservative opinion that a panoramist promotion for a pair of railways. The picture-and- should stick to his last: ‘‘whilst we praise the amount cautiful-prose formula had not worked for poor of skill and talent, we object strongly to the abuse of this may have been a two-way devel-

5 ful of la had ked f; € skill d tal b; | h * As far as music was concerned, Lonsdale at the Lyceum, and it did not work for the both; shifting scenes and dioramic effects, instead of opment. Was there not a more than proprietors of the Picturesque Tour, the very title of modestly assisting nature and art, are here made, in coincidental relationship between the which was outdated. The show soon closed, and the many instances, to out-step them, and destroy all faith he Venn, of scenes that constituted

Overland Route began to draw crowds down the and illusion.” In the exhibition reviewed, an ill- me Victorian moving panorama and

; 7 the popularity of “pictorial” music in street. considered lighting effect represented a river “tas run- the concert hall? Fantasias from wellThe truth was that, faced with ever livelicr competi- ning at the rate of three or four hundred miles per known operas were intended to tion from the theatre, where spectacular effects were hour. . . . We are severe on these inconsistencies and evoke various scenes and actions in outdoing anything the panoramas could manage, and claptraps,”’ the critic continued, ‘“‘because they tend to i memories of aoe Pony The L

. . , . ; -art t oS

from the saloon theatres that were about to evolve into corrupt public taste, and to bring into contempt and Johann Strauss's “Potpourr Le c halls, hallpictorial . al shshowmen on had bill dj tean hotherwise . luable d bIandBouquct Dames,” played a music hadbait to baittheir their bills Isrepute valuable commendabledes concert d'été at Drury Lane in at 1841,

with anything that would attract and keep their clien- mode of imparting knowledge. This Panorama is in- included “such effects as Chmese tele. Music, for example: The elaborate musical script deed an example of what can be done, and what ought — Chimes, sledge party, post horn, for the Lisbon earthquake show at the Cyclorama typi- to be left alone; with an abundance of ability and con- cracking of whips, description of an

fied the increasingly important role which background trivance in every department, art is recklessly made to Cad one the Queen, firme of or descriptive music now was acquiring in the pan- supersede nature, and mechanical tricks to supersede cannon, flourishing of trumpets, oramas. Banvard’s trip down the Mississipp1 was art, in the most indiscreet manner.’’®4 The “besetting ringing of bells, and shouts of thouaccompanicd on the pianoforte and “‘seraphine”’ (har- sin of obtrusive skill,” as this anonymous author _ sands of spectators’ —the auditory

. . : . : . . yrama > great Specialist in this

monium), and, like some modern motion pictures, it phrased it—an excellent capsule aesthetic—was equivalent ofa mutesscened eh

had its own songs, sheet music for which was on sale. perhaps inescapable in a situation in which showmen hse of art She vo duscrad the Drury There were the Mississippi Waltzes, Played during the cager for momentary sensations, like declamatory Lane performance, was the French

4 toe ye . . ,- . »>mbe t -

Moving of Banvard’s Three Mile Picture of the Mississippi actors bent on making “‘points,”’ allowed cheap effects musician Julhen. (His given names

River, composed by Thomas Bricher and originally to obscure whatever more solid merits their exhibi- were too numerous to ate, because

published by Oliver Ditson of Boston, and The White tions contained. he reputedly was mamed for amine Fawn of the Mississippi River, words by John Banvard, In view of the panoramic tours’ increasing tendency oty in the Basses Alpes village here Esq., music by Madame Schwieso, price 2s. 6d.°! Not to borrow their tone from the light-hearted entertain- he was born.) Presented in 1844 to be outdone, the Nile panorama featured ‘‘character- ments that surrounded—and drew patrons away under still another name—his nom de istic musical illustrations” including ‘“‘the famous from—Burford’s sedate rotunda in Leicester Square, it plume of “Ruch-Albert”’—Jullien’s

. . . 9926 66 93 : ost ot ¥ , . %5cern ::uman ll: raasandrSthe e . Ihen’s . . . . 2 .~ > instrumental c » + 3rorces J}, (see

boat-song, ‘Hey, hey, ho heeleysa,’ a barcarolle with was fitting that in one of the concert saloons of the ae descnpuve fantasia,” “The

A nel ‘nth i , th mC frai rousing as any pictorial represen-

which the boatmen of the Nile cheer their voyage.’’®? moment “The Age of Panoramas”’ was the topic of a semen Oompa as main clement in the competition between the Holy comic song with a Jim Crow refrain: tation of a volcanic cruption, ending

Land tours in 1851-52 was the music supplied by with “the explosion of the crater,

voices singing hymns behind the scenes with organ The world indeed 1s on the move, falling temples, and total destruction accompaniment. The St. George’s Gallery panorama You must with me engage, of the city ” Given such material, as

.;/,y8q

provided “Grand Sacred Vocal Music by the Great This truly 1s a Dio— and we * the enormous se of Je ae ° Masters,”’ while its Egyptian Hall rival had one Herr r A janorannc age 4 below, Chapter 23), it is clear that

; , ; > To the world’s end you can go, «

Krausz de Feher, who was alleged to be able to sing in VANES NOW SO MOerate, the term “program music’’ does not thirty-six languages, devoting himself and a ‘“‘full As cheap as cabbv takes vou do justice to these productions, “pan-

choir’”’ to Hebrew melodies during the show. After- Er i Op’ y Soh y oramic’’ would better suit their scale

d. this talented 1 ; d “hj rom the Up ra to sono. and their material. As Punch observed

ward, IS ta “n c gent eman presente 1S unaque So wheel about and turn about, more than once, Jullien’s ensembles entertainment, “A Musical Journey Round the World, oin the motley throng, were the equivalent in sound of the being the Music and Melodies of every land in every And sce the panoramas, three-mile panorama. In his portly

‘ . ‘ * aving earlier linked the art-galler

language.’ The camel of variety entertainment had Eight or ten miles long! on the vou oF mMeNsy

thrust nose underneath the panoramic tent. The India Overland, 4 -Wore : ds. ae Thereitswas also renewed for gadgetry theroute Thro’toWaterl cee eee oey ; coq | aBACs ro quest Waterloo Place of lies, braced musiclace as |well. See Adam

sort that produced unmotivated opening of doors and But I think if males go overland, Carse, The Life of Jullien (Cambridge,

unconvincing trembling of leaves in the Diorama’s St. Fe-males should likewise. 1951), especially pp. 43, 48-49. Panoramas in Motion 209

Prince Albert dropp’d in tother day, Now that they were in motion and offering vicariAnd paid a handsome fare, O, ous tours laced with variety entertainment, panoramas Altho’ his stay, he said, was short, flourished as never before. But their prosperity rested To See long (Ceylon) he should care, O (Cairo). on the uncertain foundation of novelty; adjustments

So wheel about [ete. | and innovations had constantly to be made to sustain

At the Egyptian Hall, you'll California public interest in the heatedly competitive world of

Find—my jolly sorts, London entertainment. We now for a time leave the

The lecturer will pint out where panorama, hesitating between further success and You'll find the gold in quartz. swift decline, and examine what had meanwhile been

The mightytarnal plentiful, .;; Thestuffs wittles mean,

..

qappening clsewhere in the industry. Londoners had

_ er beenare looking at a good many other sights And excruciating Gye b decades s, hybegan. bduring the Eewthe andladies far between. ive busy decades since the century So wheel about [etc. }®

210 The Shows of London

ee

Scenes Optical, Mechanical, and Spectral

Far from rendering the older forms of pictorial enter- ored prints and the daubs, bought for a few shillings * The first Cosmorama was tainment obsolete, the panorama gave them a new from decrepit tenement artists, which were to be seen opened in Paris in 1808, and a “‘su-

: . “—1T: : . . . Jaric”’ } .

lease on life, if only by reinvigorating popular interest in the itinerant peepshows.t The Cosmorama, instead, perb Optical Cosmorama, or Promein all kinds of pictures-for-show. Some of the peep- commissioned respectable little oil paintings— —_—_—nade round the world, just arrived

shows and mechanical pictures exhibited during the panoramas writ small. To produce the illusion of a {t0™ Paris” was shown in New fjirstf part theofninct th cent technicall : . te real; black f the equivalc £ the York in 1815. (Odell, II, 445.) Earlier the nineteenth century technically were no separate reality, a black frame, the equivalent of the (1807) the word had been used to more advanced than their predecessors many decades Diorama’s dark tunnel, was interposed between the designate an astronomical exhibition earlier, even though they now often possessed a name lens and the picture. Various perspective effects were at the Panthcon. After its adoption as ending in ‘‘-orama.” But with others, the novelty went created through mirrors, which were doubtless put to 4 Synonym for a superior grade of

beyond mcre nomenclature. more sophisticated uses than they had been, and con- _—PeePshow, it was quickly absorbed

Among h i] d Id f. . ; f h L d . d b : h ld f. hi d bl b A into the entertainment business lexthese retailored old favorites of the London tinued to be, in the old-fashioned portable boxes. As icon, theatres occasionally using it to

exhibition business, one of the most prominent was soon as the Diorama began to captivate London, the peer to what was oftener called a the Cosmorama, a high-toned indoor version of the Cosmorama adopted dynamic lighting effects as well. diorama. In 1840-41 it was among old peepshow. The first London exhibition with this Initially it had a mixed press. To some papers it the words considered for the title of title* opened in 1820 in St. James’s Street, but the prem- scemed the height of pretentiousness, this array of = 77°W “4 ae weetly mG womanly ises proving unsuitable, it moved in May 1823 to 209 fourteen peepshows set up In a room whose appoint A History of “Punch”, London, 1957,

.;bya) . ; . ; appeared G. G. Price, > > 2) as> Punch. > > . (R. —_ Regent Street, where adequate natural lighting was ments were designed to attract the patronage of what, 353)

available.' Here the ““Cosmorama Rooms,” like the fu- the advertisements addressed as ‘‘Cosmopolite Soci- |

: Royal Bazaar in Oxford Street and similar exhibi ty." I f facetiousness the Literary Gazette 1 Tne auality of these is well

ture Royal Bazaar in Oxford Street and similar exhibi- ety."" In a spasm of facetiousness the Literary Gazette uo yected by Nathaniel Hawthorne tion halls elsewhere, served as a fashionable meeting declared that after its move to Regent Street the Cos- in his description (‘Ethan Brand,”

place where, in addition to the advertised shows, morama was 1850) of the “diorama” the German

paintings and other objects of art were offered for sale Jew showman brought on his back

and light refreshments were available for those who a more agrecable lounge than ever for the various ranks _ to the village at the foot of Mount

. . — a ~mentececke ~epate jects of the various scenes that this

chose to drop in and idle away an hour or so in casually which may be comprised under the titles of Idlers, Lovers, Graylock. One infers from the subinspecting whatever was on display and gossiping Young Folks, Amusement-seckers, Ice-eaters, &c. &c. &c. was a second-hand property acauived

: i Here, by looking through you can seeperhaps Mont-blancfrom as property acq with acquaintances. , ;a ;glass, in England, a street Let | h of faci ls in the sal true as reality; and then, by just turning round, you may in- showman such as Henry Mavh et into each of two acing, Walls I the salon was a dulge in that cooling element which constitutes its eternal would be interviewing y few years

9g ; le Il vj hose nD ater: ‘‘a series of the most outra-

row of seven glasses, which were in fact large convex cap, commingled with the sweets of the luscious strawberry ater: “a serie .

lenses.” Behind cach lens was a sma picture WAOSE or the torrid pinel[apple]. From a view of the great Square at gous scratchings and daubings, as

size and distance from the viewer the lens magnified. Cairo, the transition is momentary to a nice little square specimens of the fine arts,’’ wrote The pictures were generally superior to the coarse col- cake; and from contemplating the ruins of Palmyra in the — Hawthorne, “‘that ever an itinerant

, Llan

Laplanattion Of LH COSPM AUN

64. interior ™® ‘. iOS win ae | a Fg —— and The planCosmoramia: (from La belle assembleée, \ pO a -cores gl hes”

1 Decembersix 1821). A fourteen in Fig. 1 BX Vo “erPb. eee Oe MEE | dis Fig.| 2. represents of the BN oo oe oh . viewing apertures. Fig. 2 shows | a maegunans acuiahemaaaasan qa Ling) oan a ‘ one of the optical arrangements ___ os i BS: te r a : bottom of the thelens diagram, and the _ 5. 9a es a 8: from above: is al ee ae flanking rectangles are theat, |the a ; oF 1 éSan lea saaanuanm “bounding screens” which Peo ae ‘ 7 cits a SO Ae ae created the tunnel effect. The ui Bik: ° a, VAT lL Te TT a

g » an C Ooh yes oe

picture is atview the top. Fig.same 3 is aae SK| ‘J “ male 7 7aoe horizontal of the a ; a bi ‘™ arrangement, with the lens at athe ‘) eA, : ua -\\. Pee « right and the picture at the left. , i.. Although her feat was not as heroic as the there are certainly tricks played with the windows, and press claimed, she was immediately idolized in a surge bodies are interposed to cast shadows, but the most powerful of mass hysteria. She was the subject of knicknacks, shadow was of the performer himself, which covered the broadshcets, and a dozen or more popular engravings, whole mountain, and ridiculously cnough betrayed all his the target of autograph hounds and summer trippers,

actions.© and the recipient of innumerable gifts—moncey, Bibles, tracts, clothing, and even an offer, which she

By now, more than half a century had passed since did not accept, to appear for a quarter of an hour at the term “‘Eidophusikon”’ was first used, but the very each performance of a drama which the Adelphi name retained its box-office power; or so, at least, Theatre’s resident playwright had hastily cobbled to thought the proprictor ofa mechanical theatre in 1837, portray the story. The mechanical show at the Egypwho exhibited the Eidephusikon (as he consistently tian Hall was merely one small manifestation of the spelled it), first at the Gallery of British Artists in Suf- Grace Darling craze, but it was forcordained; what folk Strect and later at Savile House. This was evi- showman could neglect the opportunity to offer the dently the only mechanical show to perform a literary public still another version of Loutherbourg’s famous story. The subject was Queen Mary’s escape from scene? And so, the show featured what a handbill Lochleven Castle in Scott’s The Abbot, and a synopsis described as a “terrific STORM AT SEA?® The curof the action ina handbill suggests that the novelist had tain rose on a rugged coast, where various ships were provided the exhibitor with a story that happily fighting a storm, and one of them, after firing distress enabled him to utilize the by now ageless components signals, promptly sank. Another, the Forfarshire, then

of his mechanical theatre: was shown hitting a rock and going to picces. “It . would be impossible,”’ wrote one critic, “‘to speak too The scene opens in a Summer s afternoon, and 1s animated highly of the representation of the sea, for the undu-

with Fishing and Sailing Boats plying onand thetroubled Lake, the con-oflati . ; nn are gengiven ete eet , ating motion the waves with

stant passing of Peasants to and from the Town of Kinross, a fideli ever vet excelled | ‘chanical exhibition: the Abbot disguised as a Soldier making signal with Horn a noelty never yet CXCEMEE TT a HIE CMANTCAL EX 10n:

and Flag for a Boat, which takes him to the Castle. The Trav- the thunder and lightning are also well managed; and clling Tinker Blowing his Fire and mending a Can brought the howling of the wind was astonishingly true to na-

to him by an Old Woman affords much Amusement. A ture. The puppets also worked well, and performed Beautiful Swan gracefully swimming on the Lake, and The their parts with great accuracy. Indeed the tout ensemble Sportsman Firing his Gun! Excite much admiration for the presented as faithful a picture of a storm at sea, as it is correctness of their action and ingenuity of the mechanism. possible to be represented by pictorial mechanism.’”?” 216 The Shows of London

At the same location the following year there was an shipwreck: the foundering near Boulogne of the Amanimated picture of a Swiss village with sailboats phitrite, laden with female convicts.*4 plying on the lake and peasants passing on the way to

Lugano. Into this setting, rather surprisingly, wan- D396 EA dered the queen in her Windsor uniform, Prince Albert, Wellington, and the one-legged veteran of Wa- About 1796 Jack Bologna, the young theatrical man of terloo, the Marquis of Anglesey, on holiday no doubt. many trades, put on a show at the Lyceum called the

After they passed from view, a “beautiful stag’” went Phantoscopia. Nothing more seems to be known across the scene, followed by a sportsman with his dog about it, but the name suggests that it resembled the pursuing and killing a hare, a swan swimming, a lady Phantasmagoria, a scare show then on view in Paris, with her parasol opening and closing, and “harvest which was freshly exploiting the specialty for which home with the antics of an unruly donkey.’’?* Another the magic lantern had always been valued, the producproduction of the sort in the same year, “The City of tion of supernatural effects.?° This improved version of Shau-Chew-Fu in China,” surpassed it in timeliness if the magic lantern, the invention of a Belgian professor

nothing clse.?° of physics named Etienne Gaspard Robert (later Briti-

Jawbreaking names continued to be adopted to di- cized to Robertson), gave audiences delicious chills by vert attention from the staleness of the show. The calling up, in eerie clouds of smoke, the ghosts of such Akolouthorama (1844, at 213 Piccadilly) presented a heroes and celebrities of revolutionary France as Vol‘“Noovel Mechanical and Pictorial Exhibition” entitled tairc, Rousseau, Marat, and Lavoisicr. The Phantas-

“The Shipwreck, Depicting the various Perils in the magoria, under that name, was first exhibited in Adventurous Life of a Sailor.’’ The following year, London in late 1801 or early 1802 by a French the Alecthorama, at the Princess’s Concert Room, showman named Paul de Philipstal. Shown in the Castle Street, advertised “ANIMATED ILLU- downstairs room at the Lyceum, 1t was an immediate SIONS” in five scenes: the Palace of Santa Felice, the hit, profiting from the same popular relish for manMaas at Rotterdam, St. Martin’s Dyke 1n Iceland, the aged spectral visitations that was to have been catered Castle of Doornwerd, and the S---- at S--. There to by one of the rooms in Merlin’s Necromancic Cave, were 2,000 figures “‘“employed in their several pursuits and that was, in fact, the reason why Gothic novels, of pleasure or business” as well as ships, carriages, and crammed with ghosts and events agaist nature, had horses.*! But “the eye,” reported the Times, ““was con- been bestsellers in the past few years.

tinually annoyed by sccing the machinery which The Phantasmagoria’s operation was simple worked it,’’ and in any case the admission charged— cnough. The source of light was a magic lantern placed four shillings for front seats, two for the rest—was far at a distance behind a scmitransparent screen, which too steep for the scarcely novel entertainment it was more dependable and controllable than the smoke

bought.” used in Paris. A movable carriage and adjustable lenses

As always, the obsolescence of a show-type made enabled the images to be increased or decreased as the least difference at the fairs. At Bartholomew Fair in effect (the illusion of ominously advancing or re1836, for example, there was a booth called Brown’s treating figures) required. The ghostly figures were Theatre of Arts, “consisting of Battles, &c. both by painted on glass “‘sliders,”’ the extraneous portions of Sea and Land, together with several beautiful Foreign which were blacked out so as to concentrate the light, Views, enlivened with upwards of 40,000 Beautiful and the audience’s fearful attention, on the luminous and Chaste Figures, and Upwards of Seventy Sail of images. Sir David Brewster described the performance the Line.”’ The scenes portrayed Napolcon crossing the thus:

Alps, the Marble Palace of St. Petersburg with people,

carriages, and a funeral procession “passing and re- The small theatre of exhibition was lighted only by one passing,” and “three beautiful swans swimming upon hanging lamp, the flame of which was drawn up into an the river,” the ascent of a balloon, and the Battle of opaque chimney or shade when the performance began. In

7 this ‘‘darkness visible” the curtain rose and displayed a cave

Trafalgar, when “each ship will move and fire dis- with skeletons and other terrific figures in relief upon its tinctly from itself.’ Two years later, at the Hyde walls. The flickering hght was then drawn up beneath its

Park coronation fair, the variety program of Tanner’s shroud, and the spectators 1n total darkness found themselves Mechanical Victoria Pantheon had at least a few ani- in the middle of thunder and hghtning. A thin transparent mated pictures, notably a new version of storm and screen had, unknown to the spectators, been let down after Scenes Optical, Mechanical, and Spectral 217

the disappearance of the light, and upon it the flashes of lght- ances is materially connected with Scenery and Genning and all the subsequent appearances were represented. eral Effect, the Total Extinction of Light in the Theatre This screen being half-way between the spectators and the is unnecessary.”’ But here he certainly miscalculated. cave which was first shown, and being itself invisible, pre- The very attractiveness of Philipstal’s show downstairs vented the observers from having any idea of the real dis- resided in the fact that the room was thrust into total tance of the figures, and gave them the entire character of darkness for the sake of the maximum thrill; nobody

aerial pictures. The thunder and lightning were followed by looking f nuinel ne_tinel; eee

the figures of ghosts, skeletons, and known individuals, OORINS TOF a BenUInely SPINCOHNBANS CXPCTICNCC whose eyes and mouth were made to move by the shifting of would settle for an INNOCUOUS substitute such as Lons-

combined sliders. After the first figure had been exhibited for dale proposed. Despite the attempted salvage operaa short time, it began to grow less and less, as 1f removed to a tion, the Agyptiana show soon sank, the Spectrogreat distance, and at last vanished in a small cloud of light. graphia along with it, while the Phantasmagoria ran Out of this same cloud the germ of another figure began to until April 1803.

appear, and gradually grew larger and larger, and ap- Not much more than a year after the original Phanproached the spectators till it attained its perfect devclope- tasmagoria opened in London, a writer in the European

ment. In this manner, the head of Dr. Franklin was trans- Magazine offered a sample of the spiel which, one formed into a skull, figures which retired with the freshness hopes, was more typical of the subsequent cuterate

of life came back in the form of skeletons, and the returing . 5

. ‘ operations than of the one at theand Lyceum. Coming beskeletons returned in the drapery of flesh blood. 7 ; The exhibition of these transmutations was followed by fore the curtain, the showman announced: Ladies and spectres, skeletons, and terrific figures, which, mstcad of re- gentlemen, Hin the hurly hages of hignorance, there ceding and vanishing as before, suddenly advanced upon the wasn’t no such thing as a Phantastigrorium; Its a quite spectators, becoming larger as they approached them, and spick span new invention, never invented before. Here finally vanished by appearing to sink into the ground. The you will sec, Ladies and Gentlemen, your friends and effect of this part of the exhibition was naturally the most relations, dead and alive, present or absent, above or impressive The spectators were not only surprised but agi- below. You'll excuse my descending into particulars.

tated, and many of them were of opinion that they could Never mind; we’ll put ye in spirits, | warrant ye, and

have touched the figures.™ keep ye in them too; proof spirits for the Ladies, and choice spirits for the Gentlemen. I should have no ob-

While this frissor-filled communion with visible spirits jection to a drop of brandy myself..." drew audiences to Philipstal’s room night after mght, Londoners with appetites that the staid panoramas upstairs Mark Lonsdale’s Agyptiatia, with its ““mov- could never satisfy supported a number of phantasing panorama’”’ and recitations from the poets, played magoria shows in the next two decades.* Philipstal’s to meager houses. Lonsdale thus was impelled to show was succeeded at the Lyceum, now informally * Like the magic lantern in the fight ghosts with ghosts in the form of a “‘Spectro- renamed the ‘‘Phantoscopic Theatre,” by an exhibition magoria served the caricaturists well, graphia,”’ described in a handbill as the effect of boasting ‘‘a great varicty of Optical Eidothaumata supplying an up-to-the-minute meta- Supernatural Appearances as described in popular along with ‘‘some surprising Capnophoric Phanphor to use in their pohtical satire Stories, and credited by Weak Minds, . . . produced toms.’’9 In 1805, while the room formerly occupied by The persistence of imitations and to the eye of the Spectator by a system of Machinery A-gyptiana housed an “‘Ergascopia—an exhibition of variations of me pow, vs wel as the connected with a series of Experiments . . . forming ‘Musical, Mechanical, Acrostatic, Acoustic, and Optionce mn the darkened room kept the a varied and amusing picture of TRADITIONARY cal Novelties’ ” put on by two German “Professors of phantasmagonia topical down to GHOST WORK!’’? The bill consisted of a series of Physic” (probably a conjuring show), downstairs the time of Waterloo at least. Be- specter raisings, accompanied by suitable readings and Jack Bologna was managing an exhibition which was tween 1803, when Gillray satirized recitations of poctry: Julius Caesar appearing to forthrightly advertised as being “upon the same elethe Peace of Amiens in A Phan Brutus; the murdered princes appearing to Richard III; gant plan of Mr. de Philipstal.”*° Soon phantasmasateen Shelean and 1816 the apparition of the murdered Sir George Villiers, gorias became parts of varicty bills. At the Cathcrine

preceding decades, the phantas- aan ; i . cs . . i

when Phantasmagoria. A View i Ele- first Duke of Buckingham; Margarct’s ghost, and the Street Theatre in 1812 Crabb Robinson saw a specter phanta was one of the plates n Row- ghost of the young woman at sea, both from popular show along with the performance of waxen puppets landson’s The Grand Master or Adven- _ ballads; an encounter with a churchyard ghost; and the mentioned above. “In an age in which the process tures of Qut Hi in Hindostan, the procession of spirits called before Macbeth by the was familiar but not known to the people,”’ he wrote,

Philo mre tease half dover peanes witches. Bidding for the custom of the timorous, alluding to the tradition that the Jesuit scientist (George, VIII, 129, 133, 175, 323, Lonsdale added: ‘“The Public are respectfully informed inventor Athanasius Kircher had devised a magic

832; IX, 648.) that as the above specimen of Phantomimic Appear- lantern in the seventeenth century, “it must have 218 The Shows of London

been very easy to raise spirits from the dead appar- these engines, there 1s an optical deception worth noticing. A ently by means of good likenesses, for the eyes &C. spectator observing their approach, when at extreme speed, may be casily made to move—the artificial luminous can scarcely divest himself of the idea, that they are not en-

and coloured wheels coats of arms &c. very larging and creasing Mm siz¢ rather than moving. I know not

splendid.’#! how to explain my meaning better, than by referring to the Some years later, on a bill that also included “Lil- enlargement of objects in a phantasmagoria. At first the

apeOmbres ss 4: . image is barely discermble, as it advances from the liput Island; or thebut magic oefocal ere 7 ; ; point, it seems toChinoises,”’ increase beyond allfamiliar limit. Thus an engine,

barrel and “mechanical fruiterer and confectioner’s as it draws near, appears to become rapidly magnified, and as shop,” and “artificial or mechanical fireworks,”’ Bo- fit would fill up the entire space between the banks, and ab-

logna offered ‘‘a new and pleasing Experiment in sorb everything within its vortex # Optics, after the manner of the Phantasmagoria,”’ which had, in addition to routine phantoms, portraits Most important, the phantasmagoria moved enterof Kean as Bayazet in Tamburlaine, the late Princess tainmenta step closer to the cinema. Like the EidophusAmelia, and General Blucher.” The specific associa- ikon, it added to optical illusion the revolutionary eletion of the phantasmagoria with ghosts apparently ment of movement. Perhaps Daguerre was inspired to lasted longest at the fairs. In 1833 De Berar’s “Optikali some extent by whatever shows of the kind he had Ilusio” at Bartholomew Fair included a series of phan- seen in Paris at the turn of the century; in any case, in tasmagoric pictures that included Death on the Pale the Diorama he emulated the dynamics of a phantasHorse and other favorite subjects evoking horror and magoric show, though its spectral subject matter was

fear. But some time before this, the term, with its replaced by the more earthly, instructive, “rational,” vogue value, had begun to be applied also to ordinary and aesthetically pleasing subjects of architecture and magic-lantern exhibitions, without any necessary im- topography.

plication of ghost work. It was under the loosely applied name of ‘‘phantasLike that other, closely contemporary neologism, magoria”’ that the oil-lghted magic lantern was intro“panorama,” the word “‘phantasmagoria” quickly was duced into the regular theatre, where it was occasionabsorbed into the common vocabulary; it, too, filled a ally used for special effects. In Fitzball’s The Flying need which was much wider than that of simply la- Dutchinan (Adelphi, 1826), for example, it provided the beling a new kind of entertainment. Byron used it in phantom ship which appeared in a peal of thunder on a The Vision of Judgment (1822)—‘*The man was a phan- totally darkened stage—a foretaste of the lavish use of

tasmagoria in / Himself—he was so volatile and projections in some modern Wagnerian productions. thin’’—and Carlyle, to whom the Gothic and now- By this time, the magic lantern’s effectiveness and flex-

you-sec-it-now-you-don’t resonances of the word ibility as a form of entertainment had been notably inwere especially attractive, employed it time after time, creased by the invention and perfection (1807-1818) of

as in The French Revolution: ‘‘Phantasmagories, and the “dissolving views.”” The new device, later to be loud-gibbering Spectral Realities’ and (the idea adopted for the saine purpose by some dioramas, was a without the precise word) “new quick-changing Phan- metallic shutter which, by closing upon one projected tasms, which shift like magic-lantern figures more image and opening on another, made it unnecessary

spectral than ever!” for the audience to see one scene being pushed from

The phantasmagoria also made it possible to put the screen by the next, though a brief interval of darkinto words perceptions and cffects new in human ness still occurred between the two. It was invented by experience. The available fund of comparisons was Henry Langdon Childe (1781-1874), a former slide inadequate to describe the unprecedented sensations painter for Philipstal who devoted his entire life to 1mincident to traveling on the railway or watching a train proving and presenting magic-lantern shows.** go by. And so a spectator at the opening of the Liver- A second technical improvement, this one origipool and Manchester railway in 1830 resourcefully nating outside the exhibition field, advanced the art drew upon the phantasmagoria to describe a peculiar of the magic lantern still further: Sir Goldsworthy

optical effect: Gurney’s invention of the limelight (more often referred to at the me as the oxyhydrogen, or hydro-ox-

The Jong continuous lines of spectators . . . seemed to ygen, light). Gas made by applying a mixture of oxglide away, ke painted figures swiftly drawn through the ygen and hydrogen to a small ball of lime produced an

tubes of a magic lantern. . . . In the rapid movement of intense, steady light equivalent to that of a dozen Scenes Optical, Mechanical, and Spectral 219

Argand lamps. After this new source of illumination liant limelight meant that slides which hitherto were was first used in lighthouses in 1826 by Licutenant painted in bold lines and colors now could be drawn

Thomas Drummond of the Royal Engineers (by more finely and tinted more delicately. Toward the whose namie it also came to be known), it was quickly middle of the century the chromatrope was introadopted by the show trade. As will be scen later on, it duced: a pair of circular slides, one of which rotated in

supplied light to the projecting microscopes that re- front of the other to produce brilliant color effects of vealed the wonders of the subvisible world to London such phenomena as Chinese fireworks and volcanic audiences. In ordinary slide shows, it not only made cruptions. possible the projection of brighter images across larger The limelight-assisted dissolving views appeared spaces; it cnabled the views to “‘dissolve’’ more just in time to be of great usefulness in the two new essmoothly, in the manner of the modern motion picture tablishments dedicated to popularizing scientific and technique known by that word. In the Biscenascope, technical knowledge, the Adelaide Gallery and the invented by Edward Marmaduke Clarke, an optician Polytechnic Institution. As we shall see in Chapter 27, in the Strand, a single lantern incorporated two sepa- dissolving-view lectures on all manner of subjects, rate optical units, each with its own lens and oxyhy- from the dead serious to the sentimental and facctious, drogen lamp.* When the picture projected from one were a regular feature at both places for many years. lens was to be faded into another, a stopcock simulta- From about 1850 onward, in addition, they provided a neously reduced the hght from the first source and in- cheap, convenient, portable, and flexible alternative to creased that from the source supplying the other lens. the moving panorama. The framed area across which Thus one image faded from view as another was first the cloth passed could now be filled instead with a superimposed on it and then replaced it. The resem- white screen on which an unlimited number of scenes blance to the operation of the Diorama is obvious. could be projected from glass slides. This meant that Two difficulties, however, remained: the gas had to be any room large enough to hold the anticipated audimanufactured on the spot, requiring big rubber bags ence, anywhere in London or the country—not necesfor storage and cumbersome apparatus for maintaining sarily a regular entertainment building—could be used * Clarke said he got the idea from pressure; and the hand-painted slides, which were for pictorial tours. his father, a Dublin optician Ac- sometimes as much as cight inches wide and required Thus dissolving views became a familiar “engine of cording to information he gave the proportionately large lenses, cost up to twenty pounds public instruction” in Victorian years, adding wel-

Mirror of Literature (ns 1, 1842, apiece. come glamor to dull subjects. But they were employed

of the Phantasmagona in London, . . . purpose IBC . pe 1C Philpstal embarked for Ircland But early as 1830, and about the same time and in a lighter lecturers used picture-talks to impart their respective

97-100), after a successful showing Childe’s slides were used in astronomical lectures as for other purposes as well. Evangclists and temperance

durmg the stormy passage he lost vein they were cofeatured with automatons, a dem- messages in schoolrooms and chapels; teetotal sonearly all of his equipment over- onstration of laughing gas, and a “‘Physioramic Pyro- cicties, the Salvation Army, and proselytizing religious board, mcluding his “magic technicon”’ (undescribed) in a bill at the Royal Bazaar, groups opened their own circulating libraries of slide fantnorn {ence sau ane wages Leicester Square.** In 1837 the New Strand Theatre’s shows, complete with prepared lectures, devoted to solving views.”) His shdes, however, Program concluded with *‘a grand display of a beauti- their particular cause. But most popular of all were the

were saved, and when he arrived at ful series of new Phantom Views, imperceptibly melt- magic-lantern shows devoted to shecr amusement, Dublin he commissioned the elder ing into cach other in a most pleasing and surprising usually in conjunction with comic lectures. By the Clarke to make a new lantern While manner, before the eyes of the spectator.’** At one 1860s they were well on the way to becoming one of ceived the notion of producing the point the device acquired the name of Eidoprotean, the most widely attended of all forms of Victorian en-

it was being made, Philipstal con- . . ; corm: > . . .

standard allusion of the Witch of but this was one of the numerous show-business tertainment. They were most popular, no doubt, in Endor raising the ghost of Samucl by coinages that failed to catch on.*” rural communities where there were few other means using two lanterns, lowering the As perfected, the dissolving views made possible the of indoor recreation, but their impact on commercial

other, thus superseding the old effect sepa ;

wick of one while raising that of the creation of a much wider range of effects than could be London entertainment must have been substantial. A

of the phantom’s rising from the achieved in the Diorama, to whose decline Childe’s large portion of the mass audience would have gone to ground by making it appear out ofthe and Clarke’s inventions undoubtedly contributed. The neighborhood dissolving-view shows more frequently

mist instead. replacement of the Argand (oil) lamp by the more bril- than to most other kinds of exhibitions.

220 The Shows of London

Entr’acte: Exhibiti xhibitions and @

on Life ond 1

Alongs : ondon .of oenth . turni gside the L sho arse half the ninetee pictorial entertainments fo pocm inds of century ¢x1 sin the Stlperhaps i rm*ofThe poc ws. Before isted man Some view perhaps inspired byMoore's Willi was

must Survey the pla how anti to them, he 4 other But there’ the Muscum—and oth invective-laden p ie Hone’s tions occupi , however, weTis sone. re’s‘xibition”’ ONE “Exibiti thers, Paul's Show ampExhibi let The olitical Poli ° cupiedce inthey . ancand other kind ’ C a pl: wl ;‘ aul s—St.man—at Home! ades wh everyday London | s of exhibiplace to which ¢] lere ew Ty one Cabinet of Curiosities ixhibiting — en thei ; ndon life dur; And that is thousands wi ¢ calls Cop Curtosities his oe

S »as° >> y. >; ore 4 ank. 4: rge . > > . t ~ : vey ye

‘reas much . S peak Exhibi SES and § wenty-fo ari with talked about widely publicized the theatre, Seeing the L lines, but enough i began witl This radical bestiary regularly as any popular play and as much be e London cont; 8 he enough. vcabel pitch by the showma Z reported oredactor enit hadsince Elisights : inued to b which \ Hess conve ‘ an, London sights. In he them as a distinct The press were both more si hizaethan times. and e the ritual i" manner and conveys te authenganzas, specific cush eatrical pantomimes a fctry of.them. In 1801,yea th ights> to see and more p sole there tio ingWalk before actual1Londor oh tt rrent Ss and , popul the people ns: exhiuded ; often were ation of me ¢ first the CURIOS alk and sce wittily allt shows ofte Cx travar of offic the fie ple to se‘‘alk up!up! wal tions then wer ir popularity reached it during the dec- at is the warchouse of vcr cagerness run— a Alive! published me

and som uchaof. nstitution ani 1 . , xhibiThere SON 1 rr aeaL: ur caricature , ec were are ten more. and h sorts Cruiksh es by George

° > 1 » ’ al y . . oF »

caturists used a i" as subjects of timely more or less built-in market metropo an London cial census, the TURES all slivel, and CREA

vibrantl :eOr MOr . Cariof a ] xhibitio is, the up!— , alive W y to offo the ve ‘ grea million (¢ ns—w ’ eshort “now $to;timel—enly !O! Walk pocts: ty topical metaphors. Similarh as ; familiar and lion. To on S880"). By 1861 it a, nt;much shilling. Pleaseup! 4 i Ss 10 wi S mer “xccede the s walk Here moment time food referred to the ne popular indcterminable n potential audience “ee ne mil- licial CABI and most uP ah , ; . > 1, ne 4an . er itions >hnuimbe _made as added CABINET istime hofin e€ ro itors fithec rificial of NO urope!— journalisn s of;the of vis ed :the ET iinerful E ar-; political sca d Thomas Moore on umorous verse- uncertain. b und of the sights,” as tl , abroad who hurnery THING but eked Sanaa

; timents th ce h who , butcame unquestio well as equally the ¢ work , andandpapier ok entitled “New Gin e form of acouched barker’ some up fi nably slarge, numb varnish.maché— held é—all FRET Two Houses wane Exhibition of M ‘, s routine pleasure. The ne the country on b cr of people vel points! —very eae by

: ‘s of Parli 991KC ‘. the >yslatter usines ‘URIOUS! , but ve jects shoinspire . lament. *odel LikO S:of railwa S categor hjSs or for ; S!aM . . Ladies very ? ws . were y snar lv Gentleme adies and outfitters,’whose spire E. Moses and other umely subdirection: betw completed intofro muir mercased 45 Gentlemen, — these MiesC ane ¢ r :lightened ns, . . , een 18 on *xhibited at London papers for many ymed adsrs: he bas, and terminals were open 70 ane 1848 no fewer ‘ha cvery KING, and all the Row before theInof ne of non- tio 4a conseque yea pages cd. As anight cighdeed teedHis HiMaiesty > Royali mily! Fami CHRIST . yea n-Londoners at an Sequence, the pro that he of ajesty is so fond of ’et Onc MAS EXIBIT y exhibition por- Daw Ae OFFEND Sees ‘em in pri ” A ce more the glad sc IONS What th grew year by feeds ‘cm; and he is s n private, and

. 1 >, ; . -

ome have ntry in Lond c 0 is cl sightseel ; is graci ed to express Which cxibitions”’ , ’gallery of y, set beginnin ; itingof the3not know a,mitered th thousandth sspart you, heof docs avehever eniov’ of Town of needlew with Miss Liphict Sons yO sucis” ork 1C S Linwo Th of their y ch admatchless renown Another exhibiti pictures Leicester Samra S ch proper pleasin fj 1e) tion used to bWest’s oe? sold at such ¢ souvenir us 1egrave-clothe where SCl pictur g.figures of G ch shows, wiguides Lazar :y, .tricks! aller . and : . S, with athe 5(dpam n his ere the entific description € es, and Death on ited to the authorities) , uly cred: come t some : ondon appe clear fr ng cons gracious approbati Safe e, : , man acKera . . ons. But theofas’cunnin their To pas 0 a relativ ppear written om Thack , isted moti ation all thei AndS visit few the daysfam’d ere the ye toshall a friend— y yearsbeg: later. o y's description oldhimself! one bj hey’re “ e se season end i ngleadi attractions, a child’s circuit of , L. Bless you, h g as the

, nd folks from the pee of Christmas is her of about 1890 Gel of London sigh cna he has been oleas “iverted by ‘cm

ture on display. of each crea-

g8

the pale horse, used to impress us children. The tombs of tainly among the most curious and interesting sights I saw in Westminster Abbey, the vaults at St. Paul’s, the men in ar- London. The Eastern manuscripts in particular are highly

mour at the Tower, frowning ferociously out of their deserving the attention of the stranger

helmets, and wiclding their dreadful swords; that super- I went to see the animals in the Tower, and as a menagerie human Queen Elizabeth at the end of the room, a livid sover- the thing was much more confined and insignificant than I eign with glass cyes, a ruff, and a dirty satin petticoat, riding expected. I deferred secing the armourics and jewels to an-

a horse covered with steel; who does not remember these other visit.°

sights in London in the consulship of Plancus? and the wax-

work in Fleet Street, not like that of Madame Tussaud’s, In that age of freely indulged enthusiasms, there

whose chamber of death 1s gay and brillant, but a nice old were several well-known public figures who made a gloomy waxwork, full of murderers; and as a chief attrac- special hobby of going the rounds of the exhibitions. tion, the dead baby and the Princess Charlotte lying in state." Their hon. patroness was young Queen Victoria her-

, self, aparty devotee of the theatre whothe also to keep au This, juvenile might well have wound ; ; liked . courant with other kindsupofatshows. In 1838-39 she theatre where Charles Mathews was performing the . 4:

- made three visits‘‘At to VanHome” Amburgh’senterlions at Drury third of his long series of one-man . ; a : Lane, and after marriage and the conventions that tainments, Country Cousins and the her Sights ofappearances London - ;at- places ; . hedge a queen limited public (1820). In entertainment, the course of his program of songs and Albert reci- . Se:often had pop. . , of tations Mathews celebrated theshe viewand fromPrince St. Paul’s, ae

. ular London exhibitions brought of the museum ofio.the of Surgeons (Johnto ; ;one or another theRoyal royalCollege residences. Occasionally, however, when the

Hunter’s), the art exhibition at Somerset . ; 5 Exhibi“1: sheer size ofHouse, the display, Westsuch as the ,Chinese minster Abbey, and the panorama of the North Pole. . ee oupl Sor ; ae the tionmost of 1841, made this impracticable, the:; couple came Possibly quotable passage in the text is this

. . . to a private vicw onto theLondon: premises. unaffected tribute

Next in rank below the qucen in the order of

Oh! what a town! exhibition-goers was the Duke of Wellington. A living What a wonderful metropolis! legend among Londoners for upward of thirty years, a Such a town as this was never seen: famihar figure on horseback in the main thorough-

Folks are so gay, fares, he was nowhere oftener scen than at exhibitions.

And the crowds so obstrepolss. ! His presence at show after show is so amply docu-

, , a ; mented in contemporary news reports, The_.itinerary of Thomas Sopwith, the mining engi-biographers . letters, . - aa and , . diaries that one is surprised to find his neer and railway surveyor ;from Newcastle, is typical Se ; / From the making little if any mention of this penchant.

every sentence: . ; . >» » 1 ,_Lr > 6

of scores at the time (1830). Dutifulness shinesto from ae ; of : Royal Academy summer exhibitions displays

y new inventions, he was always in attendance, system-

.. went through the museum of the Zoological Gardens atically working his way along, it was said, “according in Bruton Street, and a very admurable museum it 1s I next to the numbers in the catalogue. spent an hour at the Western Bazaar, and saw Haydon’s pic- There were some shows, of course, which engaged tures of Eucles and Punch, with which I was much pleased, Wellington’s professional interest. He repeatedly visand also with the sculptured figures of Tam o° Shanter and ited and approved of the several panoramas of Watcrloo Souter Johnie [see below, Chapter 29]... . [then visited at Leicester Square;’ he was at the grand reenactment the peace and extensive eonpitron of pannemngs, mode's, of the battle at Vauxhall Gardens in 1827, when he and sculpture at the galleries of the Society © British Artists; was said to have “laughed heartily at his representative,” and again at the revival of that show in 1849.

wa ova wrs .Y N Sal > Ter 5° . ce ;

and after much too hasty an inspection of these, which well Logs . 3 deserve a: whole day’s examination, I wentintoattending the Royal ; ; oes , ; He was hardly less assiduous exhibitions Menagerie at) Charmg Cross (removed from Exeter depicting | battl ‘th which he had had hj

Change),—I saw the hons and other principal animals fed. epicting ater attics wit waich Ac had had nothing The collection 1s very interesting, and the ravenous disposi- to do. A friend of Benjamin Robert Haydon spotted tion excited by hunger, in most of the animals, 1s truly ter- him at the panorama of the bombardment of St. Jean

rible. d’Acre,? and he made a notable appearance at Bur-

On another day, a Seana

ford’s panorama of Sobraon. “The stage on which he stood,”’ wrote an onlooker, “might well be supposed I visited the Excise Office in Broad Street, and spent some to be a height from which the commander-in-chief time at the East India House, the museum of which was cer- was surveying and controlling the fluctuations of the 222 The Shows of London

a’a Nee : tb s ‘ - . ; -

, oe | ANWal 65.\ The Duke ofand Wellington Visit-of ing the Effigy Personal Relics } S | % | Napoleon at Madame Tussaud’s | ~~_ aN: (engraved from a painting, now alr ss ;yy Se,AS| destroyed, by Sir William

fit ne rN \ . Hayter, 1852).

ge we _ . », a . : 2 i ' ce. . }

4 \ ; Lie me 2: “9h. . ‘ “,_ws of}“4

4 mr 6) I} Vrs

wR 4 . ae ,j |ie TT i \ pf é aA a c 4 es Sa \ 4 id tee MRO. o ae - ¢ o . : et “3 ; f a . Sao sareuansbscseag - 7 ina Em bineansmeeSABS. a a. eee. “

conflict. Contrary to the usual impassiveness of tem- the building in 1925. On the whole, however, it seems

perament which the Duke exhibited, he became in- that Wellington was more interested in the Chamber tenscly excited, and seemed to chafe against the barriers of Horrors, for he left a standing order with the manwhich restrained him from the field he so distinctly agement to be notified whenever a recent sensational realized.” The scene inspired a correspondent in a crime was memorialized there. According to a print newspaper the next day to quote Scott’s lines: by William Heath (1829), he was sometimes to be observed looking at caricatures of himself in print shop As the worn. windows. war-horse, at the trumpet’s ,he; should If there had beenpaws such sound, athe thing, Erects his mane, and neighs, and ground; .the 4 - . havethe owned ahis permanent pass toassigns, all the rooms in Disdains case generous lord i for h h | And longs to rush on the embattled lines.' Egyptian Ha. ° or ne was ¢ cre constantly: at a private view of Catlin’s Indian paintings, at demonstrations of

The Duke was also a frequent visitor at Madame Professor Faber’s speaking automaton, and at perTussaud’s, where, seeing him contemplating the effigy formances by General Tom Thumb, the celebrated of Napoleon, the Tussaud brothers commissioned Sir American midget, whose impersonation of Napoleon, William Hayter to paint the scene. The picture, fin- it was said, “‘particularly amused” him. The General, ished after Wellington’s death, hung in the wax his manager, P. T. Barnum, recalled, marched up and museum until it was destroyed in the fire that gutted down the platform, “apparently taking snuff in deep Entr’acte: Exhibitions and London Life 223

, GOOD HUMOUR _, | “ T Tt . i Bree} . mer « a. Bh IK AE tat Ne , , . > 4 io wa c ie RS RSS 3 66. The Duke of Wellington | aa I LQ the NSISe a DNS “ DBR , : . . . ¥ pa ‘ 2 y \ ae PONE NE LY . a >. 5a fA Sa Ry mm A aN Con ak Pa : . « ee Sag SS i. . . aan . me ‘yak wr “iN, Ta So RR . ? < inspecting caricatures of himself : fee verve: . °aes| “ je er —— ‘ . = N _ =< ~ ——

{ St w very, well worth a Crevellers while 6 leak: wlo alt that lies tn’ hes Way — _hhtizon 4

+ - sary 7 ee . o new eacmmennsacsinte ~ A similar ap-

among the upper classes. peal to conscience was made in 1838 when the Widespread though this enthusiasm for rational en- Bayad¢res (nautch dancers) were appearing in the evetertainment was, it also figured in the sporadic criti- nings at the Adelphi Theatre and at matinees at the cism leveled against humorless educationists by those Egyptian Hall. It was explained, with how much disfree spirits who regarded it as a symptom of middle- ingenuousness one can scarcely tell, that the “Dancing or even upper-class priggishness. Some such attitude is Priestesses”” were at the Egyptian Hall “‘at the solicita-

at least implied in Charles Lamb’s sympathy for the tion of many Families and Individuals who are not in schoolmaster who, far from being freed at holiday the habit of visiting Theatres.”’* Thus a performance time, “commonly . . . has some intrusive upper-boy which the scrupulous could not view in the theatre was fastened upon him at such times; some cadet of a great sanctificd when transferred to the supposedly purer family; some neglected lump of nobility, or gentry; climate of the exhibition hall. 228 The Shows of London

Presiding over the founding of such eighteenth- No matter where they are found in the showmen’s century institutions as the British Museum had been publicity, such appeals never seem very heartfelt. But the doctrine of natural theology—the current, deistic they strike one as being especially perfunctory when version of the older “natural religion” springing from they occur in connection with the attractions in and Bishop Butler, which looked upon science as the de- around Leicester Square, which was the heart of the vout study of Creation in the interests of proving the early and mid-Victorian mass amusement industry. existence of an all-powerful, all-benevolent, and enor- Londoners habitually thought of Leicester Square as mously clever First Cause. Science, in this view, served virtually synonymous with miscellaneous exhibitions as a supplement to Holy Writ. In his will, Sir Hans and entertainments. In the late forties, when Prince AlSloane described his great collection not only as con- bert and Henry Cole, a leading civil servant, were first tributing to “the use and improvement of physic and discussing plans for the Great Exhibition of 1851, the other arts and sciences, and benefit of mankind” but, question of its site naturally arose. The prince said in most important, as “tending many ways to the mani- effect, ““Leicester Square, of course.’’ Only when the festation of the glory of God [and] the confutation of scope of the proposed show was enlarged from a naatheism and its consequences.’ Such sentiments con- tional to an international one was the decision made to tinued to prevail well into the nineteenth century. The locate it in Hyde Park. prospectus of the Zoological Society (1825) asserted: Leicester Square’s association with the show busi‘Zoology, which exhibits the nature and properties of ness had begun while it was still Leicester Fields, a animated beings, their analogies to each other, the fashionable but as yet sparsely built locality.” In 1745, wonderful delicacy of their structure, and the fitness of it was said, an enterprising man stood there, aimed a their organs to the peculiar purposes of their existence, telescope at Temple Bar, where the heads of the Scotmust be regarded not only as an interesting and intel- tish rebels were displayed on spikes, and charged a lectual study, but as a most important branch of Natu- halfpenny a look.*® At the sign of the Golden Head on ral Theology, teaching by the design and wonderful the east side, William Hogarth had his longtime resiresults of organization the wisdom and power of the dence and studio, where he exhibited his pictures to

Creator.’’*® publicize the engravings to be made of them. In 1775

It was on the same basis that some showmen, Sir Ashton Lever took over Leicester House, on the whether motivated by piety or expediency, rec- north side, for his Holophusikon. Again on the east ommended their pay-as-you-enter exhibitions as side, at number 28, backing onto Castle Street, John illustrations of divine ingenuity. The display of the Di- Hunter built his celebrated museum of comparative astrodoxon, or Grand Transparent Orrery, in connec- anatomy. Just off the square, in his home in Lisle tion with R. E. Lloyd’s astronomical lectures at various Strect, Loutherbourg first displayed the Eidophusikon

London theatres would, the publicity guaranteed, in 1781. A dozen years later Robert Barker built his ‘familiarly explain all the Phenomena of the heavenly panorama in Leicester Place, perhaps the decisive event

bodies, and give the most interesting and comprehen- that led to a neighborhood hitherto dominated by the sive View of the sublime works of the Creator.’? To residences of gentlemen, well-to-do-artists, and proquote the syllabus of the lectures, ‘““The unbounded fessional men being transformed into a bustling and view of creation which every starry night presents to increasingly raucous center of commercial amusement. the enquiring eye of mortals, excites our admiration After the Leverian Museum was moved across the and wonder! ‘What read we here?’ — ‘The existence of river, Leicester House was pulled down (1791-92) and a GOD!’’’?° In publicity for exhibitions of animate na- replaced by shops and offices. Following the death of ture, too, the theological note was sometimes present. its owner, Sir George Savile, in 1784, Savile House, adPidcock’s menagerie at Excter Change was advertised joining Leicester House to the west, had been allowed as “‘not only innocent, but improving, especially to a to deteriorate. In 1805 part of it was leased to Miss Lin-

contemplative person that beholds not the works of wood, the needlework artist (Chapter 28), and a pair of Nature, without admiring Nature’s God.’’?! It seems Kidderminster carpet makers. After this part was reno-

likely that few people came to see the animals pri- vated at the considerable cost of £13,290, Miss Linmarily to have their faltering belicf in the argument wood installed in it her already famous pictures. from nature bolstered. Nevertheless, appeals to re- The Linwood Gallery yielded nothing to Barker’s ligious sentiments, even if they were the merest cant, —later Burford’s—panorama by way of respectabilalways provided acceptable window dressing. ity; indeed it would be difficult to conceive of a public Entr’acte: Exhibitions and London Life 229

exhibition more staunchly decorous than one of famous journalist, about 1855 that from the special standpoint

paintings imitated in colored wool. Nevertheless, the of his profession ‘‘the best pitch of all is Leicester decline of the neighborhood had already begun, and Square; there’s all sorts of classes, you sce, passing by the forties the square itself, its railings long since there.’’8> There was no more democratic locality in the removed for firewood, had become one of the ugli- entire metropolis. est eyesores in London, a spacious dustbin for dead Presiding over the fun was the many-chambered Sacats, deposits of oyster shells, broken crockery, old vile House, where Miss Linwood’s unexceptionable bricks, and the miscellaneous refuse of a considerable display of needlework pictures was soon joined by a portion of the West End. Most deplorable, perhaps, motley fly-by-night assortment of what were somewas the defaced condition of the gilded cques- times advertised as ‘‘Exhibitions for the Million.’’?° In trian statue of George I, which had surveyed the 1814 one room was occupied by an ‘‘Astronomical ongoing degradation since it began. It had endured the Panorama.’ The next year arrived—and_ soon attentions of roistering vandals and practical jokers so departed—Miller’s Mechanical and Beautiful Reprelong that in the public mind it symbolized, in its muti- sentations, the ‘‘animated scenery”’ show noticed in the

lated state, the debased condition of the square as a preceding chapter. In 1818 one occupant was the Pa-

whole.*4 pyruseum, a display of paper objects made by one

Facing this urban wasteland and in the network of Mrs. Aberdein, now deceased; another was a waxen narrow alleys and short streets surrounding it, inter- effigy of Princess Charlotte, young daughter of the spersing the houses tenanted by exhibitions of many Prince Regent, lying in state, her still-born child beside kinds, was an assortment of squalid lodginghouses and her. Some fourteen years later the same premises dubious hotels and restaurants. The round-the-clock housed the alleged body of “‘a Peruvian woman, perinhabitants were chiefly foreigners; according to some fect as when in life, supposed to have been buried alive

not unbiased observers, a fair sample of the scum of at the remote period of 500 years ago.’’37

Europe, particularly Frenchmen. The pavements re- By 1846, when the Linwood exhibition finally sounded to their barbarous voices, their mustachios closed—its very rooms now taken, ominously, by and swarthy complexions offended Anglo-Saxon sen- Madame Wharton’s poses plastiques and renamed, for sibilities, and the odor of garlic and onions emanating this equivocal attraction, ‘‘Walhalla’’ (Chapter 24)—

from the lodginghouses and restaurant kitchens at- Savile House had become a warren of rooms cheaply tested to their peasantlike preferences in food. rentable for amusement purposes. Between that year Even worse, the Leicester Square-—Haymarkct and 1865 at least fourteen different names were applied region was the site of what Hippolyte Taine called to various parts of the house, depending on their cur‘the lamentable Haymarket march-past”’ of prosti- rent occupants. The building was so complexly ditutes. From noon to midnight and beyond, the side- vided that, according to one writer, “few could tell walks and the seamy eating and drinking places were whether it was a theatre, wine vaults, a billiard-room, full of them; in fact, many of the shabby buildings a coffee-shop, a gunsmith’s, or a Royal Academy; or, if were their business addresses. It may be that Leicester they could, they never knew, amidst the ascending and Square did not achieve its maximum potential as a descending steps, and doors and passages, which one focus of commercial sex until the seventies, but already must take to get anywhere. ... A confusion of in the fifties there was certainly enough vice visible, sounds further tends to bewilder the visitor: the noise not to say hidden, to make the area unsuitable for fam- of everything is heard every where else. The click of

ily excursions. billiard-balls, the music of poses plastiques, the thwackYet—and this is the most striking anomaly in the ing of single-sticks, the cracking of rifles, and the

history of London shows—it was Leicester Square that stamping of delighted Walhallists, all mingle with Prince Albert automatically thought of when the ques- each other; and it is only by taking refuge in the lowtion of locating the Great Exhibition was raised; and est apartment, which partakes of a coffee-room, a although Leicester Square was not a vicinity of which cabin, and a cellar, that you will find repose.’

any Londoner had much reason to be proud, the fact Savile House was largely a masculine domain in remains that it was the center of entertainment for these years. A number of enterprises were dedicated to familics as much as for fast young Guardsmen and the manly arts: gymnasiums for wrestling and boxing, Dickensian “‘gents”’ out for a spree. A Punch and Judy fencing academies, gunsmiths, and shooting galleries. showman told Henry Mayhew, the great sociological It was at one of the latter, William Green’s “pistol re230 The Shows of London

pository and shooting gallery,” that Edward Oxford uel and Nathaniel Buck’s portrayal (1749) of the practiced for his fortunatcly unsuccessful attempt to scene from Westminster to London Bridge, measuring

assassinate the queen in 1840. If Trooper George, in 161 by 16 inches. Almost coincidentally with the Bleak House, did not actually have his own shooting opening of Barker’s picture and the issue in a continugallery in Savile House, it must have been close by. The ous strip of the six aquatints made from the original house also catered to another masculine interest. In ad- sketches, there appeared a_ three-inch-wide strip dition to the poses plastiques in the “‘Walhalla” room, showing the same scene, enclosed in a hollow spool there was in 1848 the Salle Valentino, which was adver- from which it was unwound through a slot. From this

tised to hold two thousand dancers who could there time to the middle of the century at least nine other “enjoy the Fashionable Quadrille, and the Graceful home “panoramas” of London and its vicinity were Polka, or the Exciting Galop.”*® Nowhere in London sold in printshops. show business were the ideals of the Society for the There was enough affinity between Barker’s invenDiffusion of Useful Knowledge and the advocates of tion and the engraved scenes to justify, though barely,

rational amusement Iess in evidence. their prompt appropriation of its name. They were also, after all, elongated representations of a wide out-

D3 $a door view, and their subjects were often those of the canvas panoramas—Rome, for instance, and ConWe cannot know how many families were deterred stantinople, Paris, and Athens—though they also from attending some London exhibitions by the unsa- portrayed English holiday resorts, such as Brighton, vory character of Leicester Square or by the stigma Ilfracombe, Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, and the Isle of that the consciences of the truly rigorous attached to Wight, where they were sold as souvenirs. But they any public exhibition, excluding only Holy Land pan- did not necessarily presuppose a high vantage point oramas and models. But reformers had long stressed and a complete sweep of the horizon, which was the that a Christian family could best find wholesome en- true panorama’s unique characteristic. Their only novtertainment in the home, insulated from the vulgarity, elty had nothing to do with their namesake, the use of

excitement, and possible seduction of crowds and a cardboard cylinder or wooden drum for storage—an firmly under the control of the resident moralist, innovation which had the practical effect of reducing usually the father. And so public exhibitors met brisk the width of the strip and increasing its possible length. competition from the fireside, where some of the de- But when they turned from representing fixed vistas lights and benefits their shows purported to offer to depicting a continuous journey, the engraved pancould be enjoyed in comfortable familial intumacy. oramas became miniature portable counterparts of the Improvement, a Victorian adage might have declared, moving panorama, which had adopted the tour theme

began at home. on a small scale when it appeared in the pantomime in Sometimes it was an exhibition device itself, scaled the mid-twenties and had made an extended trip the down and simplified for domestic use, which brought subject of full-length shows in the late forties. Their the harmless pleasures of the panorama and the Egyp- convenient size gave them a practical use of which the tian Hall into the parlor; sometimes it was an older ob- long cloth strips of Banvard, Smith, Marshall, and ject updated with a new name from show business. others were incapable. The latter offered only a form

Prominent among the latter were what had earlier of vicarious travel, whereas the annotated paper been called ‘‘prospects’’—the long fold-out engravings strip-engravings sold by publishers like Samuel Leigh, depicting a broad expanse of landscape or cityscape a specialist in this product, were meant also to be taken which few eighteenth-century historical or topograph- along on an actual journey, portraying as they did the

ical works with a pretense to costliness could be whole course of the Rhine or an extended trip through without (some were published and sold separately). the Alps. Each was conveniently folded and packaged The coming of Barker’s panorama, which attempted in a space advertised as being little larger than that

the same wide-scope pictorial treatment on a mam- occupied by a quire of letter paper. By taking moth scale, lent new popularity to these staples of one . . . in your sac de nuit,’’ remarked a paragrapher, the book and printselling trade, in addition to pro- ‘you obtain on the spot all the information you desire, viding an up-to-date name which stuck.*” The subject and by the panoramic picture you may identify every of Barker’s first success, the Thames vista of London, point of interest.’’*! Nevertheless, there was some dishad been anticipated by at least one ‘“‘prospect,’’ Sam- advantage to the use of this accessory; especially if Entr’acte: Exhibitions and London Life 231

there was a stiff breeze, it was not easy to sit on deck cided, not surprisingly, with the current rage for and manipulate a thin strip of paper, backed with monster-mile panoramas in the exhibition halls. cloth, that might be as much as sixty feet long. The words ‘“‘panorama’”’ and ‘“‘diorama”’ were as The great length which a paper panorama might frecly applied in the houschold as anywhere else.* practically attain suggested another use, which engrav- About 1815 children played with a toy called “The ers had thought of centuries before it occurred to scene Panorama of Europe: A New Game,”’ but all that was painters and exhibitors of peristrephic panoramas: the new about it was the name. It consisted of a single portrayal of long ceremonial processions such as coro- sheet on which was printed an engraving tracing a nations, state visits, and funerals. Wenceslaus Hollar, rather circuitous journey from Oporto to London by the seventeenth-century maker of London prospects, way of Rome, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Vienna, and depicted Charles II’s coronation in sixteen strips con- Moscow—a design which had already appeared in stituting a continuous panorama, and in 1791 William games with different titles. A ‘Geographical Camden’s old view of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral was Panorama’—the example in the Bethnal Green reproduced in the form of a 346-inch strip wound in a Museum is dated 1822—was no morc than an ordinary cardboard drum. Henceforth, slowly unwinding a rep- toy theatre, with grooves in the stage and colored resentation of a lengthy procession from a cylinder cut-out figures and scenic pastcboard flats to insert in made it possible to suggest (faintly) that the marchers them. Contemporary with it was a geographical peepand riders were in fact moving. There were several show named the Arcorama. paper panoramas of Queen Victoria’s coronation and In 1826 Leigh brought out a toy advertised as being wedding processions, and spool-wound pictures of the ‘“‘on the principle of the Diorama in Regent’s Park.” annual Lord Mayor’s Show were hawked along the The principle was not really Daguerre’s, but the effect route for many years. But the classic, and quite pos- probably was close enough to satisfy the children who sibly the longest, example of the genre was Henry put the set together and made it perform. It consisted Alken’s and George Augustus Sala’s sixty-seven-foot of a toy theatre box in which were inserted transparaquatint of Wellington’s funeral cortege in 1852. encies representing the familiar Diorama scenes. BeCheap periodicals quickly took advantage of the im- hind these views were placed, sometimes on rollers as proved engraving and printing techniques which per- in the Eidophusikon, other transparent strips, painted

mitted the production of such panoramas in large as clouds, rainbow, moon, sunrise, and so forth; quantities. In 1830 the Mirror of Literature, already a ‘“‘which,”’ said Leigh, “being placed behind the firstpioneer in pictorial journalism, included in one issue a mentioned views, (and occasionally combined with a * Probably the ultmate instance of fold-out strip drawing of George IV’s funeral cortege. movable gauze curtain,) impart to them all the changes this phenomenon was “The Ideal But it was the Illustrated London News, the most suc- of morning, evening, dawn, sunset, moonlight, &c.,

Cee Ope Mad im tonal cessful of all picture papers, which went in for fold-out &c., and gratify the spectator with the most picturInvention and Descriptive Compost- panorama supplements on a large scale. When it began esque and charming changes.”’ To serve the function of tion,” an example of which 1s m the in May 1842, subscribers were promised “‘a grand pan- the real Diorama’s skylights and windows, a lamp was

British Library (649 ¢ 3 12) “The orama print of London, a picture bigger than anything placed behind the picture box.” ‘diorama’ consists of a small circular previously issued.’ Antoine Claudet, the first daguer- Evidently, there were simpler models of the card within a larger circular card reotype licensee, took a large number of views from Iiorama, lacking rollers and other such sophistications

The small card has incomplete — Loe ; ;

‘poetic thoughts’ and the larger card the top of the Duke of York s Colunin, and by several and consisting instead merely of transparencics, SIX by

concluding ‘poetic thoughts’ ra widely acclaimed technical feats these early photo- seven and a half inches, which were inserted into a diating from their centers. By graphs were translated into an engraving measuring slotted frame and shown alternately by reflected and

turning the mner card one 1s able to fifty by thirty-six inches.” transmitted light. The tie-up with the Regent’s Park bring the thoughts together, so that This premium was so well received that the paper show, in any case, remained close. The 1836 Alagna

by reading any lhne thoughts straight across more panoramas production in the next fe lanch S ulariathat a London ‘original poetic in brought great ; out ; ‘ several P cx cw avalanche was ducti sO pop

variety will be suggested which the years, including pictures of the Thames, Dublin, and printseller published a miniature of it. But the changes readers may modify to their taste by Paris in the year of revolution (1848). A short-lived of program at the Diorama came too seldom (popular varying the adjectives or verbs, &c. rival, the Pictorial Times, produced a bigger picture of shows being rerun for several seasons) to suit the juve-

munication from Ralph Hyde.) Any . ; .

at pleasure °'” (Private com- the Thames (150 by 5% inches), but the Illustrated nile dioramists’ demand for varicty, with the result resemblance between this device and London News eventually won the contest, with a that the list of available subjects went beyond the Daguerre’s picture show would scem twenty-two-foot strip-engraving of the Great Ex- Regent’s Park repertory.

to be wholly imaginary. hibition. This burst of journalistic gigantism coin- Meanwhile, an older form of pictorial entertain232 The Shows of London

ment, the magic lantern, still flourished in the home, slides, that, to speak the plain truth, the first apparition even as it was being adapted for public display.* On always brought on bowel-complaint; and, at the age of thirspecial occasions, professional assistance might be im- teen, when I was pretending to take care of little children ported into the parlor, as William Hone describes: during the exhibition, I could never look at it without having

the back of a chair to grasp, or hurting myself, to carry off

On a Twelfth mght, in 1818, a man, making the usual the intolerable sensation.*”

Christmas cry, of ‘“Gallantee show,” was called in to exhibit

his nerformances for the amusement of my young folks and Other optical novelties that were found in the home, their companions. Most unexpectedly, he ‘‘compassed a mo- however, never figured m London shows despite their tion of the Prodigal Son;” by dancing his transparencies seemingly large potential for exploitation. One was between the magnifying glass and candle of a magic the kaleidoscope, invented in 1817 by Sir David Brewlanthorn, the coloured figures greatly enlarged were reflected ster and promptly pirated. It proved a bonanza for on a sheet spread against the wall of a darkened room. The tinmen and_ glass-cutters—everybody in London, prodigal son was represented carousing with his companions from titled ladies to street urchins, had to have at the Swan Inn, at Stratford; while the landlady in the bar, one—but no attempts were made to turn it into an on every fresh call, was seen to score double. There was also audience show. The kaleidoscope principle, with Noah’s Ark, with ‘Pull Devil, Pull Baker,” or the just judg- something of the Diorama added, was applied in the ment upon a baker who sold short of weight, and was carried : to hell in his own basket. The reader will bear in mind, that Myriorama, which was composed of a number of this was not a#lotion in the dramatic sense of the word, but a scenes that could be combined in various ways to form

puppet-like exhibition of a Mystery, with discrepancies of new oncs. But this, too, was confined to the nursery the same character as those which peculiarized the Mysteries and drawing room. of five centuries ago. The Gallantee-showman narrated with A generation later, the stereoscope caused an even astonishing gravity the incidents of every fresh scene, while greater stir than had the kalcidoscope.** Invented in his companion in the room played country-dances and other 1832 by the young scientist Charles Wheatstone, it was tunes on the street organ, during the whole of the perform- originally used only for scientific demonstration. But ance The manager informed me that his show had been the in 1849 Sir David Brewster improved and simplified same during many years, and, in truth, 1t was unvartable; for the device by making it into a box with two lenses, his entire property consisted of but this one set of glasses, through which could be viewed two photographs set

and his magic lanthorn. . . . Expressing a hope that I would ; ; ay:

command his company at a future time, he put his card into side by side, producing the illusion of three-

my hand, inscribed, “The Royal Gallantee Show, provided dimensional perspective. Brewster had access to the by Jos. Leverge, 7, Ely Court, Holborn Hill:” the very spot queen, and her reported enthusiasm for the toy sct off whereon the last theatrical representation of a Mystery, the another craze. These tiny peepshows were inexpensive play of Christ’s Passion, 1s recorded to have been witnessed to make—thcy could be sold for as little as half a

in England.*° crown, though de luxe models cost up to twenty , pounds—and it was reported that within three months

Onc must hope that this belated and modernized rep- 250,000 of them were sold in England and France. “‘No resentation of a mystery play in a Regency home did home without a stercoscope,” the announced ambition

not have the untoward effect on Hone’s children and of the London Stereoscope Company, founded in their friends that the magic lantern had on the suscep- 1854, was well-nigh realized. The device’s popularity tible Harrict Martincau. When she was four Or five was enhanced even more when Oliver Wendell years old she was frightened by a phantasmagoria: “] Holmes, finding that box-viewing gave him a headdid not like the darkness, to begin with; and when ache, invented the familiar hand-held viewer.

Minerva appeared, in a red dress, at first extremely The stereoscope was the cosmorama and the small, and then approaching, ull her owl seemed panorama finally domesticated. From the London Stercoming directly upon me, it was so like my nightmare eoscope Company’s stock of 100,000 views the middreams that I shricked aloud.” The experience could Victorian family could select all the scenes ever shown

not be forgotten. in Leicester Square, Piccadilly, Regent Street, and

A magic-lantern [she wrote in her Autobiography] was exhib- Regent's Park, and countless additional ones. The poited to us on Christmas-day, and once or twice in the year tential the little instrament had for wholesome instrucbesides. I used to sec it cleaned by daylight, and to handle all tion was cclebrated in terms indistinguishable, except its parts,—understanding its whole structure; yet, such was for one crucial difference, from those that still—but my terror of the white arcle on the wall, and of the moving hollowly—were used to praise the panorama. The ediEntr’acte: Exhibitions and London Life 233

tor of the Art Journal, Samuel Carter Hall, called it “a The difference, of course, resided in those last few silent Teacher, from which only good can be obtained. words. The stereoscope picture, along with its parent, In a word, the loveliest scenes of nature, and the grand- the photograph, was destined to help give the coup de est monuments of human genius, are, by the magical grace to the London pictorial entertainment business as

power of this little instrument, brought in all their it was known in the late fifties: a development to reality and beauty, to our own homes and firesides.’’49 which proper attention will be paid in another chapter.

234 The Shows of London

We@te

illiam Bullock and the Egyptian Hall

18 Ashton Lever’s, which had, in any

* This was the best known of the provincial collections apart from Sir case, been transferred to London in 1774. Greene was a well-lked

Of the many London showmen we mect by name in earlier, and the arms and armor came from Dr. Rich- _ apothecary-surgeon whose collection, the old records, few can be seen in sufficient detail for ard Grcene’s museum at Lichficld.* In 1806 Bullock’s kept in two rooms at his Lichfield us to conceive the sort of persons they were. Only one agent bought extensively in his behalf at the sale of the home, consisted mainly of contribuor two survive distinctly cnough to join the company Leverian Museum. Many of the curiosities he acquired celine many from Lene heme

of their peers in the theatre who wrote, or about then also came from Cook’s voyages, among them (Ty. museum is described in John whom were written, the memoirs that are the basis of specimens that Sir Joseph Banks had given to Par- Nichols, I/lustrations of the Literary

nineteenth-century English stage history. Among kinson, the museum’s late proprictor. History of the Eighteenth Century, these obscure exhibitors, William Bullock has particu- In 1809, emulating Lever, Bullock moved his collec- London, 1817-1858, VI, 318-26; see

lar claims to remembrance. He was no ordinary tion to London, though retaining the name ‘‘Liverpool Ar) Grcane took widen vente member of the workaday London amusement trade. Museum.” It was housed at 22 Piccadilly, part of the vclative of Dr. Johnson, who ee He did, it is true, establish the Egyptian Hall, which site now occupied by Swan and Edgar’s, which had tions him and his muscum several was to be the center of the miscellancous-exhibition formerly been occupied by Philip Astley’s Chinese times in his letters to Mrs. Thrale branch of the trade for almost a century and which, as Shadows show, auctioncers, and a Baptist congrega- "4 others. Boswell describes a visit we have scen, housed several noteworthy moving pan- tion.! Early in the following year Bell’s Weekly Messen- ne ane Jofnson made fo the museum oramas at mid-century. He was himself the proprictor ger reported that the muscum had “‘become the most reseed his admiration of the activity

of several successful exhibitions. But he was also a fashionable place of amusement in London; more than and diligence and good fortune of traveler and a naturalist of some reputation, as his elec- 22,000 have already visited it during the month it has Mr. Green, in getting together, in his tion to such learned societies as the Linnean Society of been opened.” By June the total had risen to 80,000.2 ‘Situation, so great a varicty of things; London, the Wernerian Society of Natural History at Among the visitors from out of town in April 1811 once said to him, “Sir, I should as

| ; a - , ; and Mr. Green told me that Johnson

Edinburgh, and the Dublin Society attests. The was Jane Austen, who reported to her sister Cassandra soon have thought of building a man 149-page “‘companion”’ to his natural history collec- that she found ‘‘some amusement”’ at the museum, of war, as of collecting such a mution, acknowledging a debt to Wood’s Zoography, re- ‘tho’ my preference for Men & Women, always in- scum.’ Mr. Green’s obliging alacrity

flects his serious educational purpose. clines me to attend more to the company than the 1 shewne it was very Pissing

Bullock began as a Liverpool jeweler-silversmith sight.””? If she had attended to the sight, she would Cafe af Jonson, cee 10341950

whose interest in natural history was stimulated by the have seen what an American visitor noted justa month jy, 465-66.) After Greene’s death in _

opportunities he had to buy rare specimens from the later: among much else, a thirty-five-foot-long boa 1793 part of the collection, which captains and crews of arriving ships. In 1795 he opened constrictor “‘which makes the story of Laoco6n quite —_ ranged from Cherokce artifacts and

a typically cighteenth-century, which is to say highly probable,” a sixtecn-foot-high giraffe, “with a very Roman missals on vellum to “an unmixed, exhibition of natural and artificial curiositics. pretty head like a horse, and mild innocent look, at the oddl of Mania (Mier Ghok and ° Some of the oddities on display were reputed to have top of an immensely long, yet graceful, crane neck,” gold. the remainder being taken to been brought back from Cook’s voyages twenty years and a bear which looked quite small in comparison.4 Bath by his grandson.

By this time, the new home of Bullock’s museum

. was under construction on the south side of Piccadilly

ra (now numbers 170-173) nearly opposite the foot of 67. William Bullock 5, = 4 Old Bond Street.® official name was todictated be the by an unknown artist,(engraving in George aa London Museum, but itsItsarchitecture virtually Dawson Rowley’s Ornithological ~ the informal title it would at once acquire and retain Miscellany, 1875-1878). ; | for the rest of its long career: the Egyptian Hall. Egypt ~~ “a had been much in the English mind during the past fif-

" \ teen years theofcarly theatres archacological of the war with ie. Ss A the French andasasone theofsite momentous me. = ee discoveries. The Agyptiana show at the Lyceum had

been only one of many manifestations the vogue for rif. ae re os £: s. #oSthe hitherto obscure country of the Nileofwhich had ena B | y ae ne *? livened London theatrical, learned, and artistic circles ' % i. pee in those years. The new building in Piccadilly was an4 ae Se ~3 other. It was designed by Peter Frederick Robinson, a * “ w F tity BS ‘connoisseur of styles’? who, as the Prince of Wales’s " ind gee "if superintendent of works, had advised him on the pur-

- 4 du nang SE chase of Chinese furnishings for the Brighton pavilion OM -, -., . ce ae? and, as an architect, was well known for his Norman 7 -@X = oS ras villas and Tudor parsonages. Later he would design

Fd PR an 4 the Swiss chalet at the Colosseum. |

} . hte,ce.- yw € His London Museum building was in the style most cautiously described as Egyptian eclectic. It was nom-

. itd .ioR iy one inally inspired the great of Hat-hor at Dendera, a lateby Ptolemaic andtemple Roman building which t a “% %, then was counted among the most impressive Egypfi oy J re tian monuments, travelers having either not yet seen y , Se or not fully appreciated the finer structures that date rn | oa from earlier dynasties. The Dendera temple epitomized

9 , the Egyptian architectural spirit as the Regency con» f ceived it. Robinson used great freedom in re-creating it ‘ =. in London. The central fagade was crowned by a = a huge cornice supported by sphinxes and two colossal y _ nude statues in Coade stone representing Isis and ede ‘go Osiris. These had been carved by an Irishman named es & - Sebastian Gahagan. Alongside the door were stubby : oid lotus columns, and hieroglyphs bespeckled every free ) - surface. What they said, if anything, was a mystery: “ A. 4 the Rosetta stone, which broke the code of this ancient , BS language, was not deciphered until 1822. To passersby, \] ‘ | roe itOS sufficed that thepurpose hicroglyphs Egyptian; and the building’s was, inlooked any event, adequately

Jn ita. spelled out by the words LONDON MUSEUM carved beneath the feet of Isis and Osiris. Until the protracted erection of the Colosseum some years later, no London structure destined to be an exhibition place attracted more attention than did

this one—an acceptable windfall, of course, to the prospective occupant. Not a few aesthetically sensitive Londoners disliked its strident exoticism, heightened 236 The Shows of London

by contrast with the sedate red-brick Georgian shops tended, as a contemporary description put it, ‘‘to disand dwellings which flanked it, but as Leigh Hunt said, play the whole of the known Quadrupeds, in a manner there was no denying that once seen, it could not be that will convey a more perfect idea of their haunts and

forgotten: ‘Egyptian architecture will do nowhere but modes of life.’’ Entering through a mockup of a bain Egypt. There, its cold and gloomy pondcrosity saltic cavern suggested by Fingal’s Cave on the Isle of (‘weight’ is too petty a word) befits the hot, burning Staffa,f visitors found themselves in a room fitted up atmosphere and shifting sands. But in such a climate as to resemble a tropical rain forest, with an Indian hut this, it is worth nothing but an uncouth anomaly. The prominent in the foreground, a painted panoramic absurdity, however, renders it a good advertisement. scene in the background to supply the effect of disThere is no missing its great lumpish face as you go tance, and “exact Models, both in figure and colour, of along. It gives a blow to the mind, like a heavy prac- the rarest and most luxuriant Plants from every clime”’

tical joke.’”® to complete the illusion of place, though there was

Under such circumstances, the hall, which opened some doubt what the place was. The specimens, domifor business in the spring of 1812, was bound not to be nated by a giraffe, a rhinoceros, and an elephant, were

known as the London Museum. The printed guide to disposed to suggest their natural activity. The lion, Bullock’s collection of “upwards of Fifteen Thousand panther, and jaguar werc seen in dens or on large propNatural and Forcign Curiositics, Antiquities, and Pro- erty rocks; scals were ranged on rocks overlooking the

ductions of the Fine Arts’’ said the collection was panoramic “Sca-View’’; anteaters hovered near the “open for public inspection in the Egyptian Temple model of ‘‘one of the turrets, or nests of the Termites * These figures are from the cataerected in Piccadilly.” For “temple,” however, was or White Ants of Africa’; a lemur crouched on the _— !ogue of the Roman exhibition, 1816 soon substituted “‘hall,”’ a change perhaps rendered branch of a tree; three sloths clung to the stem of an (copy t Bh 7807 90.25) Subsee inevitable by the fact that London had long been famil- Amicrican aloc, near the head of the rhinoceros. and inconsistent, though one of iar with the room called the Egyptian Hall at the Man- The other parts of the muscum were arranged with them, a handbill advertising the

sion House, designed by George Dance the elder and the same combination of science and free imagina- pending sale of the hall in 1833 having even less resemblance to the hall of that name tiveness. According to Jerdan, in another room (copy in JJ Coll., London Play Places

described by Vitruvius than Robinson’s confection had . ox 10), ives the dimensions ane

to the temple at Dendera. On each side of the entrance 3,000 birds were sct up with similar accuracy, and attended Stressing the buildine’s almost inf in Piccadilly was a shop, one occupied originally by a by well-selected accessories, so as to afford sufficient ideas of ute adaptability, the bill added that bookseller and the other bv a chemist. On the ground their motions, food, and mode of feeding, and peculiarities of “propositions have been made for

; y 8 every description—from cagles to hummung-birds (of the converting the Edifice into a chapel.”

floor was a suite of apartments, 170 feet long, and up- latter of which there were ninety distinct species); and, in- In any nee all that can be said nar

stairs a gallery measuring 60 by 27 fect.* cluding the collection made by Captain Cook and Sir Joseph _ confidence 1s that during its long Heretofore, little attempt had been made to organize Banks, the whole were so perfect in plumage and disposi- existence the building underwent museum materials in any systematic, rational way, let tion, that the aviary, if it might be so called, presented ascene several interior alterations, that one

alone to add a touch of showmanship. Sir Ashton of wonderful beauty to the eye. Unwilling the spectator of the rooms was redecorated in 1819 Lever seemingly had tried to impose some order upon turned from it, to inspect the numerous amphibious crea- as “the Egyptian Hall”; that one or his miscellaneous accumulation, but according to Wil- tures in a third spacious room, but these, again, were found valle one Was surround. by ° liam Jerdan, when the Leverian collection fell into Par- to be so remarkable, that the attractions of the fishes, the in- her flat skylights or a dome: that kinson’s hands it was notable only for its disorgan- sects, the marine productions, could scarcely wile the visitor the rooms could be occupied en suite ization and usclessness as an instrument of education. away to contemplate their various structure, clearly indicated or divided; and that there was space Bullock’s collection, Jerdan said, was “quite the re- acum, and striking lhfe-hke appearance. The fossil remains for at least three separate exhibitions ; . — of a former world wound up a spectacle of a most compre- running simultaneously See Survey verse of this—admirably preserved and scientifically hensive character, unprecedented novelty, and unexampled of London, XXIX (1960), 266-70,

arranged,’’ and there 1s substantial evidence to back utility.* and XXX (1960), plate 44.

him up. Although Charles Willson Peale had antic- + Fingal’s Cave had noth i

ipated him with the clever settings he devised more The quadrupeds, birds, fishes, amphibia, and fossils do wnth the contents of the voce

than a decade earlier in his natural history museum in were supported by the usual mixture of curios: African but as repeatedly happened in the ox. Philadelphia, Bullock was the first English museum and North American artifacts, weapons, and articles of —_ hibition business, Bullock borrowed keeper to arrange his specimens in a semblance of what dress; models (the death of Voltaire executed in rice —4 popular feature from the theatre. are today called ‘“‘habitat groups,”’ with careful atten- paste, a mother-of-pearl Chinese pagoda, a sixty-gun At Icast two Sadler’s Wells produc-

tion to postures and physical surroundings.’ man-of-war made entirely of crystal glass by Bullock Meee eet enone and 1810) The central display, called the ‘‘Pantherion” and himself when a boy); ivory objects of art; flowers had Fingal’s Cave scenes. ath water housed in a wing west of the main block, was in- made of butterflies’ wings; and wool pictures of the effects. William Bullock and the Egyptian Hall 237

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68. Bullock’s Liverpool Muscum, — Holy Family. Bullock had himself collected relatively Agate, &c. in Vases, Tablets, and Tazzas; and Superb

22 Piccadilly (aquatint in Acker- few items, apart from some of the birds; he had ac- Pictures of the Ancient and Modern Masters’” headed mann’s Repository of Arts, 1810). quired most by purchase or by donation, from such di- by G. F. Le Thiere’s large painting, The Judgment of versified sources, in addition to the Leverian Museum, Brutus upon His Sons.®

as the Duke and Duchess of York, Princess Charlotte In another room Bullock exhibited the result of of Wales, Admiral Bligh, and S. Polito, the menagerist what might have been regarded as a desperate gamble

of Exeter Change, who had contributed a pair of but which turned out to be a lucky coup. The British beavers, a panther, and a Palatine monkey from “‘the fascination with Napoleon had already begun to have Slave Coast” that died of the London cold in 1808. what would prove to be its strong and lengthy impact In 1816 Bullock, perhaps finding that the museum upon the exhibition business. Lefébvre’s and David’s alone was not rendering him enough profit, decided to huge (fifteen by six feet) portrait of the fallen emperor, diversify his exhibition. One room, named for the oc- proclaimed as “‘the only natural likeness now publicly casion “the Roman Gallery,” was devoted to a collec- exhibiting in Europe” and ‘‘most probably the last that tion of objects of art he had bought as a speculation: ever will be painted of him in Europe,” had been at-

“Magnificent Decorations,”’ as the ‘descriptive syn- tracting crowds, at a shilling admission fee, succesopsis” had it, “consisting of Antique Marbles, Jasper, sively to rooms at 53 Leicester Square, the Adelphi, and 238 The Shows of London

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hats ihSAire NES Qe .y leanYAP NSH ‘aanANN | | | Sek teeBEN NASSP!ESE 1D GSAS Bye Pt" . ZY \)EE, ; aeyeh “ws NS AES BFaOF ‘LAS ‘ CW ae. at the Spoils of dtaken it passe ontotodEngland Genera , phe . nearly aold | llion francs; terloo—Being a hicle and presented to the her of fine Malaga, S16 the Battle of Wa | >it and } rum and the other ap.’’'® New Tax Pri Regent needing 15 worth of diamonds Tax on John Bull carriage, forThe 1816prince, ranged it £2500, ta ing money more ; and a cake of Windsor soap The weer than an extra sold itto tohave Bullock forthe £2, a

240 The Shows of London

show attracted more people—10,000 a day—than had the History of the ex-Emperor of the French, collected any previous London exhibition.* Both Rowlandson at Considerable Expense from the Louvre and Other and Cruikshank depicted the swarming crowds, whose Places, &c.’’?3 This collection joined the Roman Galtotal reached 220,000 by the time the show closed on lery as another of the Egyptian Hall’s assorted attrac24 August 1816.'7 Then Bullock took the carriage on tions. But by 1818 Bullock seems to have been forced tour, with equally gratifying results. He wrote shortly to conclude that he had too much capital tied up in afterward that the carriage and its contents had been a these various collections. He therefore asked the Univeritable Elijah’s mantle to him: they “gave me the versity of Edinburgh if it was interested in buying his power of accomplishing, in a few months, what, with entire natural history collection, which included 2,485 * Among the spectators was Lord all his talents, riches, and armies, he [Napoleon] could birds, 429 amphibia, and 232 quadrupeds valued at = Byron, whe was so taken with the never succeed in doing; for in that short period I £25,000—a figure he arrived at, no doubt, by splitting — G77986 Waals for reasons having to

; : : do with his personal vanity and pos-

over-ran England, Ireland, and Scotland, levying a the difference between the £20,000 he pronounced it bly with some vague plan to hber-

willing contribution on upwards of 800,000 of his Ma- worth when at 22 Piccadilly and the £30,000 at which ate France from the restored jesty’s subjects; for old and young, rich and poor, he valucd it in the catalogue sold at the Egyptian Hall. Bourbons, he had a duplicate made

. . . 24 builder. In this version, the drawers,

clergy and laity, all ages, sexes, and conditions, flocked His asking price was only £9,000, but the university Py @ well-known Long Acre coach-

to pay their poll-tax, and gratify their curiosity by an was not interested.”4 Bullock then approached the compartments, and equipment inexamination of the spoils of the dead lion.’’'® When the British Muscum, where he had a powerful advocate, tended for the use of a field general carriage was shown 1n Brighton, however, a local bard Sir Joseph Banks; but in view of that institution’s — were replaced by a library and comtook a different view of the sensation it had caused: chronic penury, Banks held out little hope.”® Bullock _ plete dining facilities In it Byron

h 4 decided, therefore, to sell all three of his properties, the crossed! te Simplon ro Maly and ut

What wondrous things are daily brought to view, original Liverpool/London museum, the Roman Gal- carnied im on many © 15 p grim-

Produced by Time, and shown by Fortune’s glasses! lerv of antiquities and pictures. and the Museum Na ages there until in 1819, with its Six noble horses the great Napoleonpoleon, drew,at yan 4auction ; P .conducted 96 paint beginning to chip, 1t trailed by himself. Count Guicaiolt and his wife,

Now, one Bullock draws a hundred thousand asses! !9 ; ; , The sale, the largest of its kind since the Leverian, Byron’s mistress, to Venice On the

20 ; ; autumn of 1823 Byron instructed his

From an investment of £2,500 Bullock won a return occupied twenty-six days (29 April-11 June 1819) — ¢ve of his departure for Greece in the

of £35,000. and attracted hundreds of prospective purchasers, in- Geneva banker to have the carriage The sensation in Piccadilly evoked appropriate cluding representatives of continental muscums as well “kept in good order" What hapresponse from other showmen. No sooner had Bul- as private collectors, cager to add to their holdings _ pened to it 1s not known. (Leslie

lock withdrawn the carriage from the Egyptian Hall to now that the dislocations and uncertainties of the long — Marchand, Byron A Biography, New

take it on tour than there went on display at Barthol- war had ended. Most of the ethnographical material So IIL 1152) 603, 661, 718, 791,

omew Fair “The Superb and Elegant Pleasure Car- went to the Berlin Muscum, and most of the arms and oe

_ ; . ,represented at the sale by some . models in rice paste—presumably

riage of Napoleon Buonaparte . . . presented by him armor to Sir Samuel Meyrick, the noted antiquary. Tt George Bullock, a sculptor, had to his son Napoleon, King of Rome. At the taking of The centerpiece of the Muscum Napolcon, “the origi- Ped the preceding year He was

Paris it was sent, by order of the Allied Sovereigns, nal model of the Colossal Statue of Napoleon, twelve ; : .

among Buonaparte’s other valuables, to the Island of fect high, which was taken from the top of the Col- not including the one of Voltarre’s Elba, from whence it has lately been purchased, at a umn of Peace in the Place Vendome when the Allies deathbed, which was attributed to a very great expence.”’ So said the flyer; admission (half entered Paris in 1814,”’ was knocked down for £33 12s. ““M. Oudon” (Houdon?)—and a

. 21 . . ; ward the Black Prince in Armour. ; ; 1m, too, one would wish to

the rate in Piccadilly) was sixpence, working pcople to William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey, one of the beautiful Equestrian Model of Ed-

and children threepence. most voracious collectors of curios and objets d’art Gey

Once Bullock had exhausted the potentialities of the since Horace Walpole. know more. Haydon wrote in his

battlefield carriage, he sold it to a coachmaker for £168. But an even more celebrated collector was repre- diary (ed. W. B. Pope, Cambridge, In 1843 it was purchased by Madame Tussaud and sented at the Bullock sale.2” Daniel Terry, an actor- — Mass., 1960-1963, II, 209) that Sons, who installed it in a new display area initially manager lately returned to London after an interval in George Bullock was one of those

billed as “The Shrine of Napol Gold the provincial theatre, attended in the interests of his XtT#0rcnaty beings who receive illed as “The rine of Napoleon, or Golden IC Prov catre, attended in the interests of his creat good fortune & are never bene-

Chamber.’’”? At the waxwork it remained, the most friend Sir Walter Scott, whose novels he had been in- fitted by at, & suffer great evils, and durable of all the Tussaud exhibits, for over three strumental in adapting for the stage and who was then are never ruined, always afloat but

quarters of a century. busily accumulating material for his projected private never in harbour, always energetic,

. tps , « had a end, frame&ofaadamant, money ' ; ;. without world that was

Bullock invested part of the proceeds from the car- museum at Abbotsford. Ina Ictter dated 18 April Scott @/'ways scheming, who should have

riage exhibition in another Napolcon-related specula- had casually written to Terry, ‘I see Mr. Bullock tion, a “Museum Napoleon, or Collection of Produc- (George’s brother)f advertises his museum for sale. I boundless.” There must be a story tions of the Fine Arts executed for and connected with wonder if a good set of real tilting armour could be got —_ behind such a characterization. William Bullock and the Egyptian Hall 241

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installed natural history display in these same rooms, I I rm ee ;

and his own exhibition excelled it in brilliance. “Every oe ee, eye, we think,” said the Times, ‘“‘must be gratified by Ve ee RI OI REE EX ORE EXER i this singular combination and skilful arrangement of A WEED On RES~S ~ SLEEK hd objects so new and in themselves so striking.’’*! Cen- SAN WES | ISRO DR, ow fy) trally displayed, under the dome of the Great Room, YAN re * GPR SE 4 Ne oF on fy was a pair of plaster of Paris replicas, made from Bel- Ay + PSR Be De .. ws 1 EG}

zoni’s wax impressions and colored after his drawings, A. ) {pa MA : ‘ / Li; of two of the finest chambers in the tomb of Seti I. Sa \ tty : Naovaag | Ws Ue y

One was of the so-called “Room of Beauties,” twenty - A rn aa Us, Dt, an Aas Fe yen /, LY y / feet by fourteen, withand “‘emblematical represenae YY BAN Ne o)Ae” 1 Weis) fy ea an tations” of the lined pharaoh his gods. ‘‘The contours,” IN tie an Me ey Oita writes a modern biographer of Belzoni, “were fine and me Nan nN oe SCE piston ag f yA 34 Ay A

delicately traced, the colours rich and glowing. Deep | 4 “ ' Qs _ rp pS = Oe, hy Pe S ¥ |

ochrous reds and royal blues lapped the beholder in a AR) NEN \ ST J i! A;

warm tide; bright yellows and greens flamed exotically INU \ SN tf : Mk a aes A 7 \f rw AN about him. The low roof and the lamp-light sought to Li ) ON \ IS. oe va en Ss fh Js, 4 AR

re-create Belzoni’s he entered OQ) i»D\ NY an ere f oA iA® 4 tomb.” Beyond this first was impressions a replica of aasmuch larger the yy ‘S Ni EU de |A[8380s Ws or room, cerily resplendent with representations of ibis- Nae iss Nii Noo at Va A. by Oak Sas s headed gods, snakes, demons without arms, mummics OS Kit oe 4ooe BASS? 4; eS z\

Osiris enthroned. | h aR i ase a Seay i

stretched on couches, a painted group centering on iG =——-."y 7. a ar fee “ae *

Ideally, Belzoni should have reproduced, actual size, | Pea Ho i > Sf nl see Lolo = JZ iat sg Nt the whole of Seti’s complex tomb; but since the exca- ce ah |i! | by wml cel” yo —— ns hy " = i

vation had been 328 feet long, this would have far ex- al | Li le sil Wh inn = Si he Tall ceeded the dimensions of the hall. He therefore scttled | : | | ni it Hf yd! toy 7 . : | i A me i

for a one-sixth scale model, and, in an upstairs gallery, i) HD y | ty yw bie wih you 2 4) th M ep | 0

drawings ‘“‘mounted on canvas frames and_=ar- ane i | “N Beg Ac “4 I, oe \ hg an ir Se i, ws

ranged . .of . so that the visitor could sec whole Ae. 3 Ka lf ri; mie Rs ws “hhi lay-out the tomb and follow thethe sequence ofi pasi RB Cypb le [if ates sages andElsewhere, chambers from the entrance to the were burial-hosts : ——of=‘]- aa il! vault.”” skillfully deployed, eS“Sk

objects of kinds seldom before seen in London, and j ee er een SM

never in such profusion: idols and scarabs, papyri, lion-headed statues of the goddess Sckhmet, a wax model of the second pyramid along with a crosssection, on a scale of 120:1, showing its passages and captured the more frivolous aspect of the occasion in 73. The Great Hall of the Egyptunnels. All in all, it was a dramatic exhibition which an essay she contributed to the Literary Gazette—one tian Hall (outline etching of the did much to spread interest in ancient Egypt and in of the very few extended attempts ever made to por- —- fom as redesigned by John Paparchacology at large among the gencral public. The stir tray the company at a London exhibition.** The tone worth). it occasioned foreshadowed, at a great distance of time, of mild satire which was almost obligatory in social that caused by the brilliant display of the treasures descriptions at this time prevents the piece from being from Tutankhamun’s tomb in London (1972) and the thoroughly dependable historical documentation, but

United States (1976-1978). there is a residue of recognizable truth. Schoolboys

In many visitors, to be sure, the lamp of Icarning impishly discover likenesses of one another in the monburned low. The Countess of Blessington, the famous strous deities. A governess answers her charges’ queshostess who sometimes worked as a society journalist, tions by quoting from the guidebook, ‘‘not a word of William Bullock and the Egyptian Hall 245

which the little innocents could understand.”’ Another the British government’s informal blessing as part of child asks what a pyramid is, and is told it is ‘‘a pretty the process by which Britain sought to establish trade

ornament for the centre of a table, such as papa some- and diplomatic ties with Mexico, which few Engtimes has instead of an epergne.” Still another de- lishmen had entered during the long centuries of mands of his mama, before a model of the ruins of a Spanish domination. (Britain would officially recogtemple, what place the water represents, and is told nize the new Mexican republic in December 1824.) that she thinks it is the Red Sea but in any case not to While Bullock was at sea, however, war had broken ‘‘ask questions, as it would lead people to think them out between the incumbent Imperialists and the inignorant.”’ A lady asks her companion whether Egypt surgent Republicans. Upon arriving at Vera Cruz, is near Switzerland; no, she is told, it is near Venice. fearing that the lives of strangers like himself were in Some impressionable visitors are made melancholy by danger, Bullock obtained an interview with Santa all the funereal trappings and proceed to utter plati- Anna, the Republican general. Accepting Bullock’s tudes on mutability and the vanity of vanities. Two assurance that his mission was “‘solely to acquire scienvulgar-looking old men declare that “‘it was all a hum, tific information,” the soldier guaranteed his safety. for had there been such a place, Lord Nelson would Thus welcomed, Bullock spent the next six months have said summut about it, in his dispatches.”’ Two la- traveling widely in the country. The high point of his dies of fashion enter, escorted by two exquisites, and all stay came when the Mexican congress ceded to him a four presumably subscribe to the sentiments expressed flooded silver mine, which he had repaired by pumps by one of the ladies: “Do pray let us leave this tiresome and machinery brought down from the United States

stupid place, where there is not a single thing to be and from which he was said to have made a substantial seen worth looking at, and where the company is so fortune.*® intolerably vulgar. I really fancied it was a fashionable Bullock returned to Piccadilly in November 1823 morning lounge, where one could mect every soul with a rich haul of exhibits: casts of Montezuma’s cal-

worth meeting in town, for, as to looking at a set of endar stone, original carvings, models of tombs, Egyptian frights, it never entered into my head; I have manuscripts, hicroglyphic texts—a broad sampling not heard of Egypt since my governess used to bore of the remains of an ancient and, as far as England was me about it when I was learning geography; and as to concerned, little-known civilization. To these were tombs and pyramids, I have a perfect horror of them.” added materials representing modern Mexico: life-size “It was plain,’ Lady Blessington concluded, “‘that and miniature models of fruit and vegetables as well as they came to the Tomb merely to pass away an hour, actual specimens wherever possible; over two hundred

or in the expectation of meeting their acquaintances. species of birds, most of them hitherto undescribed; .. . Wrapt up in their own self-satisfied ignorance, between two and three hundred specimens of fish; a

ited at 28 Leicester Square, the ; 9 -L? . : ;

* In April 1825 his widow exhib- the works or monuments of antiquity boast no attrac- large collection of minerals; and sketches made by Bul-

former Hunterian Museum, a new tion for them. This may well have been true of the lock’s son, who accompanied him as draughtsman, model of the famous tomb, report- Majority of visitors. But whatever their motives or ex- Public interest having been stimulated, Belzoni-like,

edly for the benefit of his aged pectations, cnough members of the public paid their by the publication of his Six Months’ Residence and mother and other relatives in Padua half-crowns or, later, their shillings to support the Travels in Mexico, Bullock opened his show of Ancient To help the cause along, Sir John show for well over a year. Early in June 1822 the con- and Modern Mexico in April 1824.34 The installation wTleetion s prattove Libarter cane tents were sold at auction and the exhibition closed a had the same technical finesse that had distinguished cophagus which Belzoni had tried few days later. Hungry for new adventure, Belzoni set the natural history museum. In an early manifestation unsuccessfully to sell to the British out again, this time intending to reach the mysterious of awareness that the technique of exhibitions was Muscum, displayed his acquisition at city of Timbuktu and explore the equally mysterious worthy of critical appraisal, the Literary Gazette comthree benefit soirées at his home River Niger. But within a few months he was dead of mented: “Bullock is certainly matchless in the office of

in Lincoln’s Inn Frelds But both this * : “Loy: ‘ae gesture of assistance and the Leices- dysentery, gcrang, up Exhibitions. He forgets nothing; he Pro-

ter Square show failed The tomb cures every thing that can be interesting; he suits the model was seized in behalf of the D3e$a times, and he arranges his materials in a way that widow's creditors, a fund was begun cannot be surpassed.’*> Downstairs, on entering, one

written to the Times, and an appeal ; , ,

in her own behalf, letters were In December 1822, six months after Belzoni’s show was confronted with a panoramic view of Mexico City made to the government, but to no closed, Bullock was on his way to Mexico, a country made from the same sketches which Burford would avail (Stanley Mayes, The Great then in turmoil following the overturning of Spanish use for his next panorama, and in front of it, “in order

Belzom, London, 1959, pp. 287-90 ) rule. It is conceivable that the trip was undertaken with to heighten the deception, and to bring the spectator 246 The Shows of London

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