The Merry Past 



assistance was also enlisted ; he was then (such was 

 the deplorable state of painting in England) con- 

 sidered the best painter of history. A number of 

 minor artists were also liberally rewarded for their 

 assistance in the decoration of this pleasure resort. 



Tyers in his own way was a remarkable man, as 

 seems to have been generally recognised, for he was the 

 friend and patron of many cultivated men of his time. 



Like Charles the Second, he combined the fine 

 gentleman with the bon vivant, possessed a warm and 

 generous heart, and was consequently most liberal to 

 those whose talents contributed to his plans. He was 

 esteemed by the composers who wrote for his orchestra, 

 and did abundant kind offices for his vocal and in- 

 strumental performers. The ladies, whose sweet 

 notes, as a contemporary chronicler poetically put it, 

 '^silenced the nightingales of his illuminated groves," 

 experienced in him an intrepid protector from 

 the freedom of the gay bloods and bucks of those 

 hot-blooded times, until everyone, struck with his 

 gallant manners, emulated the proprietor's courteous 

 ways, and public favourites were treated with be- 

 coming attention and respect. 



. It was once the custom for parties of ladies and 

 gentlemen to go by water to Vauxhall, the pro- 

 prietor stationing two of the beadles of the Water- 

 men's Company to attend at Vauxhall Stairs from 

 five to eleven o'clock, to prevent imposition and 

 abuse. In 1738, silver tickets were sold at twenty- 

 four shillings each, to admit two for the season. 

 A single admittance was one shilling. 



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