[Illustration: SUMMER AMUSEMENT, OR A GAME AT BOWLS.]
_August 20, 1800._ _Summer Amusement; or, a Game at Bowls._ Published
by T. Rowlandson, 1 James's Street, Adelphi.--It has been a custom
immemorial to laugh at the exertions which were made by our ancestors
to obtain rational open-air recreation. The fashionable part of society
have, for once, found congenial allies in the wits. The papers which
doubtless obtained the most popular reception in their day, since
they laughed at the simple citizens 'on pleasure bent,' and held up
their relaxations to a ridicule which was often neither subtle nor
polished, were the essays in the _Spectator_, _Tatler_, _Guardian_,
_Humourist_, _&c._, which made fun of the countrified loungings of
the Londoners. The squibs, in the shape of poetical broadsheets
and songs of the Stuart era, against sylvan aspirations, were but
re-echoed by the bright and cultivated humourists who flourished when
'Anna ruled the realm.' Sturdy Hogarth, with his pictures, brought
the commonplace pleasures--although he was addicted to them with no
half-spirit himself--of his neighbours into ludicrous prominence. The
_Connoisseur_, _World_, _Mirror_, _Adventurer_, _Observer_, _Lounger_,
_Looker-on_, and even Johnson's _Rambler_, are particularly caustic on
the comic side of humanity, as seen in their out-of-door pastimes. As
to the days of transition, when the early Georgian generation was being
rapidly submerged and effaced by the tide of progression, both writers
and caricaturists combined to satirise cockney jauntings unmercifully.
Gillray, Rowlandson, Collings, Boyle, Bunbury, Deighton, Woodward,
Nixon, Newton, and a swarm of amateur followers, were always ready
to make fun of suburban excursions; such productions were certain to
obtain fame for the designers, and a ready patronage at the hands of a
public which encouraged similar everyday irony.
It seems, however, now the suburbs have disappeared, where tea-gardens
were once abundant--to which, armed with lanterns and in groups, for
better security against the knights of the road, footpads, and similar
dangers which were then rife, our forefathers repaired with light
hearts, released from the culture of Mammon and money-grubbing--that
we have lost a great deal which modern improvements are powerless to
restore.
A little generation back there were still relics of past pleasure
haunts, a Sluice House, a Hornsey Wood House, and numberless similar
resorts for the dwellers in Babylon, who sighed to turn, for a brief
afternoon of diversion, their respectable backs on groves of brick,
and to regale their pastoral-longing eyes with a semblance of the
country. Now the monster metropolis, with unsparing strides, has
finally absorbed such patches of verdure, as made homely retreats on
red-letter holidays; and life is considerably restricted, as regards
the variety which an hour's jaunt could introduce into the prosaic
current of yearly existence, as far as the boundaries of the giant city
are concerned.
A great deal could be written on the defunct pleasure-gardens which
once enlivened the outskirts; but their glories are departed, or
at best preserved in the satires, literary and artistic, which
contemporary humourists levelled at the Georgic-loving citizens who
frequented them. Such a suburban retreat, with the motley crowds
who disported themselves thereat, is graphically reproduced in
Rowlandson's plate of _Summer Amusement_. Much of the delight was
prosaic and toilsome; but, seemingly, good fun was to be had, and
people could lay aside their conventional rigidity for once and
awhile, when fine weather and the pleasant season tempted them to
stray, and leave the everlasting counting-house at home, for a game
at bowls and a little wholesome relaxation. The various groups found
in the picture are well conceived. Two games are proceeding, into
which cits, of various degrees, are throwing their entire energies.
The whimsical accompaniments connected with 'taking tea in the arbour'
are faithfully seized. The soberer elders are crowding the hospitable
'house of call.' Round the foremost table is gathered a convivial
party; the worthy souls are draining a parting bowl, before commencing
their return journey, for which the lantern is set on the ground in
prudent preparation. A little toasting is going on at the next table,
and beyond that an arcadian flirtation is in progress, with various
incidents transpiring around, such as the observant philosopher might
have noted in 1800, without travelling very far out of his way.
_August 30, 1800._ _Gratification of the Senses à la mode
Française._--(Seeing, Tasting, Hearing, Smelling, Feeling.)
_October 1._ _The Newspaper._ G. M. Woodward invt., Rowlandson sculp.
Published by R. Ackermann.
_October 29, 1800._ _Grotesque borders for Rooms and Halls._--Published
October 25 and 29, 1800, by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand. Woodward del.,
Rowlandson sculp.
1800 (?). _Sterne, L. The Beauties of Sterne._ With one plate by T.
Rowlandson. 12mo.