Chapter X: Ranelagh Gardens

136 CHAPTER 7: RANELAGH GARDENS The Ranelagh Gardens season was an easy one for Beard to combine with his work at the theatre. Many of the musicians were the same, as well as the composers. The audience, too, came from the same social strata – from Royalty, via the aristocracy, down to the well-heeled and the nouveau riche: anyone, indeed who could afford the 2s 6d entrance fee.1 The music that they would have heard would be similar to the interval music at the London theatres, mixed together with even more ephemeral songs and ballads that scarcely outlived one season. So many of these were published subsequently, together with the names of the performer (e.g. ‘as sung by Mr Beard at Ranelagh Gardens’), that together they compose a very solid corpus of contemporary music.2 But, like pop-songs today, they were here today and gone tomorrow. Beard’s job of learning all this new material was one of the reasons that he was paid good money by the directors of the Gardens. insert ‘Myrtilla’ song-sheet, with heading “sung by Mr Beard at Ranelagh” Ranelagh had sprung up in the early 1740s as a more up-market version of Vauxhall and Marylebone Gardens. These had been offering food, drink and music in an elaborate garden setting since the mid-1730s. Their one drawback was that most of the entertainment was provided out of doors. Although they each built large supper rooms in which the entertainment could be carried on in bad weather, there are many reports of shoes and expensive clothes being ruined by rain and puddles, despite the management laying down a ‘platform entirely covered in’ to enable them to circumvent the worst areas.3 Ranelagh turned the idea of the Pleasure Gardens on its head and made the principal feature an elegant Rotunda of vast proportions. At an internal diameter of 150 feet and an external of 185 it was ‘inferior to few publick buildings in Europe’; and at ‘near twenty feet more in diameter than the Rotunda at Rome’ it was ‘covered with a most excellent contriv’d roof’.4 The rotunda was where the fine assembly gathered for their refreshment, and for the evening concert. Exercise was taken by promenading around in a circle,5 since the vast expanse of ceiling was supported by an elaborate central construction in the hub of the building, which was originally designated the ‘orchestra’. insert Canaletto painting of the interior If it was intended to house the musicians, as in a similar out-door construction at Vauxhall (which can be seen in contemporary views by Canaletto, Rowlandson and others), it was quickly found to be unsatisfactory. As any modern acoustics expert could have predicted, the Rotunda was not a good place to hear well. As with the Royal Albert Hall, which was modelled on the Ranelagh building, it was found that a circular building was a boomy and echoey environment in which to listen to music. In addition, the practice was to keep walking about; sometimes going away from the source of the sound, and sometimes approaching it. 1 Sir John Fielding said that the Gardens were ‘seldom frequented by any below middle rank’. Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p.33 2 See Appendix 7 3 Mollie Sands, ‘The Eighteenth-Century Pleasure Gardens of Marylebone 1737-1777’, The Society for Theatre Research, 1987, p. 69 4 Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p. 17 5 “The numbers of people who are generally assembled here, and who are walking round and round, present a curious sight”. Count Frederick Kielmansegge, ‘Diary of a Journey to London in the years 1761-2’, London, 1902, p.23 137 Right in front of the musicians, where music-lovers did indeed stop – there were no actual seats for an audience. The only seats were in the two tiers of boxes, where the refreshments were served. The Gentleman’s Magazine set the scene as follows: “Groups of well-dressed persons were disposed in the boxes, numbers covered the area. All manner of refreshments were within call; and music of all kinds echoed (though not intelligibly) from those elegant retreats where Pleasure seemed to beckon her wanton followers”. That was written in 1742, the year the gardens opened. Fortunately for the musicians initially hired to provide the musical entertainment, the orchestra was relocated to one of the four entrance porticoes, and the central building - which can also be seen clearly in Canaletto’s painting of 1754 and contemporary prints - found a use as a servery.6 Although the Rotunda was the main feature, and the Garden’s major asset in coping with the British weather, it was surrounded by pleasant grounds with gravelled walks. As at Vauxhall these were enlivened by water-features, lakes, a canal, exotic temples and gazebos. insert Print of exterior of Ranelagh c. 1750 On specific occasions there was outdoor music, either from the ‘chinese’ temple on an island in the lake, or from boats on the canal. It was from this island that fireworks were set off at the conclusion of the evening Balls, Ridottos and Masquerades.7 The shady walks, lined with elms and yews, led down to an attractive frontage overlooking the river Thames. Many guests made their way there by boat, rather than risk the traffic jams and footpads that made a journey down ‘The King’s New Road’ a sometimes daunting experience.8 The Proprietors did all they could to make a visit to Chelsea a pleasant experience, and even supplied ‘a sufficient Guard within and without the House and Gardens to prevent any Disorders or Indecencies, and to oblige Persons guilty immediately to quit the Place’. More to the point an armed Guard patrolled the badly-lit approach roads. It is difficult to reconstruct a typical week at Ranelagh, as the information is often lacking. The Gardens customarily announced in the Press when they would be open. At the beginning of the season there would be ‘Breakfasts’ with live music; but there is very little information on the music that was played. As it served as background music the musicians most probably relied on the staple fare that was played before the plays (the ‘First Musicke’ and ‘Second Musicke’) at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. This consisted of Handel Opera Overtures; the Concerti Grossi of Corelli and Handel; and music by popular Italian composers such as Geminiani and Pasquali. As a competitor to Vauxhall it achieved its aim, and also attracted a better class of client by making its entrance costs higher than any other garden’s. Horace Walpole was able to declare: “It has totally beat Vauxhall. My Lord Chesterfield is so fond of it, that he says he has ordered all his letters to be directed thither. If you had never see it, I would make you a most pompous description of it, and tell you ...that you can’t set your foot without treading on a Prince of Wales or Duke of Cumberland. The company is universal; there is from his Grace of Grafton down to Children out of the Foundling Hospital – from my 9 Lady Townshend to the kitten”. 6 “In the centre is a large open fireplace, serving to give the necessary warmth as well as to supply hot water.” Count Frederick Kielmansegge, op. cit., p.23 7 “The large and pretty garden ...is seldom used except for fireworks; ...but notwithstanding this, you occasionally come across couples there, as it is always lighted up”. Count Frederick Kielmansegge, op. cit., p. 24 8 “To Ranelagh, where saw several friends, saw at Ranelagh Beard’s Night, ‘L’Allegro and Penseroso’... our two coaches for a good hour and ½ could not get 200 yds”. - from ‘The Diary of John Baker’, London, 1931, p. 125 9 Mollie Sands, ‘Invitation to Ranelagh’, London, 1946, p.42 138 Ranelagh opened with a ‘Public Breakfast’ on April 5th 1742. Its evening concerts, which included vocal items, commenced on May 24th.10 This pattern was to suit Beard, who still had commitments at the theatre until mid-May. But it is often clear from his diary that the two contracts of engagement overlapped. When he first began to be the male vocalist there is not so easy to determine. The newspaper advertisements announced the beginning and end of the season, and highlighted exceptional Balls and Masquerades, but never mentioned the names of the performers. Such infomation has had to be dug up from other sources. Thus, we can be sure that Beard was the vocalist by the Spring of 1746 as a note in the margin of the Winston m/s for 1744-52 11 itemises what was happening in the months when the London theatres were closed. In 1746 there is a listing for Ranelagh, with the comment ‘Beard sung there’. The Winston m/s also indicates that in 1746 the season started on Monday April 20th with Breakfasts, that the evening concerts commenced on May 15th (two days after Beard’s last performance in the Covent Garden season), and that there was a Ball on June 5th. In 1747 the Winston m/s is less detailed; but it appears to indicate that the Ranelagh season was open for Breakfasts (with instrumental music) on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; and that Concerts, running from 7pm to 10pm took place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This is the first information we have that Beard was only obliged to sing on three evenings a week. The timetable in 1748 is a little different. The Breakfasts now commenced in March, and there was a concert every morning in Passion Week.

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