FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264  
265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   >>   >|  
fields. Up the river from the Effroc Stone, at the bend of the Thames which is nearly opposite St. James's Palace, behind Lambeth House, not far from the walk then called Foxhall (Vauxhall, probably), there was, between a pottery in which they made porcelain, and a glass-blower's, where they made ornamental bottles, one of those large unenclosed spaces covered with grass, called formerly in France _cultures_ and _mails_, and in England bowling-greens. Of bowling-green, a green on which to roll a ball, the French have made _boulingrin_. Folks have this green inside their houses nowadays, only it is put on the table, is a cloth instead of turf, and is called billiards. It is difficult to see why, having boulevard (boule-vert), which is the same word as bowling-green, the French should have adopted _boulingrin_. It is surprising that a person so grave as the Dictionary should indulge in useless luxuries. The bowling-green of Southwark was called Tarrinzeau Field, because it had belonged to the Barons Hastings, who are also Barons Tarrinzeau and Mauchline. From the Lords Hastings the Tarrinzeau Field passed to the Lords Tadcaster, who had made a speculation of it, just as, at a later date, a Duke of Orleans made a speculation of the Palais Royal. Tarrinzeau Field afterwards became waste ground and parochial property. Tarrinzeau Field was a kind of permanent fair ground covered with jugglers, athletes, mountebanks, and music on platforms; and always full of "fools going to look at the devil," as Archbishop Sharp said. To look at the devil means to go to the play. Several inns, which harboured the public and sent them to these outlandish exhibitions, were established in this place, which kept holiday all the year round, and thereby prospered. These inns were simply stalls, inhabited only during the day. In the evening the tavern-keeper put into his pocket the key of the tavern and went away. One only of these inns was a house, the only dwelling in the whole bowling-green, the caravans of the fair ground having the power of disappearing at any moment, considering the absence of any ties in the vagabond life of all mountebanks. Mountebanks have no roots to their lives. This inn, called the Tadcaster, after the former owners of the ground, was an inn rather than a tavern, an hotel rather than an inn, and had a carriage entrance and a large yard. The carriage entrance, opening from the court on the field, was t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260   261   262   263   264  
265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   286   287   288   289   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Tarrinzeau

 

bowling

 

called

 

ground

 

tavern

 

covered

 
boulingrin
 
French
 

Hastings

 

speculation


Tadcaster

 

carriage

 

entrance

 

mountebanks

 

Barons

 

athletes

 

exhibitions

 

permanent

 

established

 
jugglers

outlandish

 

public

 

Archbishop

 

Several

 

harboured

 

platforms

 

vagabond

 

Mountebanks

 
absence
 

disappearing


moment

 

opening

 

owners

 

caravans

 

stalls

 
inhabited
 

property

 

simply

 

prospered

 

evening


dwelling

 
keeper
 

pocket

 

holiday

 

belonged

 

ornamental

 
bottles
 

blower

 

pottery

 
porcelain