Colin’s description of Vauxhall or Green-Wood Hall is by the English composer and organist Thomas Gladwin (1710-1799) and was published in Calliope or English Harmony in 1739. It is the archetypal Vauxhall song which had become a genre in itself as many songs had been written since the early 1730s enumerating and praising all the attractions at the gardens. Although this was little more than a tiny media puff for the gardens, the colourful text, again by John Lockman enthuses over the delights there, ‘dear Vauxhall no Paradise is sweeter not that they Eden call’ and skillfully mentions the Princess of Wales ‘the Lady of the May’ to attract an admiring audience.

One verse admires the spectacular Roubiliac statue of Handel which graced an area near where the orchestra played:

As still amaz’d I’m straying
O’er this inchanted Grove
I spy a Harper playing
All in his proud Alcove
I doff my Hat desireing
He’d tune up Buxom Joan
But what was I admiring
Odzooks a man of Stone.

Thomas Gladwin was an organist and composer at Vauxhall from 1738 until 1744. James Worgan (1715-1753) was also an organist at Vauxhall during the 1730s and his brother Dr John Worgan (1724-1790) took over as organist in 1751, as well as being director of the music for a year and an ‘in house’ composer at Vauxhall.

from notes by Bridget Cunningham © 2017