Sylas Neville

The Diary of Sylas Neville, 1767-1788

Ed. Basil Cozens-Hardy. OUP, 1950.

Mon. Jun. 8 [1767]...At 6 went to Marybone Gardens, a place of the kind of Ranelagh - but not so elegant nor frequented by such good company - indeed much indifferent company resort to both. A transparent picture of a Patagonian man, woman and child was exhibited for the first time; went and returned on foot. Marybone fields are much pleasanter than the gardens. Got home about 11.

The author was 26 at the time and had given up his law studies to enjoy the life of man-about-town. The pleasure gardens offered many diversions: Patagonians were then an object of great curiosity as they were thought to be giants. The frontispiece to Commodore Byron's Journal of a Voyage Round the World, published the previous year, showed them as nearly twice the size of the European officers standing alongside. The transparent painting, on several layers of fabric and lit from behind, would have given a striking three-dimensional effect.

Tues. Jun. 23 [1767]...½ past six got to Marybone Gardens to hear Dr. Arne's Glee of "Which is the properest day to drink?" That of "The Silent Cock and hen that crows" and others performed with a few fireworks by Blanfield. 11 when I left the Gardens. Crossing the fields when full of people from the Garden is not dangerous.