Thursday 19th August 1819
Thursday, August 19 we have taken up our abode at the Bucks head hotel which is good, we remained in doors busily employed the whole of the day in the evening went to the theatre which is very pretty, it happened to be Miss Stephens’s
benefit who sang several songs most beautifully.
OBSERVATIONS & COMMENTS:
The Buck's Head Hotel, at the corner of Argyle and Dunlop Streets, was erected in the 1750s as the home of Provost John Murdoch (1709-1776), a leading Glasgow merchant and Provost three times between 1746 and 1758. He sold it to another merchant, Thomas Hopkins, in 1777, and Hopkins' son sold it to Colin McFarlane, a vintner, in 1790. McFarlane converted the mansion and opened the Buck's Head Hotel in 1790.
From The Glasgow Story, at https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA03551
With the Saracen's Head, and the Black Bull, the Buck's Head was one of Glasgow's most popular hotels in the late 18th century. https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA03551
The new Theatre Royal opened on 24 April 1805 and was “Unequalled out of London”. Popular artistes included Julia Glover, Charles Macready, Edmund Kean, Mr & Mrs Charles Kemble, Mrs Howard and Mrs Wyndham. Whenever Kean appeared the house was full to overflowing and 250 additional seats were added in the wings and onstage. The premiere of the national opera 'Rob Roy' took place in Queen Street in June 1818 starring W. H. Murray before it went on tour round Scotland. Performances attracted the rich and not so rich patrons (there was a riot in 1818 when ticket prices were increased, requiring the Militia to be called to restore order). On the 18th September the same year the Theatre became the first in Britain to have gas lighting, with the announcement that:- 'The Grand Crystal Lustre of the front Roof of the Theatre, the largest of any of that time in Scotland, will, in place of the Wicks and the Candles and the Oil Lamps, be “Illuminated with Sparkling Gas.”' A reviewer wrote:- 'every seat in the boxes up to the double and triple tier was at once engaged, the spacious pit was crammed to suffocation, the first, second, and third galleries had not an inch of standing room to spare. The house presented a most brilliant appearance. Nearly every citizen of wealth or repute was present with his family. The signal was given. The green curtain of the stage was raised. Then the band struck up the National Anthem, the audience joining in the chorus. The gas, as if by magic, made its first “evolutions” to the astonishment of all, leaving some of them to fancy that they had been ushered into a new world – a perfect Elysium on earth.' The programme that night consisted of Mozart's Don Giovanni by a company of Italian artistes under the baton of Mr John Corri.
Queen Street, Glasgow showing the Theatre Royal to the right of the image. From Arthur Lloyd.co.uk, The Music Hall and Theatre History Site, Dedicated to Arthur Lloyd, 1839 - 1904. – who acknowledge Graeme Smith for the image in his book, 'THE THEATRE ROYAL: Entertaining a Nation'). http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Glasgow/TRQueenStreet.htm
Scene painters included Alexander Nasmyth, who had added to his fame through his portrait of Robert Burns, and later David Roberts who wrote of his arrival in 1819:- 'This theatre was immense in its size and appointments - in magnitude exceeding Drury Lane and Covent Garden.' http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Glasgow/TRQueenStreet.htm
Miss Mary Stephens, [née Davies, married names Sumbel & better known as Wells], Mary Stephens (1762–1829), actress https://georgianera.wordpress.com/tag/mary-stephens-wells/
1818: Miss Stephens of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Publisher J. Asperne, 32 Cornhill. From European Magazine http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/20482
From Lucy’s Scrapbook
The portrait of Miss Stephens on the right is from Lucy’s Scrap Book.
Can you help us?
Old Regency Prints, Pictures an Coaching maps: Do you have access to any prints or pictures showing what town and country would have looked like when Lucy travelled through? Any illustrations of what she would have seen in 1819 will enliven our research.
New Pictures: Do you have any modern pictures of the streets, buildings, gardens and views that would enable us to see the changes that two centuries have wrought?