ye, _England as Seen by Foreigners_, p.
183.]

From a map of the Manor of Paris Garden carefully surveyed by order of
the King in 1627[246] (see page 163), we learn the exact situation of
the building. It was set twenty-six poles, or four hundred and
twenty-six feet, from the bank of the river, in that corner of the
estate nearest London Bridge. Most of the playgoers from London,
however, came not over the Bridge, but by water, landing at the Paris
Garden Stairs, or at the near-by Falcon Stairs, and then walking the
short distance to the theatre.

[Footnote 246: Reproduced by Rendle, _The Bankside, Southwark, and the
Globe Playhouse_.]

[Illustration: THE SWAN PLAYHOUSE

(From Visscher's _View of London_, 1616).]

An excellent picture of the exterior of the Swan is furnished by
Visscher's _View of London_, 1616, (see page 165). From this, as well
as from the survey of 1627 just mentioned, we discover that the
building was duodecahedral--at least on the outside, for the interior
probably was circular. At the time of its erection it was, so we are
told, "the largest and the most magnificent playhouse" in London. It
contained three galleries surrounding an open pit, with a stage
projecting into the pit; and probably it differed in no essential
respect from the playhouses already built. In one point, however, it
may have differed--although of this I cannot feel sure: it may have
been provided with a stage that could be removed so as to allow the
building to be used on occasions for animal-baiting. The De Witt
drawing shows such a stage; and possibly Stow in his _Survey_ (1598)
gives evidence that the Swan was in early times employed for
bear-baiting:

And to begin at the west bank as afore, thus it followeth.
On this bank is the bear gardens, in number twain; to wit,
the old bear garden [i.e., the one built in 1583?] and the
new [i.e., the Swan?], places wherein be kept bears, bulls,
and other beasts, to be baited at stakes for pleasure; also
mastiffs to bait them in several kennels are there
nourished.[247]

[Footnote 247: Stow's original manuscript (Harl. MSS., 544), quoted by
Collier, _History of English Dramatic Poetry_ (1879), III, 96, note 3.
The text of the edition of 1598 differs very slightly.]

Moreover, in 1613 Henslowe used the Swan as the model for the Hope, a
building designed for both acting and animal-baiting. It should be
noted, however, that in all documents t