were out of fashion. The Londoners went for amusement to the
Bankside, or South Side of the Thames, where were the famous Paris
Gardens, much used as a rendezvous by gallants; and there were the places
for bear and bull baiting; and there were the theatres--the Paris
Gardens, the Swan, the Rose, the Hope, and the Globe. The
pleasure-seekers went over usually in boats, of which there were said to
be four thousand plying between banks; for there was only one bridge, and
that was crowded with houses. All distinguished visitors were taken over
to see the gardens and the bears baited by dogs; the queen herself went,
and perhaps on Sunday, for Sunday was the great day, and Elizabeth is
said to have encouraged Sunday sports, she had been (we read) so much
hunted on account of religion! These sports are too brutal to think of;
but there are amusing accounts of lion-baiting both by bears and dogs, in
which the beast who figures so nobly on the escutcheon nearly always
proved himself an arrant coward, and escaped away as soon as he could
into his den, with his tail between his legs. The spectators were once
much disgusted when a lion and lioness, with the dog that pursued them,
all ran into the den, and, like good friends, stood very peaceably
together looking out at the people.

The famous Globe Theatre, which was built in 1599, was burned in 1613,
and in the fire it is supposed were consumed Shakespeare's manuscripts of
his plays. It was of wood (for use in summer only), octagon shaped, with
a thatched roof, open in the centre. The daily performance here, as in
all theatres, was at three o'clock in the afternoon, and boys outside
held the horses of the gentlemen who went in to the play. When theatres
were restrained, in 1600, only two were allowed, the Globe and the
Fortune, which was on the north side, on Golden Lane. The Fortune was
fifty feet square within, and three stories high, with galleries, built
of wood on a brick foundation, and with a roof of tiles. The stage was
forty-three feet wide, and projected into the middle of the yard (as the
pit was called), where the groundlings stood. To one of the galleries
admission was only twopence. The young gallants used to go into the yards
and spy about the galleries and boxes for their acquaintances. In these
theatres there was a drop-curtain, but little or no scenery. Spectators
had boxes looking on the stage behind the curtain, and they often sat
upon the stage with the actors