Vampyre Bride ✔️

IX⎮Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens

⭐️The scene pictured above is of the Orchestra at Vauxhall Gardens. You can see one of the supper-boxes bottom left. But by the fashion worn in the painting we can easily tell that this was Vauxhall in the eighteenth century, therefore, a few years (perhaps decades) prior to Emma's visit in the nineteenth century.⭐️

It chanced that by Tuesday morning neither of the Miss Lucases had attended the masquerade ball at the King's Theatre the night before, those tickets having been far too dear. Milli had never been to one and volubly repined at having missed the opportunity to attend that one particularly; for she was quite certain that Victoria had gone as planned.

Their uncle, with his usual dry wit and candor, evinced not a whit of sympathy for his niece. "You, my dear, are silly and young enough to bear such grievous disappointments; and I imagine you will get over it soon enough."

Milli could not help snickering at her uncle's droll words and turned to see Emma rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "But you are still planning to take us to Vauxhall Gardens tonight as promised, Uncle. Is that not so?"

Uncle Haywood turned the page of his book and looked over the rim of his spectacles to answer her. "If I must."

"Ay, that you must." Milli sat thoughtfully a moment before her eyes widened with unbridled excitement. "Oh! we must take a boat across the Thames and enter by the Water Gate! I read in La Belle Assemblée that Lord Alvenly went by boat specifically to see the naumachia!"

"What is a naumachia, my dear?" Their poor aunt could not keep up at all with what was au courant the way Milli did.

"The sea-battle enactment! But I think we shall arrive too late to see it. Oh! I hope the Duchess of Devonshire will be there! Can you only imagine!" Said Milli, beaming at her aunt and sister before turning excitedly towards her uncle. "I say, uncle, we simply must go by boat!"

Millicent was ordinarily quite a practical sort of girl; her love and respect for her family was boundless, but she, like most of her peers, thrived on news of the celebrities of the season and the genteel goings on of the nobility as reported in her fashionable ladies magazines.

"Dearest Milli!" her uncle exclaimed with a snort, setting down his book," how shall you defray the cost of such an extravagance?"

"Me, uncle?!"

Here Emma too added to the conversation, with a teasing wink at her sister. "Indeed, sister, for you haven't a feather to fly with, never mind the cost of that particular fare."

"Very well," Milli acceded. "By carriage it is!" Then, thinking to bring about a compromise, she added, "But surely we shall have supper there at the very least."

"There, again, I must dissatisfy you. You shall not see me paying a shilling for a slice of ham thin enough to see through!" Robert Haywood picked his book up once more. "No, we had much better dine early and have a far more superior supper here before going out."

Later that evening, at around seven o'clock, they were all ensconced within the coach as it crossed Westminster Bridge and then, via Kennington Road, pulled into Bridge Street. The ladies were finally handed down, each dressed in new frocks, for Vauxhall was the place to be seen and admired. Milli was thrilled at the prospect of possibly seeing the famous ladies of the day, dashing gentlemen and lords of the realm; perhaps their notorious light o' loves as well...

Once they'd paid the requisite three shillings, they entered through the turnstile and beheld the magnificent quadrangle — four colonnades surrounded by walks and planted trees. The sun still sat low in the sky and, although they could not deny the beauty of such a fine sunset, they looked forward to dusk with eager anticipation, for the trees were, even now, festooned with the variegated lamps and colored glass that Vauxhall was so famous for. It would be dazzling by night; or so they'd heard.