THE ORIGIN OF SADLER'S WELLS

The mention of Sadler's Wells Theatre seems to sound a good note in the dramatic history of England, and the dramatic student stands and wonders that the dear old theatre should be at the present time little better than were the old penny gaffs of four or five decades ago. The wonder is greater, when it is known that some four or five handsome theatres have sprung up in Northern London, and that the home of more revivals of Shakespeare's plays than at any other theatre in the world, and of some of the soundest acting of this century, is now such a poor home of the drama.

However, the old landmark is not yet in the house-breaker's hands; so let us hope that the old spot may yet have a brighter future before it. And there is one grand consolation, which is that the noted old resort will never be so sadly desecrated as were most of the old Tea Gardens before they were blotted out.

Perhaps everyone does not know that a Mr. Sadler, in about 1683, re-discovered a famous old healing water spring that had been of great note in a Clerkenwell priory before the Reformation, and named it “Sadler's Wells,” but Mr. Sadler could hardly have dreamed that the place would bear his name for centuries.