Account of the Vauxhall Fete From Miss Berry

From Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry Vol. 2 at 536-538

Tuesday, July 20, 1813.--To-day is to be the grand fete at Vauxhall, so much talked of, in honour of Lord Wellington’s victories. At ten o’clock I started with Mrs Montague in a coach, and Mr. Knutzen, the Norwegian, for my cavalier, and Mr. Tisdale as hers. Before Carlton House the carriage stopped, and what was my horror when I saw that we had already got to the tail of the carriages, which extended from Pall Mall to Vauxhall! We were obliged to be patient; I was too thankful to think we were not in our own carriage, and to know that the horses and the coachman that we had were amongst the best in London. All the skill of the coachman and the strength of the horses were necessary to draw us out; there never was such a confusion of carriages, without order, without soldiers, or any precaution whatever against the accidents which must inevitably happen in such an assemblage. At length, after two hours on the road, and many perilous moments, we got out of the carriage, about half a mile from Vauxhall, as the only means of getting there at all. There never was a fete (even in this country) at which it was so difficult to arrive, with so little to tempt one to stay, and from which it was so impossible to get away, The stewards who had dined there, and were walking about with their wands of office, could do nothing for those that belonged to them. For the most part of the people there was no means of eating, drinking or sitting down. We were able to do the latter; but when at half-past three in the morning we wished to leave, the crowd was for a few minutes terrible, and after getting through it, we had to walk for more than a mile to join the carriage. They will not catch me at such a fete in this country again. This has cost more than 10,000l., and they had either the carelessness or the meanness not to pay the toll-gate so that each carriage was stopped for fourpence. They say that 13,000 people were present–I do not believe that. The decoration was brilliant, without much taste; the fireworks not better than usual, but repeated three times during the evening.