3-016-905 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shakspeare Commemoration in London: unveiling a bust of Shakspeare at the Agricultural Hall, 1864. View of a ' musical and dramatic fete at the Agricultural Hall, Islington...[There] were dramatic recitals by Mr. Henry Marston, Mr. James Bennett, Mr. J. L. Toole, and Mr. Paul Bedford (by the kind permission of B. Webster, Esq.). At ten o'clock the colossal Tercentenary Bust, modelled for the occasion by Mr. Charles Bacon, was crowned by the people at the hands of Tragedy and Comedy, and the grand chorale "England's Minstrel King" was sung by a monster choir...The hall was decorated with one hundred Shakspearean banners. The famous hostelries of Shakspeare's time, including the Boar's Head, East Chepe; the Falcon, the Mermaid, the Devil, and the Tabard, in Southwark, were revived, to supply, in addition to the ordinary refreshments, sack, canary, capons, venison pasties, and other dishes and liqueurs of the Elizabethan era, the attendants being clad in the costume of the period. The band and chorus, of 2000, was conducted by Mr. Benedict'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.