| Citation |
BG.731.015
19-26 Apr 1731:12 (591)
York, March 1. This being the Queens birthday, the Rt. Hon
the Lord Mayor & Alderman, with all the gentlemen in town,
laid the foundation stone of the theatre, which is to be
erected on the plan of the Rt. Hon. the Earl of
Burlington's, our Lord Lieutenant and Governor. It is to be
for all publick diversions, such as assemblies, concerts of
musick, &c. and will be 92 foot in the front (where will be
a magnificent portico) and 136 foot in depth, and will
consist of 7 rooms, one of which is to be a spacious hall,
after the Aegyptian manner, 112 feet in length, and 40 in
breadth, and the same in heighth, which will have a colonade
of 48 corinthian pillars supporting the upper part of the
building, which is to be adorned with the like number of
pilasters of the same order, windows being between each, to
the number of 44 for the convenience of air; and in the race
week, for the benefit of the populace, and in case a crown'd
head should ever grace this place, there will be a gallery
all round on the out-side, where people may look, in at the
windows, and see all that passes in the inside.
At 12 o'clock 3 troops of General Churchill's regiment
marched to the Lord Mayor's, who, attended by the gentlemen,
went to the ground, and perform'd the ceremony of laying the
stone, which had a Latin inscription fix'd on it brass, and
several pieces of our coin, the troops firing at the same
time, and the 12 bells of the [York] Minster ringing, and
the King's and Queen's health was drank by all present on
this occasion.
The Inscription.
Imp. Georgio Aug. II.
. . . [18 more lines]
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