The old showmen, and the old London fairs

THE OLD SHOWMEN,

AND THE

OLD LONDON FAIES.

-HE

THE OLD SHOWMEN,

AND THE

OLD LONDON FAIRS.

BY

THOMAS FKOST,

AUTHOB OF
HALF-HOURS WITH THE EARLY EXPLORERS.

LONDON :

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.
1874.

All Eights Reserved,

PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,
LITTLE QUEEN STREET. LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

PREFACE.

POPULAR amusements constitute so important a part
of a nation's social history that no excuse need be
offered for the production of the present volume.
The story of the old London fairs has not been
told before, and that of the almost extinct race of
the old showmen is so inextricably interwoven with
it that the most convenient way of telling either was
to tell both. An endeavour has been made, there-
fore, to relate the rise, progress, and declension of
the fairs formerly held in and about the metropolis
as comprehensively and as thoroughly as the imper-
fect records of such institutions render possible ;
and to weave into the narrative all that is known of

vi Preface.

the personal history of the entertainers of the people
who, from the earliest times to the period when the
London fairs became things of the past, have set
up shows in West Smithfield, on the greens of
Southward Stepney, and CamberwelL, and in the
streets of Greenwich and Deptford. Those who
remember the fairs that were the last abolished,
even in the days of their decline, will, it is thought,
peruse with interest such fragments of the personal
history of Gyngell, Scowton, Saunders, Eichardson,
Wombwell, and other showmen of the last half cen-
tury of the London fairs, to say nothing of the
earlier generations of entertainers, as are brought
together in the following pages.

The materials for a work of this kind are not
abundant. The notices of the fairs to be found in
records of the earlier centuries of their history are
slight, and more interesting to the antiquary than
to the general reader. Newspapers of the latter
half of the seventeenth century, and the first half of
the eighteenth, afford only advertisements of the
amusements, and of the showmen of the former
period we learn only the names. During the latter

Preface. vii

half of the last century, the showmen seldom adver-
tised in the newspapers, and few of their bills have
been preserved. No showman has ever written his
memoirs, or kept a journal ; and the biographers of
actors who have trodden the portable stages of
Scowton and Richardson in the early years of their
professional career have failed to glean many
incidents of their fair experiences. All that can be
presented of the personal history of such men as
Gyngell, Scowton, Kichardson, and Wombwell, has
been gathered from the few surviving members of
the fraternity of showmen, and from persons who,
at different periods, and in various ways, have been
brought into association with them. If, therefore,
no other merit should be found in the following
pages, they will at least have been the means of
preserving from oblivion all that is known of an
almost extinct class of entertainers of the people.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Origin of Fairs — Charter Fairs at Winchester and Chester —
Croydon Fairs — Fairs in the Metropolis — Origin of Bar-
tholomew Fair — Disputes between the Priors and the
Corporation — The Westminster Fairs — Southwark Fair —
Stepney Fair — Ceremonies observed in opening Fairs —
Walking the Fair at Wolverhampton — The Key of the
Fair at Croydon — Proclamation of Bartholomew Fair

CHAPTEE II.

Amusements of the Fairs in the Middle Ages — Shows and
Showmen of the Sixteenth Century— Banks and his
Learned Horse — Bartholomew Fair in the time of Charles
T. — Punch and Judy — Office of the Revels — Origin of
Hocus Pocus — Suppression of Bartholomew Fair — Lon-
don Shows during the Protectorate — A Turkish Rope-
Dancer — Barbara Vanbeck, the Bearded Woman . . 18

x Contents.

CHAPTER III.

PAGE

Strolling Players in the Seventeenth Century — Southwark
Fair — Bartholomew Fair— Pepys and the Monkeys— Poli-
chinello— Jacob Hall, the Eope-Dancer — Another Bearded
Woman — Richardson, the Fire-Eater — The Cheshire
Dwarf— Killigrew and the Strollers — Fair on the Thames
— The Irish Giant — A Dutch Eope-Dancer — Music
Booths— Joseph Clarke, the Posturer — William Philips,
the Zany — William Stokes, the Vaulter — A Show in
Threadneedle Street . . . . .36

CHAPTER IV.

Attempts to Suppress the Shows at Bartholomew Fair — A
remarkable Dutch Boy — Theatrical Booths at the London
Fairs — Penkethman, the Comedian — May Fair — Barnes
and Finley — Lady Mary — Dogerett, the Comedian — Simp-
son, the Vaulter — Clench, the Whistler — A Show at
Charing Cross — Another Performing Horse — Powell and
Crawley, the Puppet-Showmen — Miles's Music-Booth —
Settle and Mrs. Mynn — Southwark Fair — Mrs. Horton,
the Actress — Bullock and Leigh — Penkethman and Pack
— Boheme, the Actor — Suppression of May Fair — Wood-
ward, the Comedian — A Female Hercules — Tiddy-dol, the
Gingerbread Vendor 66

CHAPTER V.

Bartholomew Fair Theatricals — Lee, the Theatrical Printer-
Harper, the Comedian — Eayner and Pullen — Fielding,
the Novelist, a Showman — Gibber's Booth — Hippisley,
the Actor — Fire in Bartholomew Fair — Fawkes, the Con-
juror— Royal Visit to Fielding's Booth — Yeates, the Show-
man— Mrs. Pritchard, the Actress — Southwark Fair —
Tottenham Court Fair — Ryan, the Actor — Hallam's
Booth— Griffin, the Actor — Visit of the Prince of Wales
to Bartholomew Fair — Laguerre's Booth — Heidegger —
More Theatrical Booths— Their Suppression at Bartho-
lomew Fair— Hogarth at Southwark Fair— Violante, the
Rope-Dancer— Cadman, the Flying Man . . . 102

Contents. xi

CHAPTER VI.

PAGE

A new Race of Showmen — Yeates, the Conjuror — The Turkish
Rope-Walker — Pan and the Oronutu Savage — The Cor-
sican Fairy — Perry's Menagerie — The Riobiscay and the
Double Cow — A Mermaid at the Fairs — Garrick at Bar-
tholomew Fair — Yates's Theatrical Booth — Dwarfs and
Giants — The Female Samson — Riots at Bartholomew
Fair— Ballard's Animal Comedians — Evans, the Wire-
Walker — Southwark Fair — Wax-work Show — Shuter, the
Comedian — Bisset, the Animal Trainer — Powell, the Fire-
Eater — Roger Smith, the Bell-Player — Suppression of
Southwark Fair . .147

CHAPTER VII.

Yates and Shuter — Cat Harris — Mechanical Singing Birds —
Lecture on Heads — Pidcock's Menagerie — Breslaw, the
Conjuror — Reappearance of the Corsican Fairy — Gaetano,
the Bird Imitator — Rossignol's Performing Birds — Am-
broise, the Showman — Brunn, the Juggler, on the Wire —
Riot at Bartholomew Fair — Dancing Serpents — Flockton,
the Puppet-Showman — Royal Visit to Bartholomew Fair
— Lane, the Conjuror — Hall's Museum — O'Brien, the
Irish Giant — Baker's Theatre — Joel Tarvey and Lewis
Owen, the popular Clowns 180

CHAPTER VIII.

Lady Holland's Mob— Kelham Whiteland, the Dwarf— Flock-
ton, the Conjuror and Puppet-Showman — Wonderful
Rams — Miss Morgan, the Dwarf — Flockton's Will —
Gyngell, the Conjuror — Jobson, the Puppet-Showman —
Abraham Saunders — Menageries of Miles and Polito —
Miss Biffin— Philip Astley 198

CHAPTER IX.

Edmund Kean — Mystery of his Parentage — Saunders's Circus
— Scowton's Theatre — Belzoni — The Nondescript — Rich-
ardson's Theatre — The Carey Family— Kean, a Circus

xii Contents.

PAGE

Performer — Oxberry, the Comedian — James Wallack —
Last Appearance of the Irish Giant— Miss Biffin and the
Earl of Morton — Bartholomew Fair Incidents — Josephine
Grirardelli, the Female Salamander — James England, the
Flying Pieman — Elliston as a Showman — Simon Paap,
the Dutch Dwarf — Bollard's Menagerie — A Learned Pig
— Madame Gobert, the Athlete — Cartlich, the Original
Mazeppa — Barnes, the Pantaloon — Nelson Lee — Cooke's
Circus— The Gyngell Family . . \ . . . .213

CHAPTEE X.

Saker and the Lees — Richardson's Theatre — Wombwell, the
Menagerist — The Lion Fights at Warwick — Maughan, the
Showman — Miss Hipson, the Fat Girl — Lydia Walpole,
the Dwarf — The Persian Giant and the Fair Circassian —
Ball's Theatre — Atkins's Menagerie— A Mare with Seren
Feet — Hone's Visit to Richardson's Theatre — Samwell's
Theatre — Clarke's Circus — Brown's Theatre of Arts — Bal-
lard's Menagerie — Toby, the Learned Pig — William
Whitehead, the Fat Boy— Elizabeth Stock, the Giantess
— Chappell and Pike's Theatre — The Spotted Boy —
Wombwell's "Bonassus" — Gouffe, the Man-Monkey —
De Berar's Phantasmagoria — Scowton's Theatre — Death
of Richardson . . 255

CHAPTEE XI.

Successors of Scowton and Richardson — Nelson Lee — Crow-
ther, the Actor — Paul Herring — Newman and Allen's
Theatre — Fair in Hyde Park — Hilton's Menagerie — Bar-
tholomew Fair again threatened — Wombwell's Menagerie
— Charles Freer — Fox Cooper and the Bosjesmans — De-
struction of Johnson and Lee's Theatre — Reed's Theatre —
Hales, the Norfolk Giant — Affray at Greenwich — Death
of Wombwell — Lion Queens — Catastrophe in a Menagerie
—World's Fair at Bayswater— Abbott's Theatre— Charlie
Keith, the Clown — Robson, the Comedian — Manders's
Menagerie — Macomo, the Lion-Tamer — Macarthy and the
Lions — Fairgrieve's Menagerie — Lorenzo and the Tigress
— Sale of a Menagerie — Extinction of the London Fairs —
Decline of Fairs near the Metropolis— Conclusion . . 319

THE OLD SHOWMEN,

AND THE

OLD LONDON FAIRS.

CHAPTEE I.

Origin of Fairs — Charter Fairs at Winchester and Chester—
Croydon Fairs — Fairs in the Metropolis — Origin of Bar-
tholomew Fair — Disputes between the Priors and the
Corporation — The Westminster Fairs — Southwark Fair —
Stepney Fair — Ceremonies observed in opening Fairs —
Walking the Fair at Wolverhampton — The Key of the
Fair at Croydon — Proclamation of Bartholomew Fair.

THERE can be no doubt that the practice of holding
annual fairs for the sale of various descriptions of
merchandise is of very great antiquity. The
necessity of periodical gatherings at certain places
for the interchange of the various products of
industry must have been felt as soon as our ancestors
became sufficiently advanced in civilisation to desire

The Old Showmen,

articles which were not produced in every locality,
and for which, owing to the sparseness of the
scattered population, there was not a demand in
any single town that would furnish the producers
with an adequate inducement to limit their business
to one place. Most kinds of agricultural produce
might be conveyed to the markets held every week
in all the towns, and there disposed of; but there
were some commodities, such as wool, for example,
the entire production of which was confined to one
period of the year, while the demand for many
descriptions of manufactured goods in any one
locality was not sufficient to enable a dealer in them
to obtain a livelihood, unless he carried his wares
from one town to another. What, therefore, the
great fair of Nishnei- Novgorod is at the present
day, the annual fairs of the English towns were, on
a less extensive scale, during the middle ages.

One of the most ancient, as well as the most
important, of the fairs of this country was that held
on St. Giles's Hill, near Winchester. It was
chartered by William I., who granted the tolls to
his cousin, William Walkelyn, Bishop of Win-
chester. Its duration was originally limited to one
day, but William II. extended it to three days,
Henry I. to eight, Stephen to fourteen, and Henry
II. (according to Milner, or Henry III., as some

And the Old London Fairs.

authorities say) to sixteen. Portions of the tolls
were, subsequently to the date of the first charter,
assigned to the priory of St. Swithin, the abbey of
Hyde, and the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene.
On the eve of the festival of St. Giles, on which
day the fair commenced, the mayor and bailiffs of
Winchester surrendered the keys of the four gates
of the city, and with them their privileges, to the
officers of the Bishop ; and a court called the
Pavilion, composed of the Bishop's justiciaries, was
invested with authority to try all causes during the
fair. The jurisdiction of this court extended seven
miles in every direction from St. Giles's Hill, and
collectors were placed at all the avenues to the fair
to gather the tolls upon the merchandise taken
there for sale. All wares offered for sale within
this circle, except in the fair, were forfeit to the
Bishop ; all the shops in the city were closed, and
no business was transacted within the prescribed
limits, otherwise than in the fair. It is probable,
however, that most of the shopkeepers had stalls
on the fair ground.

This fair was attended by merchants from all
parts of England, and even from France and
Flanders. Streets were formed for the sale of
different commodities, and distinguished by them,
as the drapery, the pottery, the spicery, the stan-

The Old Showmen,

nary, etc. The neighbouring monasteries had also
their respective stations, which they held under the
Bishop, and sometimes sublet for a term of years,
Milner says that the fair began to decline, as a place
of resort for merchants, in the reign of Henry VI.,
the stannary, that is, the street appointed for the sale
of the products of the Cornish mines, being un-
occupied. From this period its decline seems to
have been rapid, owing probably to the commercial
development which followed the extinction of
feudalism ; though it continued to be an annual mart
of considerable local importance down to the present
century.

The description of this fair will serve, in a great
measure, for all the fairs of the middle ages. Some
of them were famous marts for certain descriptions
of produce, as, for examples, Abingdon and Hemel
Hempstead for wool, Newbury and Eoyston for
cheese, Guildford and Maidstone for hops, Croydon
and Kingston summer fairs for cherries ; others for
manufactured goods of particular kinds, as St.
Bartholomew's, in the metropolis, for cloth (hence
the local name of Cloth Fair), and Buntingford for
hardwares. More usually, the fair was an annual
market, to which the farmers of the district took
their cattle, and the merchants of the great towns
their woollen and linen goods, their hardwares and

And the Old London Fairs.

earthenwares, and the silks, laces, furs, spices, etc.,
which they imported from the Continent. These,
as at Winchester, were arranged in streets of booths,
fringed with the stalls of the pedlars and the pur-
veyors of refreshments, for the humbler frequenters
of the fair. The farmers, the merchants, and the
customers of both, resorted to the more commodious
and better-provided tents, in which, as Lydgate
wrote of Eastcheap in the fifteenth century,

" One cried ribs of beef, and many a pie ;
Pewter pots they clattered on a heap ;
There was harp, pipe, and minstrelsy."

Of equal antiquity with the great fair at Win-
chester were the Chester fairs, held on the festivals
of St. John and St. Werburgh, the tolls of which
were granted to the abbey of St. Werburgh by
Hugh Lupus, second Earl of Chester and nephew
of William I. There was a curious provision in
this grant, that thieves and other offenders should
enjoy immunity from arrest within the city during
the three days that the fair lasted. Frequent
disputes arose out of this grant between the
abbots of St. Werburgh and the mayor and cor-
poration of the city. In the reign of Edward IV.,
the abbot "claimed to have the fair of St. John
held before the gates of the abbey, and that no

The Old Showmen,

goods should be exposed for sale elsewhere during
the fair : while the mayor and corporation contended
for the right of the citizens to sell their goods as
usual, anywhere within the city. The citizens
carried the point in their favour, and the abbot was
induced to agree that the houses belonging to the
abbey in the neighbourhood of the fair should not
be let for the display of goods until those of the
citizens were occupied for that purpose. Disputes
between the abbey and the city concerning the fair
of St. Werburgh continued until 1513, when, by
an award of Sir Charles Booth, the abbey was
deprived of its interest in that fair.

Croydon Fair dated from 1276, when the interest
of Archbishop Kilwardby obtained for the town
the right of holding a fair during nine days, begin-
ning on the vigil of St. Botolph, that is, on the
16th of May. In 1314, Archbishop Reynolds
obtained for the town a similar grant for a fair
on the vigil and morrow of St. Matthew's day ; and
in 1343, Archbishop Stratford obtained a grant of
a fair on the feast of St. John the Baptist. The
earliest of these fairs was the first to sink into
insignificance ; but the others survived to a very
recent period in the sheep and cattle fair, held in
latter times on the 2nd of October and the two
following days, and the cherry fair, held on the 5th

And the Old London Fairs.

of July and the two following days. Whatever
may have been the relative importance of these
fairs in former times, the former, though held at
the least genial season, was, for at least a century
before it was discontinued, the most considerable
fail1 in the neighbourhood of the metropolis ; while
the July fair lost the advantage of being held in the
summer, through the contracted limits within which
its component parts were pitched. These were the
streets between High Street and Surrey Street, and
included the latter, formerly called Butcher Row ;
and the only space large enough for anything of
dimensions exceeding those of a stall for the sale of
toys or gingerbread, was that at the back of the
Corn Market, on which the cattle-market was
formerly held.

The first fair established in the metropolis was
that which, originally held within the precincts of the
priory of St. Bartholomew, soon grew beyond its
original limits, and at length came to be held on
the spacious area of West Smithfield. The origin
of the fair is not related by Mainland, Entick,
Northouck, and other historians of the metropolis,
who seem to have thought a fair too light a
matter for their grave consideration ; and more
recent writers, who have made it the subject of
special research, do not agree in their accounts of

8 The Old Showmen^

it. According to the report made by the city
solicitor to the Markets Committee in 1840, " at the
earliest periods in which history makes mention of
this subject, there were two fairs, or markets, held
on the spot where Bartholomew Fair is now held,
or in its immediate vicinity. These two fairs were
originally held for two entire days only, the fairs
being proclaimed on the eve of St. Bartholomew,
and continued during the day of St. Bartholomew
and the next morrow ; both these fairs, or markets,
were instituted for the purposes of trade ; one of
them was granted to the prior of the Convent of St.
Bartholomew, ' and was kept for the clothiers of
England, and drapers of London, who had their
booths and standings within the churchyard of the
priory, closed in with, walls and gates, and locked
every night, and watched, for the safety of their
goods and wares/ The other was granted to the
City of London, and consisted of the standing of
cattle, and stands and booths for goods, with pick-
age and stallage, and tolls and profits appertaining
to fairs and markets in the field of West Smith-
field.^

Nearly twenty years after this report was made,
and when the fair had ceased to exist, Mr. Henry
Morley, searching among the Guildhall archives for
information on the subject, found that the fair

And the Old London Fairs.

originated at an earlier date than had hitherto been
supposed ; and that the original charter was granted
by Henry I. in 1133 to Prior Rayer, by whom the
monastery of St. Bartholomew was founded. Rayer
whose name was Latinised into Raherus, and has
been Anglicised by modern writers into Rahere, was
originally the King's jester, and a great favourite of
his royal master, who, on his becoming an Au-
gustine monk, and, founding the priory of St. Bar-
tholomew, rewarded him with the grant of the rents
and tolls arising out of the fair for the benefit of the
brotherhood. The prior was so zealous for the
good of the monastery that, perhaps also because he
retained a hankering after the business of his for-
mer profession, he is said to have annually gone
into the fair, and exhibited his skill as a juggler,
giving the largesses which he received from the
spectators to the treasury of the convent.

It was admitted by the report of 1840 that
documents in the office of the City solicitor
afforded evidence of conflicting opinions on the
subject in former times ; and it seems probable that
the belief in the two charters attributed to Henry
II. and the dual character of the fair had its origin
in the disputes which arose from time to time,
during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth
centuries, between the civic and monastic authorities

io The Old

as to the right to the tolls payable on goods carried
into that portion of the fair which was held in
Smithfield, beyond the precincts of the priory. The
latter claimed these, on the ground of the grant of
the fair ; the City claimed them, on the ground that
the land belonged to the corporation. The dispute
was a natural one, whether Henry II. had granted
the Smithfield tolls to the City or not ; and there is
evidence on record that it arose again and again,
until the dissolution of monasteries at the He-
formation finally settled it by disposing of one of
the parties.

In 1295 a dispute arose between the prior of St.
Bartholomew's and Ralph Sandwich, custos of the
City, the former maintaining that, as the privileges
of the City had become forfeited to the Crown, the
tolls of the fair should be paid into the Exchequer.
Edward I., who was then at Durham, ordered that
the matter should be referred to his treasurer and the
barons of the Exchequer ; but, while the matter was
pending, the disputants grew so warm that the
City authorities arrested some of the monks, and
confined them in the Tun prison, in Cornhill. They
were released by command of the King, but there-
upon nine citizens forced the Tun, and released all the
other prisoners, by way of resenting the royal inter-
ference. The rioters were imprisoned in their turn,

And the Old London Fairs. 1 1

and a fine of twenty thousand marks was imposed
upon the City ; but the civic authorities proposed a
compromise, and, for a further payment of three
thousand marks, Edward consented to pardon the
offenders, and to restore and confirm the privileges
of the City.

The right of the City to the rents and tolls of the
portion of the fair held beyond the precincts of the
priory was finally decided in 1445, when the Court
of Aldermen appointed four persons as keepers of
the fair, and of the Court of Pie-powder, a tribunal
instituted for the summary settlement of all disputes
arising in the fair, and deriving its name, it is
supposed, from pieds poudres, because the litigants
had their causes tried with the dust of the fair on
their feet.

At the dissolution of monasteries, in the reign of
Henry VIII., the tolls which had been payable to
the priory of St. Bartholomew were sold to Sir
John Rich, then Attorney- General ; and the right
to hold the fair was held by his descendants until
1830, when it was purchased of Lord Kensington
by the Corporation of London, and held thereafter
by the City chamberlain and the town clerk in trust,
thus vesting the rights and interests in both fairs in
the same body.

Westminster Fair, locally termed Magdalen^s, was

12 The Old Showmen,

established in 1257, by a charter granted by Henry
III. to the abbot and canons of St. Peter's, and
was held on Tothill Fields, the site of which is now
covered by the Westminster House of Correction
and some neighbouring streets.

The three days to which it was originally limited,
were extended by Edward III. to thirty-one ; but
the fair was never so well attended as St. Bar-
tholomew's, and fell into disuse soon afterwards.

There was another fair held in the adjoining
parish of St. James, the following amusing notice
of which in Machyn's diary is the earliest I have
been able to find : —

"The xxv. day of June [1560], Saint James
fayer by Westminster was so great that a man
could not have a pygg for money ; and the bear
wiffes had nother meate nor drink before iiij of
cloke in the s&oie day. And the chese went very
well away for \r\.. '/.--the pounde. Besides the great
and mighti armie^of beggares and bandes that were
there." Beyond the fact that it was postponed in
1603 on account of the plague, nothing more is
recorded concerning this fair until 1664, in which
year it was suppressed, " as considered to tend rather
to the advantage of looseness and irregularity than
to the substantial promoting of any good, common
and beneficial to the people,"

And the Old London Pairs. 13

Southwark Fair, locally known as Lady Fair,
was established in 1462 by a charter granted by
Edward IV. to the City of London, in the following
terms : —

" We have also granted to the said Mayor, Com-
monalty, and Citizens, and their successors for ever,
that they shall and may have yearly one fair in the
town aforesaid, for three days, that is to say, the
7th, 8th, 9th days of September, to be holdeii, to-
gether with a Court of Pie-Powders, and with all
the liberties to such fairs appertaining : And that
they may have and hold there at their said Courts,
before their said Minister or deputy, during the
said three days, from day to day, hour to hour, and
from time to time, all occasions, plaints, and pleas
of a Court of Pie-Powders, together with all sum-
mons, attachments, arrests, issues, fines, redemp-
tions, and commodities, and other rights whatso-
ever, to the said Court of Pie-Powders in any way
pertaining, without any impediment, let, or hin-
drance of Us, our heirs or successors, or other our
officers and ministers soever/'

This charter has sometimes been referred to as
granting to the Corporation the right to hold a fair
in West Smithfield, in addition to the fair the tolls
of which were received by the priory of St. Bartho-
lomew ; but that " the town aforesaid " was South-

14 The Old Showmen,

wark is shown by a previous clause, in which it is
stated that "to take away from henceforth and
utterly to abolish all and all manner of causes, oc-
casions, and matters whereupon opinions, ambigui-
ties, varieties, controversies, and discussions may
arise," the King " granted to the said Mayor and
Commonalty of the said City who now be, and their
successors, the Mayor and Commonalty and Citi-
zens of that City for the time being and for ever,
the town of Southwark, with its appurte-
nances.1"

The origin of Camberwell Fair is lost in the mist
of ages. In the evidence adduced before a petty
sessions held at Union Hall in 1823, on the subject
of its suppression, it was said that the custom of
holding it was mentioned in the ( Domesday Book/
but the statement seems to have been made upon
insufficient grounds. It commenced oh the 9th of
August, and continued three weeks, ending on St.
Giles's day ; but, in modern times, was limited, like
most other fairs, to three days. It seems to have
been originally held in the parish churchyard, but
this practice was terminated by a clause in the
Statute of Winchester, passed in the thirteenth
year of the reign of Edward I. It was then re-
moved to the green, where it was held until its
suppression. Peckham Fair seems to have been

And the Old London Fairs. 15

irregular, and merely supplementary to Camber-
well Fair.

Stepney Fair was of less ancient date. In 1664
Charles II., at the instance of the Earl of Cleveland,
then lord of the manor of Stepney, granted a
patent for a weekly market at Eatcliff Cross, and
an annual fair on Michaelmas day at Mile End
Green, or any other places within the manor of
Stepney. The keeping of the market and fair, with
all the revenues arising from tolls, etc., was given
by the same grant, at the Earl of Cleveland's re-
quest, to Sir William Smith and his heirs for ever.
The right continued to vest in the baronet's de-
scendants for several years, but long before the
suppression of the fair it passed to the lord of the
manor, which, in 1720, was sold by the representa-
tives of Lady Wentworth to John Wicker, Esquire,
of Horsham, in Sussex, whose son alienated it in
1754. It is now possessed by the Colebrooke
family.

The ceremonies observed in opening fairs evince
the importance which attached to them. On the
eve of the " great fair " of Wolverhampton, held on
the 9th of July, there was a procession of men in
armour, preceded by musicians playing what was
known as the "fair tune," and followed by the
steward of the deanery manor and the peace-officers

1 6 The Old Showmen,

of the town. The custom is said to have originated
with the fair, when Wolverhampton was as famous
as a mart of the wool trade as it now is for its iron-
mongery,, and merchants resorted to the fair, which
formerly lasted fourteen days, from all parts of
England. The necessity of an armed force for the
maintenance of order during the fair in those days
is not improbable. This custom of "walking the
fair/' as it was called, was discontinued in 1 789,
and has not since been revived.

The October fair at Croydon was opened as soon
as midnight had sounded by the town clock, or, in
earlier times, by that of the parish church; the
ceremony consisting in the carrying of a key, called
" the key of the fair," through its principal avenues.
The booth-keepers were then at liberty to serve
refreshments to such customers as might present
themselves, generally the idlers who followed the
bearer of the key; and long before daylight the
field resounded with the bleating of sheep, the
lowing of cattle, the barking of dogs, and the
shouting of shepherds and drovers.

The metropolitan fair of St. Bartholomew was
opened by a proclamation, which used to be read at
the gate leading into Cloth Fair by the Lord
Mayor's attorney, and repeated after him by a
sheriff's officer, in the presence of the Lord Mayor,

And the Old London Fairs. 17

aldermen, and sheriffs. The procession then per-
ambulated Smithfield, and returned to the Mansion
House, where, in the afternoon, those of his lord-
ship's household dined together at the sword-
bear er^s table, and so concluded the ceremony.

CHAPTEE II.

Amusements of the Fairs in the Middle Ages — Shows and
Showmen of the Sixteenth Century — Banks and Ms
Learned Horse — Bartholomew Fair in the time of
Charles I. — Punch and Judy — Office of the Revels —
Origin of Hocus Pocus — Suppression of Bartholomew
Fair — London Shows during the Protectorate — A Turkish
Rope-Dancer—Barbara Vanbeck, the Bearded Woman.

NUMEROUS illuminations of manuscripts in the
Harleian collection, many of which were reproduced
in Strutt's work on the sports and pastimes of the
English people, having established the fact that
itinerant professors of the art of amusing were in
the habit of tramping from town to town, and
village to village, for at least two centuries before
the Norman Conquest of this country, there can be
no doubt that the fairs were so many foci of
attraction for them at the times when they were

The Old London Fairs. ig

respectively held. As we are told that the minstrels
and glee-men flocked to the towns and villages
which grew up under the protection of the baronial
castles when the marriage of the lord, or the coming
of age of the heii\. furnished an occasion of popular
revelry, and also when the many red-letter days of
the mediaeval calendar came round, we may be sure
that they were not absent from Bartlemy fair even
in its earliest years.

Glee-men was a term which included dancers, pos-
turers, jugglers, tumblers, and exhibitors of trained
performing monkeys and quadrupeds ; and, the mas-
culine including the feminine in this case, many of
these performers were women and girls. The illumi-
nations which have been referred to, and which con-
stitute our chief authority as to the amusements of the
fairs during the middle ages, introduce us to female
posturers and tumblers, in the act of performing the
various feats which have been the stock in trade of
the acrobatic profession down to the present day.
The jugglers exhibited the same feats, with balls and
knives as their representatives of the nineteenth
century; what is professionally designated "the
shower," in which the balls succeed each other
rapidly, while describing a semi-circle from right to
left, is shown in one of the Harleian illuminations.

Balancing feats were also exhibited, and in one of

c2

2O The Old Showmen ,

these curious illustrations of the sights which
delighted our fair-going ancestors, the balancing of
a cart-wheel is represented — a trick which might
have been witnessed not many years ago in the
streets of London, the performer being an elderly
negro, said to have been the father of the well-
known rope-dancer, George Christoff, who repre-
sented the Pompeian performer on the corde
elastique, when Mr. Oxenford's version of The Last
Days of Pompeii was produced at the Queen's
Theatre.

Performing monkeys, bears, and horses appear in
many of the mediseval illuminations, and were
probably as popular agents of public amusement in
the earliest years of Bartlemy fair as they can be
shown, from other authorities, to have been in the
sixteenth century. That monkeys were imported
rather numerously for the amusement of the public,
may be inferred from the fact of some Chancellor of
the Exchequer of the middle ages having subjected
them to an import duty. Their agility was displayed
chiefly in vaulting over a chain or cord. Bears
were taught to feign death, and to walk erect after
their leader, who played some musical instrument.
Horses were also taught to walk on their hind legs,
and one drawing in the Harleian collection shows a
horse in this attitude, engaged in a mimic fight with
a man armed with sword and buckler.

And the Old London Fairs. 2 1

All these performances seem to have been conti-
nued, by successive generations of performers, down
to the time of Elizabeth. Eeginald Scot, writing
in 1584, gives a lengthy enumeration of the tricks
of the jugglers who frequented the fairs of the latter
part of the sixteenth century. Among them are
most of the common tricks of the present day, and
not the least remarkable is the decapitation feat,
which many of my readers have probably seen
performed by the famous wizards of modern times
at the Egyptian Hall. Three hundred years ago, it
was called the decollation of St. John the Baptist^
and was performed upon a table, upon which stood
a dish to receive the head. The table, the dish,
and the knife used in the apparent decapitation
were all contrived for the purpose, the table having
two holes in it, one to enable the assistant who
submitted to the operation to conceal his head, the
other, corresponding to a hole in the dish, to
receive the head of another confederate, who was
concealed beneath the table, in a sitting position ;
while the knife had a semi-circular opening in the
blade to fit the neck. Another knife, of the ordinary
kind, was shown to the spectators, who were pre-
vented by a sleight of hand trick from observing
the substitution for it of the knife used in the trick.
The engraving in Malcolm's work shows the man

The Old S/iowmen,

to be operated upon lying upon the table, apparently
headless, while the head of the other assistant
appears in the dish.

That lusus naturce, and other natural curiosities,
had begun to be exhibited by showmen in the
reign of Elizabeth, may be inferred from the
allusions to such exhibitions in The Tempest, when
Caliban is discovered, and the mariners speculate
upon his place in the scale of animal being. It
seems also that the practice of displaying in front
of the shows large pictures of the wonderful feats,
or curious natural objects, to be seen within, pre-
vailed in the sixteenth century, and probably long
before ; for it is distinctly alluded to in a passage
in Jonson's play of The Alchymist, in which the
master of the servant who has filled the house with
searchers for the philosopher's stone, says,

" What should my knave advance
To draw this company ? He hung out no banners
Of a strange calf with five legs to be seen,
Or a huge lobster with six claws."

Some further glimpses of the Bartlemy fair-
shows of the Elizabethan period are afforded in the
induction or prologue to another play of Jonson's,
namely, the comedy of Bartholomew Fair, acted in
1614. " He," says the dramatist, speaking of him-

And the Old London Fairs. 23

self, "has ne'er a sword and buckler-man in his
fair; nor a juggler with a well-educated ape to
come over the chain for the King of England, and
back again for the Prince, and sit still on his
haunches for the Pope and the King of Spain. 3>
The sword and buckler-man probably means a per-
former who took part in such a mimic combat of
man and horse, as is represented in the illumination
which has been referred to. The monkey whose
Protestant proclivities are noted in the latter part
of the passage is mentioned in a poem of Davenant's,
presently to be quoted.

We cannot suppose absent from the metropolitan
fairs the celebrated performing horse, Morocco, and
his instructor, of whom Sir Walter Raleigh says,
" If Banks had lived in older times, he would have
shamed all the enchanters in the world ; for who-
soever was most famous among them could never
master or instruct any beast as he did." That
Shakspeare witnessed the performances of Morocco,
which combined arithmetical calculations with salta-
tory exercises, is shown by the allusion in Love's
Labour Lost, when Moth puzzles Armado with
arithmetical questions, and says, " The dancing horse
will tell you." Sir Kenelm Digby states that the
animal "would restore a glove to the due owner
after the master had whispered the man's name in

24 TJie Old Showmen,

his ear ; and would tell the just number of pence
in any piece of silver coin newly showed him by
his master."

Banks quitted England for the Continent with
his horse in 1608, and De Melleray, who witnessed
the performance of the animal in the Kue St.
Jacques, in Paris, says that Morocco could not only
tell the number of francs in a crown, but knew that
the crown was depreciated at that time, and knew
the exact amount of the depreciation. From Paris,
Banks travelled with his learned horse to Orleans,
where the fame which they had acquired brought
him under the imputation of being a sorcerer, and
he had a narrow escape of being burned at a stake
in that character. Bishop Morton says that he
cleared himself by commanding his horse to " seek
out one in the press of the people who had a
crucifix on his hat ; which done, he bade him kneel
down unto it, and not this only, but also to rise
up again, and to kiss it. ' And now, gentlemen/
(quoth he), ' I think my horse hath acquitted both
me and himself;' and so his adversaries rested
satisfied; conceiving (as it might seem) that the
devil had no power to come near the cross/'

We next hear of Banks and his horse at Frank-
fort-on -the -Maine, where Bishop Morton saw them,
and heard from the former the story of his narrow

And the Old London Fairs. 2,5

escape at Orleans. Their further wanderings can-
not be traced ; and, though it has been inferred,
from a passage in a burlesque poem by Jonson,
that Banks was burned as a sorcerer, the grounds
which the poet had for assigning such a dreadful
end for the famous horse-charmer are unknown,
and may have been no more than an imperfect
recollection of what he had heard of the Orleans
story.

A hare which played the tabor is alluded to by
Jonson in the comedy before mentioned ; and this
performance also was not unknown to earlier times,
one of the illuminations copied by Strutt showing
it to have been exhibited in the fifteenth century.
When Jonson wrote his comedy, the amusing
classes, encouraged by popular favour, were raising
their heads again, after the sore discouragement of
the Vagrancy Act of Elizabeth's reign, which
scheduled jugglers and minstrels with strolling
thieves, gipsy fortune-tellers, and itinerant beggars.
Elizabeth's tastes seem to have inclined more to
bull-baiting and bear-baiting than to dancing and
minstrelsy, juggling and tumbling ; and, besides
this, there was a broad line drawn in those days,
and even down to the reign of George III., as will
be hereafter noticed, between the upper ten thou-
sand and the masses, as to the amusements which

26 The Old Showmen,

might or ought to be permitted to the former and
denied to the latter.

In the succeeding reign the operation of the
Vagrancy Act was powerfully aided by the rise of
the Puritans, who regarded all amusements as
worldly vanities and snares of the Evil One, and
indulgence in them as a coquetting with sin. As
yet they lacked the power to suppress the fairs and
close the theatres, though their will was good to
whip and imprison all such inciters to sin and
agents of Satan as they conceived minstrels, actors,
and showmen to be ; and Bartholomew Fair showed
no diminution of popular patronage even in the
reign of Charles I.

"Hither/' says the author of a scarce pamphlet,
printed in 1641, " resort people of all sorts and
conditions. Christchurch cloisters are now hung
full of pictures. It is remarkable, and worth your
observation, to behold and hear the strange sights
and confused sounds in the fair. Here, a knave in
a fool's coat, with a trumpet sounding, or on a
drum beating, invites you to see his puppets.
There, a rogue like a wild woodman, or in an antic
shape like an incubus, desires your company to
view his motion ; on the other side, hocus pocus,
with three yards of tape or ribbon in his hand,
showing his art of legerdemain, to the admiration

And the Old London Fairs. 27

and astonishinent of a company of cockoloaches.
Amongst these, you shall see a gray goosecap (as
wise as the rest), with a ' What do ye lack ?* in his
mouth, stand in his booth shaking a rattle, or
scraping on a fiddle, with which children are so
taken, that they presently cry out for these fop-
peries : and all these together make such a dis-
tracted noise, that you would think Babel were not
comparable to it.

" Here there are also your gamesters in action :
some turning of a whimsey, others throwing for
pewter, who can quickly dissolve a round shilling
into a three-halfpenny saucer. Long Lane at this
time looks very fair, and puts out her best clothes,
with the wrong side outward, so turned for their
better turning off; and Cloth Fair is now in great
request : well fare the ale-houses therein, yet better
may a man fare (but at a dearer rate) in the pig-
market, alias pasty -nook, or pie-corner, where pigs
are all hours of the day on the stalls, piping hot,
and would cry, (if they could speak,) ' Come, eat
me!"

The puppets and "motions" alluded to in the
foregoing description were beginning to be a very
favourite spectacle, and none of the puppet plays
of the period were more popular than the serio-
comic drama of Punch and Judy, attributed to

The Old Showmen,

Silvio Florillo, an Italian comic dramatist of the
time. According to the original version of the
story, which has undergone various changes, some
of which have been made within the memory of the
existing generation, Punch, in a paroxysm of
jealousy, destroys his infant child, upon which
Judy, in revenge, belabours him with a cudgel.
The exasperated hunchback seizes another stick,
beats his wife to death, and throws from the
window the two corpses, which attracts the notice
of a constable, who enters the house to arrest the
murderer. Punch flies, but is arrested by an officer
of the Inquisition, and lodged in prison ; but con-
trives to escape by bribing the gaoler. His sub-
sequent encounters with a dog, a doctor, a skeleton,
and a demon are said to be an allegory, intended to
convey the triumph of humanity over ennui, disease,
death, and the devil ; but, as there is nothing alle-
gorical in the former portion of the story, this seems
doubtful.

The allegory was soon lost sight of, if it was ever
intended, and the latter part of the story has long
been that which excites the most risibility. As
usually represented in this country during the last
fifty years, and probably for a much longer
period, Punch does not bribe the gaoler, but
evades execution for his crimes by strangling the

And the Old London Fairs. 2,9

hangman with his own noose. Who has not ob-
served the delight, venting itself in screams of
laughter, with which young and old witness the
comical little wretch's fight with the constable, the
wicked leer with which he induces the hangman to
put his neck in the noose by way of instruction,
and the impish chuckling in which he indulges
while strangling his last victim ? The crowd
laughs at all this in the same spirit as the audience
at a theatre applauds furiously while a policeman is
bonneted and otherwise maltreated in a pantomime
or burlesque. The tightness of the matrimonial
noose, it is to be feared, materially influences the
feeling with which the murder of a faithless wife is
regarded by those whose poverty shuts out the
prospect of divorce. And Punch is such a droll,
diverting vagabond, that even those who have wit-
nessed his crimes are irresistibly seduced into
laughter by his grotesque antics and his cynical
bursts of merriment, which render him such a
strange combination of the demon and the buffoon.

The earliest notices of the representation in Lon-
don of ' Punch's Moral Drama/ as an old comic
song calls it, occur in the overseer's books of St.
Martin's in the Fields for 1666 and 1667, in which
are four entries of sums, ranging from twenty-two
shillings and sixpence to fifty- two shillings and six-

30 The Old Showmen,

pence, as "Bee. of Punchinello, ye Italian popet
player, for his booth at Charing Cross."

Hocus pocus, used in the Bartholomew Fair pam-
phlet as a generic term for conjurors, is derived
from the assumed name of one of the craft, of whom
Ady, in f A Candle in the Dark/ wrote as fol-
lows : —

" I will speak of one man more excelling in that
craft than others, that went about in King James's
time, and long since, who called himself the King's
Majestie's most excellent Hocus Pocus ; and so
was he called because at playing every trick he
used to say, Hocus pocus tontus talontus, vade celeri-
ter jubeo — a dark composition of words to blind the
eyes of the beholders.-"

All these professors of the various arts of popular
entertainment had, at this period, to pay an annual
licence duty to the Master of the Revels, whose
office was created by Henry VIII. in 1546. Its
jurisdiction extended over all wandering minstrels
and every one who blew a trumpet publicly, except
" the King's players." The seal of the office, used
under five sovereigns, was engraved on wood, and
was formerly in the possession of the late Francis
Douce, by whose permission it was engraved for
Chalmers's ' Apology for the Believers in the
Shakspeare MSS./ and subsequently for Smith's

And the Old London Fairs. 3 1

' Ancient Topography of London/ The legend
round it was, " SIGILL : OFFIC : JOCOE : MASCAE : ET
EEVELL : DNIS BEG." The Long Parliament abo-
lished the office, which, indeed, would have been a
sinecure under the Puritan rule, for in 1647 the
entertainers of the people were forbidden to ex-
ercise their vocation, the theatres were closed, the
May-poles removed, and the fairs shorn of all their
wonted amusements, and reduced to the status of
annual markets.

There is, in the library of the British Museum, a
cloggrel ballad, printed as a broad-sheet, called
The Dagonizing of Bartholomew Fair, which de-
scribes, with coarse humour, the grossiiess of which
may be attributed in part to the mingled resentment
and contempt which underlies it, the measures taken
by the civic authorities for the removal from the fair
of the showmen who had pitched there, in spite of
the determination of the LordMayor and the Court of
Aldermen, to suppress with the utmost rigour every-
thing which could move to laughter or minister to
wonder. Among these are mentioned a fire-eating
conjuror, a " Jack Pudding," and " wonders made of
wax," being the earliest notice of a wax-work
exhibition which I have been able to discover.

Whether the itinerant traders who were wont to
set up their stalls in the fairs of Smithfield, and

32 The Old Showmen,

Westminster, and Southwark, found it worth their
while to do so during the thirteen years of the
banishment of shows, there is nothing to show ;
but we are not without evidence that the showmen
were able to follow their vocation without the fairs.
Evelyn, who was a lover of strange sights, records
in his diary that, in 1 654, — " I saw a tame lion
play familiarly with a lamb ; he was a huge beast,
and I thrust my hand into his mouth, and found
his tongue rough, like a cat's ; also a sheep with six
legs, which made use of five of them to walk ; and
a goose that had four legs, two crops, and as many
vents."

Three years later, two other entries are made,
concerning shows which he witnessed. First we
have, "June 18th. At Greenwich I saw a sort of
cat, brought from the East Indies, shaped and
snouted much like the Egyptian racoon, in the body
like a monkey, and so footed ; the ears and tail like
a cat, only the tail much longer, and the skin
variously ringed with black and white; with the
tail it wound up its body like a serpent, and so got
up into trees, and with it wrap its whole body round.
Its hair was woolly like a lamb ; it was exceedingly
nimble, gentle, and purred as does the cat." This
animal was probably a monkey of the species called
by Cuvier, the toque ; it is a native of the western

And the Old London Fairs. 33

regions of India, and one of the most amusing, as
well as the most common, of the sirnial tenants of
modern menageries.

''August 15th. Going to London with some
company, we stept in to see a famous rope-dancer,
called The Turk. I saw even to astonishment the
agility with which he performed ; he walked bare-
footed, taking hold by his toes only of a rope almost
perpendicular, and without so much as touching
it with his hands ; he danced blindfold on the high
rope, and with a boy of twelve years old tied to one
of his feet about twenty feet beneath him, dangling
as he danced, yet he moved as nimbly as if it had
been but a feather. Lastly he stood on his head, on
the top of a very high mast, danced on a small rope
that was very slack, and finally flew down the
perpendicular on his breast, his head foremost, his
legs and arms extended, with divers other ac-
tivities.

" I saw the hairy woman, twenty years old, whom
I had before seen when a child. She was born at
Augsburg, in Germany. Her very eyebrows were
combed upwards, and all her forehead as thick and
even as grows on any woman's head, neatly dressed ;
a very long lock of hair out of each ear ; she had
also a most prolix beard, and rnoustachios, with
long locks growing on the middle of her nose, like

D

34 The Old Showmen ^

an Iceland dog exactly, the colour of a bright brown,
fine as well-dressed flax. She was now married,
and told me she had one child that was not hairy,
nor were any of her parents or relations. She was
very well shaped, and played well on the harpsi-
chord."

This extraordinary creature must have been more
than twenty years of age when Evelyn saw her, for
the engraved portrait described by Granger bears
the following inscription : — ' ' Barbara Yanbeck, wife
to Michael Vanbeck, born at Augsburg, in High
Germany; daughter of Balthasar and Anne Ursler.
Aged 29. A.D. 1651. K. Gaywood f. London."

Another engraved portrait, in the collection, of
the Earl of Bute, represents her playing the
harpsichord, and has a Dutch inscription, with the
words — "Isaac Brunn deliri. et sc. 1653." One of
Gay wood's prints, which, in Granger's time, was in
the possession of Fredericks, the bookseller, at Bath,
had the following memorandum written under the
inscription : — " This woman I saw in Katcliffe
Highway in 1668, and was satisfied she was a
woman. JOHN BULFINCH." Granger describes her
from the portraits, as follows : — " The face and
hands of this woman are represented hairy all over.
Her aspect resembles that of a monkey. She has a
very long mid large spreading beard, the hair of

And the Old London Fairs. 35

which hangs loose and flowing like the hair of the
head. She is playing on the organ. Vanbeck
married this frightful creature on purpose to carry
her about for a show."

D2

CHAPTEE III.

Strolling Players in the Seventeenth Century — Soutliwark
Fair — Bartholomew Fair — Pepys and the Monkeys — Poli-
chinello — Jacob Hall, the Rope -Dancer — Another Bearded
Woman — Richardson, the Fire-Eater — The Cheshire Dwarf
— Killigrew and the Strollers — Fair on the Thames — The
Irish Giant — A Dutch Rope-Dancer— 'Music Booths —
Joseph Clark, the Posturer — William Philips, the Zany —
William Stokes, the Vaulter — A Show in Threadneedle
Street.

THE period of the Protectorate was one of
suffering and depression for the entertaining classes,
who were driven into obscure taverns and back
streets by the severity with which the anti-recreation
edicts of the Long Parliament were enforced, and
even then were in constant danger of Bridewell
and the whipping-post. Performances took place
occasionally at the Red Bull theatre, in St. John

The Old London Fairs. 37

Street, West Smithfield, when the actors were able
to bribe the subordinate officials at Whitehall to
connive at the infraction of the law ; but sometimes
the fact became known to some higher authority
who had not been bribed, or whose connivance
could not be procured, and then the performance
was interrupted by a party of soldiers, and the actors
marched off to Bridewell, where they might esteem
themselves fortunate if they escaped a whipping as
well as a month's imprisonment as idle vagabonds.

Unable to exercise their vocation in London, the
actors travelled into the country, and gave dramatic
performances in barns and at fairs, in places where
the rigour of the law was diminished, or the edicts
rendered of no avail, by the magistrates' want of
sympathy with the pleasure-abolishing mania, and
the readiness of the majority of the inhabitants to
assist at violations of the Acts. In one of his wan-
derings about the country, Cox, the comedian, shod
a horse with so much dexterity, in the drama that
was being represented, that the village blacksmith
offered him employment in his forge at a rate of
remuneration exceeding by a shilling a week the
ordinary wages of the craft. The story is a good
illustration of the realistic tendencies of the theatre
two hundred years ago, especially as the practice
which then prevailed of apprenticeship to the stage

38 The Old Showmen,

renders it improbable that Cox had ever learned the
art of shoeing a horse with a view to practising it
as a craftsman.

The provincial perambulations of actors did not,
however, owe their beginning to the edicts of the
Long Parliament, there being evidence that com-
panies of strolling players existed contemporaneously
with the theatres in which Burbage played Richard
III. and Shakespeare the Ghost in Hamlet. In a pro-
logue which was written for some London apprentices
when they played The Hog hath lost his Pearl in
1614, their want of skill in acting and elocution is
honestly admitted in the following lines —

" We are not half so skilled as strolling players,
Who could not please here as at country fairs."

In the household book of the Clifford family,
quoted by Dr. Whitaker in his ' History of Craven/
there is an entry in 1633 of the payment of one
pound to " certain itinerant players," who seem to
have given a private representation, for which they
were thus munificently remunerated ; and two years
later, an entry occurs of the payment of the same
amount to " a certain company of roguish players
who represented A New Way to pay Old Debts/'
the adjective being used, probably to distinguish
this company, as being unlicensed or unrecognized,

And tJie Old London Fairs. 39

from the strolling players who bad permission to
call themselves by the name of some nobleman, and
to wear his livery. The Earl of Leicester main-
tained such a company, and several other nobles of
that period did the same, the actors being known as
my Lord Leicester's company, or as the case might
be, and being allowed to perform elsewhere when
their services were not required by their patron.

The depressed condition of actors at this period
is amusingly illustrated by the story of Griffin and
Goodman occupying the same chamber, and having
but one decent shirt between them, which they wore
in turn, — a destitution of linen surpassed only by
that which is said to have characterised the ragged
regiment of Sir John Falstaff, who had only half a
shirt among them all. The single shirt of the two
actors was the occasion of a quarrel and a sepa-
ration between them, one of the twain having worn
it out of his turn, under the temptation of an
assignation with a lady. What became of the shirt
upon the separation of their respective interests in
it, we are not told.

The restoration of monarchy and the Stuarts was
followed immediately by the re- opening of the
theatres and the resumption of the old popular
amusements at fairs. Actors held up their heads
again ; the showmen hung out their pictured cloths

40 The Old Showmen,

in Smithfield and on the Bowling Green in
Southwark ; the fiddlers and the ballad- singers
re-appeared in the streets and in houses of public
entertainment. Charles II. entered London, amidst
the jubilations of the multitude, on the 29th of May,
1660 ; and on the 13th of September following,
Evelyn wrote in his diary as follows : —

" I saw in Southwark, at St. Margaret's Fair,
monkeys and apes dance, and do other feats of
activity, on the high rope ; they were gallantly clad
a la monde, went upright, saluted the company,
bowing and pulling off their hats ; they saluted one
another with as good a grace as if instructed by a
dancing master ; they turned heels over head with
a basket having eggs in it, without breaking any ;
also, with lighted candles in their hands, and on
their heads, without extinguishing them, and with
vessels of water without spilling a drop. I also saw
an Italian wench dance and perform all the tricks
on the high rope to admiration ; all the Court went
to see her. Likewise, here was a man who took up
a piece of iron cannon of about 400 Ib. weight with
the hair of his head only."

Evelyn and Pepys have left no record of the
presence of shows at Bartholomew Fair in the first
year of the Kestoration, nor does the collection of
Bartholomew Fair notabilia in the library of the

And the Old London Fairs. 41

British. Museum furnish, any indication of them ;
but Pepys tells us that on the 31st of August, in the
following year, he went " to Bartholomew Fair, and
there met with my Ladies Jemima and Paulina,
with Mr. Pickering and Mademoiselle, at seeing the
monkeys dance, which was much to see, when they
could be brought to do it, but it troubled me to sit
among such nasty company." Few years seem
to have passed without a visit to Bartholomew Fair
on the part of the gossiping old diarist. In 1663
he writes, under date the 7th of September, " To
Bartholomew Fair, where I met Mr. Pickering, and
he and I went to see the monkeys at the Dutch
house, which is far beyond the other that my wife
and I saw the other day; and thence to see the
dancing on the ropes, which was very poor and
tedious."

In the following year two visits to this fair are
recorded in Pepys' diary, as follows : —

" Sept. '2. To Bartholomew Fair, and our boy with
us, and there showed him the dancing on ropes, and
several others the best shows." " Sept. 7. With
Creed walked to Bartholomew Fair,— this being the
last day, and there I saw the best dancing on ropes
that I think I ever saw in my life." In the two
following years the fairs and other amusements of
London were interrupted by the plague, to the

42 The Old Showmen^

serious loss and detriment of the entertaining
classes. Punch and other puppets were the only
amusements of 1665 and 1666 ; and Pepys records
that, on the 2 2nd of August in the latter year — the
year of the great fire, — he and his wife went in a
coach to Moorfields, "and there saw Polichinello,
which pleases me mightily.-"

In 1667 the fear of the plague had passed away,
and the public again patronised the theatres and
other places of amusement. "To Polichinello/'
writes Pepys on the 8th of April, " and there had
three times more sport than at the play, and so
home." To compensate himself for having missed
Bartholomew Fair two years running on account of
the plague, he now went three times. " Went
twice round Bartholomew Fair/' he writes in his
diary on the 28th of August, "which I was glad to
see again, after two years missing it by the plague."
" 30th. To Bartholomew Fair, to walk up and
down, and there, among other things, found my
Lady Castlemaine at a puppet-play, Patient Grizill,
and the street full of people expecting her coming
out." " Sept. 4. With my wife and Mr. Hewer to
Bartholomew Fair, and there saw Polichinello."

The fair probably offered better and more various
amusements every year, for Pepys records five visits
in 1668, when we first hear of the celebrated rope-

And the Old London Fairs. 43

dancer, Jacob Hall. " August 27. With my wife
and W. Batelier and Deb. ; carried them to Bar-
tholomew Fair, where we saw the dancing of the
ropes, and nothing else, it being late." " 29. Met
my wife in a coach, and took her and Mercer [her
maid] and Deb. to Bartholomew Fair; and there
did see a ridiculous obscene little stage-play called
Marry Audrey [Merry Andrew], a foolish thing,
but seen by everybody : and so to Jacob Hall's
dancing of the ropes, a thing worth seeing, and
mightily followed." "Sept. 1. To Bartholomew
Fair, and there saw several sights ; among others,
the mare that tells money and many things to
admiration, and among others come to me, when
she was bid to go to him of the company that most
loved to kiss a pretty wench in a corner. And this
did cost me 12ti to the horse, which I had flung
him before, and did give me occasion to kiss a
mighty belle fille, that was exceeding plain, but fort
belle" '"4. At noon my wife, and Deb. and
Mercer, and W. Hewer and I, to the fair, and there
at the old house, did eat a pig, and was pretty
merry, but saw no sights, my wife having a mind
to see the play of Bartholomew Fair with puppets. "
" 7. With my Lord Broun cker (who was this day
in unusual manner merry, I believe with drink,)
Minnes, and W. Pen to Bartholomew Fair; and

44 The Old Showmen,

there saw the dancing mare again, which to-day I
found to act much worse than the other day, she
forgetting many things, which her master beat her
for, and was mightily vexed ; and then the dancing
of the ropes, and also a little stage play, which was
very ridiculous ."

Perhaps a better illustration of the difference be-
tween the manners and amusements of the seven-
teenth century and those of the nineteenth could
not be found than that which is afforded by the
contrast between the picture drawn by Pepys and
the fancy sketch which the reader may draw for
himself by giving the figures introduced the names
of persons now living. Let the scene be Green-
wich Fair, as we all remember it, and the incidents
the Secretary to the Admiralty, accompanied by
his wife and her maid, going there in his carriage ;
stopping on the way to witness the vagaries of
Punch ; meeting the Mistress of the Robes at a
a marionette performance in a tent ; and after-
wards, as we shall presently find Pepys doing,
drinking in a public-house with a rope-dancer,
reputed to be the paramour of a lady of rank, whom
our supposed secretary may have met the evening
before at Buckingham Palace.

Pepys relates that he went, in the same year, " to
Southwark Fair, very dirty, and there saw the

And the Old London Fairs. 45

puppet-show of Whittington, which was pretty to
see ; and how that idle thing do work upon people
that see it, and even myself too ! And thence to
Jacob Hall's dancing of the ropes, where I saw
such action as I never saw before, and mightily
worth seeing; and here took acquaintance with a
fellow that carried me to a tavern, whither come
the music of this booth, and bye and bye Jacob
Hall himself, with whom I had a mind to speak, to
hear whether he had ever any mischief by falls in
his time. He told me, ' Yes, many, but never to
the breaking of a limb;' he seems a mighty strong
man. So giving them a bottle or two of wine, I
away with Payne, the waterman. He, seeking me
at the play, did get a link to light me, and so light
me to the Bear, where Bland, my waterman, waited
for me with gold and other things he kept for me,
to the value of £40 and more, which I had about
me, for fear of my pockets being cut. So by link-
light through the bridge, it being mighty dark, but
still weather, and so home." Jacob Hall was as
famous for his handsome face and symmetrical form
as for his skill and grace on the rope. He is said
to have shared with Harte, the actor, the favours of
Nell Gwynne, and afterwards to have been a pen-
sioned favourite of the profligate Countess of
Castlemaine. His portrait in Grammont's ' Me-

46 The Old Showmen,

moirs ' was engraved from an unnamed picture by
Van Oost, first said to represent the famous rope-
dancer by Ames, in 1748.

A passage in one of Davenant's poems affords
some information concerning the character of the
shows which formed the attraction of the fairs at
this period.

" Now vaulter good, and dancing lass
On rope, and man that cries, Hey, pass !
And tumbler young that needs but stoop,
Lay head to heel, to creep through hoop ;
And man in chimne}" hid to dress
Puppet that acts our old Queen Bess,
And man that, while the puppets play,
Through nose expoundeth what they say ;
And white oat-eater that does dwell
In stable small at sign of Bell,
That lifts up hoof to show the pranks
Taught by magician styled Banks ;
And ape led captive still in chain
Till he renounce the Pope and Spain ;
All these on hoof now trudge from town,
To cheat poor turnip-eating clown."

The preceding chapter will have rendered the
allusions intelligible to the reader of the present
day.

Among the shows of this period was another
bearded woman, whom Pepys saw in Holborn, to-

And the Old London Fairs. 47

wards the end of 1668. "She is a little plain
woman/' he writes, <fa Dane; her name, Ursula
Dyan ; about forty years old ; her voice like a little
girl's ; with a beard as much as any man I ever
saw, black almost, and grizzly ; it began to grow at
about seven years old, and was shaved not above
seven months ago, and is now so big as any man's
almost that I ever saw; I say, bushy and thick.
It was a strange sight to me, I confess, and what
pleased me mightily." There was a female giant,
too, of whom Evelyn says, under date the 13th of
February, 1669, " I went to see a tall gigantic
woman, who measured six feet ten inches at
twenty-one years old, born in the Low Countries."

Salamandering feats are not so pleasant to wit-
ness as the performances of the acrobat and the
gymnast, but they create wonder, and, probably,
were wondered at more two hundred years ago than
at the present time, when the scientific principles
on which their success depends are better under-
stood. The earliest performer of the feats which
made Girardelli and Chabert famous half a century
ago seems to have been Richardson, of whom the
following account is given by Evelyn, who wit-
nessed his performance in 1672 : —

' ' I took leave of my Lady Sunderland, who was
going to Paris to my lord, now ambassador there.

48 The Old Showmen,

She made me stay dinner at Leicester House, and
afterwards sent for Richardson, the famous fire-
eater. He devoured brimstone on glowing coals
before us, chewing and swallowing them ; he
melted a beer-glass and eat it quite up ; then,
taking a live coal on his tongue, he put on it a raw
oyster, the coal was blown on with bellows till it
flamed and sparkled in his mouth, and so remained
till the oyster gaped and was quite boiled. Then
he melted pitch and wax with sulphur, which he
drank down as it flamed; I saw it flaming in his
mouth, a good while ; he also took up a thick piece
of iron, such as laundresses use to put in their
smoothing-boxes, when it was fiery hot, held it
between his teeth, then in his hands and threw it
about like a stone ; but this I observed he cared not
to do very long ; then he stood on a small pot, and,
bending his body, took a glowing iron with his
mouth from between his feet without touching the
pot or ground with his hands ; with divers other
prodigious feats. "

There are few notices of the London fairs in con-
temporary memoirs and journals, and as few adver-
tisements of showmen have been preserved by
collectors of such literary curiosities, between the
last visit to Southwark Fair recorded by Pepys and
the period of the Revolution. The public mind was

And the Old London Fairs. 49

agitated during this time by plots and rumours of
plots, by State trials and Tower Hill executions,
which alternately excited men to rage and chilled
them with horror. Giants and dwarfs, and mon-
strosities of all kinds, seem to have been more run
after, under the influence of these events, than
puppets and players. Take the following as an
example, an announcement which was printed in
1677:-

" At Mr. Croomes, at the signe of the Shoe and
Slap neer the Hospital-gate, in West Smithfield, is
to be seen The Wonder of Nature, viz., A girl about
sixteen years of age, born in Cheshire, and not
much above eighteen inches long, having shed the
teeth seven several times, and not a perfect bone in
any part of her, onely the head, yet she hath all her
senses to admiration, and discourses, reads very well,
sings, whistles, and all very pleasant to hear. God
save the King ! "

The office of Master of the Bevels, which had
been held by Thomas Killigrew, the Court jester,
was conferred, at his death, upon his son, who
leased the licensing of ballad- singers to a bookseller
named Clarke, as appears from the following an-
nouncement, which was inserted in the London
Gazette in 1 682 :—

" Whereas Mr. John Clarke, of London, book-

E

50 The Old Showmen,

seller, did rent of Charles Killigrew, Esq., the
licensing of all ballad- singers for five years ; which
time is expired at Lady Day next. These are, there-
fore, to give notice to all ballad-singers, that take
out licenses at the office of the revels, at Whitehall,
for singing and selling of ballads and small books,
according to an ancient custom. And all persons
concerned are hereby desired to take notice of, and
to suppress, all mountebanks, rope-dancers, prize-
players, ballad- singers, and such as make show of
motions and strange sights, that have not a license
in red and black letters, under the hand and seal
of the said Charles Killigrew, Esq., Master of the
Revels to his Majesty."

The only entertainment of which I have found
an announcement for this year is the following : —
" At Mr. Saury's, a Dutch-woman's Booth, over
against the Greyhound Inn, in West Smithfield,
during the time of the fair, will be acted the
incomparable Entertainment caird The Irish Evi-
dence, with the Humours of Teige. With a Variety
of Dances. By the first Newmarket Company."
Further glimpses of the fair are afforded, however,
by the offer of a reward for ' c the three horses stolen
by James Rudderford, a mountebank, and Jeremiah
March, his clown ; " and the announcement that,
" The German Woman that danc'd where the Italian

And the Old London Fairs. 5 1

Tumbler kept his Booth, being over against the
Swan Tavern, by Hosier Lane end in Bartholomew
Fair, is run away from her Mistress, the Fifth of
this instant ; She is of a Brownish complexion, with
Brown Hair, and between 17 and 18 years of Age ;
if any person whatsoever can bring Tidings to one
Mr. Hone's, at the Duke of Albemarle's Head, at
the end of Duck Lane, so that her Mistrass may
have her again, they shall be rewarded to their own
content."

In the winter of 1683-4, an addition was tempo-
rarily made to the London fairs by the opportunity
which the freezing of the Thames afforded for
holding a fair on the ice. The river became frozen
on the 23rd of December, and on the first day of
1684 the ice was so thick between the bridges that
long rows of booths were erected for the sale of
refreshments to the thousands of persons who con-
gregated upon it. Evelyn, who visited the strange
scene more than once, saw " people and tents
selling all sort of wares, as in the City." The
frost becoming more intense when it had endured
a month, the sports of horse-racing and bull-baiting
were presented on the ice ; and sledges and skaters
were seen gliding swiftly in every direction, with,
as Evelyn relates, "puppet-plays and interludes,
tippling, and other lewd places." The ice was so

E 2

52 The Old Showmen^

thick that the booths and stalls remained even when
thaw had commenced,, but the water soon rendered
it disagreeable to walk upon, and long cracks
warned the purveyors of recreation and refection to
retreat to the land. The fair ended on the 5th of
February.

It was during the continuance of this seventeenth
century Frost Fair that Evelyn saw a human sala-
mander, when he dined at Sir Stephen Fox's, and
" after dinner came a fellow who eat live charcoal,
glowingly ignited, quenching them in his mouth,
and then champing and swallowing them down.
There was a dog also which seemed to do many
rational actions/' The last sentence is rather
obscure ; the writer probably intended to convey
that the animal performed many actions which
seemed rational.

During the Southwark Fair of the following year,
there was a giant exhibited at the Catherine Wheel
Inn, a famous hostelry down to our own time.
Printers had not yet corrected the irregular spelling
of the preceding century, as appears from the fol-
lowing announcement : — " The Gyant, or the Miracle
of Nature, being that so much admired young man,
aged nineteen years last June, 1684. Born in
Ireland, of such a prodigious height and bigness,
and every way proportionable, the like hath not

And the Old London Fairs. 53

been seen since the memory of man. He hath been
several times shown at Court, and his Majesty was
pleased to walk under his arm, and he is grown
very much since; he now reaches ten foot and a
half, fathomes near eight foot, spans fifteen inches ;
And is believed to be as big as one of the Gyants
in Guild- Hall. He is to be seen at the Sign of the
Catherine Wheel in Southwark Fair. Vivat Eex"

There was probably also to be seen at this fair
the Dutch woman of whom an author quoted by
Strutt says that, " when she first danced and vaulted
on the rope in London, the spectators beheld her
with pleasure mixed with pain, as she seemed every
moment in danger of breaking her neck." About
this time, there was introduced at the London fairs,
an entertainment resembling that now given in the
music-halls, in which vocal and instrumental music
was alternated with rope- dancing and tumbling.
The shows in which these performances were given
were called music-booths, though the musical ele-
ment was far from predominating. The musical
portion of the entertainment was not of the highest
order, if we may trust the judgment of Ward, the
author of the London Spy, who says that he " had
rather have heard an old barber ring Whittingtonjs
bells upon the cittern than all the music these
houses afforded."

54 The Old Showmen,

Such dramatic performances as were given in the
booths at this time seem to have been, in a great
measure, confined to the puppet-plays so often
mentioned in the memoirs and diaries of the period.
Granger mentions one Philips, who, in the reign
of James II., " was some time fiddler to a puppet-
show ; in which capacity, he held many a dialogue
with Punch, in much the same strain as he did
afterwards with the mountebank doctor, his master,
upon the stage. This Zany, being regularly edu-
cated, had the advantage of his brethren." Besides
the serio-comic drama of Punch and Judy, many
popular stories were represented by the puppets of
those days, which set forth the fortunes of Dick
Whittington and the sorrows of Griselda, the
vagaries of Merry Andrew and the humours of
Bartholomew Fair, as delineated by the pen of Ben
Jonson. It is a noteworthy circumstance, as show-
ing the estimation in which the Smithfield Fair was
held by the upper and middle classes at this period,
and for more than half a century afterwards, that
the summer season of the patent theatres, which
closed at that time, always concluded with a repre-
sentation of Jonson's now forgotten comedy.

A slight general view of Bartholomew Fair in
1685, with some equally slight and curious moral-
ising on the subject, is presented by Sir Robert

And the Old London Fairs. 55

Southwell, in a letter addressed to his son, the
Honourable Edward Southwell, who was then in
London with his tutor, Mr. Webster.

" I think it not now," says Sir Eobert, " so
proper to quote you verses out of Persius, or to talk
of Caesar and Euclid, as to consider the great
theatre of Bartholomew Fair, where I doubt not but
you often resort, and 'twere not amiss if you cou'd
convert that tumult into a profitable book. You
wou'd certainly see the garboil there to more ad-
vantage if Mr. Webster and you wou'd read, or
cou'd see acted, the play of Ben Jonson, call'd
Bartholomew Fair : for then afterwards going to the
spot, you wou'd note if things and humours were the
same to day, as they were fifty years ago, and take
pattern of the observations which a man of sense
may raise out of matters that seem even ridiculous.
Take then with you the impressions of that play,
and in addition thereunto, I shou'd think it not
amiss if you then got up into some high window, in
order to survey the whole pit at once. I fancy then
you will say, Totus mundus agit histrionem, and
then you wou'd note into how many various shapes
human nature throws itself, in order to buy cheap
and sell dear, for all is but traffick and commerce,
some to give, some to take, and all is by exchange,
to make the entertainment complete. \

56 The Old Shoivmen,

The main importance of this fair is not so much
for merchandize, and the supplying what people
really want ; but as a sort of Bacchanalia, to gratifie
the multitude in their wandering and irregular
thoughts, j Here you see the rope-dancers gett
their living meerly by hazarding of their lives, and
why men will pay money and take pleasure to see
such dangers, is of seperate and philosophical
consideration. You have others who are acting
fools, drunkards, and madmen, but for the same
wages which they might get by honest labour, and
live with credit besides.

\ " Others, if born in any monstrous shape, or have
children that are such, here they celebrate their
misery, and by getting of money, forget how odious
they are made. When you see the toy-shops, and
the strange variety of things, much more imper-
tinent than hobby-horses or gloves of gingerbread,
you must know there are customers for all these mat-
ters, and it wou'd be a pleasing sight cou'd we see
painted a true figure of all these impertinent minds
and their fantastick passions, who come trudging
hither, only for such things. 'Tis out of this
credulous crowd that the ballad-singers attrackt an
assembly, who listen and admire, while their con-
federate pickpockets are diving and fishing for
their prey.

And the Old London Fairs. 57

" 'Tis from those of this number who are more
refined, that the mountebank obtains audience and
credit, and it were a good bargain if such customers
had nothing for their money but words, but they
are best content to pay for druggs, and medicines,
which commonly doe them hurt. There is one
corner of this Elizium field devoted to the eating of
pig, and the surfeits that attend it. The fruits of
the season are everywhere scattered about, and
those who eat imprudently do but hasten to the
physitian or the church yard."J

In 1697, William Philips, the zany or Jack Pud-
ding mentioned by Granger, was arrested and
publicly whipped for perpetrating, in Bartholomew
Fair, a jest on the repressive tendencies of the
Government, which has been preserved by Prior in a
poem. It seems that he made his appearance on
the exterior platform of the show at which he was
engaged, with a tongue in his left hand and a black
pudding in his right. Professing to have learned
an important secret, by which he hoped to profit, he
communicated it to the mountebank, as related by
Prior, as follows : —

" Be of your patron's mind whate'er lie says ;
Sleep very much, think little, and talk less :
Mind neither good nor bad, nor right nor wrong ;
But eat your pudding, slave, and hold your tongue."

58 The Old Showmen ,

Mr. Morley conjectures that this Philips was the
W. Phillips who wrote the tragedy of the Revengeful
Queen, published in 1698, and who was supposed to
be the author of another, Alcamenes and Menelippa,
and of a farce called Britons, Strike Home, which was
acted in a booth in Bartholomew Fair. But worth
more than all these plays would now be, if it could
be discovered, the book published in 1688, of which
only the title-page is preserved in the Harleian
collection, viz., ' The Comical History of the famous
Merry Andrew, W. Phill., Giving an Account of
his Pleasant Humours, Various Adventures, Cheats,
Frolicks, and Cunning Designs, both in City and
Country.'

The circus was an entertainment as yet unknown.
The only equestrian performances were of the kind
given by Banks, and repeated, as we learn from
Davenant and Pepys, by performers who came after
him, of whom there was a regular succession down
to the time of Philip Astley. The first entertainer
who introduced horses into vaulting acts seems to
have been William Stokes, a famous vaulter of the
reigns of the latter Stuarts. He was the author of
a manual of the art of vaulting, which was pub-
lished at Oxford in 1652, and contains several en-
gravings, showing him in the act of vaulting over
a horse, over two horses, and leaping upon them,

And the Old London Fairs. 59

in one alighting in the saddle, and in another upon
the bare back of the horse, a la Bradbury.

Another of the great show characters of this
period was Joseph Clark, the posturer, who
according to a notice of him in the Transactions of
the Royal Philosophical Society, " had such an
absolute command of all his muscles and joints that
he could disjoint almost his whole body." His per-
formance seems to have consisted chiefly in the
imitation of every kind of human deformity ; and he
is said to have imposed so completely upon Molins,
a famous surgeon of that period, as to be dismissed
by him as an incurable cripple. His portrait in
Tempest's collection represents him in the act of
shouldering his leg, an antic which is imitated by a
monkey.

Clark was the "whimsical fellow, commonly
known by the name of the Posture-master," men-
tioned by Addison in the ' Guardian/ No. 102. He
was the son of a distiller in Shoe Lane, who
designed him for the medical profession, but a brief
experience with John Coniers, an apothecary in
Fleet Street, not pleasing him, he was apprenticed
to a mercer in Bishopsgate Street. Trade suited
him no better than medicine, it would seem, for he
afterwards went to Paris, in the retin-ue of the Duke
of Buckingham, and there first displayed his powers

60 The Old Showmen,

as a posturer. He died in 1690, at his house in
Pall Mall, and was buried in the church of St.
Martin-in-the-Fields. Many portraits of him, in
different attitudes, are extant in the British Mu-
seum.

Monstrosities have always been profitable subjects
for exhibition. Shakespeare tells us, and may be
presumed to have intended the remark to convey
his impression of the tendency of his own generation,
that people would give more to see a dead Indian
than to relieve a lame beggar ; and the profits of
the exhibition of Julia Pastrana and the so-called
Kostroma people show that the public interest in
such monstrosities remains unabated. But what
would " City men " say to such an exhibition in
Threadneedle Street? I take the following an-
nouncement from a newspaper of June, 1698 : —

" At MoncriefPs Coffee-house, in Threadneedle
Street, near the Eoyal Exchange, is exposed to view,
for sixpence a piece, a Monster that lately died there,
being Humane upwards and bruit downwards,
wonderful to behold : the like was never seen in
England before, the skin is so exactly stuffed that
the whole lineaments and proportion of the Monster
are as plain to be seen as when it was alive. And
a very fine Civet Cat, spotted like a Leopard, and is
now alive, that was brought from Africa with it.

And the Old London Fairs. 61

They are exposed to view from eight in the morning
to eight at night. "

At the King's Head, in West Smithfield, there
was this year exhibited " a little Scotch Man, which
has been admired by all that have yet seen him, he
being but two Foot and six Inches high ; and is
near upon 60 years of Age. He was marry'd
several years, and had Issue by his Wife, two sons
(one of which is with him now). He Sings and
Dances with his son, and has had the Honour to be
shewn before several Persons of Note at their
Houses, as far as they have yet travelled. He
formerly kept a Writing school ; and discourses of
the Scriptures, and of many Eminent Histories, very
wisely ; and gives great satisfaction to all spectators;
and if need requires, there are several Persons in
this town, that will justifie that they were his
Schollars, and see him Marry'd."

In the same year, David Cornwell exhibited, at
the Kam's Head, in Fenchurch Street, a singular
lad. advertised as "the Bold Grimace Spaniard,"
who was said to have "liv'd 15 years among wild
creatures in the Mountains, and is reasonably sup-
pos'd to have been taken out of his cradle an Infant,
by some savage Beast, and wonderfully preserved,
till some Comedians accidentally passed through
those parts, and perceiving him to be of Human

62, The Old Showmen,

Race, pursu'd him to his Cave, where they caught
him in a Net. They found something wonderful in
his Nature, and took him with them in their Travels
through Spain and Italy. He performs the fol-
lowing surprising grimaces, viz., He lolls out his
Tongue a foot long, turns his eyes in and out at
the same time ; contracts his Face as small as an
Apple ; extends his Mouth six inches, and turns it
into the shape of a Bird's Beak, and his eyes like to
an OwFs ; turns his mouth into the Form of a Hat
cock'd up three ways ; and also frames it in the
manner of a four-square Buckle ; licks his Nose
with his Tongue, like a Cow; rolls one Eyebrow
two inches up, the other two down; changes his
face to such an astonishing Degree, as to appear
like a Corpse long bury'd. Altho' bred wild so
long, yet by travelling with the aforesaid Comedians
18 years, he can sing wonderfully fine, and accom-
panies his voice with a thorow Bass on the Lute.
His former natural Estrangement from human
conversation obliged Mr. Cornwell to bring a Jack-
anapes over with him for his Companion, in whom
he takes great Delight and Satisfaction."

How many of these show creatures were impostors,
and how many genuine eccentricities of human
nature, it is impossible to say. Barnum's revelations
have made us sceptical. But the numerous adver-

And the Old London Fairs. 63

tisements of this kind in the newspapers of the
period show that the passion for monstrosities was
as strongly developed in the latter half of the
seventeenth century as at the present day.

Barnes and Appleby's booth for tumbling and
rope-dancing appears from the following adver-
tisement, extracted from a newspaper of 1699, to
have attended Bartholomew Fair the previous
year : —

"At Mr. Barnes's and Mr. Appleby's Booth,
between the Crown Tavern and the Hospital Gate,
over against the Cross Daggers, next to Miller's
Droll Booth, in West Smithfield, where the English
and Dutch Flaggs, with Barnes's and the two Ger-
man Maidens' pictures, will hang out, during the
time of Bartholomew Fair, will be seen the most
excellent and incomparable performances in Dancing
on the Slack Hope, Walking on the Slack Kope,
Vaulting and Tumbling on the Stage, by these five,
the most famous Companies in the Universe, viz.,
The English, Irish, High German, French, and
Morocco, now united. The Two German Maidens,
who exceeded all mankind in their performances,
are within this twelvemonth improved to a Miracle."

In this year I find the following advertisement
of a music booth, which must have been one of the
earliest established : —

64 The Old Showmen,

" THOMAS DALE, Drawer at the Crown Tavern at
Aldgate, keepeth the TURK'S HEAD Musick Booth, in
Smithfield Bounds, over against the Greyhound Tnn
during the time of Bartholomew Fair, Where is a
Glass of good Wine, Mum, Syder, Beer, Ale, and
nil other Sorts of Liquors, to be Sold ; and where
you will likewise be entertained with good Musick,
Singing, and Dancing. You will see a Scaramouch
Dance, the Italian Punch's Dance, the Quarter
Staff, the Antick, the Countryman and Country-
woman's Dance, and the Merry Cuckolds of Hogs-
den.

Cf Also a young Man that dances an Entry, Sala-
brand, and Jigg, and a Woman that dances with
Six Naked Rapiers, that we Challenge the whole
Fair to do the like. There is likewise a Young
Woman that Dances with Fourteen Glasses on the
Backs and Palms of her Hands, and turns round
with them above an Hundred Times as fast as a
Windmill turns ; and another Young Man that
Dances a Jigg incomparably well, to the Admiration
of all Spectators. Vivat Rex"

James Miles, who announced himself as from
Sadler's Wells, kept the Gun music-booth in the
fair, and announced nineteen dances, among which
were " a dance of three bullies and three Quakers ; "
a cripples' dance by six persons with wooden legs

And the Old London Pairs. 65

and crutches, ' ' in imitation of a jovial crew ; " a
dance with swords, and on a ladder, by a young-
woman, " with that variety that she challenges all
her sex to do the like ; " and a new entertainment,
" between a Scaramouch, a Harlequin, and a Punch-
inello, in imitation of bilking a reckoning." We
shall meet with James Miles again, in the next
chapter and century.

CHAPTEE IY.

Attempts to Suppress the Shows at Bartholomew Fair — A
remarkable Dutch Boy — Theatrical Booths at the London
Fairs — Penketliman, the Comedian — May Fair — Barnes
and Finley — Lady Mary — Doggett, the Comedian — Simp-
son, the Vaulter — Clench, the Whistler — A Show at
Charing Cross — Another Performing Horse — Powell and
Crawley, the Puppet- Showmen — Miles' s Music-Booth —
Settle and Mrs. Mynn — Southwark Fair — Mrs. Horton, the
Actress — Bullock and Leigh — Penketliman and Pack —
Boheme, the Actor — Suppression of May Fair — Woodward,
the Comedian — A Female Hercules — Tiddy-dol, the Ginger-
bread Vendor.

So early as the close of the seventeenth century,
one hundred and fifty years before the fair was
abolished, we find endeavours being made, in
emulation of the Puritans, to banish every kind of
amusement from Bartholomew Fair, and limit it to
the purposes of an annual market. In 1700, the

The Old London Fairs. 67

Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen resolved that
no bootlis should be permitted to be erected in
Smithfield that year ; but on the 6th of August it
was announced that " the lessees of West Smithfield
having on Friday last represented to a Court of
Aldermen at Guildhall, that it would be highly
injurious to them to have the erection of all booths
there totally prohibited, the right honourable Lord
Mayor and the Court of Aldermen have, on con-
sideration of the premises, granted licence to erect
some booths during the time of Bartholomew Fair
now approaching; but none are permitted for
music- booths, or any that may be means to promote
debauchery/' And, on the 23rd, when the Lord
Mayor went on horseback to proclaim the fair, he
ordered two music-booths to be taken down im-
mediately.

On the 4th of June, in the following year, the
grand jury made a presentment to the following
effect : — " Whereas we have seen a printed order
of the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, the 25th
June, 1 700, to prevent the great profaneness, vice,
and debauchery, so frequently used and practised
in Bartholomew Fair, by strictly charging and
commanding all persons concerned in the said fair,
and in the sheds and booths to be erected and built
therein or places adjacent, that they do not let, set,

F 2

68 The Old Showmen,

or hire, or use any booth, shed, stall, or other erec-
tion whatsoever to be used or employed for in-
terludes, stage-plays, comedies, gaming-places, lot-
teries, or music meetings : and as we are in-
formed the present Lord Mayor and Court of
Aldermen have passed another order to the same
effect on the 3rd instant, we take this occasion to
return our most hearty thanks for their religious
care and great zeal in this matter; we esteeming
a renewing of their former practices at the Fair a
continuing one of the chiefest nurseries of vice next
to the play-houses ; therefore earnestly desire that
the said orders may be vigorously prosecuted, and
that this honourable Court would endeavour that
the said fair may be employed to those good ends
and purposes it was at first designed."

This presentment deserves, and will repay, the
most attentive consideration of those who would
know the real character of the amusements pre-
sented at the London fairs, and the motives and
aims of those who endeavoured to suppress them.
The grand jury profess to be actuated by a desire
to diminish profanity, vice, and debauchery; and,
if this had been their real and sole object, nothing
could have been more laudable. But, like those
who would suppress the liquor traffic in order to
prevent drunkenness, they confounded the use with

And the Old London l^airs. 69

the abuse of the thing which they condemned, and
sought to deprive the masses of every kind of
amusement, because some persons could not parti-
cipate therein without indulging in vicious and
debasing pleasures. It might have been supposed
that Bartholomew Fair was pre-eminently a means
and occasion of vice and debauchery, and that its
continuance was incompatible with the maintenance
of public order and the due guardianship of public
morals, if the grand jury had not coupled with
their condemnation an expression of their opinion
that it was not so bad as the theatres. In that
sentence is disclosed the real motive and aim of
those who sought the suppression of the amuse-
ments of the people at the London Fairs.

That the morals and manners of that age were
of a low standard is undeniable ; but they would
have been worse if the fairs had been abolished,
and the theatres closed, as the fanatics of the day
willed. Men and women cannot be made pious or
virtuous by the prohibition of theatres, concerts,
and balls, any more than they can be rendered
temperate by suppressing the public sale of beer,
wine, and spirits. Naturally, a virtuous man, with-
out being a straight-laced opponent of " cakes and
ale," would have seen, in walking through a fair,
much that he would deplore, and desire to amend ;

70 The Old Showmen,

but such a man would have the same reflections
inspired by a visit to a theatre or a music-hall, or
any other amusement of the present day. He
would not, however, if he was sensible as well as
virtuous, conclude from what he saw and heard
that all public amusements ought to be prohibited.
To suppress places of popular entertainment be-
cause some persons abuse them would be like
destroying a garden because a snail crawls over the
foliage, or an earwig lurks in the flowers.

The London fairs were attended this year by a
remarkable Dutch boy, about eight or nine years
of age, whose eyes presented markings of the iris
in which sharp-sighted persons, aided perhaps by
a considerable development of the organ of wonder,
read certain Latin and Hebrew words. In one
eye, the observer read, or was persuaded that he
could read, the words Deus meus ; in the other, in
Hebrew characters, the word Eloliim. The boy's
parents, by whom he was exhibited, affirmed that
his eyes had presented these remarkable peculiari-
ties from his birth. Great numbers of persons,
including the most eminent physiologists and
physicians of the day, went to see him; and the
learned, who examined his eyes with great attention,
were as far from solving the mystery as the crowd
of ordinary sight-seers. Some of them regarded

And the Old London Fairs. 71

the case as an imposture, but they were unable to
suggest any means by which such a fraud could
be accomplished. Others regarded it as " almost "
supernatural, a qualification not very easy to under-
stand. The supposed characters were probably
natural, and only to be seen as Koman and Hebrew
letters by imaginative persons, or those who viewed
them with the eye of faith. Whatever their nature,
the boy's sight was not affected by them in the
slightest degree.

The theatrical booths attending the London fairs
began at this time to be more numerous, and to
present an entertainment of a better character than
had hitherto been seen. The elder Penkethman
appears to have been the first actor of good position
on the stage who set the example of performing
in a temporary canvas theatre during the fairs, and
it was soon followed by the leading actors and
actresses of the royal theatres. In a. dialogue on
the state of the stage, published in 1702, and
attributed to Gildon, Critick calls Penkethman "the
flower of Bartholomew Fair, and the idol of the
rabble ; a fellow that overdoes everything, and
spoils many a part with his own stuff." He had
then been ten years on the stage, having made
his 'first appearance at Drury Lane in 1692, as the
tailor, a small part in The Volunteers. Four years

72 77/6? Old Showmen,

Liter, we find him playing, at the same theatre, such
parts as Snap in Love's Last Shift) Dr. Pulse in
The Lost Lover, and Nick Froth in The Cornish
Comedy.

What the author of the pamphlet just quoted says
of this actor receives confirmation and illustration
from an anecdote told of him, in connection with
the first representation of Farquhar's Recruiting
Officer at Drury Lane in 1706. Penkethman, who
played Thomas Appletree, one of the rustic recruits,
when asked his name by Wilks, to whom the part
of Captain Plume was assigned, replied, "Why,
don't you know my name, Bob ? I thought every
fool knew that."

' ' Thomas Appletree," whispered Wilks, assuming
the office of prompter.

" Thomas Appletree ! " exclaimed Penkethman,
aloud. " Thomas Devil ! My name is Will Pen-
kethman." Then, turning to the gallery, he ad-
dressed one of the audience thus : — " Hark you,
friend ; don't you know my name ? "

" Yes, Master Pinkey," responded the occupant of
a front seat in the gallery. "We know it very well."

The theatre was soon in an uproar : the audience
at first laughed at the folly of Penkethman and the
evident distress of Wilks ; but the joke soon grew
tiresome, and they began to hiss. Penkethman

And the Old London Fairs. 73

saw his mistake, and speedily changed displeasure
into applause by crying out, with a loud nasal twang,
and a countenance as ludicrously melancholy as he
could make it, " Adzooks ! I fear I am wrong ! "

Barnes, the rope-dancer, had at this time lost his
former partner, Appleby, and taken into partnership
an acrobat named Finley. They advertised their
show in 1701 at Bartholomew Fair as, "Her
Majesty's Company of Rope Dancers." They had
two German girls " lately arrived from France ; "
and it was announced that " the famous Mr. Barnes,
of whose performances this kingdom is so sensible,
Dances with 2 Children at his feet, and with Boots
and Spurs. Mrs. Finley, distinguished by the name
of Lady Mary for her incomparable Dancing, has
much improved herself since the last Fair. You
will likewise be entertained with such variety of
Tumbling by Mr. Finley and his Company, as was
never seen in the Fair before. Note, that for the
conveniency of the Gentry, there is a back-door in
Smithfield Rounds."

They were not without rivals, though the absence
of names from the following advertisement renders
it probable that the " famous company " calculated
upon larger gains from anonymous boasting than
they could hope for from the announcement of their
names : —

74 The Old Showmen,

" At the Great Booth over against the Hospital
Gate in Bartholomew Fair, will be seen the Famous
Company of Rope Dancers, they being the Greatest
Performers of Men, Women, and Children that can
be found beyond the Seas, so that the world cannot
parallel them for Dancing on the Low Rope, Vault-
ing on the High Rope, and for Walking on the
Slack and Sloaping Ropes, out-doing all others to
that degree, that it has highly recommended them,
both in Bartholomew Fair and May Fair last, to all
the best persons of Quality in England. And by all
are owned to be the only amazing Wonders of the
World in every thing they do : It is there you will
see the Italian Scaramouch dancing on the Rope,
with a Wheel-barrow before him, with two Children
and a Dog in it, and with a Duck on his Head who
sings to the Company, and causes much Laughter.
The whole entertainment will be so extremely
fine and diverting, as never was done by any but
this Company alone. "

Doggett, whom Gibber calls the most natural actor
of the day, and whose name is associated with the
coat and badge rowed for annually, on the 1st of
August, by London watermen's apprentices, was
here this year, with a theatrical booth, erected at the
end of Hosier Lane, where was presented, as the
advertisements tell us, " A New DEOLL call'd THE

And the Old London Fairs. 75

DISTEESSED VIEGIN or the Unnatural Parents. Being
a True History of the Fair Maid of the West, or THE
LOVING SISTEES. With the Comical Travels of Poor
Trusty, in Search of his Master's Daughter, and his
Encounter with Three Witches. Also variety of
Comick Dances and Songs, with Scenes and Machines
never seen before. Vivat Regina." Doggett was at
this time manager of Drury Lane.

Miller, the actor, also had a theatrical booth in
the fair, and made the following announcement : —

"Never acted before. At Miller's Booth, over
against the Cross Daggers, near the Crown Tavern,
during the time of Bartholomew Fair, will be pre-
sented an Excellent New Droll, called THE TEMPEST,
or the Distressed Lovers. With the English Hero
and the Island Princess, and the Comical Humours
of the Inchanted Scotchman; or Jockey and the
Three Witches. Showing how a Nobleman of
England was cast away upon the Indian Shore, and
in his Travel found the Princess of the Country, with
whom he fell in Love, and after many Dangers and
Perils, was married to her ; and his faithful Scotch-
man, who was saved with him, travelling through
Woods, fell in among Witches, when between 'em
is abundance of comical Diversions. There in the
Tempest is Neptune, with his Triton in his Chariot
drawn with Sea Horses and Mair Maids singing.

76 The Old Showmen,

With variety of Entertainment, performed by the
best Masters ; the Particulars would be too tedious
to be inserted here. Vivat Regina."

The similarity of the chief incidents in the dramas
presented by Doggett and Miller is striking. In
both we have the troubles of the lovers, the comical
adventures of a man-servant, and the encounter with
witches. We shall find these incidents reproduced
again and again, with variations, and under different
titles, in the plays set before Bartholomew audiences
of the eighteenth century.

May Fair first assumed importance this year,
when the multiplication of shows of all kinds caused
it to assume dimensions which had not hitherto
distinguished it. It was held on the north side of
Piccadilly, in Shepherd's Market, White Horse
Street, Shepherd's Court, Sun Court, Market Court,
an open space westward, extending to Tyburn Lane
(now Park Lane), Chapel Street, Shepherd Street,
Market Street, Hertford Street, and Carrington
Street. The ground-floor of the market-house,
usually occupied by butchers' stalls, was appro-
priated during the fair to the sale of toys and
gingerbread ; and the upper portion was converted
into a theatre. The open space westward was
covered with the booths of jugglers, fencers, and
boxers, the stands of mountebanks, swings, round-

And the Old London Fairs. 77

abouts, etc., while the sides of the streets were
occupied by sausage stalls and gambling tables.
The first-floor windows were also, in some instances,
made to serve as the proscenia of puppet shows.

I have been able to trace only two shows to this
fair in 1702, namely Barnes and Finley's and
Miller's, which stood opposite to the former, and
presented "an excellent droll called Crispin and
Crispianus : or, A Shoemaker a Prince] with the
best machines, singing and dancing ever yet in the
fair." A great concourse* of people attended from
all parts of the metropolis ; an injudicious attem^Jt
on the part of the local authorities to exclude
persons of immoral character, which has always been
found impracticable in places of public amusement,
resulted in a serious riot. Some young women
being arrested by the constables on the allegation
that they were prostitutes, they were rescued by a
party of soldiers ; and a conflict was begun, which
extended as other constables came up, and the
<{ rough " element took part with the rescuers of the
incriminated women. One constable was killed,
and three others dangerously wounded before the
fight ended. The man by whose hand the constable
fell contrived to escape ; but a butcher who had
been active in the affray was arrested, and convicted,
and suffered the capital penalty at Tyburn.

78 The Old Showmen^

In the following year, the fair was presented as a
nuisance by the grand jury of Middlesex ; but it
continued to be held for several years afterwards.
Barnes and Finley again had a show at Bartholomew
Fair, to which the public were invited to " see my
Lady Mary perform such steps on the dancing-rope
as have never been seen before." The young lady
thus designated, and whose performance attracted
crowds of spectators to Barnes and Finley' s show,
was said to be the daughter of a Florentine noble,
and had given up all for 16ve by eloping with Finley.
By the companion of her flight she was taught to
dance upon the tight rope, and for a few years was
an entertainer of considerable popularity ; but, ven-
turing to exhibit her agility and grace while
enceinte, she lost her balance, fell from the rope,
and died almost immediately after giving birth to a
stillborn child.

Bullock and Simpson, the former an actor of
some celebrity at Drury Lane, joined Penkethman
this year in a show at Bartholomew Fair, in which
Jephtha's Rash Vow was performed, Penkethman
playing the part of Toby, and Bullock that of
Ezekiel. Bullock is described in the pamphlet
attributed to Gildon as " the best comedian who
has trod the stage since Nokes and Leigh, and a
fellow that has a very humble opinion of himself."

And the Old London Fairs. 79

So much modesty musfc have made him a rara avis
among actors, who have, as a rule, a very exalted
opinion of themselves. He had been six years on
the stage at this time, having made his first ap-
pearance in 1696, at Drury Lane, as Sly in Love's
Last Shift. His ability was soon recognised; and
in the same year he played Sir Morgan Blunder in
The Younger Brother, and Shuffle in The Cornish
Comedy. Parker and Doggett also had a booth
this year at the same fair, playing Bateman ; or, the
Unhappy Marriage, with the latter comedian in the
part of Sparrow.

Penkethman at this time, from his salary as an
actor at Drury Lane, his gains from attending Bar-
tholomew and Southwark Fairs with his show, and
the profits of the Richmond Theatre, which he
either owned or leased, was in the receipt of a con-
siderable income. " He is the darling of Fortuna-
tus," says Downes, writing in 1708, '"and has
gained more in theatres and fairs in twelve years
than those who have tugged at the oar of acting
these fifty." He did not retire from the stage,
however, until 1724.

Some of the minor shows of this period must
now be noticed. A bill of this time — the date
cannot always be fixed — invites the visitors to
Bartholomew Fair to witness "the wonderful per-

8o The Old Showmen,

formances of that most celebrated master Simpson,
the famous vaulter, who being lately arrived from
Italy, will show the world what vaulting is." The
chroniclers of the period have not preserved any
record, save this bill, of this not too modest per-
former. A more famous entertainer was Clench, a
native of Bariiet, whose advertisements state that
he "imitates horses, huntsmen, and a pack of
hounds, a doctor, an old woman, a drunken man,
bells, the flute, and the organ, with three voices, by
his own natural voice, to the greatest perfection/'
and that he was " the only man that could ever
attain so great an art." He had a rival, however,
in the whistling man, mentioned in the ' Spectator/
who was noted for imitating the notes of all kinds
of birds. Clench attended all the fairs in and
around London, and at other times gave his per-
formance at the corner of Bartholomew Lane, be-
hind the old Exchange.

To this period also belongs the following curious
announcement of " a collection of strange and
wonderful creatures from most parts of the world,
all alive/' to be seen over against the Mews Gate,
Charing Cross, by her Majesty's permission.

"The first being a little Black Man, being but
3 foot high, and 32 years of age, straight and pro-
portionable every way, who is distinguished by the

And the Old London Fairs. 81

Name of the Black Prince, and has been shewn
before most Kings and Princes in Christendom.
The next being his wife, the Little Woman, NOT
3 foot high, and 30 years of Age, straight and pro-
portionable as any woman in the Land, which is
commonly called the Fairy Queen ; she gives gene-
ral satisfaction to all that sees her, by Diverting
them with Dancing, being big with Child. Like-
wise their little Turkey Horse, being but 2 foot odd
inches high, and above 12 years of Age, that shews
several diverting and surprising Actions, at the
Word of Command. The least Man, Woman, and
Horse that ever was seen in the World Alive. The
Horse being kept in a box. The next being a
strange Monstrous Female Creature that was taken
in the woods in the Deserts of ^ETHIOPIA in Prester
John's Country, in the remotest parts of Africa.
The next is the noble Pi-car ij, which is very much
admired by the Learned. The next being the noble
Jack-call, the Lion's Provider, which hunts in the
Forest for the Lion's Prey. Likewise a small
Egyptian Panther, spotted like a Leopard. The
next being a strange, monstrous creature, brought
from the Coast of Brazil, having a Head like a
Child, Legs and Arms very wonderful, with a Long
Tail like a Serpent, wherewith he Feeds himself, as
an Elephant doth with his Trunk. With several

82 The Old Showmen,

other Rarities too tedious to mention in this
Bill.

" And as no such Collection was ever shewn in
this Place before, we hope they will give you con-
tent and satisfaction, assuring you, that they are
the greatest Rarities that ever was shewn alive in
this Kingdom, and are to be seen from nine o'clock
in the Morning, till 10 at Night, where true At-
tendance shall be given during our stay in this
Place, which will be very short. Long live the
QUEEN/'

The proprietors of menageries and circuses are
always amusing, if not very lucid, when they set
forth in type the attractions of their shows. The
owner of the rarities exhibited over against the
Mews Gate in the reign of Queen Anne was no ex-
ception to the rule. The picary and the jack-call
may be readily identified as the peccary and the
jackal, but ' ' a strange monstrous female creature "
defies recognition, even with the addition that it
was brought from Prester John's country. The
Brazilian wonder may be classified with safety with
the long-tailed monkeys, especially as another and
shorter advertisement, in the ' Spectator/ describes
it a little more explicitly as a satyr. It was,
probably, a spider monkey, one variety of which is
said, by Humboldt, to use its prehensile tail for the
purpose of picking insects out of crevices.

And the Old London Fairs. 83

The Harleian Collection contains the following
announcement of a performing horse : —

"To be seen, at the Ship, npon Great Tower
Hill, the finest taught horse in the world. He
fetches and carries like a spaniel dog. If you hide
a glove, a handkerchief, a door-key, a pewter
basin, or so small a thing as a silver two-pence, he
will seek about the room till he has found it ; and
then he will bring it to his master. He will also
tell the number of spots on a card, and leap
through a hoop ; with a variety of other curious
performances."

Powell, the famous puppet-showman mentioned
in the ( Spectator/ in humorous contrast with the
Italian Opera, itever missed Bartholomew Fair,
where, however, he had a rival in Crawley, two of
whose bills have been preserved in the Harleian
Collection. .Pinkethman, another " motion-maker,"
as the exhibitors of these shows were called, and
also mentioned in the ' Spectator/ introduced on
his stage the divinities of Olympus ascending and
descending to the sound of music. Strutt, who
says that he saw something of the same kind at a
country fair in 1760, thinks that the scenes and
figures were painted upon a flat surface and cut out,
like those of a boy's portable theatre, and that
motion was imparted to them by clock-work. This

G 2

84 The Old Showmen,

he conjectures to have been the character also of
the representation, with moving figures, of the
camp before Lisle, which was exhibited, in the
reign of Anne, in the Strand, opposite the Globe
Tavern, near Hungerford Market.

One of the two bills of Crawley's show which
have been preserved was issued for Bartholomew
Fair, and the other for Southwark Fair. The
former is as follows : —

" At Crawley's Booth, over against the Crown
Tavern in Smithfield, during the time of Bartho-
lomew Fair, will be presented a little opera, called
the Old Creation of the World, yet newly revived ;
with the addition of Noah's flood; also several
fountains playing water during the time of the play.
The last scene does present Noah and his family
coming out of the ark, with all the beasts two by
two, and all the fowls of the air seen in a prospect
sitting upon trees ; likewise over the ark is seen
the sun rising in a most glorious manner : more-
over, a multitude of angels will be seen in a double
rank, which presents a double prospect, one for the
sun, the other for a palace, where will be seen six
angels ringing of bells. Likewise machines de-
scending from above, double, with Dives rising
out of hell, and Lazarus seen in Abraham's bosom,
besides several figures dancing jiggs, sarabands,

And the Old London Fairs. 85

and country dances, to the admiration of the spec-
tators ; with the merry conceits of Squire Punch
and Sir John Spendall" This curious medley was
" completed by an entertainment of singing, and
dancing with several naked swords by a child of
eight years of age." In the bill for Southwark
Fair we find the addition of "the ball of little
dogs/' said to have come from Louvain, and to
perform "by their cunning tricks wonders in the
world of dancing. You shall see one of them named
Marquis of Gaillerdain, whoso dexterity is not to be
compared; he dances with Madame Poucette his
mistress and the rest of their company at the sound
of instruments, all of them observing so well the
cadence that they amaze everybody ; " it is added
that these celebrated performers had danced before
Queen Anne and most of the nobility, and amazed
everybody.

James Miles, who has been mentioned in the last
chapter, promised the visitors, in a bill preserved in
the Harleian Collection, that they should see "a
young woman dance with the swords, and upon a
ladder, surpassing all her sex." Nineteen different
dances were performed in his show, among which
he mentions a "wrestlers5 dance" and vaulting
upon the slack rope. Eespecting this dancing with
swords, Strutt says that he remembered seeing " at

86 The Old Showmen,

Flockton's, a much noted but very clumsy juggler,
a girl about eighteen or twenty years of age, who
came upon the stage with four naked swords, two
in each hand; when the music played, she turned
round with great swiftness, and formed a great
variety of figures with the swords, holding them
overhead, down by her sides, behind her, and oc-
casionally she thrust them in her bosom. The
dance generally continued ten or twelve minutes;
and when it was finished, she stopped suddenly,
without appearing to be in the least giddy from the
constant reiteration of the same motion/-'

The ladder-dance was performed upon a light
ladder, which the performer shifted from place to
place, ascended and descended, without permitting
it to fall. It was practised at Sadler's Wells at
the commencement of the last century, and revived
there in 1770. Strutt thought it originated in the
stilt-dance, which appears, from an illumination of
the reign of Henry III., to have been practised in
the thirteenth century.

Mrs. Mynn appears as a Bartholomew Fair
theatrical manageress in 1707, when Settle, then
nearly sixty years of age, and in far from flourishing
circumstances, adapted to her stage his spectacu-
lar drama of the Siege of Troy, which had been
produced at Drury Lane six years previously.

And the Old London Fairs. 87

Settle, who was a good contriver of spectacles,
though a bad dramatic poet, reduced it from five
acts to three, striking out four or five of the
dramatis personce, cutting down the serious portions
of the dialogue, and giving greater breadth as well
as length to the comic incidents, without which no
Bartholomew audience would have been satisfied.
As acted in her theatrical booth, it was printed by
Mrs. Mynn, with the following introduction : —

" A Printed, Publication of an Entertainment
performed on a Smithfield Stage, which, Iwiu gay or
richly soever set off, will hardly reach to a higher
Title than the customary name of a DROLL, may seem
somewhat new. But as the present undertaking, the
work of ten Months' preparation, is so extraordinary
a Performance, that without Boast or Vanity we may
modestly say, In the whole several Scenes, Move-
ments, and Machines, it is no ways Inferiour even
to any one Opera yet seen in either of the Royal
Theatres; we are therefore under some sort of
Necessity to make this Publication, thereby to give
ev'n the meanest of our audience a full Light into all
the Object they will there meet in this Expensive
Entertainment ; the Proprietors of which have
adventured to make, under some small Hopes, That
as they yearly see some of their happier Brethren
Undertakers in the FAIR, more cheapli/ obtain even

88 The Old Showmen,

the Engrost Smiles of the Gentry and Quality at so
much an easier Price ; so on the other side their own
more costly Projection (though less Favourites) might
possibly attain to that good Fortune, at least to
attract a little share of the good graces of the more
Honourable part of the Audience, and perhaps be
able to purchase some of those smiles which elsewhere
have been thus long the prof user Donation of par-
ticular Affection and Favour.73

In the following year, Settle arranged for Mrs.
Mynn the dramatic spectacle of Whittington, long
famous at Bartholomew Fair, concluding with a
mediseval Lord Mayor's cavalcade, in which nine
different pageants were introduced.

In 1708, the first menagerie seems to have ap-
peared at Bartholomew Fair, where it stood near
the hospital gate, and attracted considerable at-
tention. Sir Hans Sloane cannot be supposed
to have missed such an opportunity of studying
animals little known, as he is said to have constantly
visited the fair for that purpose, and to have retained
the services of a draughtsman for their representa-
tion.

The first menagerie in this country was un-
doubtedly that, which for several centuries, was
maintained in the Tower of London, and the be-
ginning of which may be traced to the presentation

And the Old London Fairs. 89

of three leopards to Henry III. by the Emperor of
Germany, in allusion to the heraldic device of the
former. Several royal orders are extant which show
the progress made in the formation of the menagerie
and furnish many interesting particulars concerning
the animals. Two of these documents, addressed
by Henry III. to the sheriffs of London, have
reference to a white bear. The first, dated 1253,
directs that fourpence a day should be allowed for the
animal's subsistence; and the second, made in the
following year, commands that, ' ' for the keeper of
our white bear, lately sent us from Norway, and
which is in our Tower of London, ye cause to be
had one muzzle and one iron chain, to hold that bear
without the water, and one long and strong cord to
hold the same bear when fishing in the river of
Thames."

Other mandates, relating to an elephant, were
issued in the same reign, in one of which it is di-
rected, " that ye cause, without delay, to be built at
our Tower of London, one house of forty feet long,
and twenty feet deep, for our elephant ; providing
that it be so made and so strong that, when need be
it may be fit and necessary for other uses." We
learn from Matthew Paris that this animal was
presented to Henry by the King of France. It
was ten years old, and ten feet in height. It lived

90 The Old Showmen,

till the forty-first year of Henry's reign, in which
year it is recorded that, for the maintenance of the
elephant and its keeper, from Michaelmas to St.
Valentine's Day, immediately before it died, the
charge was nearly seventeen pounds — a considerable
sum for those days.

Many additions were made to the Tower
menagerie in the reign of Edward III. ; and notably
a lion and lioness, a leopard, and two wild cats.
The office of keeper of the lions was created by
Henry VI., with an allowance of sixpence a day for
the keeper, and a like sum " for the maintenance of
every lion or leopard now being in his custody,
or that shall be in his custody hereafter." This
office was continued until comparatively recent
times, when it was abolished with the menagerie, a
step which put an end likewise to the time-honoured
hoax, said to have been practised upon country
cousins, of going to the water side, below London
Bridge,- to see the lions washed.

The building appropriated to the keeping and
exhibition of the animals was a wide semi-circular
edifice, in which were constructed, at distances of a
few feet apart, a number of arched " dens," divided
into two or more compartments, and secured by
strong iron bars. Opposite these cages was a
gallery of corresponding form, with a low stone

And the Old London Fairs. 91

parapet, and approached from the back by a flight
of steps. This was appropriated exclusively to the
accommodation of the royal family, who witnessed
from it the feeding of the beasts and the combats
described by Mr. Ainsworth in the romance which
made the older portions of the Tower familiar
ground to so many readers.

The menagerie which appeared in Smithfield in
1708, and the ownership of which I have been un-
able to discover, was a very small concern; but
with the showman's knowledge of the popular love
of the marvellous, was announced as " a Collection
of Strange and Wonderful Creatures/' which in-
cluded " the Noble Caslieware, brought from the
Island of Java in the East Indies, one of the
strangest creatures in the Universe, being half a
Bird, and half a Beast, reaches 16 Hands High from
the Ground, his Head is like a Bird, and so is his
Feet, he hath no hinder Claw, Wings, Tongue, nor
Tail; his Body is like to the Body of a Deer;
instead of Feathers, his fore-part is covered with
Hair like an. Ox, his hinder-part with a double
Feather in one Quill ; he Eats Iron, Steel, or Stones ;.
he hath 2 Spears grows by his side/'

There is now no difficulty in recognising this
strange bird as the cassowary, the representative in
the Indian islands of the ostrich. There was also a

92 The Old Showmen,

leopard from Lebanon, an eagle from Russia, a
" posoun " (opossum ? )from Hispaniola, and, besides
a " Great Mare of the Tartarian Breed," which
* ' had the Honour to be showed before Queen Anne,
Prince George, and most of the Nobility," " a little
black hairy Monster, bred in the Desarts of Arabia,
a natural Ruff of Hair about his Face, walks upright,
takes a Glass of Ale in his Hand and drinks it off;
and doth several other things to admiration." This
animal was probably a specimen of the maned
colobus, a native of the forests of Sierra Leone, and
called by Pennant the full-bottomed monkey, in
allusion to the full-bottom periwig of his day.

A pamphlet was published in 1710, with the title,
The Wonders of England, purporting to contain
"Doggett and Penkethman's dialogue with Old
Nick, on the suppression of Bartholomew Fair," and
accounts of many strange and wonderful things ;
but it was a mere " catch-penny," as such produc-
tions of the Monmouth Street press were called, not
containing a line about the suppression of the fair,
and the title, as Hone observes, ' ' like the showmen's
painted cloths in the fair, pictures monsters not
visible within."

The lesser sights of a fair in the first quarter of
the eighteenth century are graphically delineated by
Gay, in his character of the ballad singer, in ' ' The

And the Old London Fairs. 93

Shepherd's Week," bringing before the mind's eye
the stalls, the lotteries, the mountebanks, the tum-
blers, the rope.-dancers, the raree-shows, the puppets,
and " all the fun of the fair."

" How pedlers' stalls with glittering toys are laid,
The various fairings of the country maid.
Long silken laces hang upon the twine,
And rows of pins and amber bracelets shine ;
How the tight lass knives, combs, and scissors spies,
And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes.
Of lotteries next with tuneful note he told,
Where silver spoons are won, and rings of gold.
The lads and lasses trudge the street along,
And all the fail* is crowded in his song.
The mountebank now treads the stage, and sells
His pills, his balsams, and his ague-spells ;
Now o'er and o'er the nimble tumbler springs,
And on the rope the venturous maiden swings ;
Jack Pudding, in his party-coloured jacket,
Tosses the glove, and jokes at every packet.
Of raree-shows l^e sung, and Punch's feats,
Of pockets picked in crowds, and various cheats."

The theatrical booths, of which we have only-
casual notices or records during the seventeenth
century and the first dozen years of the eighteenth,
became an important feature of the London fairs
about 1 714, from which time those of Bartholomew
and Southwark were regularly attended by many of

94 The Old Showmen,

the leading actors and actresses of Drury Lane,
Covent Garden, the Haymarket, Lincoln's Inn Fields,
and Goodman's Fields theatres, down to the middle
of the century, excepting those years in which no
theatrical booths were allowed to be put up in
Smithfield. The theatrical companies which attended
the fairs were not, however, drawn entirely from the
London theatres. Three or four actors associated
in the proprietorship and management, or were
engaged by a popular favourite, and the rest of the
company was recruited from provincial theatres, or
from the strolling comedians of the country fairs.

The London fairs were not, therefore, neglected
by metropolitan managers in quest of talent, who,
by witnessing the performances in booths on
Smithfield or Southwark Green, sometimes found
and transferred to their own boards, actors and
actresses who proved stars of the first magnitude.
It was in Bartholomew Fair that Booth found Walker,
the original representative of Captain Macheath,
playing in the Siege of Troy ; and in Southwark
Fair, in 1714, that the same manager saw Mrs.
Horton acting in Cupid and Psyche, and was so
pleased with her impersonation that he immediately
offered her an engagement at Drury Lane, where
she appeared the following season as Melinda, in
the Recruiting Officer. She made her first appear-

And the Old London Fairs. 95

ance in 1713, as Marcia in Gato, with a strolling
company then performing at Windsor ; and is said
to have been one of the most beantiful women that
ever trod the stage.

Penkethman's company played the Constant
Lovers in Southwark Fair in the year that proved so
fortunate for Mrs. Horton, the comedian himself
playing Buzzard, and Bullock taking the part
of Sir Timothy Littlewit. In the following
year, as we learn from a newspaper paragraph
" a great play-house " wasv erected in the middle
of Smithfield for "the King's players/' being
"the largest ever built/' In 1717 Bullock did not
accompany Penkethman, but set up a booth of his
own, in conjunction with Leigh ; while Penkethman
formed a partnership with Pack, and produced the
new " droll," Twice Married and a Maid Still, in
which the former personated Old Merriwell ; Pack,
Tim; Quin, Vincent; Ryan, Peregrine; Spiller,
Trusty; and Mrs. Spiller, Lucia. Penkethman's
booth received the honour of a visit from the Prince
of Wales. On the evening of the 13th of September,
the popular favourite and several of the company
were arrested on the stage by a party of constables,
in the presence of a hundred and fifty of the nobility
and gentry ; but, pleading that they were " the
King's servants," they were released without being

96 The Old Showmen,

subjected to the pains and penalties of va-
grancy.

In 1719, Bullock's name appears alone as the
proprietor of the theatrical booth set up in Bird-
cage Alley, for Southwark Fair, and in which the
Jew of Venice was represented, with singing and
dancing, and Harper's representation of the freaks
and humours of a drunken man, which, having been
greatly admired at Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he
and Bullock were both then engaged, could not
fail to delight a fair audience. It was in this year
that Boheme made his first appearance, as Menelaus
in the Siege of Troy, in a booth at Southwark,
where he was seen and immediately engaged by
the manager of Lincoln's Inn Fields, where he ap-
peared the following season as Worcester in Henry
IV. , and subsequently as the Ghost in Hamlet, York
in Richard II. } Pisanio in Cymbeline, Brabantio in
Othello, etc.

The theatres at this time were closed during the
continuance of Bartholomew Fair, the concourse of
all classes to that popular resort preventing them
from obtaining remunerative audiences at that time,
while the actors could obtain larger salaries in
booths than they received at the theatres, and some
realised large amounts by associating in the owner-
ship of a booth. The Hay market company pre-

And the Old London Fairs. 97

sented the Beggar's Opera, at Bartholomew and
Southwark Fairs in 1720; and Penkethman had
Iris booth at both fairs, this year without a partner.

May Fair, which had long been falling into dis-
repute, now ceased to be held. It was presented
by the grand jury of Middlesex four years suc-
cessively as a nuisance ; and the county magistrates
then presented an address to the Crown, praying
for its suppression by royal proclamation. Pennant,
who says that he remembered the last May Fair,
describes the locality as ". covered with booths,
temporary theatres, and every enticement to low
pleasure." A more particular description was given
in 1774, in a communication from Carter, the anti-
quary, to the " Gentleman's Magazine."

" A mountebank's stage," he tells us, " was
erected opposite the Three Jolly Butchers public-
house (on the east side of the market area, now
the King's Arms). Here Woodward, the inimitable
comedian and harlequin, made his first appearance
as Merry Andrew; from these humble boards he
soon after made his way to Co vent Garden Theatre.
Then there was ' beheading of puppets.' In a coal-
shed attached to a grocer's shop (then Mr. Frith' s,
now Mr. Frampton's), one of these mock executions
was exposed to the attending crowd. A shutter
was fixed horizontally, on the edge of which, after

98 The Old Showmen,

many previous ceremonies, a puppet laid its head,
and another puppet instantly chopped it off with
an axe. In a circular stair- case window, at the
north end of Sun Court, a similar performance took
place by another set of puppets. In these repre-
sentations, the late punishment of the Scottish
chieftain (Lord Lovat) was alluded to, in order to
gratify the feelings of southern loyalty, at the
expense of that further north.

"In a fore one-pair room, on the west side of
Sun Court, a Frenchman submitted to the curious
the astonishing strength of the ' strong woman/ his
wife. A blacksmith's anvil being procured from
White Horse Street, with three of the men, they
brought it up, and placed it on the floor. The
woman was short, but most beautifully and deli-
cately formed, and of a most lovely countenance.
She first let down her hair (a light auburn), of a
length descending to her knees, which she twisted
round the projecting part of the anvil, and then,
with seeming ease, lifted the ponderous weight some
inches from the floor. After this, a bed was laid in
the middle of the room; when, reclining on her
back, and uncovering her bosom, the husband
ordered the smiths to place thereon the anvil, and
forge upon it a horse-shoe ! This they obeyed, by
taking from the fire a red-hot piece of iron, and

And the Old London Fairs. 99

with their forging hammers completing the shoe,
with the same might and indifference as when in
the shop at their constant labour. The prostrate
fair one appeared to endure this with the utmost
composure, talking and singing during the whole
process ; then, with an effort which to the by-
standers seemed like some supernatural trial, cast
the anvil from off her body, jumping up at the
same moment with extreme gaiety, and without the
least discomposure of her dress or person. That no
trick or collusion could possibly be practised on the
occasion was obvious, from the following evidence : —
the audience stood promiscuously about the room,
among whom were our family and friends ; the
smiths were utter strangers to the Frenchman, but
known to us; therefore, the several efforts of strength
must have proceeded from the natural and sur-
prising power this foreign dame was possessed of.
She next put her naked feet on a red-hot sala-
mander, without receiving the least injury ; but
this is a feat familiar with us at this time.

"Here, too, was f Tiddy-dol/ This celebrated
vendor of gingerbread, from his eccentricity of
character, and extensive dealings in his way, was
always hailed as the king of itinerant tradesmen.
In his person he was tall, well made, and his
features handsome. He affected to dress like a

H2

ioo The Old Showmen,

person of rank ; white gold-laced suit of clothes,
laced ruffled shirt, laced hat and feather, white silk
stockings, with the addition of a fine white apron.
Among his harangues to gain customers, take this
as a specimen : — f Mary, Mary, where are you now,
Mary ? I live, when at home, at the second house
in Little Ball Steet, two steps underground, with
a wiscum, riscum, and a why-not. Walk in, ladies
and gentlemen; my shop is on the second-floor
backwards, with a brass knocker at the door. Here
is your nice gingerbread, your spice gingerbread;
it will melt in your mouth like a red-hot brick-bat,
and rumble in your inside like Punch and his wheel-
barrow.1' He always finished his address by singing
this fag-end of some popular ballad : — Ti-tid-dy, ti-
ti, ti-tid-dy, ti-ti, ti-tid-dy, ti-ti, tid-dy, did-dy, dol-
lol, ti-tid-dy, ti-tid-dy, ti-ti, tid-dy, tid-dy, dol.
Hence arose his nick -name of ( Tiddy-dol/ '•

In Hogarth's picture of the execution of the idle
apprentice at Tyburn, Tiddy-dol is seen holding up
a cake of gingerbread, and addressing the crowd in
his peculiar style, his costume agreeing with the
foregoing description. His proper name was Ford,
and so well-known was he that, on his once being
missed for a week from his usual stand in the Hay-
market, on the unusual occasion of an excursion to
a country fair, a " catch-penny " account of his

And the Old London Fairs. 101

alleged murder was sold in the streets by thousands.
In 1721, as appears from a paragraph in the 'Lon-
don Journal' of May 27th, "the ground on which
May Fair formerly stood is marked out for a large
square, and several fine streets and houses are to be
built upon it."

CHAPTER V.

Bartholomew Fair Theatricals — Lee, the Theatrical Pi-inter —
Harper, the Comedian — Rayner and Pullen — Fielding, the
Novelist, a Showman — Gibber's Booth — Hippisley, the
Actor — Fire in Bartholomew Fair — Fawkes, the Conjuror —
Royal Visit to Fielding's Booth — Yeates, the Showman —
Mrs. Pritchard, the Actress — Southwark Fair — Tottenham
Court Fair — Ryan, the Actor — Hallam's Booth — Griffin,
the Actor — Visit of the Prince of Wales to Bartholomew
Fair — Laguerre's Booth — Heidegger — More Theatrical
Booths — Their Suppression at Bartholomew Fair — Hogarth
at Southwark Fair — Violante, the Rope-Dancer — Cadman,
the Flying Man.

THE success of the theatrical booths at the London
fairs induced Lee, a theatrical printer in Blue Maid
Alley, Southwark, and son-in-law of Mrs. Mynn,
to set up one, which we first hear of at Bartho-
lomew Fair in 1725, when the popular drama of the
Unnatural Parents was represented in it. Lee

The Old London Fairs. 103

subsequently took into partnership in his mana-
gerial speculation the popular comedian, Harper,
in conjunction with whom he produced, in 1728, a
musical drama with the strange title of the Quakers'
Opera., which, as well as the subject, was suggested
by the extraordinary popularity of Gay's Beggars'
Opera, the plot being derived from the adventures
of the notorious burglar made famous in our time
by Mr. Ainsworth's romance of ' Jack Sheppard.'
It was adapted for the fairs from a drama published
in 1725 as The Prison-breaker, "as intended to be
acted at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln's Inn Fields."

Fielding, the future novelist, appeared this year,
and in several successive years, as a Bartholomew
Fair showman, setting up a theatrical booth in
George Yard. He was then in his twenty-third
year, aristocratically connected and liberally edu-
cated, but almost destitute of pecuniary resources,
though the son of a general and a judge's daughter,
and the great grandson of an earl, while he was as
gay as Sheridan and as careless as Goldsmith. On
leaving Eton he had studied law two years at Leyden,
but was obliged to return to England through the
failure of the allowance which his father had pro-
mised, but was too improvident to supply. Finding
himself without resources, and becoming acquainted
with some of the company at the Haymarket, he

IO4 The Old Showmen,

found the means, in conjunction with Reynolds, the
actor, to set up a theatrical booth in the locality
mentioned, and afterwards, during Southwark Fair,
at the lower end of Blue Maid Alley, on the
green.

Fielding and Reynolds drew -their company from
the Haymarket, and produced the Beggars' Opera,
with "all the songs and dances, set to music, as
performed at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields."
Their advertisements for Southwark Fair inform
the public that " there is a commodious passage for
the quality and coaches through the Half Moon
Inn, and care will be taken that there shall be
lights, and people to conduct them to their places "

In the following year Fielding and Reynolds had
separate shows, the former retaining the eligible
site of George Yard for Bartholomew Fair, and
producing Colley's Beggars3 Wedding, an opera in
imitation of Gay's, which had been originally acted
in Dublin, and afterwards at the Haymarket.

Reynolds, one of the Haymarket company, set up
his booth between the hospital gate and the Crown
Tavern, and produced the same piece under the
title of Hunter, that being the name of the principal
character. He had the Haymarket band and
scenery, with Ray, from Drury Lane, in the princi-
pal part, and Mrs. Nokes as Tippit. Both he and

And the Old London Fairs. 105

Fielding announced Hulett for Chaunter, the king
of the beggars, and continued to do so during the
fair ; but the comedian could not have acted several
times daily in both booths, and as he did not return
to the Haymarket after the fair, but joined the
Lincoln' s Inn Fields company, he was probably
secured by Fielding.

Bullock, who had now seceded from the Lincoln's
Inn Fields company and joined the new establish-
ment in Goodman's Fields, under the management
of Odell, also appeared at Bartholomew Fair this
year without a partner, producing Dorastus and
Faunia, and an adaptation of Doggett's Country
Wake with the new title of Flora, announcing it, in
deference to the new taste, as being "after the
manner of the Beggars' Opera." Rayner and
Pullen's company performed, at the Black Boy Inn,
near Hosier Lane, an adaptation of Gay's opera, the
dashing highwayman being personated by Powell,
Polly by Mrs. Rayner, and Lucy by Mrs. Pulleu.

In 1730, Fielding had a partner in Gates, a
Drury Lane comedian, and again erected his theatre
in George Yard, which site was retained for him
during the whole period of his Bartholomew Fair
experience. They produced a new opera, called
the Generous Free-mason, which was written by
William Rufus Chetwood, many years prompter at

io6 The Old Showmen,

Druiy Lane. Gates personated Sebastian, and
Fielding took the part of Clerimont himself. Miss
Gates was Maria. After the opera there were
" several entertainments of dancing by Mons. de
Luce, Mademoiselle de Lorme, and others, parti-
cularly the Wooden Shoe Dance, Perrot and Pie-
rette, and the dance of the Black Joke."

Reynolds was there again, with the historical
drama of Scipio's Triumph and the pantomime of
Harlequin's Contrivance. Lee and Harper pre-
sented Robin Hood, and Penkethman and Giffard
the historical drama of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.
Penkethman had retired from the stage in 1724,
and it is doubtful whether he lent his name on this
occasion to Giffard, who was then lessee of Good-
man's Fields, or the latter had taken the younger
Penkethman into partnership with him.

Among the minor shows this year was a collec-
tion of natural curiosities, advertised as follows : —

" These are to give notice to all Ladies, Gentle-
men, and others. That at the end of Hosier Lane,
in Smithfield, are to be seen, during the Time of
the Fair, Two RATTLE SNAKES, one a very large
size, and rattles that you may hear him at a quarter
of a mile almost, and something of Musick, that
grows on the tails thereof ; of divers colours, forms,
and shapes, with darts that they extend out of their

And the Old London Fairs. 107

mouths, about two inches long. They were taken
on the Mountains of Leamea. A Fine CREATURE, of
a small size, taken in Mocha, that burrows under
ground. It is of divers colours, and very beautiful.
The TEETH of a DEAD RATTLE SNAKE, to be seen
and handled, with the Rattles. A SEA SNAIL, taken
on the Coast of India. Also, the HORN of a FLYING
BUCK. Together with a curious Collection of Ani-
mals and Insects from all Parts of the World. To
be seen without Loss of Time."

Bullock did not appear as an individual manager
in the following year, having associated himself
with Gibber, Griffin, and Hallam. The thea-
trical booth of which they were joint proprietors
stood near Hosier Lane, where the tragedy of
Tamerlane the Great was presented, the hero
"being played by Hallam, and Bajazet by Cib-
T^er. The entertainment must have been longer
than usual, for it comprised a comedy, The Miser,
adapted from L'Avare of Moliere, in which Griffin
played Lovegold, and Bullock was Cabbage; and a
pantomime or ballet, called a Eidotto al fresco.
Miller, Mills, and Gates, whose theatre was over
against the hospital gate, presented the Vanished
General, a romantic drama, playing the principal
parts themselves.

Gates having joined Miller and Mills, Fielding

io8 The Old Showmen,

had for partners this year Hippisley and Hall, the
former of whom appeared at Bartholomew Fair for
the first time. He kept a coffee-house in Newcastle
Court, Strand, which was frequented by members
of the theatrical profession. Chetwood wrote for
them a romantic drama called The Emperor of
China, in which the pathetic and the comic ele-
ments were blended in a manner to please fair
audiences, whose sympathies were engaged by the
sub-title, Love in Distress and Virtue Rewarded.
Hippisley played Shallow, a Welsh squire on his
travels ; Hall, his servant, Eobin Booby j young
Penkethman, Sir Arthur Addleplot ; and Mrs.
Egleton, a chambermaid, Loveit.

A fire occurred this year in one of the smaller
booths, and, though little damage was done, the
alarm caused so much fright to the wife of Fawkes,
the conjuror, whose show adjoined the booth in
which the fire broke out, as to induce premature
parturition. This is the only fire recorded as
having occurred in Bartholomew Fair during the
seven centuries of its existence.

I have found no Bartholomew Fair advertisement
of Lee and Harper for this year ; but at Southwark
Fair, where their show stood on the bowling green,
behind the Marshalsea Prison, they presented Bate-
man, with a variety of singing and dancing, and a

And the Old London Fairs. 109

pantomimic entertainment called the Harlot's Pro-
gress. A change of performance being found ne-
cessary, they presented the "celebrated droll" of
Jeplitha's Rash Vow, in which Harper played the
strangely incongruous part of a Captain Bluster.

" To which/' continues the advertisement, " will
be added, a new Pantomime Opera (which the Town
has lately been in Expectation ' to see perform' d)
calFd

"The Fall of PHAETON. Wherein is shown the
Kivalship of Phaeton and Epaphus ; their Quarrel
about Lybia, daughter to King Merops, which
causes Phaeton to go to the Palace of the Sun, to
know if Apollo is his father, and for Proof of it
requires the Guidance of his Father's Chariot,
which obtained, he ascends in the Chariot through
the Air to light the World ; in the Course the
Horses proving unruly go out of their way and set
the World on Fire ; Jupiter descends on an Eagle,
and with his Thunder-bolt strikes Phaeton out of
the Chariot into the River Po.

" The whole intermixed with Comic Scenes be-
tween Punch, Harlequin, Scaramouch, Pierrot, and
Colombine.

" The Part of Jupiter ]by Mr. Hewet ; Apollo,
Mr. Hulett; Phaeton, Mr. Aston; Epaphus, Mr.
Nichols ; Lybia, Mrs. Spiller ; Phathusa, Mrs. Wil-

1 1 o The Old Showmen,

liamson; Lampetia, Mrs. Canterel; Pliebe, Mrs.
Spellman ; Clymena, Mrs. Fitzgerald.

"N.B. We shall begin at Ten in the Morning
and continue Playing till Ten at Night.

" N.B. The true Book of the Droll is printed and
sold by G. Lee in Bluemaid Alley, Southwark, and
all others (not printed by him) are false. "

Fawkes, the conjuror, whose show has been inci-
dentally mentioned, located it, in the intervals
between the fairs, in James Street, near the Hay-
market, where he this year performed the mar-
vellous flower trick, by which the conjuror, Stodare,
made so much of his fame a few years ago at the
Egyptian Hall. Fawkes had a partner, Pinchbeck,
who was as clever a mechanist as the former was a
conjuror ; and no small portion of the attractiveness
of the show was due to Pinchbeck's musical clock,
his mechanical contrivance for moving pictures, and
which he called the Venetian machine (something,
probably, like the famous cyclorama of the Colos-
seum), and his " artificial view of the world," with
dioramic effects. Feats of posturing were exhibited
between Fawkes's conjuring tricks and the exhibi-
tion of Pinchbeck's ingenious mechanism.

In 1732, Fielding had Hippisley alone as a
partner in his theatrical enterprise, and presented
the historical drama of The Fall of Essex, followed

And the Old London Fairs. 1 1 r

by an adapted translation (his own work) of Le
Me'decin malgre Lui of Moliere, under the title of
The Forced Physician. The Prince and Princess of
Wales visited Fielding's theatre on the 30th of
August, and were so much pleased with the per-
formances that they witnessed both plays a second
time.

Lee and Harper presented this year the Siege of
Bethulidj " containing the Ancient History of Judith
and Holofernes, and the Comical Humours of Rus-
tego and his man Terrible." Holofernes was repre-
sented by Mullart, Judith by Spiller (so say the
advertisements ; perhaps the prefix " Mrs." was
inadvertently omitted by the printer), and Rustego
by Harper. As this was the first year in which this
curious play was acted by Lee and Harper's com-
pany, the earlier date of 1721, assigned to Setchel's
print of Bartholomew Fair, is an obvious error, as
the title of this play is therein represented on the
front of Lee and Harper's show. It is not easy to
understand how such an error can have obtained
currency, it being further proclaimed by the intro-
duction of a peep-show of the siege of Gibraltar,
which occurred in 1728.

SetcheFs print was a copy of one which adorned
a fan fabricated for sale in the fair, and had ap-
pended to it a description, ascribed to Caulfield,

H2 The Old Showmen,

the author of a collection of 'Remarkable Cha-
racters/ The authorship of the descriptive matter
is doubtful, however, as it asserts the portrait of
Fawkes to be the only one in existence; while
Caulfield, in his brief notice of the conjuror, men-
tions another and more elaborate one. Lee and
Harper's booth is conspicuously shown in the print,
with a picture of the murder of Holofernes at the
back of the exterior platform, on which are Mullart,
and (I presume) Mrs. Spiller, dressed for Holo-
fernes and Judith, and three others of the company,
one in the garb of harlequin, another dancing, and
the third blowing a trumpet. Judith is costumed
in a head-dress of red and blue feathers, laced
stomacher, white hanging sleeves, and a flounced
crimson skirt; while Holofernes wears a flowing
robe, edged with gold lace, a helmet and cuirass,
and brown buskins.

Fawkes' s show also occupies a conspicuous place
with its pictured cloth, representing conjuring and
tumbling feats, and Fawkes on the platform, doing
a conjuring trick, while a harlequin draws attention
to him, and a trumpeter bawls through his brazen
instrument of torture an invitation to the spectators
to ' ' walk up ! " Near this show is another with a
picture of a woman dancing on the tight rope. The
scene is filled up with the peep-show before men-

And the Old London Fairs. 113

tioned, a swing of the four-carred kind, a toy-stall,
a sausage-stall, and a gin-stall — one of those in-
centives to vice and disorder which were permitted
to be present, perhaps " for the good of trade,"
when amusements were banished.

In 1733, Fielding and Hippisley's booth again
stood in George Yard, where they presented the
romantic drama of Love and Jealousy, and a ballad
opera called The Cure for Covetousness, adapted by
Fielding from Les Fourberies de Scapin of Moliere.
In this piece Mrs. Pritchard first won the popu-
larity which secured her an engagement at Drury
Lane for the ensuing season, as, though she had
acted before at the Haymarket and Goodman's
Fields, she attracted little attention until, in the
character of Loveit, she sang with Salway the duet,
" Sweet, if you love me, smiling turn," which was
received with so much applause that Fielding and
Hippisley had it printed, and distributed copies in
the fair by thousands. Hippisley played Scapin
in this opera, and Penkethman, announced as the
" son of the late facetious Mr. William Penketh-
man," Old Gripe. There was dancing between the
acts, and the Ridotto alfresco afterwards; and the ad-
vertisements add that, " to divert the audience during
the filling of the booth, the famous Mr. Phillips
will perform his surprising postures on the stage."

I

1 1 4 The Old Showmen,

The newspapers of the time inform us that they
had " crowded audiences/' and that " a great
number of the nobility intend to honour them with
their presence/' which they probably did. All
classes then went to Bartholomew Fair, as in
Pepys' time ; the gentleman with the star on his
coat in Setchel's print was said to be Sir Robert
Walpole.

Gibber, Griffin, Bullock, and Hallam again ap-
peared in partnership, and repeated the perfor-
mances which they had found attractive in the
preceding year. Gibber played Bajazet in the
tragedy, and Mrs. Charke, his youngest daughter,
Haly. This lady appeared subsequently on the
scene as the proprietress of a puppet-show, and
finally as the keeper of a sausage-stall. Griffin
played Lovegold in the Miser, as he had done the
preceding winter at Drury Lane ; but none of the
Drury actresses performed this year in the fairs,
and Miss Rafter's part of Lappet was transferred to
Mrs. Roberts.

Lee and Harper presented Jephtha's Rash Voiu,
in which Hulett appeared ; and Miller, Mills, and
Gates, the tragedy of Jane Shore, in which Miss
Gates personated the heroine; her father, Tim
Hampwell ; and Chapman, Captain Blunderbuss.
After the tragedy came a new mythological en-

And the Old London Fairs. 1 1 5

tertainment, called the Garden of Venus • and the
advertisements state that, " To entertain the Com-
pany before the Opera begins, there will be a variety
of Rope-Dancing and Tumbling by the best Per-
formers ; particularly the famous Italian Woman,
Mademoiselle De Eeverant and her Daughter, who
gave such universal satisfaction at the Publick Act
at Oxford; the celebrated Signer Morosini, who
never performed in the Fair before ; Mons. Jano
and others, and Tumbling by young River and Miss
Derrum, a child of nine years old." De Reverant is
not an Italian name, and it is to be hoped, for the
sake of the lady's good name and the management's
sense of decorum, that the prefix of Mademoiselle
was an error of the printer. Jano was a performer
at Sadler's Wells, and other places of amusement
in the vicinity of the metropolis, where tea-gardens
and music-7'ooms were now becoming numerous.

Tottenham Court fair, the origin of which I have
been unable to trace, emerged from its obscurity
this year, when Lee and Harper, in conjunction with
a third partner named Petit, set up a show there,
behind the King's Head, near the Hampstead Road.
The entertainments were Bateman and the Ridotto
alfresco. The fair began on the 4th of August.

Petit' s name is not in the advertisements for
Southwark Fair, where Lee and Harper gave the

i 2

1 1 6 The Old Showmen,

same performance as at Tottenham Court. A new
aspirant to popular favour appeared this year on
Southwark Green, namely, Yeates's theatrical booth,
in which a ballad opera called Tine, Harlot's Progress
was performed, with ' ' Yeates, junior's, incomparable
dexterity of hand : also a new and glorious prospect,
or a lively view of the installation of His Eoyal
Highness the Prince of Orange.

" Note. — At a large room near his booth are to be
seen, without any loss of time, two large ostriches,
lately arrived from the Deserts of Arabia, being
male and female."

Fawkes, the conjuror, was now dead, but Pinch-
beck carried on the show, in conjunction with
his late partner's son, and issued the following
announcement : —

" This is to give notice, that Mr. Pinchbeck and
Fawkes, who have had the honour to perform before
the Royal Family, and most of the Nobility and
Gentry in the Kingdom with great applause, during
the time of Southwark Fair, will divert the Publick
with the folloiving surprising Entertainments, at their
great Theatrical Room, at the Queen's Arms, join-
ing to the Marshalsea Gate. First, the surprising
Tumbler from Frankfort in Germany, who shows
several astonishing things by the Art of Tumbling ;
the like never seen before since the memory of man.

And the Old London Fairs. 1 17

Secondly, the diverting and incomparable dexterity
of hand, performed by Mr. Pinchbeck, who causes
a tree to grow out of a flower-pot on the table, which
blossoms and bears ripe fruit in a minute ; also a
man in a maze, or a perpetual motion, where he
makes a little ball to run continually, which would
last was it for seven years together only by the
word of command. He has several tricks entirely
new, which were never done by any other person
than himself. Third, the famous little posture-
master of nine years old, who shows several
astonishing postures by activity of body, different
from any other posture-master in Europe/'

The fourth and fifth items of the programme were
Pinchbeck's musical clock and the Venetian machine.
The advertisement concludes with the announcement
that "while the booth is filling, the little posture-
master will divert the company with several wonders
on the slack rope. Beginning every day at ten
o'clock in the morning, and ending at ten at night/'
As Pinchbeck now performed the conjuring tricks
for which his former partner had been famous, and
the latter' s son does not appear as a performer, it is
probable that young Fawkes was merely a sleeping
partner in the concern, his father having accumulated
by the exercise of his profession, a capital of ten
thousand pounds.

1 1 8 The Old Showmen,

It was in this year that Highmore, actuated by
the spirit which in recent times has prompted the
prosecution of music-hall proprietors by theatrical
managers, swore an information against Harper as
an offender under the Vagrancy Act, which con-
demned strolling players to the same penalties as
wandering ballad- singers and sturdy beggars.
Why, it may be asked, was Harper selected as the
scape-goat of all the comedians who performed in
the London fairs, and among whom were Gibber,
Bullock, Hippisley, Hallam, Eyan, Laguerre, Chap-
man, Hall, and other leading actors of the theatres
royal ? There is no evidence of personal animosity
against Harper on Highmore' s part, but it is not
much to the latter' s credit that he was supposed to
have selected for a victim a man who was thought
to be timid enough to be frightened into sub-
mission.

Harper was arrested on the ] 2th November, and
taken before a magistrate, by whom he was
committed to Bridewell, as a vagrant, on evidence
being given that he had performed at Bartholomew
and Southwark Fairs, and also at Drury Lane. He
appealed against the decision, and the cause was
tried in the Court of King's Bench, before the
Lord Chief Justice, on the 20th. Eminent counsel
were retained on both sides, the prosecution insisting

And the Old London Fairs. 1 19

that the appellant had brought himself under the
operation of the Vagrancy Act by " wandering from
place to place " in the exercise of his vocation ; and
counsel for the appellant contending that, as Harper
was a householder of Westminster and a freeholder of
Surrey, it was ridiculous to represent him as a
vagabond, or to pretend that he was likely to
become chargeable as a pauper to the parish in
which he resided. " My client/' said his counsel,
"is an honest man, who pays his debts, and injures
110 man, and is well esteemed by 'many gentlemen
of good condition." The result was, that Harper
was discharged on his own recognizances to be of
good conduct, and left Westminster Hall amidst the
acclamations of several hundreds of persons, whom
his popularity had caused to assemble.

In the following year, the managerial arrange-
ments for the fairs again received considerable
modification. The partnership of Miller, Mills, and
Gates was dissolved, and the last-named actor again
joined Fielding, while Hippisley joined Bullock and
Hallam, and Hall formed a new combination with
Ryan,, Laguerre, and Chapman. Harper's partner-
ship with Lee was dissolved by the latter' s death,
and the fear of having his recognizances estreated
seems to have prevented him from appearing at the
fairs. Fielding and Gates presented Don Carlos and

120

The Old Showmen,

the ballad opera of Tlie Constant Lovers, in which
Gates played Ragout, his daughter Arabella, and
Mrs. Pritchard, in grateful remembrance of her Bar-
tholomew Fair triumph of the preceding year, Chloe.

Hippisley, Bullock, and Hallam presented Fair
Rosamond, followed by The Impostor, in which
Vizard was played by Hippisley, Balderdash by
Bullock, and Solomon Smack by Hallam's son.
During the last week of the fair, Hippisley gave, as
an interlude, his diverting medley in the character
of a drunken man, for which impersonation he was
long as celebrated as Harper was for a similar
representation.

Ryan, Laguerre, Chapman, and Hall gave what
appears a long programme for a fair, and suggests
more than the ordinary amount of " cutting down."
The performances commenced with Don John, in
which the libertine prince was played by Ryan, and
Jacomo by Chapman. After the tragedy came a
ballad opera, The Barren Island, in which Hall
played the boatswain, Laguerre the gunner, and
Penkethmaii the coxswain. The performances con-
cluded with a farce, The Farrier Niched, in which
Laguerre was Merry, Penkethman the farrier's man,
and Hall an ale-wife.

At Southwark Fair this year, Lee's booth, now
conducted by his widow, stood in Axe and Bottle

And the Old London Fairs. 121

Yard, and presented the Siege of Troy,
says the advertisement, "in its decorations, ma-
chinery, and paintings, far exceeds anything of the
like kind that ever was seen in the fairs before, the
scenes and clothes being entirely new. All the
parts to be performed to the best advantage, by
persons from the theatres. The part of Paris by
Mr. Hulett; King Menelaus, Mr. Roberts; Ulysses,
Mr. Aston ; Simon, Mr. Hind ; Captain of the
Guard, Mr. Mackenzie ; Bustle the Cobler, Mr.
Morgan; Butcher, Mr. Pearce; Taylor, Mr. Hicks;
Cassandra, Mrs. Spiller ; Yenus, Mrs. Lacy ; Helen,
Mrs. Pur den ; Cobler' s Wife, Mrs. Morgan. With
several Entertainments of Singing and Dancing by
the best masters.

"N.B. There being a puppet-show in Mermaid
Court, leading down to the Green, called The Siege
of Troy ; These are to forewarn the Publick, that
they may not be imposed on by counterfeits, the
only celebrated droll of that kind was first brought
to perfection by the late famous Mrs. Mynns, and
can only be performed by her daughter, Mrs. Lee.-"

Mrs. Lee seems to have had a formidable rival in
another theatrical booth, which appeared anony-
mously, and from this circumstance, combined with
the fact of its occupying the site on which Lee and
Harper's canvas theatre had stood for several sue-

122 The Old Showmen,

cessive years, may not unreasonably be regarded as
the venture of Harper. All I have found con-
cerning it is the bill, which, as being a good
specimen of the announcements issued by the
proprietors of the theatrical booths attending the
London fairs, is given entire.

" At the Great THEATRICAL BOOTH

On the Bowling- Green behind the Marshalsea, down
Mermaid-Court next the Queen's-Arms Tavern,
during the Time of Southwark Fair, (which began
the 8th instant and ends the 21st), will be presented
that diverting Droll called,

The True and Ancient History of
Maudlin, the Merchant's Daughter of Bristol,

AND

Her Constant Lover Antonio,

Who she followed into Italy, disguising herself in
Man's Habit ; shewing the Hardships she underwent
by being Shipwrecked on the coast of Algier, where
she met her Lover, who was doomed to be burnt at
a Stake by the King of that Country, who fell in
Love with her and proffer 'd her his Crown, which
she despised, and chose rather to share the Fate of
her Antonio than renounce the Christian Eeligion
to embrace that of their Impostor Prophet, Ma-
homet.

And the Old London Fairs. 123

With the Comical Humours of

Roger, Antonio' s Man,

And variety of Singing and Dancing between the
Acts by Mr. Sandham, Mrs. Woodward, and Miss
Sandham.

" Particularly, a new Dialogue to be sung by Mr.
Excell and Mrs. Fitzgerald. Written by the Author
of Bacchus one day gaily striding, &c. and a hornpipe
by Mr. Taylor. To which will be added a new
Entertainment (never performed before) called
The INTRIGUING HARLEQUIN

OR

Any Wife better than None.

With Scenes, Machines, and other Decorations
proper to the Entertainment."

Pinchbeck and Fawkes had a booth this year on
the Bowling Green, where the entertainments of the
preceding year were repeated, the little posturer
being again announced as only nine years of age.
Pinchbeck had a shop in Fleet Street at this time,
(mentioned in the thirty-fifth number of the ( Ad-
venturer'), and, perhaps, an interest in the wax
figures exhibited by Fawkes at the Old Tennis
Court, as " the so much famed piece of machinery,
consisting of large artificial wax figures five foot
high, which have all the just motions and gestures

1 24 The Old Showmen,

of human life, and have been for several years
shewn at Bath and Tunbridge Wells, and no where
else, except this time two years at the Opera Room
in the Haymarket ; and by them will be presented
the comical tragedy of Tom Thumb. With several
scenes out of Tlie Tragedy of Tragedies, and dancing
between the acts. To which will be added, an
entertainment of dancing called The Necromancer :
or, Harlequin Dr. Faustus, with the fairy song and
dance. The clothes, scenes, and decorations are
entirely new. The doors to be opened at four,
and to begin at six o' clock. Pit 2s. 6d. Gallery Is.
Tickets to be had at Mr. Chenevix's toy-shop, over
against Suffolk Street, Charing Cross ; at the Tennis
Court Coffee House ; at Mr. Edward Pinchbeck's,
at the Musical Clock in Fleet Street • at Mr. Smith's,
a perfumer, at the Civet Cat in New Bond Street
near Hanover Square ; at the little man's fan-shop
in St. James's Street."

Fawkes and Pinchbeck seem to have speculated
in exhibitions and entertainments of various de-
scriptions, for besides this marionette performance
and the conjuring show, there seems to have been
another show, which appeared at Bartholomew
Fair this year, as their joint enterprise, and for
which Fielding wrote a dramatic trifle called The
Humours of Covent Garden. It was probably a

And the Old London Fairs. 125

performance of puppets, like that at the Old Tennis
Court.

The licences granted by the Corporation for
mountebanks, conjurors, and others, to exercise their
avocations at Bartholomew Fair had hitherto ex-
tended to fourteen days ; but in 1 735 the Court of
Aldermen resolved — " That Bartholomew Fair shall
not exceed Bartholomew eve, Bartholomew day, and
the next morrow, and shall be restricted to the sale of
goods, wares, and merchandises, usually sold in fairs,
and no acting shall be permitted therein." There
were, therefore, no shows this year; and, as the
Licensing Act had rendered all unlicensed enter-
tainers liable to the pains and penalties of vagrancy,
and Sir John Barnard was known to be determined
to suppress all such " idle amusements " as dancing,
singing, tumbling, juggling, and the like, the toy-
men, the vendors of gingerbread, the purveyors of
sausages, and the gin-stalls had the fair to them-
selves.

There seems no evidence, however, that there was
less disorder, or less indulgence in vice, in Bartho-
lomew Fair this year than on former occasions.
" Lady Holland's mob/' as the concourse of roughs
was called which anticipated the official procla-
mation of the fair by swarming through the streets
adjacent to Smithfield on the previous night, as-

126 The Old Showmen,

sembled as usual, shouting, ringing bells, and break-
ing lamps, as had been the annual wont from the
time of the Long Parliament, though the association
of Lady Holland's name with these riotous proceed-
ings is a mystery which I have not been able to
unravel. Nor is there any reason for supposing
that drunkenness was banished from the fair with
the shows ; for, though it is probable that a much
smaller number of persons resorted to Smithfield, it
is certain that gin-stalls constituted a greater temp-
tation to excessive indulgence in alcoholic fluids, in
the absence of all means of amusement, than the
larger numbers that visited the shows were exposed
to. The idea of promoting temperance by depriving
the people of the choice between the public-house
and the theatre or music-hall is the most absurd
that has ever been conceived.

It was on the 15th of March, in this year, that
Eyan, the comedian and Bartholomew Fair thea-
trical manager, was attacked at midnight^ in Great
Queen Street, by a footpad, who fired a pistol in
his face, inflicting injuries which deprived him of
consciousness, and then robbed him of his sword,
which, however, was afterwards picked up in the
street. Eyan was carried home, and attended by a
surgeon, who found his jaws shattered, and several
teeth dislodged. A performance was given at

And tJie Old London Fairs. 127

Govent Garden for his benefit on the 19th, when
lie had a crowded house, and the play was the
Provoked Husband, with Hallam as Lord Towiily,
and the farce the School for Women, which was new,
in the Robertsonian sense, being adapted from
Moliere. Hippisley played in it. The Prince of
Wales was prevented by a prior engagement from
attending, but he sent Ryan a hundred guineas.
The wounded actor was unable to perform until
the 25th of April, when he re-appeared as Bellair
in a new comedy, Popple's Double Deceit, in which
Sir William Courtlove was personated by Hippisley,
Gayliffe by Hallam, and Jerry by Chapman.

Smithfield presented its wonted fair aspect on the
eve of Bartholomew, 1736, the civic authorities
having seen the error of their ways, and testified
their sense thereof by again permitting shows to be
erected. Hippisley joined Fielding this }Tear, and
they presented Don Carlos and the Cheats of Scapin,
Mrs. Pritchard re-appearing in the character of
Loveit. Hallam and Chapman joined in partner-
ship, and produced Fair Rosamond and a ballad
opera.

Fielding had at this time an income of two
hundred a year, besides what he derived from trans-
lating and adapting French plays for the London
stage, and the profits of his annual speculation in

128 The Old Showmen,

Smitlifield. But, if he had had three times as much,
he would have been always in debt, and occasionally
in difficulties. Besides being careless and extrava-
gant in his expenditure, he was generous to a fault.
His pocket was at all times a bank upon which
friendship or distress might draw. One illustration
of this trait in his character I found in an old
collection of anecdotes published in 1787. Some
parochial taxes for his house in Beaufort Buildings,
in the Strand, being unpaid, and repeated appli-
cation for payment having been made in vain, he
was at last informed by the collector that further
procrastination would be productive of unpleasant
consequences.

In this dilemma, Fielding, having no money,
obtained ten or twelves guineas of Tonson, on ac-
count of some literary work which he had then in
hand. He was returning to Beaufort Buildings,
jingling his guineas, when he met in the Strand an
Eton chum, whom he had not seen for several years.
Question and answer followed quickly as the friends
shook each other's hands with beaming eyes, and
then they adjourned to a tavern, where Fielding
ordered dinner, that they might talk over old times.
Care was given to the winds, and the hours flew on
unthought of, as the showman and his old school-
fellow partook of " the feast of reason, and the flow

And the Old London Fairs. 129

of soul." Fielding's friend was " hard up," and
the fact was no sooner divulged than his purse
received the greater part of the money for which
the future novelist had pledged sheets of manuscript
as yet unwritten.

It was past midnight when Fielding, raised by
wine and friendship to the seventh heaven, reached
home. In reply to the questions of his sister, who
had anxiously awaited his coming, as to the cause
of his long absence, he related his felicitous meeting
with his former chum. " But, Harry," said Amelia,
" the collector has called twice for the rates."
Thus brought down to earth again, Fielding looked
grave ; it was the first time he had thought of the
rates since leaving Tonson's shop, and he had spent
at the tavern all that he had not given to his friend.
But his gravity was only of a moment's duration.
" Friendship/' said he, " has called for the money,
and had it ; let the collector call again." A second
application to Tonson enabled him, however, to
satisfy the demands of the parish as well as those
of friendship.

It was in this year that the Act for licensing
plays was passed, the occasion — perhaps I should
say, the pretext — being the performance of Field-
ing's burlesque, Pasquin. Ministers had had their
eyes upon the stage for some time, and it must

K

130 The Old Showmen,

be admitted that the political allusions that were
indulged in on the stage were strong, and often
spiced with personalities that would not be tolerated
at the present day. It is doubtful, however, whether
the Act would have passed the House of Commons,
but for the folly of Giffard, manager of Goodman's
Fields, and sometimes of a booth in Bartholomew
Fair. He had a burlesque offered him, called the
Golden Princess, so full of gross abuse of Parliament,
the Privy Council, and even the King, that, im-
pelled by loyalty, and suspecting no ulterior aims
or sinister intention, he waited upon Sir Robert
Walpole, and laid before him the dreadful manu-
script. The minister praised Giffard for his loyalty,
while he must have inwardly chuckled at the
egregious folly and mental short-sightedness that
could be so easily led into such a blunder. He
purchased the manuscript, and made such effective
use of it in the House of Commons that Parliament
was as completely gulled as Giffard had been, and
the Dramatic Licensing Bill became law.

In the following year, Hallam appeared at Bar-
tholomew Fair without a partner, setting up his
show over against the gate of the hospital, and
presenting a medley entertainment, comprising, as
set forth in the bills, " the surprising performances
of M. Jano, M. Kaynard, M. Baudouin, and Myn-

And the Old London Fairs. 131

heer Vander Huff. Also a variety of rope-dancers,
tumblers, posture-masters, balance-masters, and
comic dancers; being a set of the very best per-
formers that way in Europe. The comic dances to
be performed by M. Jano, M. Baudouin, M. Peters,
and Mr. Thompson; Madlle. De Frano, Madlle. Le
Roy, Mrs. Dancey, and Miss Dancey. To which
will be added, the Italian Shadows, performed by
the best masters from Italy, which have not been
seen these twenty years. The whole to conclude
with a grand ballet dance, called Le Badinage
Champetre. With a complete band of music of haut-
boys, violins, trumpets, and kettle-drums. All the
decorations entirely new. To begin every day at
one o'clock, and continue till eleven at night."
Close to this booth was Yeates's, in which The
Lover his own Rival was performed by wax figures,
nearly as large as life, after which Yeates's son
performed some juggling feats, and a youth whose
name does not appear in the bills gave an acrobatic
performance.

In 1738, Hallam's booth occupied the former site
of Fielding's, in George Yard, the entertainment
consisted of the operatic burlesque, The Dragon of
Wantley, performed by the Lilliputian company from
Drury Lane. During the filling of the booth a
posturing performance was given by M. Rapinese.

K 2

132 The Old Showmen,

"The passage to the booth/' says the advertise-
ments, "is commodionsly illuminated by several
large moons and lanthorns, for the conveniency of
the company, and that persons of quality's coaches
may drive up the yard." Penkethman had this
year a booth, where Hallam's had stood the pre-
ceding year, and presented The Man's Bewitched and
The Country Wedding.

Hallam's booth attended Tottenham Court Fair
this year, standing near the turnpike, and present-
ing a new entertainment called The Mad Lovers.
At Southwark Fair Lee's theatrical booth stood on
the bowling-green, and presented Merlin, the
British Enchanter, and The Country Farmer, con-
cluding with a mimic pageant representing the
Lord Mayor's procession in the old times.

In 1 739, Bartholomew Fair was extended to four
days, and there was a proportionately larger attend-
ance of theatrical booths. Hallam's stood over
against the hospital gate, and presented the panto-
mime of Harlequin turned Philosopher and the farce
of The Sailor's Wedding, with singing and dancing.
Hippisley, Chapman, and Legar had a booth in
George Yard, where they produced The Top of the
Tree, in which a famous dog scene was introduced,
and the mythological pantomime of Perseus and An-
dromeda. Bullock, who had made his last appearance

And the Old London Fairs. 133

at Covent Garden in the preceding April,, had the
largest booth in the fair, and assumed the part of
Judge Balance in a new pantomimic entertainment
called The Escapes of Harlequin by Sea and Land,
which was preceded by a variety of humorous songs
and dances. Phillips, a comedian from Drury
Lane, joined Mrs. Lee this year in a booth at the
-corner of Hosier Lane, where they presented a
medley entertainment, comprising the cc grand
scene " of Cupid and Psyche, a scaramouch dance
by Phillips and others (said to have been given,
with great applause, on forty successive nights, at
the Opera, Paris), a dialogue between Punch and
Columbine, a scene of a drunken peasant by Phil-
lips, and a pantomimic entertainment called Colum-
bine Courtesan, in which the parts of Harlequin
arid Columbine were sustained by Phillips and his
wife.

In 1740, Hallam, whose show stood opposite the
hospital gate, presented TJie Rambling Lover; and
Yeates, whose booth was next to Hallam's, the pan-
tomime of Orpheus and Eurydice. The growing
taste for pantomime, which is sufficiently attested
by the play-bills of the period, induced Hippisley
and Chapman, whose booth stood in George Yard,
to present, instead of a tragedy or comedy, a panto-
mime called Harlequin Scapin, in which the popular

134 The Old Showmen ,

embodiment of Moliere's humour was adapted with
success to pantomimic requirements. Hippisley
played Scapin, Chapman was Tim, and Yates, who
made his first appearance at Bartholomew Fair,
Slyboots. After the pantomime came singing and
dancing by Gates, Yates, Mrs. Phillips, and others,
" particularly a new whimsical and diverting dance
called the Spanish Beauties." The performances
concluded with a new musical entertainment called
The Parting Lovers. Fawkes and Pinchbeck also
had a theatrical booth this year in conjunction with
a partner named Terwin.

This year the fair was visited again by the Prince
of Wales, of which incident an account appeared
many years afterwards in the 'New European
Magazine/ The shows were all in full blast and
the crowd at its thickest, when, says the narrator,
" the multitude behind was impelled violently for-
wards ; a broad blaze of red light, issuing from a
score of flambeaux, streamed into the air; several
voices were loudly shouting, ' room there for Prince
George ! Make way for the Prince ! ' and there
was that long sweep heard to pass over the ground
which indicates the approach of a grand and cere-
monious train. Presently the pressure became
much greater, the voices louder, the light stronger,
and as the train came onward, it might be seen that

And the Old London Fairs. 135

it consisted,, firstly, of a party of the yeomen of the
guard, clearing the way ; then several more of them
bearing flambeaux, and flanking the procession ;
while in the midst of all appeared a tall, fair, and
handsome young man, having something of a plump
foreign visage, seemingly about four and thirty,
dressed in a ruby-coloured frock-coat, very richly
guarded with gold lace, and having his long flowing
hair curiously curled over his forehead and at the
sides, and finished with a very large bag and courtly
queue behind. The air of dignity with which he
walked, the blue ribbon and star and garter with
which he was decorated, the small three-cornered
silk court hat which he wore, whilst all around him
were uncovered; the numerous suite, as well of
gentlemen as of guards, which marshalled him
along, the obsequious attention of a short stout
person, who, by his flourishing manner seemed to
be a player, — all these particulars indicated that the
amiable Frederick, Prince of Wales, was visiting
Bartholomew Fair by torch-light, and that Manager
Eich was introducing his royal guest to all the
entertainments of the place.

" However strange this circumstance may appear
to the present generation, yet it is nevertheless
strictly true; for about 1740, when the drolls in
Smithfield were extended to three weeks and a

136 The Old Showmen,

month, it was not considered as derogatory to
persons of the first rank and fashion to partake in
the broad humour and theatrical amusements of the
place. It should also be remembered, that many
an eminent performer of the last century unfolded
his abilities in a booth ; and that it was once con-
sidered as an important and excellent preparation
to their treading the boards of a theatre royal."

The narrator then proceeds to describe the duties
of the leading actor in a Bartholomew Fair theatre,
from which account there is some deduction to be
made for the errors and exaggerations of a person
writing long after the times which he undertakes to
describe, and who was not very careful in his re-
searches, as the statement that the fair then lasted
three weeks or a month sufficiently attests. The
picture which he gives was evidently drawn from
his knowledge of the Bichardsonian era, which he
endeavoured to make fit into the Bartholomew Fair
experiences of the very different showmen of the
reign of George II.

"I will/' he says, assuming the character of an
actor of the period he describes, " as we say, take
you behind the scenes. First, then, an actor mus
sleep in the pit, and wake early to throw fresh saw-
dust into the boxes ; he must shake out the dresses,
and wind up the motion-jacks ; he must teach the

A nd the f Old L ondon Fairs. 1 3 7

-dull ones how to act, rout up the idlers from the
straw, and redeem those that happen to get into
the watch-house. Then, sir, when the fair begins,
he should sometimes walk about the stage grandly,
and show his dress ; sometimes he should dance
with his fellows ; sometimes he should sing ; some-
times he should blow the trumpet; sometimes he
should laugh and joke with the crowd, and give
them a kind of a touch-and-go speech, which keeps
them merry, and makes them come in. Then, sir,
he should sometimes cover his state robe with a
great coat, and go into the crowd, and shout op-
posite his own booth, like a stranger who is struck
with its magnificence : by the way, sir, that's a
good trick, — I never knew it fail to make an
audience; and then he has only to steal away,
mount his stage, and strut, and dance, and sing,
and trumpet, and roar over again."

Griffin and Harper drop out of the list of show-
men at the London fairs in this year. Griffin
appeared at Drury Lane for the last time on the
12th of February, and died soon afterwards, with
the character of a worthy man and an excellent
actor. He made his first appearance at Lincoln's
Inn Fields, as Sterling in The Perplexed Lovers, in
1714. Harper, the jolly, facetious low comedian,
suffered an attack of paralysis towards the close of

138 The Old Shoi&men,

1739, and, though he survived till 1742, he never
appeared again on the stage.

In the following year, Hippisley and Chapman
presented A Devil of a Duke ; and Hallam relied
for success upon Fair Rosamond. Lee and Wood-
ward, whose booth stood opposite the hospital gate,
produced Darius, King of Persia, " with the comical
humours of Sir Andrew Aguecheek at the siege of
Babylon." Anachronisms of this kind were com-
mon at theatrical booths in those days, when comic
Englishmen of one type or another were constantly
introduced, without regard to the scene or the
period of the drama to be represented. Audiences
were not sufficiently educated to be critical in such
matters, and managers could plead the example of
Shakspeare, who was then esteemed a greater
authority than he is considered to be at the present
day. Yates made his first appearance as a show-
man this year, in partnership with Turbutt, who
set up a booth opposite the King's Head, and pro-
duced a pantomime called Thamas Kouli Klian,
founded on recent news from the East. An epi-
logue, in the character of a drunken English sailor,
was spoken by Yates, of whom Churchill wrote, —

" In characters of low and vulgar mould,
Where nature's coarsest features we behold ;
Where, destitute of every decent grace,

And the Old London Fairs. 139

Unmanner'd jests are blurted in your face ;
There Yates with justice strict attention draws,
Acts truly from himself, and gains applause."

There was a second and smaller booth in the
name of Hallam, in which tumbling and rope-
dancing were performed ; but whether belonging to
the actor or to another showman of the same name
is uncertain. Fawkes and Pinchbeck exhibited the
latter's model of the Siege of Carthagena, with
which a comic dramatic performance was com-
bined.

The office of Master of the Revels was held at
this time by Heidegger, a native of Zurich, who
was also manager of the Italian Opera. He was
one of the most singular characters of the time, and
as remarkable for his personal ugliness as for the
eccentricity of his manners. The profanity of his
language was less notable in that age than his
candour. Supping on one occasion with a party of
gentlemen of rank, the comparative ingenuity of
different nations became the theme of conversation,
when the first place was claimed by Heidegger for
his compatriots.

" I am myself a proof of what I assert," said he.
" I was born a Swiss, and came to England with-
out a farthing, where I have found means to gain
five thousand a year and to spend it. Now, I defy

140 The Old Showmen,

the most able Englishman to go to Switzerland and
either to gain that income, or to spend it there."

He was never averse to a joke upon his own ugli-
ness, and once made a wager with Lord Chester-
field that the latter would not be able, within a
certain given time, to produce a more ugly man in
all London. The time elapsed; and Heidegger
won the wager. Yet he could never be persuaded
to have his portrait painted, even though requested
by the King, and urged by all his friends to comply
with the royal wish. The facetious Duke of Mon-
tagu, the concoctor of the memorable bottle -con-
juror hoax at the Haymarket, had recourse to
stratagem to obtain Heidegger's likeness, which
afterwards gave rise to a laughable adventure. He
gave a dinner at the Devil Tavern, near Temple
Bar, to several of his friends and acquaintances,
selecting those whom he knew to be the least
accessible to the effects of wine, and the most likely
to indulge in vinous conviviality. Heidegger was
one of the guests, and, in a few hours after dinner,
became so very much inebriated that he was carried
out of the room in a state of insensibility, and laid
upon a bed.

An artist in wax, a daughter of the famous Mrs.
Salmon, was ready to play her part in the plot, and
quickly made a mould of Heidegger's face in

And the Old London Fairs. 141

plaster. From this a mask was made ; and all that
remained to be done was to learn from his valet
what clothes he would wear on a certain night, and
procure a similar suit and a man of the same
stature. All this the Duke accomplished before a
masked ball took place, at which the King had
promised to be present, and the band of the Opera
House was to play in a gallery. The night came ;
and as the King entered, accompanied by the
Countess of Yarmouth, Heidegger directed the
band to play the national anthem. He had scarcely
turned his back, however, when the counterfeit
Heidegger told them to play "Charlie over the
water."

Consternation fell upon all the assembly at the
sound of the treasonable strains ; everybody looked
at everybody else, wondering what the playing of a
Jacobite air in the presence of the King might
presage. Heidegger ran to the orchestra, and
swore, stamped, and raved, accusing the musicians
of being drunk, or of being bribed by some secret
enemy to bring about his ruin. The treasonable
melody ceased, and the loyal strains of the national
anthem saluted the royal ears. Heidegger had no
sooner left the room, however, than his double
stepped forward, and standing before the music-
gallery, swore at the musicians as Heidegger had

142 The Old Showmen,

done, imitating his voice, and again directed them
to play " Charlie over the water." The musicians,
knowing his eccentricity, and likewise his addiction
to inebriety, shrugged their shoulders, and obeyed.
Some officers of the Guards resented the affront to
the King by attempting to ascend to the gallery for
the purpose of kicking the musicians out ; but the
Duke of Cumberland, who, as well as the King and
his fair companion, was in the plot, interposed and
calmed them.

The company were thrown into confusion, how-
ever, and cries of " shame ! shame ! " arose on every
side. Heidegger, bursting with rage, again rushed
in, and began to rave and swear at the musicians.
The music ceased ; and the Duke of Montagu per-
suaded Heidegger to go to the King, and make an
apology for the band, representing that His Majesty
was very angry. The counterfeit Heidegger im-
mediately took the same course, and, as soon as
Heidegger had made the best apology his agitation
would permit, the former stepped to his side and
said, " Indeed, sire, it was not my fault, but that
devil's in my likeness." Heidegger faced about,
pale and speechless, staring with widely dilated
eyes at his double. The Duke of Montagu then
told the latter to take off his mask, and the frolic
ended; but Heidegger swore that he would never

And the Old London Fairs. 143

attend any public entertainment again, unless that
witch, the wax-work woman, broke the mould and
melted the mask before him.

In 1742, the first place in Bartholomew Fair was
again held, but for the last time, by Hippisley and
Chapman, who revived the ever-popular Scapin in
what they called " the most humorous and diverting
droll, called Scaramouch Scapin or the Old Miser
caught in a Sack/' the managers playing the same
characters as in 1740. Hallam had made his last
appearance at the fair in the preceding year, and his
booth was now held by Turbutt and Yates, who set
it up opposite the hospital gate, and produced The
Loves of King Edward IV. and Jane Shore. Yates
personated Sir Anthony Lackbrains, Turbutt was
Captain Blunderbuss, and Mrs. Yates, Flora. Anew
aspirant to public favour appeared in Goodwin, whose
booth stood opposite the White Hart, near Cow Lane,
and presented a three act comedy, called The Intri-
guing Footman, followed by a pantomimic entertain-
ment " between a soldier, a sailor, a tinker, a tailor,
and Buxom Joan of Deptford." Fawkes and Pinch-
beck announced that " Punch's celebrated company
of comical tragedians from the Haymarket," would
perform The Tragedy of Tragedies, " being the most
comical and whimsical tragedy that was ever tra-
gedized by any tragical company of comedians,

144 The Old Showmen,

called The Humours of Covent Garden, by Henry
Fielding, Esq."

In 1743, the erection of theatrical booths in
Smithfield was prohibited by a resolution of the
Court of Aldermen, and the interdict was repeated
in the following year. The prohibition did not
extend to South wark Fair, however, though held by
the Corporation ; for Yates was there in the former
year, with a strong company from the theatres royal
playing Love for Love, with Woodward as Tattle,
Macklin as Ben, Arthur as Foresight, Mrs. Yates as
Mrs. Frail, and Miss Bradshaw as Miss Prue. The
after-piece was The Lying Valet, in which Yates
appeared as Sharp, and his wife as Kitty Pry.

It was in 1744 that the famous Turkish wire-
walker appeared at Bartholomew Fair, where he
performed without a balancing-pole, at the height
of thirty-five feet. He juggled while on the wire
with what were supposed to be oranges ; but this
feat lost much of its marvellousness on his dropping
one of them, which revealed by the sound that it
was a painted ball of lead. He had formidable
rivals in the celebrated Violantes, man and wife, the
latter of whom far exceeded in skill and daring the
famous Dutch woman of the latter years of the
seventeenth century. These Italian artistes, like
the Turk, performed at a considerable height, which,

And the Old London Fairs. 145

while it does not require greater skill, gives the
performance a much more sensational character.

Yiolante is the slack-rope performer introduced
by Hogarth in his picture of Southwark Fair. The
following feat is recorded of the artiste by Malcolm,
in his ( Londinium Redivivus/ in connection with the
building of the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields : —
" Soon after the completion of the steeple, an ad-
venturous Italian, named Yiolante, descended from
the arches, head foremost, on a rope stretched
across St. Martin's Lane to the Royal Mews ; the
princesses being present, and many eminent per-
sons." Hogarth has introduced, in the background
of his picture, another performer of this feat, namely,
Cadman, who lost his life in 1740 in an attempt to
descend from a church steeple in Shrewsbury. The
epitaph on his gravestone sets forth the circum-
stances of the catastrophe as follows : —

" Let tliis small monument record the name
Of Cadman, and to future times proclaim
Here, by an attempt to fly from tin's high spire,
Across the Sabrine stream, he did acquire
His fatal end. 'Twas not for want of skill,
Or courage to perform the task, he fell :
No, no — a faulty cord, being drawn too tight,
Hurried his soul on liigh to take her flight,
Which bid the body here beneath good night."

L

146 The Old Showmen.

The fairs of London were in the zenith of their
fame during the period embraced in this chapter.
During the second quarter of the eighteenth century,,
they were resorted to by all classes of the people,
even by royalty ; and the theatrical booths by which
they were attended boasted the best talent in the
profession. They were not only regarded as the
nurseries of histrionic ability, as the provincial
theatres afterwards came to be regarded, but wit-
nessed the efforts to please of the best actors of the
London theatres, when in the noon of their success
and popularity. Gibber, Quin, Macklin, Woodward,
Shuter, did not disdain to appear before a Bartho-
lomew Fair audience, nor Fielding to furnish them
with the early gushings of his humour. The in-
imitable Hogarth made the light of his peculiar
genius shine upon them, and the memories of the
old showmen are preserved in more than one of his
pictures.

CHAPTEE VI.

A new Race of Showmen — Yeates, the Conjuror — The
Turkish Rope-Walker — Pan and the Oronutu Savage —
The Corsican Fairy — Perry's Menagerie — The Riobiscay
and the Double Cow — A Mermaid at the Fail's — Garrick
at Bartholomew Fair — Yates's Theatrical Booth — Dwarfs
and Giants — The Female Samson — Riots at Bartholomew
Fair — Ballard's Animal Comedians — Evans, the Wire-
Walker — Southwark Fair — Wax-work Show — Shuter, the
Comedian — Bisset, the Animal Trainer — Powell, the Fire-
Eater — Roger Smith, the Bell-Player — Suppression of
Southwark Fair.

THE limitation of Bartholomew Fair to three days,
and the interdiction of theatrical booths in two
successive years, was a serious blow, regarding the
matter from the professional point of view, to the
interests of the fair. Though actors worked hard
during the twelve or eighteen days of the fair, they
earned higher salaries during that time than they

L 2

148 The Old Showmen,

would have received at the theatres, and looked
forward to Bartholomew-tide as the labourer to
harvest. Though the theatres remained open during"
the fair when theatrical booths and puppet-shows
were interdicted by the Court of Aldermen, actors
missed their extra earnings, and managers found
their receipts considerably diminished. In these
we have only a passing interest ; but the glory of
the fairs began to wane when the great actors
ceased to appear on the boards of the canvas
theatres, for the nobility and gentry withdrew their
patronage when the luminaries of Drury Lane and
Covent Garden were no longer to be seen, and fairs
began to be voted low by persons of rank and
fashion.

The removal of the interdict on theatrical booths
had little or no effect in arresting the progress of the
decadence which had commenced; for the three
days to which Bartholomew Fair remained limited did
not afford to actors engaged at the London theatres,
opportunities for earning money sufficient to induce
them to set up a portable theatre, which, except for
Southwark Fair, they could not use again until the
following year. The case was very different when
the fair lasted two or three weeks, and the theatres
were closed during the time ; but when its duration
was contracted to three days, the attendance of a

And the Old London Fairs. 149

theatrical company could be made remunerative only
for inferior artistes who strolled all through the year
from one fair to another.

Towards the middle of the last century, therefore,
a new race of showmen came prominently before the
visitors to the London fairs, and two or three only
of the names familiar to fair audiences afterwards
re-appeared in the bills of the temporary theatres.
Even these had, with the exception of Mrs. Lee,
come into notice only since the fair, by being limited
to three days, had lost its attractiveness for actors
of the theatres royal. The site made famous by
Fielding was occupied in 1746 by a new mana-
ger, Hussey, who presented a drama of Shakspeare's
(without announcing the title), sandwich-like,
between the two parts of a vocal and instrumental
concert, concluding the entertainment with a
pantomime called The Schemes of Harlequin, in
which Rayner was Harlequin, and his daughter, who
did a tight-rope performance, probably Columbine.
Rayner was an acrobat at Sadler* s Wells, where his
daughter danced on the tight rope. The pantomime
concluded with a chorus in praise of the Duke of
Cumberland, whose victory at Culloden in the pre-
ceding year had finally crushed the hopes of the
disaffected Jacobites.

The younger Yeates joined Mrs. Lee in a

150 The Old Showmen,

theatrical booth facing the hospital gate, where they
presented Love in a Labyrinth, a musical entertain-
ment called Harlequin Invader, and " stiff and slack
rope-dancing by the famous Dutch woman.5' This
can scarcely be the woman who did such wonders
on the rope about the time of the Revolution, though
Madame Saqui performed on the rope at a very
advanced age ; she may have been the same, for she
does not appear again, but, considering that she is
spoken of as a woman at the time of her first
appearance in England, it is more probable that the
rope-dancer of Mrs. Lee's booth was another Dutch
woman, perhaps a daughter of the elder and more
famous performer.

Adjoining Mrs. Lee's booth was one of which
Warner and Fawkes were the proprietors, and in
which a drama called The Happy Hero was per-
formed, followed by a musical entertainment called
Harlequin Incendiary, in which the parts of Harle-
quin and Columbine were sustained by a couple
named Gushing, who afterwards appeared at Covent
Garden. Warner personated Clodpole, a humorous
rustic. Not to be outdone in loyalty by Hussey, he
concluded the performance by singing a song in
praise of the victor of Culloden.

Entertainers are, as a class, loyal, under whatever
dynasty or form of government they live, providing

And the Old London Fairs. 151

that it does not interfere with the exercise of their
profession; and in this instance their sympathies
accorded with the popular political creed.

In the following year, Hussey's booth again stood
in George Yard, and presented Tamerlane the Great,
with singing and " several curious equilibres on the
slack rope by Mahomet Achmed Yizaro Mussulino,
a Turk just arrived from Constantinople, who not
only balances without a pole, but also plays a variety
of excellent airs on the violin when on the slack
rope, which none can perform in England but him-
self." Though said to have just arrived from
Constantinople, this Turk was probably the same
that had performed at Bartholomew Fair three years
previously.

Warner disconnected himself from Fawkes this
year, and joined Yeates and Mrs. Lee, whose booth
stood in the same position as before, presenting the
Siege of Troy, and an entertainment of singing and
dancing. Adjoining it stood a new show, owned by
Godwin and Reynolds, with t{ a carious collection of
wax-work figures, being the richest and most
beautiful in England ; " and a panoramic view of
the world, " particularly an accurate and beautiful
prospect of Bergen-op-Zoom, together with its
fortifications and adjacent forts, and an exact re-
presentation of the French besieging it, and tho

j 5 2 77ie Old Showmen,

Dutch defending it from their batteries, etc." The
movements of this exhibition were effected by
clock-work. Opposite the Greyhound was another
new venture, Chettle's, in which a pantomimic
entertainment called Frolicsome Lasses was pre-
sented, with singing and dancing between the acts,
and a display of fireworks at the end.

The only theatrical booth at Southwark Fair this
year seems to have been Mrs. Lee's, in which the
entertainments were the same as at Bartholomew
Fair. In Mermaid Lane was exhibited " the
strange and wonderful monstrous production of
Nature, a sea-elephant head, having forty-six teeth,
some of them ten inches long, fluted, and turning
up like a ram's horn."

The shows increased in number and variety,
though the theatrical booths could no longer boast
of the great names of former years. George Yard
was occupied in 1 748 by a new theatre, owned by
Bridges, Cross, Barton, and Vaughan, from the
theatres royal, who availed of the interest created
by recent events to present a new historical drama
called The Northern Heroes, followed by dancing
and a farce called The Volunteers, founded on the
' Adventures of Roderick Random/ Smollett was
now running Fielding hard in the race of fame, and
the new managers were keen in turning his popu-

And the Old London Fairs. 153

larity to account for their own interests. This
booth was the most important one in the fair, and
the charge for admission ranged from sixpence to
half-a-crown.

Hussey's booth, at which the prices ranged from
sixpence to two shillings, stood opposite the gate
of the hospital. The entertainments consisted of
the comedy of The Constant Quaker, singing and
dancing, including "a new dance called Punch's
Maggot, or Footers Vagaries/' and a pantomime
called Harlequin's Frolics.

In Lee and Yeates's booth, opposite the Grey-
hound, The Unnatural Parents was revived, " shew-
ing the manner of her (the heroine) being forced
to wander from home by the cruelty of her parents,
and beg her bread; and being weary, fell into a
slumber, in a grove, where a goddess appears to
her, and directs her to a nobleman's house ; how
she was there taken in as a servant, and at length,
for her beauty and modest behaviour, married to
a gentleman of great fortune, with her return to
her parents, and their happy reconciliation. Also
the comical humours and adventures of Trusty, her
father's man, and the three witches." Then follow
the dramatis personal, which show a strong company.
" With the original dance performed by three wild
cats of the wood. With dancing between the acts

154 The Old Showmen,

by Mr. Adams and Mrs. Ogden. A good band of
music is provided, consisting of kettle-drums, trum-
pets, French horns, hautboys, violins, etc. To
begin each day at twelve o' clock. The scenes and
clothes are entirely new, and the droll the same
that was performed by Mrs. Lee fifteen years ago,
with great applause."

Near Cow Lane stood another new theatrical
booth, that of Cousins and Reynolds, at which the
charges for admission ranged from threepence to a
shilling. Here the romantic drama of Tine Blind
Beggar ofBethnal Green was presented, with dancing
between the acts, an exhibition of life-size wax
figures, representing the Court of Maria Theresa,
and the performance of the Italian sword-dancers,
"who have had the honour of performing before
the Prince of Wales, with great applause/'

Among the minor shows was one at "the first
house on the pavement, from the end of Hosier
Lane," where the sights to be seen were a camel,
a hysona, a panther, " the wonderful and surprising
satyr, calPd by Latin authors, Pan," and a " young
Oronutu savage." On the pavement, at the end of
Cow Lane, was a smaller show, the charge for
admission to which was threepence, consisting of a
large hog, said to weigh a hundred and twenty
stones, and announced as " the greatest prodigy in

And the Old London Fairs. 155

Nature ; " and an " amazing little dwarf, being the
smallest man in the world.'"

Bartholomew Fair was visited this year for the
first time by the female dwarf who obtained such
wide-spread celebrity as the Corsican Fairy. It
will be seen from the following copy of the bill
issued by her exhibitors that she was not shown in
a booth, but in a room hired for the purpose : —

" To the Nobility and Gentry, and to all who are
Admirers of the Extraordinary Productions of
Nature.

"There is to be seen in a commodious Apart-
ment, at the Corner of Cow Lane, facing the Sheep-
Pens, West Smithfield, During the short time of
Bartholomew Fair,

MARIA TERESIA,

the Amazing CORSICAN FAIEY, who has had the
Honour of being shown three Times before their
Majesties.

"IJST She was exhibited in Cockspur Street,
Haymarket, at two shillings and sixpence each
Person; but that Persons of every Degree may have
a Sight of so extraordinary a Curiosity, she will be
shown to the Gentry at sixpence each, and to
Working People, Servants, and Children at Three-
pence, during this Fair.

156 The Old Showmen^

"This most astonishing Part of the Human Species
was born in the Island of Corsica, on the Mountain
of Stata Ota, in the year 1743. She is only thirty-
four Inches high, weighs but twenty-six Pounds,
and a Child of two Years of Age has larger Hands
and Feet. Her surprising Littleness makes a strong
Impression at first Sight on the Spectator's Mind.
Nothing disagreeable, either in Person or Conver-
sation, is to be found in her; although most of
Nature's Productions, in Miniature, are generally so
in both. Her Form affords a pleasing Surprise,
her Limbs are exceedingly well proportioned, her
admirable Symmetry engages the attention; and,
upon the whole, is acknowledged a perfect Beauty.
She is possessed of a great deal of Vivacity of
Spirit; can speak Italian and French, and gives the
inquisitive Mind an agreeable Entertainment. In
short, she is the most extraordinary Curiosity ever
known, or ever heard of in History ; and the Curious,
in all countries where she has been shown, pro-
nounce her the finest Display of Human Nature, in
Miniature, they ever saw.

" *#* She is to be seen by any Number of Persons,
from Ten in the Morning till Nine at Night."

Hussey's theatrical booth attended Southwark
Fair, where it stood on the bowling-green, the enter-

And the Old London Fairs. 157

tainments being the same as in Smithfield. Lee
and Yeates can scarcely have been absent from a
scene with which the former had been so long and
intimately associated. Yeates took a benefit this
year at the New Wells, near the London Spa, Clerk-
enwell, where a concert was followed by a per-
formance of the Beggar's Opera, with the beneficiaire
as Macheath and his wife as Polly, and the farce of
Miss in her Teens, in which the part of Captain
Flash was sustained by the former, and that of Miss
Biddy by his. wife. The place was probably un-
licensed for theatrical performances, as the dramatic
portion of the entertainment was announced to be
free to holders of tickets for the concert.

Tottenham Court Fair was continued this year for
fourteen days, but does not appear to have been
attended by any of the shows which contributed
so much to the attractiveness of the fairs of Smith-
field and Southwark Green. The only advertise-
ment of the entertainments which I have been able
to find mentions a " great theatrical booth," but it
was devoted on the day to which the announcement
relates to wrestling and single-stick playing. As a
relic of a bygone time, it is curious enough to
merit preservation : —

' ' For the entertainment of all lovers and en-
couragers of the sword in its different uses, and for

158 The Old Showmen,

the benefit of Daniel French, at the great theatrical
booth at Tottenham Court, on Monday the 14th
instant, will be revived a country wake. Three
men of Gloucestershire to play at single-stick against
three from any part, for a laced hat, value fifteen
shillings, or half a guinea in gold ; he that breaks
most heads fairly in three bouts, and saves his own,
to have the prize; half-a-crown for every man
breaking a head fairly, besides stage-money. That
gentlemen may not be disappointed, every gamester
designing to engage is desired to enter his name
and place of abode with Mr. Fuller, at the King's
Head, next the booth, before the day of sport, or he
will not be admitted to play, and to meet by eight
in the morning to breakfast and settle the play for
the afternoon. Money will be given for the en-
couragement of wrestling, sword and dagger, and
other diversions usual on the stage, besides stage-
money. That no time may be lost, while two are
taking breath, two fresh men shall engage. The
doors to be opened at twelve o'clock, and the sport
to begin precisely at three in the afternoon. Note,
there will be variety of singing and dancing for
prizes, as will be expressed in the bills and papers
of the day. Hob, clerk of the revel."

Newspapers of this year contain advertisements
of several shows which probably visited the London

And the Old London Fairs. 159

Fairs, where they were sufficiently announced by
their pictures. There are no fewer than three
menageries, all on a small scale. The best seems
to have been Perry's, advertised as follows : —
" This is to give notice to all Gentlemen, Ladies, and
others, that Mr. Perry's Grand Collection of Living
Wild Beasts is come to the White Horse Inn, Fleet
Street, consisting of a large he-lion, a he-tiger, a
leopard, a panther, two hyenas, a civet cat, a jackall,
or lion's provider, and several other rarities too
tedious to mention. To be seen at any time of the
day, without any loss of time. Note. — This is the
only tiger in England, that baited being only a com-
mon leopard." The note alludes to a recent baiting
of a leopard by dogs, the animal so abused being
described in the announcements of the combat as a
tiger.

The second menagerie under notice was adver-
tised as follows : —

" To be seen, at the Flying Horse, near the
London workhouse, Bishopsgate Street, from eight
in the morning till nine at night, the largest col-
lection of living wild creatures ever seen in Europe.
1. A beautiful large he-tiger, brought from Ben-
gal by Captain Webster, in the Ann. He is very
tame, and vastly admired. 2. A beautiful young
leopard, from Turkey. 3. A civet cat, from Guinea.

1 60 The Old Showmen,

4. A young man-tiger, from Angola. 5. A won-
derful hyaena, from the coast of Guinea. 6. A
right man-tiger, brought from Angola by Captain
D'Abbadie, in the Portfield Indiaman. This is a
very curious creature, and the only one that has
been seen in England for several years. It comes
the nearest to human nature of any animal in the
world. With several others too tedious to mention."
Perry seems to have been in error in announcing
that he had the onty tiger in England ; though the
one exhibited at the Flying Horse may have been a
more recent importation. The "man-tigers " of the
latter collection were probably gorillas, though those
animals seem to have been lost sight of subse-
quently until attention was recalled to them by
M. Du Chaillu.

The third collection was advertised as follows : —
"To be seen, at the White Swan, near the Bull
and Gate, Holborn, a collection of the most curious
living wild creatures just arrived from different parts
of the world. 1. A large and beautiful young camel
from Grand Cairo, in Egypt, near eight feet high,
though not two years old, and drinks water but once
in sixteen days. 2. A surprising hyaena, from the
coast of Guinea. 3. A beautiful he-panther, from
Buenos Ayres, in the Spanish West Indies. 4. A
young Riobiscay, from Russia : and several other

And the Old London Fairs. 161

creatures, too tedious to mention. Likewise a
travelling post-chaise from Switzerland, which,
without horses, keeps its stage for upwards of fifty
miles a day, without danger to the rider. At-
tendance from eight in the morning till eight at
night." What the riobiscay was is now beyond
conjecture; but the panther from Buenos Ayres
was, of course, a jaguar, the panther being limited
to the eastern hemisphere. This collection was
exhibited in Holborn early in the year, and re-
moved at Easter to the Rose and Crown, near
the gates of Greenwich Park.

There was a bovine monstrosity shown this year
as a "double cow," probably at the fairs, as the
following paragraph, extracted from a newspaper
of the time, refers to a second locality : —

" As we are well assured that that most won-
derful living curiosity, the double cow, has given
uncommon satisfaction to the several learned bodies
by whom it has hitherto been seen, we hope the fol-
lowing account and description of it will not be dis-
agreeable to our readers. This wonderful prodigy
was bred at Cookfield in Sussex, being one entire
beautiful cow, from the middle of whose back issues
the following parts of the other cow, viz., a leg with
the blade-bone quite perfect, and about two feet
long j the gullet, bowels, teats, and udder, from which

M

1 6 2 77/<? 0/# Showmen,

udder, as well as from the udder of the perfect cow,
it gives milk in great plenty, though more than a
yard asunder ; and what is very extraordinary, and
has astonished the most curious observers, is the
discontinuation of the back-bone about sixteen
inches from the shoulder. This wonderful beast is
so healthy as to travel twenty miles a day, is ex-
tremely gentle, and by all the gentlemen and ladies
who have already seen it is thought as agreeable as
astonishing. It is now shewn in a commodious
room, facing Craigg's Court, Charing Cross, at one
shilling each person."

There was also exhibited at the Heath Cock,
Charing Cross, " a surprising young Mermaid,
taken on the coast of Aquapulca, which, though the
generality of mankind think there is no such thing,
has been seen by the curious, who express their
utmost satisfaction at so uncommon a creature,
being hah0 like a woman, and half like a fish, and is
allowed to be the greatest curiosity ever exposed to
the public view."

In 1749, there was again a large muster of shows
on the ancient arena of West Smithfield. Yates re-
appeared as a theatrical manager, and in some mea-
sure restored the former repute of the fair, Gates
and Miss Hippisley being members of his company.
His booth stood in George Yard, where he played

And the Old London Fairs. 163

Gormandize Simple, while Gates personated Jupiter
and Miss Hippisley the wanton chambermaid,
Dorothy Squeezepurse, in "a New, Pleasant, and
Diverting Droll, called the DESCENT of the HEATHEN
GODS, with the LOVES of JUPITEE and ALCMENA ; or,
Cuckoldom no Scandal. Interspersed with several
Diverting Scenes, both Satyrical and Comical,
particularly the Surprising Metamorphosis of
Jupiter and Mercury; the very remarkable Tryal
before Judge Puzzlecause, with many Learned
Arguments on both sides, to prove that One can't
be Two. Likewise the Adventures and whimsical
Perplexities of Gormandize Simple the Hungarian
Footman ; with the wonderful Conversation he had
with, and the dreadful Drubbing he received from,
His Own Apparition ; together with the Intrigues of
Dorothy Squeezepurse the Wanton Chambermaid/'

Opposite the George stood the theatrical booth of
the elder Yeates, who had been absent from the
fair for a few years, and whom Mr. Henry Morley
confounds with his son, now in partnership with
Warner and Mrs. Lee. He produced The Blind
Beggar of Bethnal Qreen, with singing and dancing
between the acts, and the pantomime of The Amours
of Harlequin. Cross and Bridges, whose booth stood
opposite the gate of the hospital, produced a new
drama, called The Fair Lunatic, " founded on a

M2

164 The Old Showmen,

story in real life, as related in the memoirs of the
celebrated Mrs. Constantia Phillips," with dancing^
by Master Matthews and Mrs. Annesley. Next to
this booth stood that of Lee, Yeates, and Warner, in
which was revived the " true and ancient history of
WMttington, Lord Mayor of London," as performed
in Lee's booth fourteen years before, with singing
and dancing between the acts. Gushing whom we
have seen playing Harlequin three years before in
Warner and Fawkes's booth, but who was now
performing at Covent Garden, set up a booth oppo-
site the King's Head, and produced King John, the
part of Lady Constance being sustained by Miss
Yates, a Drury Lane actress, while Gushing' s wife
personated Prince Arthur, and the manager the-
mirth-provoking Sir Lubberly Lackbrains.

At a house in Hosier Lane (No. 20), a performing
Arabian pony was exhibited. There were also
shows in the fair, which did not advertise, and the
memory of which has, in consequence, not been pre-
served. Of one, owned by a person named Phillips,
the only record is a very brief* newspaper report of
a fatal accident, occasioned by the breaking down
of the gallery, by which four persons were killed,
and several others severely injured.

Garrick, who had married the dancer Violette
two months previously, took hisbrideto Bartholomew

And the Old London Fairs. 165

Fair, where they visited the theatrical booth of Yates,
which was the best in the fair. He was one of the
few great actors of the period who had not per-
formed in the fair ; and was probably impelled by
curiosity, rather than by the expectation of seeing
good acting, though it was not many years since he
had made his first appearance on any stage at
Goodman's Fields, playing Harlequin at a moment's
notice when Yates was seized with a sudden indis-
position as he was about to go on the stage. The
crowd pressing upon his wife and himself very
unpleasantly as he approached the portable theatre,
he called out to Palmer, the Drury Lane bill-sticker,
who was acting as money-taker at the booth, to
protect them. " I can't help you here, sir," said
Palmer, shaking his head. " There aren't many
people in Smithfield as knows Mr. Garrick."

It was probably not at Yates's booth, but at one
of much inferior grade, that the money-taker
rejected Garrick's offer to pay for admission, with
the remark, " We never take money of one another."
The story would be pointless if the incident occurred
at any booth in which dramatic performances were
given by comedians from the principal London
theatres.

We now approach a period when a new series of
strenuous efforts for the suppression of the London

1 66 The Old Showmen,

fairs was commenced by persons who would will-
ingly have suppressed amusements of every kind,
and were aided in their endeavours by persons who
had merely a selfish interest in the matter. In the
summer of 1750, a numerously signed petition of
graziers, cattle salesmen, and inhabitants of Smith-
field was presented to the Court of Aldermen,
praying for the suppression of Bartholomew Fair, on
the ground that it annoyed them in their occupations,
and afforded opportunities for debauchery and riot.
The annual Lord Mayor's procession might have
been objected to on the same grounds, and the civic
authorities well knew that the riots which had
sometimes occurred in the fair had been occasioned
by their own acts, in the execution of their edicts
for the exclusion of puppet-shows and theatrical
booths. Their action to this end was generally
taken so tardily that booths were put up before the
proprietors received notice of the intention of the
Court of Aldermen to exclude them ; and then the
tardiness of the owners in taking them down, and
the sudden zeal of the constables, produced quarrels
and fights, in which the bystanders invariably took
the part of the showmen.

The revenues which the Corporation derived from
rents and tolls during the fair constituted an
element of the question which could not be over-

And the Old London Fairs. 167

looked, and which kept it in a state of oscillation
from year to year. The civic authorities would
have been willing enough to suppress the fair, if the
question of finance had not been involved. If the
fair was abolished, some other source of revenue
would have to be found. So they compounded with
their belief that the fair was a fount of disorder
and immorality by again limiting its duration
to three days, and excluding theatrical booths and
puppet-shows, while abstaining from interference
with the gambling-tables and the gin-stalls.

Giants and dwarfs, and learned pigs and perform-
ing ponies had now the fair to themselves, though
their showmen probably took less money than they
did when the theatrical booths and puppet-shows
attracted larger numbers of people. Henry Blacker,
a native of Cuckfield, in Sussex, twenty-seven years
of age, and seven feet four inches in height, ex-
hibited himself at the Swan, in Smithfield, during
the three days to which the fair was restricted in
1751. The principal show seems to have been one
containing two dwarfs, a remarkable negro, a
female one-horned rhinoceros, and a crocodile, said
to have been the first ever seen alive in this
country. The more famous of the two dwarfs was
John Coan, a native of Norfolk, who at this time
was twenty-three years of age, and only three feet

1 68 The Old Showmen,

two inches in height, and of thirty-four pounds
weight. His fellow pigmy was a Welsh lad, four-
teen years of age, two feet six inches in height, and
weighed only twelve pounds. The negro could
throw back his clasped hands over his head and
bring them under his feet, backward and forward ;
and was probably "the famous negro who swings
his arms about in every cTrection/" mentioned in
the ' Adventurer/

The exclusion of the theatrical booths and puppet-
shows from the fair produced, in the following year,
a serious disturbance in Smithfield, in the suppres-
sion of which Birch, the deputy-marshal of the
City, received injuries which proved fatal. This
resistance to their edict did not, however, deter the
civic authorities from applying the same rule to
Southwark Fair, which was this year limited to
three days, and diminished of its attractions by the
exclusion of theatrical booths and puppet-shows.
The principal shows were Yeates's, which stood in
George Yard, and consisted of an exhibition of wax
figures, the conjuring tricks of young Yeates, and
the feats on the slack wire of a performer named
Steward; and the female Samson' s, an Italian
woman, who exhibited feats of strength in a booth
opposite the Greyhound, similar to those of the
French woman seen by Carter at May Fair, with

And the Old London Fairs. 169

the addition of supporting six men while resting on
two chairs only by the head and heels.

Towards the close of this year a man named
Ballard brought from Italy a company of per-
forming dogs and monkeys, and exhibited them as
-a supplementary attraction to the musical enter-
tainments then given at a place in the Haymarket,
called Mrs. Midnight's Oratory. The Animal Co-
medians, as they were called, became famous
enough to furnish the theme of an ' Adventurer/
The author states that the repeated encomiums on
their performances induced him to be present one
evening at the entertainment, when he " was
-astonished at the sagacity of the monkies ; and
was no less amazed at the activity of the other
quadrupeds — I should have rather said, from a view
of their extraordinary elevations, bipeds.

" It is a peculiar happiness to me as an Adven-
turer," he continues, " that I sally forth in an age
which emulates those heroick times of old, when
nothing was pleasing but what was unnatural.
Thousands have gaped at a wire-dancer daring to
do what no one else would attempt ; and thousands
still gape at greater extravagances in pantomime
entertainments. Every street teems with incredi-
bilities; and if the great mob have their little
theatre in the Haymarket, the small vulgar can

17° The Old Showmen,

boast their cheaper diversion in two enormous
bears, that jauntily trip it to the light tune of a
Caledonian jig.

" That the intellectual faculties of brutes may be
exerted beyond the narrow limits which we have
hitherto assigned to their capacities, I saw a suffi-
cient proof in Mrs. Midnight's dogs and monkies.
Man differs less from beasts in general, than these
seem to approach man in rationality. But while I
applaud their exalted genius, I am in pain for the
rest of their kindred, both of the canine and cer-
copithecan species." The writer then proceeds to
comment humorously upon the mania which the
exhibition had created for teaching dogs and mon-
keys to perform the tricks for which the Animal
Comedians were famous. " Every boarding-house
romp and wanton school-boy," he says, "is em-
ployed in perverting the end of the canine crea-
tion."

The contributor of this paper seems to have had
a familiar acquaintance with the shows attending
the London fairs, for it was he, whoever he was,
who wrote the third number of the ' Adventurer/
in which, giving the details of a scheme for a pan-
tomime, he says that he has "not only ransacked
the fairs of Bartholomew and Southwark, but
picked up every uncommon animal, every prodigy

And the Old London Fairs. 171

of nature, and every surprising performer, that has
lately appeared within the bills of mortality." He
proceeds to enumerate them, and to assign parts in
his intended entertainment for " the Modern Colos-
sus/' " all the wonderful tall men and women that
have been lately exhibited in this town," "the
Female Sampson/' t( the famous negro who swings
his arms about in every direction/' "the noted ox,
with six legs and two bellies/' " the beautiful pan-
ther mare," "the noted fire-eater, smoking out of
red-hot tobacco pipes, champing lighted brimstone,
and swallowing his infernal mess of broth," "the
most amazing new English Cliien Savant," "the
little woman that weighs no more than twenty-
three pounds," " the wonderful little Norfolk man,"
" the fellow with Stentorian lungs, who can break
glasses and shatter window-panes with the loudness
of his vociferation," and " the wonderful man who
talks in his belly, and can fling his voice into any
part of a room." Incidentally he mentions also
"the so much applauded stupendous ostrich,"
" the sorcerer's great gelding," " the wire dancer,"
and dancing bears.

The showmen's bills and advertisements of the
period enable us to identify most of the wonders
enumerated by this writer. The female Samson
and the wire-walker had been seen that year in the

IJ2, The Old Showmen,

fairs, the famous negro and the Norfolk dwarf the
year before, and the Corsican fairy and the double
cow in 1748. The fire-eater was probably Powell,
though I have seen no advertisement of that human
salamander earlier than 1 760.

The Bartholomew Fair riot was repeated in 1753,
when Buck, the successor of the unfortunate Birch,
was very roughly handled by the rioters, and
severely bruised. This tumult was followed by an
accident to a wire-walker, named Evans, who, by
the breaking of his wire, was precipitated to the
ground, breaking one of his thighs and receiving
other injuries. This was the year of the demon-
stration against the claim of the Corporation to levy
tolls upon the goods of citizens, as well as upon
those of strangers, during the time of Bartholomew
Fair. Richard Holland, a leather-seller in Newgate
Street, had, in the preceding year, refused the toll
demanded on a roll of leather with which he had
attempted to enter the fair, and, on the leather
being seized by the collector, had called a con-
stable, and charged the impounder with theft. The
squabble resulted in an action against the Corpora-
tion, which was not tried, however, till 1754, when
the judge pronounced in favour of the citizens.

While the action was pending, Holland's cart
was driven through the fair with a load of hay, and

And the Old London Fairs. 173

was not stopped by the collector of the tolls, who
had, probably, been instructed to hold his hand
until the matter was determined. The horses'
heads were decorated with ribbons, and on the
leader's forehead was a card, upon which the follow-
ing doggrel lines were written in a bold, round
hand : —

" My master keeps me well, 'tis true,
And justly pays whatever is due ;
Now plainly, not to mince the matter,
No toll he pays but with a halter."

On each side of the load of hay hung a halter, and
a paper bearing the following announcement : —

" The time is approaching, if not already come,
That all British subjects may freely pass on ;
And not on pretence of Bartholomew Fail-
Make you pay for your passage, with all you bring near.
When once it is try'd, ever after depend on,
'Twill incur the same fate as on Finchley Common.
Give Csesar his due, when by law 'tis demanded,
And those that deserve with this halter be hanged."

The disturbances occasioned by the interference
of the authorities with the entertainers of the fair-
goers were not renewed in 1754, though the ele-
ments of disorder seem to have been present in
tolerable strength ; for on a swing breaking down
in Smithfield, without any person being seriously

174 The Old Showmen,

hurt, a number of persons broke up the apparatus,
and throwing the wreck into a heap, set it on fire.
Every swing in the fair was then attacked and
wrecked in succession, and the frames and broken
cars thrown upon the blazing pile, which soon sent
a column of fire high into the air, to the immense
danger of the many combustible erections on every
side. To keep up the fire, all the tables and benches
of the sausage- vendors were next seized, and cast
upon it ; and the feeble police of that period was
inadequate to the prevention of this wholesale
destruction, which seems to have gone on without
a check.

The exclusion of theatrical entertainments from
Southwark Fair was not maintained in 1755, when
Warner set up a booth on the bowling-green, in
conjunction with the widow of Yeates (who had died
about this time), and revived the favourite London
fair drama of The Unnatural Parents. In the
following year, Warner's name appears alone, as the
proprietor of a " great tiled booth," in which he
produced The Lover's Metamorphosis, with dancing
between the acts, and a pantomimic entertainment
called The Stratagems of Harlequin.

In 1757, Yates and Shuter, the former engaged at
the time at Drury Lane, and the latter at Covent
Garden, tried the experiment of a variety entertain-

And the Old London Fairs. 175

ment, at the large concert-room of the Greyhound
Inn, in Smithfield, " during the short time of Bar-
tholomew Fair/' as all bills and advertisements had
announced since the duration of the fair had been
limited to three days. By this device, they evaded
the edict of the Lord Mayor and the Court of Al-
dermen, which applied only to temporary erections
in Smithfield. They did not repeat the experiment
in Southwark, where the only booth advertised was
Warner's, with " a company of comedians from the
theatres/' in The Intriguing Lover and Harlequin's
Vagaries.

Yates and Shuter re-appeared at the Greyhound
next year, when they presented Woman turned
Bully, with singing and dancing between the acts,
and a representation of the storming of Louisbourg.
Theatrical representations were this year permitted
or connived at in the fair, for Dunstall and Yaughan
set up a booth in George Yard, associating with
them in the enterprise the more experienced Warner,
and announcing "a select company from the theatres
royal." The Widow Bewitched was performed, with
an entertainment of singing and dancing. Next
door to the George Inn was an exhibition of wax-
work, the chief feature of which was a collection of
figures representing the royal family of Prussia.

Southwark Fair was this year extended to four

176 The Old Showmen,

days, so fitful and varying was the policy of the Court
of Aldermen with regard to the fairs, which, while
they professed to regard them as incentives to idle-
ness and vice, they encouraged in some years as much
as they restricted in others. The names of Dunstall
and Vaughan do not appear in "the bills issued by
Warner for this fair, but the comedy performed was
the same as at Bartholomew Fair, followed by a re-
presentation of the capture of Louisbourg, concluding
with a procession of colours and standards, and a
song in praise of the heroes of the victory.

Yates and Shuter again attended Bartholomew
Fair in the following year. Mr. Henry Morley
claims for the latter the invention of the showman' s
device of announcing to the players, by a cant word,
that there was another audience collected in front,
and that the performances might be drawn to a
close as soon as possible. Shuter's mystic words
are said to have been ' ' John Audley," shouted from
the front. The practice appears, however, to have
been in operation in the earliest days of Sadler's
Wells, where, according to a description of the
place and the entertainments given by Macklin, in
a conversation recorded in the fortieth volume of
the ' European Magazine/ the announcement was
made in the query, " Is Hiram Fisteman here ? "

It was about this time that the " cat's opera " was

And the Old London Fairs. 177

announced by the famous animal-trainer, Bisset,.
whose pupils, furred and feathered, were regarded
as one of the most wonderful exhibitions ever wit-
nessed. Bisset was originally a shoemaker at Perth,
where he was born in 1721, but, on coming to
London, and entering the connubial state, he com-
menced business as a broker, and accumulated a
little capital. Having read an account of a per-
forming horse, which was exhibited at the fair of
St. Germain in 1 739, he was induced to try his own
skill in the teaching of animals upon a dog, and
afterwards upon a horse, which he bought for the
purpose. Succeeding with these, he procured a
couple of monkeys, one of which he taught to play
a barrel-organ, while the other danced and vaulted
on the tight-rope.

Cats are generally regarded as too susceptible of
nervous excitement to perform in public, though
their larger relatives, lions, tigers, and leopards,
have been taught to perform a variety of tricks
before spectators, and cats are readily taught to
perform the same tricks in private. Bisset aimed
at something higher than the exhibition of the leap-
ing feats of the species, and succeeded in teaching
three cats to play the dulcimer and squall to the
notes. By the advice of Pinchbeck, with whom he
had become acquainted, he hired a large room in

N

1 78 The Old Showmen,

the Hayniarket, and announced a public performance
of the " cat's opera," supplemented by the tricks of
the horse, the dog, and the monkeys. Besides the
organ-grinding and rope-dancing performance, the
monkeys took wine together, and rode on the horse,
pirouetting and somersaulting with the skill of a
practised acrobat. One of them also danced a
minuet with the dog.

The " cat's opera " was attended by crowded
houses, and Bisset cleared a thousand pounds by
the exhibition in a few days. He afterwards taught
a hare to walk on its hind legs, and beat a drum ;
a feathered company of canaries, linnets, and spar-
rows to spell names, tell the time by the clock, etc.;
half-a-dozen turkeys to execute a country dance ;
arid a turtle (according to Wilson, but probably a
tortoise) to write names on the floor, having its feet
blackened for the purpose. After a successful
season in London, he sold some of the animals, and
made a provincial tour with the rest, rapidly ac-
cumulating a considerable fortune. Passing over to
Ireland in 1775, he exhibited his animals in Dublin
and Belfast, afterwards establishing himself in a
public-house in the latter city. There he remained
until 1783, when he reappeared in Dublin with a
pig, which he had taught to perform all the tricks
since exhibited by the learned grunter's successors

And the Old London Fairs. 179

at all the fairs in the kingdom. He was on his
way to London with the pig when he became ill at
Chester, where he shortly afterwards died.

The question of suppressing both Bartholomew
and Southwark Fairs was considered by the Court
of Common Council in 1760,, and the City Lands
Committee was desired to report upon the tenures
of the fairs, with a view to that end. Counsel's
opinion was taken, and the committee reported the
result of the inquiry, upon which the Court resolved
that Southwark Fair should be abolished henceforth,
but that the interests of Lord Kensington in the
revenues of Bartholomew Fair prevented the same
course from being pursued in Smithfielcl . The latter
fair was voted a nuisance, however, and the Court
expressed a determination to abate it with the
utmost strictness. Shuter produced a masque, called
The Triumph of Hymen, in honour of the approach-
ing royal nuptials ; it was the production of a for-
gotten poet named Wignell, in a collected edition
of whose poems it was printed in ] 762. Among
the minor entertainers of this year at Bartholomew
Fair were Powell, the fire-eater, and Roger Smith,
who gave a musical performance upon eight bells,
two of which were fixed upon his head-gear, and
one upoo each foot, while two were held in each
hand.

CHAPTEE VII.

Yates and Shuter — Cat Harris — Mechanical Singing Birds —
Lecture on Heads — Pidcock's Menagerie — Breslaw, the
Conjuror — Reappearance of the Corsican Fairy — Gaetano,
the Bird Imitator — Rossi^pol's Performing Birds — Ani-
broise, the Showman — Brunn, the Juggler, on the Wire —
Riot at Bartholomew Fair — Dancing Serpents — Flockton,
the Puppet- Showman — Royal Visit to Bartholomew Fair-
Lane, the Conjuror — Hall's Museum — O'Brien, the Irish
Giant — Baker's Theatre — Joel Tarvey and Lewis Owen,
the popular Clowns.

THE relations between Yates and Shuter in the last
two or three years of their appearance as show-
men at Bartholomew Fair are somewhat doubtful ;
but all the evidence that I have been able to obtain
points to the conclusion that they did not co-operate
subsequent1}7" to 1758. In 1761 they seemed to
have been in rivalry, for the former's name appears

The Old London Fairs. 181

singly as the director of the " company of comedians
from both the theatres" that performed in the
concert-room at the Greyhound, while an advertise-
ment of one of the minor shows of the fair describes
it as located in George Yard, ff leading to Mr.
Shuter's booth." I have not, however, been able
to find an advertisement of Shuter's booth.

Yates's company performed The Fair Bride, which
the bills curiously describe as "containing many
surprising Occurrences at Sea, which could not
possibly happen at Land. The Performance will be
highly enlivened with several entertaining Scenes
between England, France, Ireland, and Scotland, in
the diverting Personages of Ben Bowling, an En-
glish Sailor ; Mons. Soup-Maigre, a French Captain ;
O'Flannaghan, an Irish Officer; M/Pherson, a Scotch
Officer. Through which the Manners of each Nation
will be characteristically and humorously depicted.
In which will be introduced as singular and curious
a Procession as was ever exhibited in this Nation.
The objects that comprise the Pageantry are both
Exotic and British. The Principal Figure is the
Glory and Delight of OLD ENGLAND, and Envy
of our ENEMIES. With Variety of Entertain-
ments of Singing and Dancing. The whole to con-
clude with a Loyal Song on the approaching Mar-
riage of our great and glorious Sovereign King

182 The Old Showmen,

GEORGE and the Princess CHARLOTTE of Meek-
lenberg."

There were two shows in George Yard, in one of
which "the famous learned canary bird" was
exhibited, the other consisting of a moving picture
of a city, with an artificial cascade, and "a
magnificent temple, with two mechanical birds
which have all the exact motions of living animals ;
they perform a variety of tunes, either singular or
in concert. During the performance, the just
swelling of the throat, the quick motions of the bills,
and the joyous fluttering of the wings, strike every
spectator with pleasing astonishment."

Shuter seems to have been the last actor who
played at Bartholomew Fair while engaged at a
permanent theatre. Some amusing stories are told
of his powers of mimicry. When Foote introduced
in a comedy a duet supposed to be performed by
two cats, in imitation of Bisset's feline opera, he
engaged for the purpose one Harris, who was famous
for his power of producing the vocal sounds
peculiar to the species. Harris being absent one
day from rehearsal, Shuter went in search of him,
and not knowing the number of the house in which
Cat Harris, as he was called, resided, he began to
perform a feline solo as soon as he entered the court
in which lived the man of whom he was in search.

And the Old London Fairs. 183

Harris opened liis window at the sound, and
responded with a beautiful meeyow.

" You are the man ! " said Shuter. " Come
along ! We can't begin the cats' opera without
you."

There is a story told of Shuter, however, which is
strongly suggestive of his ability to have supplied
Cat Harris's place. He was travelling in the
Brighton stage-coach on a very warm day, with
four ladies, when the vehicle stopped to receive a
sixth passenger, who could have played Falstaff
without padding. The faces of the ladies elongated
at this unwelcome addition to the number, but
Shuter only smiled. When the stout gentleman
was seated, and the coach was again in motion,
Shuter gravely inquired of one of the ladies her
motive lor visiting Brighton. She replied, that her
physician had advised sea-bathing as a remedy for
mental depression. He turned to the others, and
repeated his inquiries ; the next was nervous, the
third bilious — all had some ailment which the sea
was expected to cure.

" Ah ! " sighed the comedian, " all your com-
plaints put together are nothing to mine. Oh,
nothing ! — mine is dreadful but to think of."

" Indeed, sir ! " said the stout passenger, with a
look of astonishment. <e What is your complaint ?
you look exceedingly well."

184 The Old Showmen,

" Ah, sir ! " responded Shuter, shaking his head,
" looks are deceitful ; you must know, sir, that, three
days ago, I had the misfortune to be bitten by a
mad dog, for which I am informed sea-bathing is
the only cure. For that purpose I am going to
Brighton ; for though, as you observe, I am looking
well, yet the fit comes on in a moment, when I bark
like a dog, and endeavour to bite every one near
me/'

" Lord have mercy on us ! " ejaculated the stout
passenger, with a look of alarm. " But, sir, you
are not in earnest — you — "

*' Bow-wow-wow ! "

" Coachman ! coachman ! Let me out ! — let me
out, I say ! "

" Now, your honour, what's the matter ? "

" A mad dog is the matter ! — hydrophobia
is the matter ! open the door !"

" Bow-wow-wow ! "

" Open the door ! Never inind the steps. Thank
God, I am safe out ! Let those who like ride inside;
I'll mount the roof."

So he rode to Brighton outside the coach, much
to the satisfaction of Shuter and his fair companions
who were very merry at his expense, the former re-
peating at intervals his sonorous bow-wow-wow !

Theatrical booths and puppet-shows were again

And the Old London Fairs. 185

prohibited in 1762, and, as the jugglers, the acrobats,
and the rope-dancers who attended the fairs did
not advertise their performances, only casual notices
are to be found in the newspapers of the period of
the amusements which that generation flocked into
Smithfield in the first week of September to witness,
and which lead them somewhat earlier to the greens
of Camberwell and Stepney. Some of the enter-
tainers of the period are mentioned in an anonymous
poem on Bartholomew Fair, which appeared in
1763. The names are probably fictitious.

" On slender cord Volante treads ;
The earth seems paved with human heads :
And as she springs aloft in air,
Trembling they crouch below for fear.

A well-made form Querpero shows,
Well-skilled that form to discompose ;
The arms forget their wonted state ;
Standing on earth, they bear his weight ;
The head falls downward 'twixt the thighs,
The legs mount upward to the sides
And thus this topsy-turvy creature
Stalks, and derides the human nature.

Agyrta, famed for cup and ball,
Plays sleight of hand, and pleases all :
The certainty of sense in vain
Philosophers in schools maintain ,
This man your sharpest wit defies,
He cheats your watchful ears and eyes.

1 86 The Old Showmen,

Ah, 'prentice, -svell your pockets fence,
And yet he steals your master's pence."

In 1765, "the celebrated lecture on heads " was
advertised to be given, during the time of Bartho-
lomew Fair, " in a large and commodious room near
the end of Hosier Lane." The name of the lecturer
was not announced, but the form of the advertise-
ment implies that the lecture was Steevens's. The
lecturer may, however, have been only an imitator
of that famous humorist ; for the newspapers of
the preceding week inform us that a similar
announcement was made at Alnwick, where the
audience, finding that the lecturer was not
Steevens, regarded him as an impostor, and de-
manded the return of their money, with a threat of
tossing him in a blanket. The lecturer attempted
to vindicate himself, but the production of a blanket
completed his discomfiture, and he surrendered,
returning to the disappointed audience the money
which they had paid for admission.

In 1 769, the chief attraction of the London fairs
was Pidcock's menagerie, which was the largest
and best which had ever been exhibited in a tempo-
rary erection, the animals being hired from Cross's
collection at Exeter Change. Pidcock exhibited
his animals at Bartholomew Fair for several suc-
cessive years, and was succeeded by Polito, whose

And the Old London Fairs. 187

zoological collection attracted thousands of spec-
tators every year.

Breslaw, the conjuror, appeared in 1772, in a
large room in Cockspur Street, where his tricks of
legerdemain were combined with a vocal and
instrumental concert by three or four Italians, imi-
tations by a young lady announced as Miss Eose of
" many interesting parts of the capital actresses in
tragedy and comedy " and imitations by an Italian
named Gaetano of the notes of the blackbird, thrush,
canary, linnet, bull-finch, sky-lark, and nightingale.
In 1774, the entertainment was given on alternate
days in the large ball-room of the King's Arms,
opposite the Royal Exchange. In 1775, it was
given in Cockspur Street only, and in the following
year at Marylebone Gardens. He then appears to
have been absent from London for a couple of years,
as he always was during a portion of each year,
when he made a tour through the provinces.

Caulfield says that Breslaw was superior to
Fawkes, " both in tricks and impudence," and
relates an anecdote, which certainly goes far to
bear out his assertion. Breslaw, while exhibiting
at Canterbury, requested permission to display his
cunning a little longer, promising the Mayor that
if he was indulged with the required permission, he
would give the receipts of one night for the benefit

1 88 The Old Showmen,

of the poor. The Mayor acceded to the proposition,
and Breslaw had a crowded house ; hearing nothing
about the money collected on the specified evening,
the Mayor called upon Breslaw, and, in as delicate
a manner as possible, expressed his surprise.

" Mr. Mayor/' said the conjuror, " I have dis-
tributed the money myself."

" Pray, sir, to whom ? " inquired the Mayor, still
more surprised.

" To my own company, than whom none can be
poorer/' replied Breslaw.

" This is a trick ! " exclaimed the Mayor in-
dignantly.

" Sir/' returned the conjuror, " we live by
tricks."

In 1773, the Corsican fairy reappeared, having
probably made the tour of Europe since her first
exhibition in London in 1748, which has been over-
looked by some writers, though there is no doubt
that the girl exhibited at the latter date was the
same person. Two years later, the Turkish rope-
dancer, who had displayed his feats in 1744, re-
appeared at Bartholomew Fair. In the same year,
Eossignol exhibited his performing birds at Sadler's
Wells, and afterwards at the Smock Alley theatre, in
Dublin. He returned to Sadler's Wells in 1776,
where his clever feathered company attracted as

And the Old London Fairs. 189

many spectators as before. Twelve or fourteen
canaries and linnets were taken from their cages,
and placed on a table, in ranks, with paper
caps on their heads, and tiny toy muskets under
their left wings. Thus armed and accoutred, they
marched about the table, until one of them, leaving
the ranks, was adjudged a deserter, and sentenced
to be shot. A mimic execution then took place,
one of the birds holding a lighted match in its claw,
and firing a toy cannon of brass, loaded with powder.
The deserter fell, feigning death, but rose again at
the command of Rossignol.

Breslaw had formidable competitors this year in
Ambroise and Brunn, who gave a variety enter-
tainment in a large room in Panton Street, of which
we have the following account in their adver-
tisements : —

" On the part of Mr. Ambroise, the manager of
the Ombres Ckinoises, will be performed all those
scenes which, upon repeated trial, have had a
general approbation, with new pieces every day;
the whole to be augmented with a fourth division.
By the particular desire of the company, the danses
de caractere in the intervals are performed to
the astonishment of all, and to conclude with the
comic of a magician, who performs metamorphoses,
etc. He had the honour to represent this spec-

i go The Old Showmen,

tacle before his Most Christian Majesty Louis XVI.
and the Royal Family ; likewise before His Serene
Highness the Prince d' Orange and the whole Court,
with an approbation very flattering for the per-
former.

" The Saxon Brunn, besides various tricks of his
dexterity, will give this day a surprising circular
motion with three forks and a sword; to-morrow,
with a plate put horizontally upon the point of a
knife, a sword fixed perpendicularly, on the top of
which another plate, all turning with a remarkable
swiftness ; and on Saturday the singular perform-
ance with a bason, called the Clag of Manfredonia ;
all which are of his own invention, being the non
plus ultra for equilibriums on the wire. The ap-
plause they have already received makes them hope
to give an equal satisfaction to the company for the
future. To begin at seven precisely. Admittance,
five shillings/5

In 1778, a foreigner exhibited in Bartholomew
Fair the extraordinary spectacle of serpents danc-
ing on silken ropes to the sound of music, which
performance has never, I believe, been repeated
since. The serpents exhibited by Arab and Hindoo
performers, of whose skill an example was afforded
several years ago in the Zoological Gardens in the
Regent's Park, dance on the ground. It was in this

And the Old London Fairs,. 191

year that the fair was visited by the Duke and
Duchess of Gloucester, who entered at Giltspur
Street, and passing the puppet-shows of Flockton
and Jobson, the conjuring booths of Lane and Robin-
son, and several other shows the names only of whose
proprietors — Ives, Basil, Clarkson, — have been
preserved, rode through Cow Lane into Hoi-
born.

This year appears to have been the first in which
puppet-shows were allowed to be set up in Smith-
field after being excluded for several years ; as in
1776 a more than ordinary degree of irritation was
produced by their exclusion, " Lady Holland's mob "
proclaiming the fair without any restriction, and a
disturbance arising afterwards, in the course of
which the windows of nearly every house round
Smith field were broken by the rioters. Flockton
and Jobsoii attended the fair regularly for many
years. The former used to perform some conjuring
tricks on the outside of his show to attract an au-
dience, but Strutt says that he was a very poor con-
juror. Lane's performances were varied by pos-
turing and dancing by his two daughters. The
following doggrel appears in one of his bills : —

" It will make you laugh, it will drive away gloom,
To see how the egg it will dance round the room ;

192 The Old Showmen,

And from another egg a bird there will fly,
Which makes the company all for to cry,
' O rare Lane ! cockalorum for Lane ! well done, Lane !

You are the Man ! ' "

One of the chief shows of the fair in 1779 was
the fine collection of preserved animals of Hall, of
the City Road, who was famous for his skill in that
art. This museum 'did not prove so attractive as
Pidcock's menagerie, however, the frequenters of
the fair preferring to see the animals living ; and
in the following year even the expedient of parading
a stuffed zebra round the fair did not attract spec-
tators enough to induce Hall to attend again. His
museum remained open in the City Road, however,
for many years.

Breslaw, the conjuror, had a room in 1779 at the
King's Head, near the Mansion House, as well as
in Cockspur Street (opposite the Haymarket), and
a bill of this year shows, better than any of his
earlier announcements, the nature of the tricks which
he performed. His exposition of " how it is done "'
was probably not more intelligible than Dr. Lynn's.
"Between the different parts/' says the bill, "Mr.
Breslaw will .discover the following deceptions in
such a manner, that every person in the company
shall be capable of doing them immediately for
their amusement. First, to tell any lady or gentle-

And the Old London Fairs.

man the card that they fix on, without asking any
questions. Second, to make a remarkable piece of
money to fly out of any gentleman's hand into a
lady's pocket-handkerchief, at two yards distance.
Third, to change four or five cards in any lady's or
gentleman's hand several times into different cards.
Fourth, to make a fresh egg fly out of any person's
pocket into a box on the table, and immediately to
fly back again into the pocket."

Breslaw had Eossignol in his company at this
time, as will be seen from the following pro-
gramme : — "1. Mr. Breslaw will exhibit a variety
of new magical card deceptions, particularly he
will communicate the thoughts from one person to
another, after which he will perform many new de-
ceptions with letters, numbers, dice, rings, pocket-
pieces, &c., &c. 2. Under the direction of Sieur
Changee, a new invented small chest, consisting of
three divisions, will be displayed in a most extra-
ordinary manner. 3. The famous Rossignol, from
Naples, will imitate various birds, to the astonish-
ment of the spectators. 4. Mr. Breslaw will exhibit
several new experiments on six different metals,
watches, caskets, gold boxes, silver machineries,
&c., &c."

Rossignol (said to be an assumed name) after-
wards obtained an engagement at Covent Garden

o

194 The Old Showmen,

Theatre, where he attracted attention by an imita-
tion of the violin with his mouth ; but, being
detected in the use of a concealed instrument, he
lost his reputation, and we hear of him no more.
Breslaw filled up the vacancy in his company by
engaging Novilli, who played " at one time on the
German flute, violin, Spanish castanets, two pipes,
trumpet, bassoon, bass, Dutch drum, and violin-
cello, never attempted before in this kingdom." I
have not been able to discover anything that would
throw some light upon the manner in which this
extraordinary performance was accomplished. He
engaged for his London season this year a large
room in Pan ton Street, probably the one in which
Ambroise and Brunn performed in 1775. The
entertainment commenced, as before, with a vocal
and instrumental concert, between the parts of
which lyrical and rhetorical imitations were given by
<f a young gentleman, not nine years of age ; " the
concluding portion consisting of the exhibition of
Breslaw's " new invented mechanical watches, sym-
pathetic bell, pyramidical glasses, magical card
deceptions, &c., &c.," and particularly " a new grand
apparatus and experiments never attempted before
in this kingdom."

It was in this year that the famous Irish giant,
Patrick O'Brien, first exhibited himself at Bartholo-

And the Old London Fairs. 195

mew Fair, being then nineteen years of age, and
over eight feet high. His name was Cotter, that of
O'Brien being assumed when he began to exhibit
himself, to accord with the representation that he
was a descendant of the ancient royal race of Mun-
ster. His parents, who were both of middle height
only, apprenticed him to a bricklayer ; but, at the
age of eighteen, his extraordinary stature attracted
the attention of a showman, by whom he was induced
to sign an agreement to exhibit himself in England
for three years, receiving a yearly salary of fifty
pounds. Soon after reaching England, however, on
his refusing his assent to a proposed cession of his
person to another showman, his exhibitor caused
him to be arrested at Bristol for a fictitious debt,
and lodged in the city goal.

Obtaining his release, and the annulment of the
contract, by the interposition of a benevolent in-
habitant of Bristol, he proceeded to London, and
exhibited himself on his own account in Bartholo-
mew Fair, realising thirty pounds by the experiment
in three days. He exhibited in this fair four or five
successive years, but, as he made money, he changed
the scene of his "receptions," as they would now
be called, to public halls in the metropolis, and the
assembly-rooms of provincial hotels. He attained
the height of eight feet seven inches, and was pro-

o 2

196 The Old Showmen,

portionately stout, but far from symmetrical; and
so deficient in stamina that the effort to maintain an
upright attitude while exhibiting himself was pain-
ful to him.

Theatrical booths again appeared at Bartholomew
Fair in 1782, when Mrs. Baker, manageress of the
Eochester Theatre, took her company to Smithfield.
Tradition says that Elizabeth Iiichbald was at this
time a member of Mrs. Baker's company, but I
have not been able to discover any ground for the
belief. The diary of the actress would have set the
matter at rest ; but she destroyed it before her
death, and Boaden's memoirs of her were based
chiefly upon her letters. They show her to have
performed that year at Canterbury, and it is within
the limits of probability that she may have per-
formed at Kochester also ; though it would still re-
main doubtful whether she accompanied Mrs. Baker
to Bartholomew Fair. According to Boaden, she
proceeded to Edinburgh on the termination of her
Canterbury engagement.

Lewis Owen, who was engaged by Mrs. Baker as
clown for her Bartholomew Fair performances, was
a young man of reputable family and good educa-
tion, who had embraced the career of a public
entertainer from choice, as more congenial to his
tastes and habits than any other. His eccentric

And the Old London Fairs. 197

manners and powers of grimace, joined with a
considerable fund of natural wit, caused him to be
speedily recognised as a worthy successor of Joel
Tarvey, who, after amusing more than one
generation, as tlie Merry Andrew of various shows
and places of amusements, had died at Hoxton of
extreme old age in 1777.

CHAPTEE VIII.

Lady Holland's Mob— Kelliam Whiteland, the Dwarf— Flock-
ton, the Conjuror and Puppet- Showman — Wonderful Rains
— Miss Morgan, the Dwarf — Flockton's Will — Gyngell,
the Conjuror — Johson, the Puppet- Showman — Abraham
Saunders — Menageries of Miles and Polito— Miss Biffin —
Philip Astley.

WHILE the character of the theatrical entertainments
presented at the London fairs declined from the
middle of the eighteenth century, when Yates and
Shuter ceased to appear in Smithfield tf during the
short time of Bartholomew Fair/' the various other
shows underwent a gradual improvement. Mena-
geries became larger and better arranged, while with
the progress of zoological science, they were ren-
dered better media for its diffusion. Panoramas and
mechanical exhibitions began to appear, and, though
it is impossible to estimate the degree in which

The Old London Fairs. 199

such agencies were instrumental in educating the
people, it is but fair to allow them some share in
the intellectual progress of the latter half of the
century.

The good or evil arising from the amusements of
any class of the people can only be fairly judged by
comparing the amusements with those of other
classes at the same period ; and those who will
study the dramas and novels, and especially the
newspapers of the last century, will not find more to
commend in the manners and pursuits of the upper
and middle classes than in those of the lower orders
of society, as exemplified in the London fairs. The
hand that painted Gin Lane for the contemplation
of posterity left an instructive picture of the morals
and manners of the upper strata of society in the
' Kake's Progress ' and the 'Midnight Conversation/

The amusements of the people partake of the
mutability of all mundane matters, and the news-
papers of the period show that the London fairs had
begun, at the beginning of the last quarter of the
eighteenth century, to be regarded by the educated
portion of society much less favourably than they
had been in earlier times. When St. James's
ceased to patronize them, Bloomsbury voted them
low, and Cornhill declared them, a nuisance.
Journalists, having as yet no readers in the slums,

2 oo The Old Showmen,

and therefore writing exclusively for St. James's, or
Bloomsbury, or Cornhill, as the case might be,
adapted their tone to the views current in those
sections of London society. If we first place a
paragraphof the 'Times' of the present day recording
a cock-fight or a pugilistic contest, by the side of a
report of a similar encounter in a journal of thirty
years ago, we shall have no difficulty in under-
standing why Bartholomew Fair was described by
the ' Morning Chronicle' in 1784 in language so
different to that used by Pepys and Evelyn a
century before.

After recounting the misdoings of " Lady
Holland's mob/' the paragraphist tells his readers
that—

" The elegant part of the entertainment was
confined to a few booths. At the Lock and Key,
near Cloth Fair, a select company performed the
musical opera of the Poor Soldier, with Columbine's
escape from Smithfield. Mr. Flockton, whose
name can never be struck off Bartholomew roll, had
a variety of entertainments without and within.
The King's conjuror, who takes more money from
out the pocket than he puts in, made the lank-
haired gentry scratch their pates; the walking
French puppet-show had hired an apartment, with
additional performers j Punch and the Devil, in his

And the Old London Fairs. 201

little moving theatre, were performing without
doors, to invite the company into the grand theatre.
Men with wooden mummies in show-boxes were
found straggling about the fair ; tall women in
cellars, dropping upon their knees to be kissed by
short customers ; dwarfs mounted on stools for the
same civil purposes ; and men without arms writ-
ing with their feet."

The sneering tone, and the disposition to write
down the fair, perceptible in this account, are more
strongly exhibited in the ' Public Advertiser ' of the
5th of September, in the following year : —

" Saturday being Bartholomew Fair day, it was,
according to annual custom, ushered in by Lady
Holland's Mob, accompanied with a charming band
of music, consisting of marrow-bones and cleavers,
tin kettles, &c., &c., much to the gratification of
the inhabitants about Smithfield ; great preparations
were then made for the reception of the Lord
Mayor, the Sheriffs, and other City officers, who,
after regaling themselves with a cool tankard at Mr.
Akerman's, made their appearance in the fair about
one o'clock, to authorise mimic fools to make real
ones of the gaping spectators. The proclamation
being ' read, and the Lord Mayor retiring, he was
saluted by a flourish of trumpets, drums, rattles,
salt-boxes, and other delightful musical instruments.

2O2 The Old Showmen,

The noted Flockton, and the notorious Jobson, with
many new managers, exhibited their tragic and
comic performers, as did Penley his drolls. There
were wild beasts from all parts of the world roaring,
puppets squeaking, sausages frying, Kings and
Queens raving, pickpockets diving, round-abouts
twirling, hackney coaches and poor horses driving,
and all Smithfield alive-o ! The Learned Horse
paid his obedience to the company, as did about a
score of monkeys, several beautiful young ladies of
forty, Punches, Pantaloons, Harlequins, Columbines,
three giants, a dwarf, and a giantess. These were
not all who came to Smithfield to gratify the
public; there were several sleight-of-hand men and
fire-eaters ; the last, however, were not quite so
numerous as those who eat of the deliciously
flavoured sausages and oysters with which the fair
abounded. The company were remarkably genteel
and crowded, and the different performances went
off with loud and unbounded bursts of applause;
they will be repeated this day and to-morrow for
the last times this season." Reports similar in
tone to the foregoing continued to appear in the
newspapers for many years.

That the fairs were visited at and from this time
almost exclusively by the lower orders of society is
tolerably obvious from the fact that, though the

And the Old London Fairs. 203

number and variety of the shows were greater, and
advertising was more largely resorted to every year
as a medium of publicity, the showmen had ceased to
use the columns of the London press for this pur-
pose. Bills were given away in the fair, or
displayed on the outsides of the shows, but few of
these have been preserved, though the few extant
are the only memorials of the London fairs during
several years.

The only bill of 1787 which I have succeeded in
finding announces a dwarf with the remarkable
name of Kelham Whiteland; he is said to have
been born at Ipswich, but his height, strange to
say, is not stated, a blank being left before th&
word inches. Probably he was growing, and his
exhibitor deemed it advisable, as a matter of finan-
cial economy, to have a large number of bills
printed at one time.

Flockton, who was the leading showman of this
period, was the sole advertiser of 1789, when he
put forth the following announcement : —

"ME. FLOCKTON' s Most Grand and Unparallelled
Exhibition. Consisting, first, in the display of the
Original and Universally admired ITALIAN FANTOC-
CINI, exhibited in the same Skilful and Wonderful
Manner, as well as Striking Imitations of Living^
Performers, as represented and exhibited before the

204 The Old Showmen,

Royal Family, and the most illustrious Characters
in this Kingdom. MR. F^OCKTON will display his
inimitable DEXTERITY OF HAND, Different from all
pretenders to the said Art. To which will be per-
form'd an ingenious and Spirited Opera called The
PADLOCK. Principal vocal performers, Signor Gio-
vanni Orsi and Signora Vidina. The whole to
conclude with his grand and inimitable MUSICAL
CLOCK, at first view, a curious organ, exhibited
three times before their Majesties."

In this clock nine hundred figures were said to
be shown at work at various trades.

In the following year, two wonderful rams were
exhibited in Bartholomew Fair. One of them had
a single horn, growing from the centre of the fore-
head, like the unicorn, of the heralds ; the other had
six legs. One of the principal shows of this year
was advertised as " the Original Theatre (Late the
celebrated Yates and Shuter, of facetious Memory),
Up the Greyhound Inn Yard, the only real and
commodious place for Theatrical Performances.
The Performers selected from the most distin-
guished Theatres in England, Scotland, &c. The
Representation consists of an entirely New Piece,
called, The Spaniard Well Drub'd, or the British
Tar Victorious." This clap -trap drama concluded
with ><fa Grand Procession of the King, French

And the Old London Fairs. 205

Heroes, Guards, Municipal Troops, &c., to the
Champ de Mars, to swear to the Revolution Laws,
as established by the Magnificent National As-
sembly, on the 14th of July, 1790." There was
" hornpipe dancing by the renowned Jack Bowling/'
and an "Olio of wit, whim, and fancy, in Song,
Speech, and Grimace."

Two years later, the London Fairs were visited
by a couple of dwarfs, almost as famous in their
day as Tom Thumb and his Lilliputian bride in our
own. These were Thomas Allen, described in the
bill of the show as " the most surprising small man
ever before the public," and who had previously
been exhibited at the Lyceum, where he was visited
by the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence ;
and, again to quote the bill, which seems to have
been based on the announcements of the Corsican
Fairy, some of the passages being identical, —

" Miss MORGAN, the Celebrated WINDSOR FAIRY,
known in London and Windsor by the Addition of
LADY MORGAN, a Title which His Majesty was
pleased to confer on her.

" This unparallelled Woman is in the 35th year
of her age, and only 18 pounds weight. Her form
affords a pleasing surprise, and her admirable sym-
metry engages attention. She was introduced to
their MAJESTIES at the Queen's Lodge, Windsor, on

206 The Old Showmen,

Saturday the 4th of August, 1781, by the recom-
mendation of the late Dr. Hunter ; when they were
pleased to pronounce her the finest Display of
Human Nature in miniature they ever saw. — But
we shall say no more of these great Wonders of
Nature : let those who honour them with their
visits, judge for themselves.

" Let others boast of stature, or of birth,
This glorious Truth shall fill our souls with mirth :
' That we now are, and hope, for years, to sing,
The SMALLEST subject of the GREATEST King ! '

" TOST Admittance to Ladies and Gentlemen, Is.
Children, Half Price.

" *#* In this and many other parts of the King-
dom, it is too common to show deformed persons,
with various arts and deceptions, under denomina-
tions of persons in miniature, to impose on the
public.

" This little couple are, beyond contradiction, the
most wonderful display of nature ever held out to
the admiration of mankind.

"N.B. The above Lady's mother is with her, and
will attend at any Lady or Gentleman's house, if
required."

Flockton died in 1794, at Peckham, where he
had lived for several years in comfort and respecta-
bility, having realised what was then regarded as a

And the Old London Fairs. 207

considerable fortune. He had attended the London
Fairs, and many of the chief provincial ones, for
many years, retiring to his cottage at Peckham in
the winter. His representation of Punch was not
only superior in every way to that of the open air
puppet shows, but famous for the introduction of a
struggle between the mimic representative of the
Prince of Darkness and a fine Newfoundland dog,
in which the canine combatant seized the enemy by
the nose, and finally carried him off the stage.

Flockton had no children, and probably no other
relatives, for he bequeathed his show, with all the
properties pertaining to it, to Gyngell, a clever per-
former of tricks of sleight of hand, and a widow
named Flint, both of whom had travelled with it for
several years ; and between these two persons and
other members of his company he divided the whole
of his accumulated gains, amounting to five thou-
sand pounds. His successors were announced next
Bartholomew Fair as " the Widow Flint and Gyn-
gell, at Flockton's original Theatre, up the Grey-
hound Yard." Gyngell exhibited his conjuring
tricks, and performed on the musical glasses ; aud
his wife sang between this part of the entertain-
ment and the exhibition of the fantoccini and
Flockton's celebrated clock, which seems either to
have been over-puffed by its original exhibitor, or

208 The Old Showmen,

to have fallen out of repair, for it was now said to
contain five hundred figures, instead of the nine
hundred originally claimed for it. Perhaps, how-
ever, the larger number was a misprint.

Widow Flint seems to have died soon after
Flockton, or to have disposed of her share in the
show to Gyngell ; for the bill of 1795 is the only
one I have found with her name as co-proprietor.
Gyngell attended the London fairs, and the princi-
pal fairs for many miles round the metropolis, for
thirty years after Flockton's death, and is spoken
of by persons old enough to remember him as a
quiet, gentlemanly man.

Jobson, the puppet- showman, who had been in
the field as long as Flockton, was prosecuted in
1797, with several other owners of similar shows,
for making his puppets speak, which was held to be
an infraction of the laws relating to theatrical
licences. This circumstance proves Strutt to have
been in error in describing Flockton as the last of
the "motion -masters," the latter having been dead
three years when his contemporaries were pro-
secuted. I have not found Jobson's name among
the showmen at the London fairs in later years,
however; and Gyngell' s puppets appear to have
dropped out of existence with the musical clock,
during the early years of his career as a showman.

And the Old London Fairs. 209

The suppression of Bartholomew Fair was
strongly urged upon the Court of Common Council
in 1798, and the expediency of the measure was
referred by the Court to the City Lauds Committee,
but nothing came of the discussion at that time.
It was proposed to limit the duration of the fair to
one day, but this suggestion was rejected by the
Court of Common Council on the ground that the
limitation would cause the fair to be crowded to an
extent that would be dangerous to life and limb.
It is doubtful, however, whether the showmen
would have found the profits of one day sufficient to
induce them, had the experiment been tried, to
incur the expense of putting up their booths.

The fair went on as before, therefore, and Row-
landson's print sets before us the scene which it
presented in 1799 as thoroughly and as vividly as
SetcheFs engraving has done the Bartholomew Fair
of the first quarter of the century. Gyngell's
(f grand medley " (a name adopted from Jobson)
was there ; and the menageries of Miles and Polito,
the Italian successor of Pidcock, and very famous
in his day ; and Abraham Saunders, whom we meet
with for the first time, with the theatre which he
appears to have sometimes substituted for the
circus, perhaps when an execution had deprived
him of his horses, or a bad season had obliged him

2io The Old Showmen,

to sell them; and Miss Biffin, who, having been
born without arms, painted portraits with a brush
affixed to her right shoulder, and exhibited herself
and her productions at fairs as the best mode of
obtaining patronage.

Down to the end of the last century there are no
records of a circus having appeared at the London
fairs. Astley is said to have taken his stud and
company to Bartholomew Fair at one time, but I
have not succeeded in finding any bill or advertise-
ment of the great equestrian in connection with
fairs. The amphitheatre which has always borne
his name (except during the lesseeship of Mr.
Boucicault, who chose to call it the Westminster
Theatre, a title about as appropriate as the Maryle-
bone would be in Shoreditch), was opened in 1780,
and he had previously given open air performances
on the same site, only the seats being roofed over.
The enterprising character of Astley renders it not
improbable that he may have tried his fortune at
the fairs when the circus was closed, as it has
usually been during the summer ; and he may not
have commenced his season at the amphitheatre
until after Bartholomew Fair, or have given there a
performance which he was accustomed to give in
the afternoon at a large room in Piccadilly, where
the tricks of a performing horse were varied with

And the Old London Fairs. 211

conjuring and Ombres Chinoises, a kind of shadow
pantomime.

But though Astley's was the first circus erected
in England, equestrian performances in the open
air had been given before his time by Price and
Sampson. The site of Dobney's Place, at the back
of Penton Street, Islington, was, in the middle of
the last century, a tea-garden and bowling-green,
to which Johnson, who leased the premises in 1767,
added the attraction of tumbling and rope-dancing
performances, which had become so popular at
Sadler's Wells. Price commenced his equestrian
performances at this place in 1770, and soon had a
rival in Sampson, who performed similar feats in a
field behind the Old Hats public-house. It was not
until ten years later, according to the historians of
Lambeth, that Philip Astley exhibited his feats of
horsemanship in a field near the Halfpenny Hatch,
forming his first ring with a rope and stakes, after
the manner of the mountebanks of a later day, and
going round with his hat after each performance to
collect the largesses of the spectators, a part of the
business which, in the slang of strolling acrobats
and other entertainers of the public in bye-streets
and market-places, and on village greens, is called
" doing a nob."

This remarkable man was born in 1742, at New-

p 2

2 1 2 The Old Showmen.

castle-under-Lyme, where his father carried on the
business of a cabinet maker. He received little or
no education — no uncommon thing at that time, —
and, having worked a few years with his father,
enlisted in a cavalry regiment. His imposing ap-
pearance, being over six feet in height, with the
proportions of a Hercules, and the voice of a Stentor,
attracted attention to him ; and his capture of a
standard at the battle of Emsdorff, made him
one of the celebrities of his regiment. While
serving in the army, he learned many feats of horse-
manship from an itinerant equestrian named Johnson,
and often exhibited them for the amusement of his
comrades. On his discharge from the army, being
presented by General Elliot with a horse, he bought
another in Smithfield, and with these two animals
gave the open air performances in Lambeth, which
have been mentioned.

CHAPTER IX.

Edmund Kean — Mystery of his Parentage — Saunders's Cir-
cus — Scowton's Theatre — Belzoni — The Nondescript —
Richardson's Theatre — The Carey Family — Kean, a Circus
Performer — Oxberry, the Comedian — James Wallack —
Last Appearance of the Irish Giant — Miss Biffin and the
Earl of Morton — Bartholomew Fair Incidents — Josephine
Girardelli, the Female Salamander — James England, the
Flying Pieman — Elliston as a Showman — Simon Paap, the
Dutch Dwarf — Ballard's Menagerie — A Learned Pig —
Madame Gobert, the Athlete — Cartlich, the Original
Mazeppa — Barnes, the Pantaloon — Nelson Lee — Cooke's
Circus — The Gyngell Family.

WITH the present century commenced a period of
the history of shows and showmen specially inter-
esting to the generation which remembers the Lon-
don fairs as they were forty or fifty years ago, and
to which the names of Gyngell, Scowton, Samwell,
Richardson, Clarke, Atkins, and Wombwell have a

214 The Old Showmen,

familiar sound. It introduces us, in its earliest
years, to the celebrated Edmund Kean, " the strip-
ling known in a certain wayfaring troop of Atellance
by the name of Carey/' as Raymond wrote, and
whom we find performing at the London fairs,
sometimes tumbling in Saunders's circus, and some-
times playing juvenile characters in the travelling
theatres of Scowton and Richardson. The early life
of this remarkable man is as strange as any that has
ever afforded materials for the biographer, and the
mystery surrounding his parentage as inscrutable
a problem as the authorship of the letters of Junius.
Phippen, the earliest biographer of Kean, says
that he was born in 1788, and was the illegitimate
offspring of Aaron Kean, a tailor, and Anne Carey,
an actress. Proctor, whose account is repeated by
Hawkins, states that his parentage was unknown,
but that, according to the best conclusion he was
able to form, he was the son of Edmund Kean, a
mechanic employed by a London builder, and Anne
Carey, an actress. Raymond says, on the authority
of Miss Tidswell, who was many years at Drury Lane
Theatre, that he was the son of Edward Kean, a
carpenter, and Nancy Carey, the actress. While
these various writers agree as to the name and pro-
fession of the future great tragedian's mother, and
the patronymic of his father, they give us the choice

And the Old London Fairs. 2,15

of three baptismal names for the latter, and at least
two occupations. There seems no doubt, however,
that his father, whether he was a carpenter or a
tailor, was the brother of Moses Kean, a popular
reciter and imitator of the leading actors at the
beginning of the present century.

No register of his birth or baptism has ever been
discovered, and it is even a matter of doubt whether
he was born in Westminster or in Southwark. Miss
Tidswell seems to have been the only person who
possessed any knowledge of his birth and parentage
that was ever revealed, a circumstance which caused
her to be suspected of herself standing in the ma-
ternal relationship to him. Kean, when a child,
called her sometimes mother, and sometimes aunt ;
but, according to her own account, she was in no
way related to him, but had adopted him on his
being deserted by his real mother, Anne Carey.

His first appearance in public was made in the
character of a monkey, in the show of Abraham
Saunders, at Bartholomew Fair, probably in 1801.
He was then twelve or thirteen years of age, and
already innured to a wandering and vagabond mode
of life ; being in the habit of absenting himself
for days together from the lodging of Miss Tids-
well, in order to visit the fairs, and sleeping
under the trees in St. James's Park, to avoid being

2 1 6 The Old Showmen,

locked up by his guardian, and thus prevented from
gazing at the parades of Saunders and Scowton on
the morrow.

Proctor says, somewhat vaguely, though probably
with as much exactness as the materials for a
memoir of Kean's boyhood render possible, that
when about fourteen years of age, he was sometimes
in Richardson's company, and sometimes in Scowton's
or Saunders's ; and that, besides tumbling in the
circus of the latter, he rode and danced on the
tight-rope. In performing an equestrian act at
Bartholomew Fair, he once fell from the pad, and
hurt his legs, which never quite recovered from the
effects of the accident.

In 1803, another notability of the age made his
appearance at Bartholomew Fair, namely, Belzoni,
afterwards famous as an explorer of the pyramids
and royal tombs of Egypt. He was a remarkably
handsome and finely proportioned man, and of almost
gigantic stature, his height being six feet six inches.
His muscular strength being proportionate to his
size, he was engaged by Gyngell to exhibit feats of
strength, as the young Hercules, alias the Patago-
nian Samson, in which character he lifted four men
of average weight off the ground, and held out
prodigious weights at arm's length. He afterwards
went to Edmonton Fair, where he performed in a

And the Old London Fairs. 217

field behind the Bell Inn. Of his engagements
during the following six or seven years we have no
account, but in 1810 he sustained the character
of Orson at the Edinburgh theatre, when he was
hissed for not being sufficiently demonstrative in
his attentions to the maternal bear. Five years
later, he was exploring the pyramids and sarcophagi
of Egypt, as assistant to the British Consul at
Alexandria, and in 1820 his name was famous.

In the same year that Belzoni performed his feats
of strength in GyngelFs show, there was exhibited
in Bartholomew Fair, together with a two-headed
calf, and a double-bodied calf, " a surprising large
fish, the Nondescript/' which "surprising in-
habitant of the watery kingdom was," according
to the bill, " drawn on the shore by seven horses and
about a hundred men. She measured twenty-five
feet in length and about eighteen in circumference,
and had in her belly when found, one thousand
seven hundred mackerel/'

The first mention of Richardson's theatre in the
annals of the London Fairs occurs in 1804. Of his
early career there is no record ; probably it did not
differ much from that of his pupil, Kean, or his
successor, Nelson Lee, or of the famous "roving^
English clown/' Charlie Keith, and numerous others
whose lives have been passed in wandering from

2 i 8 The Old Showmen,

place to place, amusing the public as actors, jugglers,
•conjurors, acrobats, etc. Whatever his antecedents
may have been, there is no doubt as to his character,
all who knew him concurring in representing him
as illiterate and ignorant, but possessing a large
fund of shrewdness and common sense ; irritable in
temper, but agreeable in his manners so long as
nothing occurred to excite his irascibility ; sensitive
to any unprovoked insult, which he never failed to
revenge, but always ready and willing to lend a
helping hand to those who had been less fortunate
than himself.

Many stories are current among showmen and
the theatrical profession of Richardson's goodness
of heart and his occasional eccentricities of conduct.
On one occasion, while his portable theatre was at
St. Albans, a lire occurred in the town, and many
small houses were destroyed, the poor tenants
of which by that means lost all their furni-
ture, and almost everything they possessed. A
subscription was immediately opened for their
relief, and a public meeting was held to promote
the benevolent purpose. Richardson attended, and
when the Mayor, who presided, had read a list of dona-
tions, varying in amount from five shillings to twice
as many pounds, he advanced to the table, and pre-
sented a Bank of England note for a hundred pounds.

And the Old London Fairs. 219

" To whom is the fund indebted for this muni-
ficent donation ? " inquired the astonished Mayor.

" Put it down to Muster Richardson, the show-
man," replied the donor, who then walked quietly
from the room.

He often paid the ground-rent of the poorer
proprietors of travelling shows, booths, and stalls,
whose receipts, owing to bad weather, had not
enabled them to pay the claims of the owner of the
field, and who, but for Richardson's kindness, would
hare been obliged to remain on the ground, losing
the chance of making money elsewhere, until they
could raise the required sum. He never seemed to
expect repayment in such cases, and never referred
to them afterwards. Saunders, who seems to have
passed through an unusually long life in a chronic
condition of impecuniosity, once borrowed ten
pounds of him, and honourably and punctually re-
paid the money at the appointed time. Richardson
seemed surprised, but he took the money, and made
no remark. No very long time elapsed before
Saunders wanted another loan, when, to his surprise,
Richardson met his application with a decided
refusal.

" I paid you honourably the money you lent me
before," observed Saunders, with an aggrieved
air.

220 The Old Showmen,

" That's it, Muster Saunders," rejoined Kichard-
son. " You did pay me that money, and I was
never more surprised in my life ; and I mean to
take care you don't surprise me again, either in
that way, or any other way"

In recruiting his company, he preferred actors
who had learned a trade, such being, in his opinion,
steadier and more to be depended upon than those
who, like Kean, had been strollers from childhood.
His pay-table was the head of the big drum, and
his way of discharging an actor or musician with
whom he was dissatisfied was to ask him, when
giving him his week's salary, to leave his name and
address with the stage-manager, who was also
wardrobe-keeper and scene-shifter. This post was
held for many years by a man named Lewis, who
was also the general servant of Richardson's " living
carriage," and at his winter quarters, Woodland
Cottage, Horsemonger Lane, long since pulled
Mown, the site being occupied by a respectable
row of houses, called Woodland Terrace.

He always strengthened his company, and pro-
duced his best dresses, for the London fairs, where
his theatre, decked with banners and a good dis-
play of steel and brass armour, presented a striking
appearance. His wardrobe and scene-waggon were
always well stocked, and the dresses were not, as

And the Old London Fairs. 221

some persons imagined, the off-castings of the
theatres, but were made for him, and, having to be
worn by daylight, were of really excellent quality.
Cloaks were provided for the company to wear on
parade when the weather happened to be wet.

It was a frequent boast of Richardson, that many
of the most eminent members of the theatrical pro-
fession had graduated in his company, and it is
known that Edmund Kean, James Wallack, Ox-
berry, and Saville Faucit were of the number.
Kean always acknowledged that he made his first
appearance in a principal part as Young Norval in
Richardson's theatre ; but it is obvious from what
is known of his boyhood that he must have been in
the company several years before he could have
essayed that character. So far as can be made out
from his supposed age, he seems to have joined
Richardson's company in 1804, to the early part
of which year we must assign the story told by
Davis, who was afterwards associated in partnership
with the younger Astley in the lesseeship of the
Amphitheatre.

"I was passing down Great Surrey Street one
morning," Davis is reported to have said, " when
just as I came to the place where the Riding
House now stands, at the corner of the Magdalen as
they call it, I saw Master Saunders packing up his

The Old Showmen,

traps. His booth, you see, had been standing there
for some three or four days, or thereabouts ; and on
the parade-waggon I saw a slim young chap with
marks of paint — and bad paint it was, for all the
world like raddle on the back of a sheep — on
his face, tying up some of the canvas. And when
I had shook hands with Master Saunders, he turns
him right round to this young chap, who had just
threw a somerset behind his back, and says, ' I say,
you Mr. King Dick, if you don't mind what you're
arter, and pack up that wan pretty tight and nimble,
we shan't be off afore to-morrow ; and so, you mind
your eye, my lad.' That Mr. King Dick, as Master
Saunders called him, was young Carey, that's now
your great Mr. Kean."

Kean's engagement with Richardson brings us to
a portion of his personal history which is involved
in the profoundest mystery. His biographers state
that his mother, Anne Carey, was at the time a
member of Richardson's company, that Kean was
unaware of the fact when he engaged, and that he
left the troupe not very long afterwards, in con-
sequence of his mother claiming and receiving his
salary, the last circumstance being said to rest on
the authority of Kean himself. Not much credence
is due to the story on that account ; for the great
actor exercised his imagination on the subject of

And the Old London Fairs. 2,23

his origin and antecedents as freely as the Josiah
Bounderby of the inimitable Dickens. But the
results of a patient search among the gatherings
relating to Bartholomew Fair in the library of the
British Museum clearly prove that Kean's mother
was, when a member of Richardson's company, the
wife of an actor named Carey.

The only Careys whose names are to be found in
any of the bills of Richardson's theatre which have
been preserved were a married couple, who for
many years, including the whole period of Kean's
engagement, sustained the principal parts in those
wonderful melodramas for which the establishment
was so famous. If these people were Kean's parents,
what becomes of the story which has been told by
his biographers, on the authority of Miss Tidswell ?
That they assumed to be his parents is undoubted,
and it is equally beyond doubt that the relationship
was unquestioned by Richardson, and the claims
founded upon it acquiesced in by Kean.

" Windsor Fair," said Richardson, in relating the
story of Kean's professional visit to Windsor Castle,
ft commenced on a Friday, and after all our impedi-
ments we arrived safe, and lost no time in erecting
our booth. We opened with Tom Thumb and the
Magic Oak. To my great astonishment, I received
a note from the Castle, commanding Master Carey

224 The Old Showmen,

to recite several passages from different plays before
his Majesty King George the Third at the Palace.
I was highly gratified at the receipt of the above
note ; but I was equally perplexed to comply with
the commands of the King. The letter came to me
on Saturday night ; and as Master Carey's wardrobe
was very scanty, it was necessary to add to it before
he could appear in the presence of royalty. My
purse was nearly empty, and to increase my dilem-
ma, all shops belonging to Jews were shut, and the
only chance we had left was their being open on
Sunday morning.

" Among the Jews, however, we at last purchased
a smart little jacket, trousers, and body linen ; we
tied the collar of his shirt through the button-holes
with a piece of black ribbon ; and when dressed in
his new apparel, Master Carey appeared a smart
little fellow, and fit to exhibit his talents before any
monarch in the world. The King was highly de-
lighted with him, and so were all the nobility who
were present. Two hours were occupied in recita-
tions ; and his abilities were so conspicuous to every
person present that he was pronounced an astonish-
ing boy, and a lad of great promise. The present
he received for his performance was rather small,
being only two guineas, though, upon the whole, it
turned out fortunate for the family. The principal

*• And the Old London Fairs. 225

conversation in Windsor for a few days was about
the talents displayed by Master Carey before the
King. His mother, therefore, took advantage of
the circumstance, and engaged the market-hall for
three nights for Edmund's recitations. This was
an excellent speculation, and the hall overflowed
with company every night.

" Mrs. Carey joined me on the following Monday
at Ewell Fair; and all the family, owing to their
great success, came so nicely dressed that I scarcely
knew them. Mrs. Carey and her children did not
quit my standard during the summer. After a
short period, I again got my company together, and
with hired horses went to Waltham Abbey. I took
a small theatre in that town, the rent of which was
fifteen shillings per week. It was all the money
too much. My company I considered very strong,
consisting of Mr. Vaughan, Mr. Thwaites, Master
Edmund, his mother, and the whole of his family,
Mr. Saville Fauci t, Mr. Grosette, Mr. and Mrs.
Jefferies, Mr. Reed, Mrs. Wells, and several other
performers, who are now engaged at the different
theatres in the kingdom. Notwithstanding we
acted the most popular pieces, the best night
produced only nine shillings and sixpence. Starva-
tion stared us in the face, and our situation was
so truly pitiable that the magistrate of the town,

Q

226 The Old Showmen,

out of compassion for our misfortunes, bespoke a
night/'

It is singular that Richardson does not mention
•Carey, his chief actor, in this communication ; but
the words ' c the whole of his family " must be sup-
posed to include Carey and, I believe, a daughter.
In every bill of the period the names of Mr. H.
Carey and Mrs. H. Carey appear as the repre-
sentatives of the heroes and heroines of the Richard-
sonian drama; and the absence of any direct men-
tion of the former is much less remarkable than the
fact that he has been altogether ignored by every bio-
grapher of Kean, while the supposed mother of the
tragedian is invariably styled Miss Carey.

It is exceedingly improbable that the mystery
involved in these discrepancies and contradictions
will now ever be cleared up in a satisfactory manner.
One thing alone, amidst all the confusion and
obscurity, seems certain; namely, that the Careys
were in Richardson's company before Kean joined
it, and that, whether or not he believed them to be
his parents, he dropped their acquaintance when he
threw off their authority. Raymond says that when
Kean, after his marriage, visited Bartholomew Fair,
he was recognised by Carey, who was standing on
the parade of Richardson's theatre, and ran down
the steps to greet him ; the tragedian seemed morti-

And the Old London Fairs. 227

fied, treated the strolling actor coldly, and " slunk
away, literally like a dog in a fair."

In pondering the probabilities of the case, it is
obvious that considerable allowance must be made
for the obscurity which envelopes the origin of
Kean's existence. Their only authority being Miss
Tidswell, it is natural that the biographers should
suppose the woman who passed for Kean's mother
with Richardson and his company to be the Nancy
Carey of her story, and mention her as Miss Carey.
But the evidence of the bills, which cannot have
been known to them, forces upon us the re-con-
sideration of the story of Kean's parentage which
has hitherto passed current. Miss TidswelFs story
can be reconciled with the facts only by the hypo-
thesis that Anne Carey, subsequently to Kean's
birth, became the wife of H. Carey, the sameness of
name being due to cousinship, or perhaps merely a
coincidence. Kean's illegitimacy may have been
known to Richardson, whose knowledge of the
circumstance would explain the reason of his speak-
ing of Mrs. Carey as the mother of Master Carey,
while he says nothing to warrant the supposition
that he regarded her husband as the lad's father.

But everything about Kean's early life is
mysterious and obscure. How and when did he
acquire the classical lore which he seems to have

Q 2

228 The Old Showmen,

possessed ? Certainly not while he was roaming the
streets of London, frequenting all the fairs, and
practising flip-flaps j nor while travelling with
Saunders, Scowton, and Kichardson, and rejoicing
in the cognomen of Mr. King Dick. As little
likely does it seem that he could have acquired it at
that subsequent period of his life when the leisure
which his profession left him was passed in
disreputable taverns, in low orgies with the worst
companions.

" You" see this inequality in the bridge of my
nose ? " he once observed to Benson Hill, the
author of a couple of amusing volumes of theatrical
anecdotes and adventures. " It was dealt me by a
demmed pewter pot, hurled from the hand of Jack
Thurtell. We were borne, drunk and bleeding, to
the watch-house, for the night. When I was taken
out, washed, plastered, left to cogitate on any lie, of
an accident in a stage fight, I told it, and was
believed, for the next day I dined with the Bishop
of Norwich."

My task does not, however, require me to follow
Kean's fortunes from the time when he left
Richardson's company, and obtained an engagement
at a provincial theatre. The date is uncertain, but
his name does not appear in the bills of 1807, and
he had probably turned his back on the travelling-
theatre in the preceding year.

And the Old London Fairs. 229

Patrick 0 'Brien, the Irish giant, exhibited him-
self for the last time in 1804, when he advertised as
follows : —

" Just arrived in town, and to be seen in a commo-
dious room, at No. 11, Haymarket, nearly opposite
the Opera House, the celebrated Irish Giant, Mr.
O'Brien, of the Kingdom of Ireland, indisputably
the tallest man ever shown ; is a lineal descendant
of the old puissant king, Brien Boreau, and has, in
person and appearance, all the similitudes of that
great and grand potentate. It is remarkable of this
family, that, however various the revolutions in point
of fortune and alliance, the lineal descendants there-
of have been favoured by Providence with the original
size and stature, which have been so peculiar to
their family. The gentleman alluded to measures
nearly nine feet high. Admittance one shilling."

O'Brien had now realised a considerable fortune,
and he resolved to retire from the public gaze.
Having purchased an old mansion near Epping, and
on the borders of the forest, he took up his abode
there, keeping a carriage and pair of horses, and
living quietly and unostentatiously the brief re-
mainder of his life. He died in 1806, in his forty-
seventh year, when his servants made use of his
fame and his wardrobe for their own emolument,
dressing a wax figure in his clothes, and exhibiting

230 The Old Showmen,

it at rooms in the Haymarket, the Strand, and other
parts of the metropolis.

The rival theatres of Eichardson and Scowton
attended Bartholomew Fair in 1807, when the
former produced a romantic and highly sensational
drama, called The Monk and the Murderer, in which
Carey played the principal character, Baron
Montaldi, and his wife that of Emilina, the Baron's
daughter. The following announcement appears in
the head of the bill : —

"Mr. Eichardson has the honour to inform the
Public, that for the extraordinary Patronage he has
experienced, it has been his great object to con-
tribute to the convenience and gratification of his
audience. Mr. E. has a splendid collection of
Scenery, unrivalled in any Theatre; and, as they
are painted and designed by the first Artists in
England, he hopes with such Decorations, and a
Change of Performances each day, the Public will
continue him that Patronage it has been his greatest
pride to deserve."

The scenery of the drama comprised a Gothic hall
in the Baron's castle, a rocky pass in Calabria, a
forest, a rustic bridge, with a distant view of the
castle, a Gothic chamber, and a baronial hall,
decorated with banners and trophies. In the fourth
scene a chivalric procession was introduced, and in

And the Old London Fairs. 231

the last a combat with battle-axes. The drama
was followed, as usual, by a pantomime entitled
Mirth and Magic, which concluded with a " grand
panoramic view of Gibraltar, painted by the first
artists."

Saunders was there, with a circus, and seems to
have attended the fair with considerable regularity.
He was often in difficulties, however, and on one
occasion, after borrowing a trick horse of Astley,
his stud was taken in execution for debt, and the
borrowed horse was sold with the rest. Some time
afterwards, two equestrians of Astley 's company
were passing a public-house, when they recognised
Billy, harnessed to a cart which was standing
before the door. Hearing their voices, the horse
erected his ears, and, at a signal from one of them,
stood up on his hind legs, and performed such
extraordinary evolutions that a crowd collected to
witness them. On the driver of the cart coming
from the public-house, an explanation of Billy's
appearance in cart-harness was obtained with the
observation that " he was a werry good 'orse, but
so full o' tricks that we calls 'im the mountebank."
Billy, I scarcely need say, was returned to his stall
in Astley 's stables very soon after this dis-
covery.

Miss Biffin was still attending the fairs, painting

232, The Old Showmen,

portraits with, her right shoulder, and in 1808
attracted the attention of the Earl of Morton, who
sat to her for his likeness, and visited her "living
carriage " several times for that purpose. In order
to test her ability, he took the portrait away with
him, after each sitting, and thus became satisfied
that it was entirely the work of her own hand, or
rather shoulder. Finding that the armless little
lady really possessed artistic talent, he showed the
portrait to George III., who was pleased to direct
that she should receive instruction in drawing at
his expense.

The Earl of Morton corresponded with this
remarkable artist during a period of twenty years.
She was patronised by three successive sovereigns,
and from William IV. she received a small pension.
She then yielded to the wish of the Earl of Morton
that she should cease to travel, and settled at
Birmingham, where, several years afterwards, she
married, and resumed, as Mrs. Wright, the pursuit
of her profession.

Ballard's menagerie held a respectable position
between the time of Polito and Miles and that of
Womb well and Atkins. The newspapers of the
period do not inform us, however, from whose me-
nagerie it was that the leopard escaped which
created so much consternation one summer night

Ami the Old London Fairs. 233

in 1810. The caravans were on their way to
Bartholomew Fair, when, between ten and eleven
o' clock at night, while passing along Piccadilly, the
horses attached to one of them were scared by some
noise, or other cause of alarm, and became restive.
The caravan was overturned and broken, and a
leopard and two monkeys made their escape. The
leopard ran into the basement of an unfinished
house near St James's Church, and one of the mon-
keys into an oyster-shop, the proprietor of which,
hearing that a leopard was loose, immediately closed
the door. What became of the other monkey is not
stated.

The keepers ran about, calling for a blanket and
cords, to secure the leopard; but every person they
accosted shut their doors, or took to their heels, on
learning the purpose for which such appliances were
required. After some delay, a cage was backed
against the opening by which the leopard had
entered the building, below which it growled
threateningly as it crouched in the darkness. With
some risk and difficulty, it was got into the cage,
but not until it had bitten the arm of one of the
keepers so severely that he was obliged to pro-
ceed to St. George's hospital for surgical aid.

Malcolm, describing Bartholomew Fair as it was
seventy years ago, says, — " Those who wish to form

234 The Old Showmen,

an idea of this scene of depravity may go at eleven
o'clock in the evening. They may then form some
conception of the dreadful scenes that have been acted
there in former days. The visitor will find all up-
roar. Shouts,, drums, trumpets, organs, the roaring
of beasts, assailing the ear ; while the blaze of torches
and glare of candles confuse sight, and present as
well the horror of executions, and the burning of
martyrs, and the humours of a fair." Though, ' ' the
blaze of torches and glare of candles" cannot be said
to constitute a " scene of depravity," and c< shouts,
drums, trumpets, organs, the roaring of beasts,"
though tending to produce an " uproar," cannot be
accepted as evidence of vice, since the former
sounds accompany the civic procession of the 9th of
November, and the latter are heard in the Zoo-
logical Gardens, the newspapers of the period bear
testimony to the existence of a considerable amount
of riot and disorder at the late hour mentioned by
Malcolm.

In those days, when the lighting was defective
and the police inefficient, it is not surprising that
the " roughs" had their way when the more respect-
able portion of the frequenters of the fair had retired,
and that scenes occurred such as the more efficient
police of the present day have had some difficulty in
suppressing on Sunday evenings in the principal

And the Old London Fairs. 235

thoroughfares of Islington and Pentonville. The
newspapers of the period referred to by Malcolm
afford no other support to his statement than ac-
counts of the disorder and mischief produced by the
rushing through the fair at night of hordes of young
men and boys, apparently without anything being at-
tempted for the prevention of the evil. In 1810, two
bands of these ruffians met, and their collision caused
two stalls to be knocked down, when the upsetting
of a lamp on a stove caused the canvas to ignite, and
a terrible disaster was only prevented by the exer-
tions of a gentleman who was on the spot in extin-
guishing the flames. In 1812 many persons were
thrown down in one of the wild rushes of the
" roughs/' and an infant was dashed from its
mother's arms, and trampled to death.

Richardson, who was always on the alert for
novelties, introduced in 1814, at Portsmouth, the
famous Josephine Girardelli, who in the same year
exhibited her remarkable feats in a room in New
Bond Street. The following hand-bill sufficiently
indicates their nature : —

"Wonders will never cease ! — The great Pheno-
mena of Nature. Signora Josephine Girardelli
(just arrived from the Continent), who has had the
honour of appearing before most of the Crowned
Heads of Europe, will exhibit the Powers of Re-

236 The Old Showmen^

sistance against Heat, every day, until further
notice, at Mr. Laxton's Rooms, 23, New Bond
Street. She will, without the least symptoms of
pain, put boiling melted lead into her mouth, and
emit the same with the imprint of her teeth there-
on ; red-hot irons will be passed over various parts
of her body ; she will walk over a bar of red-hot
iron with her naked feet ; will wash her hands in
aquafortis ; put boiling oil in her mouth ! The
above are but a few of the wonderful feats she is
able to go through. Her performances will commence
at ] 2, 2, 4, and 6 o'clock. Admission 3s. Any lady
or gentleman being dubious of the above perform-
ances taking place, may witness the same, gratis, if
not satisfied. Parties may be accommodated by a
private performance, by applying to the Conductor."

The portrait of this Fire Queen, as she would be
styled at the present day, was engraved by Page,
and published by Smeeton, St Martin's Lane. It
represents her in her performing costume, a short
spangled jacket, worn over a dress of the fashion of
that day ; the features are regular and striking, but
their beauty is of a rather masculine type. The
hair appears dark, and is arranged in short curls.

Elliston engaged in a show speculation at this
time, having contracted with a Dutchman, named
Sampceman, for the exhibition of a dwarf, named

And the Old London Fairs. 237

Simon Paap. He hired a room in Piccadilly for the
purpose and engaged an interpreter; but the specu-
lation was a failure, and Elliston was glad .to obtain
Sampceinan's consent to the cancelling of the con-
tract. He made a more successful venture when, at
the close of a bad theatrical season at Birmingham,
he announced the advent of a Bohemian giant, who
would toss about, like a ball, a stone weighing
nearly a ton. Few modern giants have possessed
the strength ascribed to the seven-feet men of old,
and such an athlete as the Bohemian would have
been worth a visit. The theatre was filled, there-
fore, for the first time that season; but when the
overture had been performed, and the occupants of
the gallery were beginning to testify impatience,
Elliston appeared before the curtain, looking grave
and anxious, as on such occasions he could look to
perfection. Evincing the deepest emotion, he in-
formed the expectant audience that the perfidious
Bohemian had disappointed him, and had not
arrived.

" Here/' said he, producing a number of letters
from his pockets, "are letters which must satisfy
every one that I am not to blame for this disap-
pointment, which I assure you, ladies and gentle-
men, is to me one of the bitterest of my existence. As
they are numerous and lengthy, and are all written

238 The Old Showmen,

in German, you will, I am sure, excuse me from
reading them ; but, as further evidence of the good
faith in which I 'have acted in this matter, you
shall see the stone "

The curtain was drawn half-way up, and the
disappointed Brums were consoled with the sight of
an enormous mass of stone, and with the announce-
ment that they would receive, on leaving the theatre,
vouchers entitling them to admission to the boxes
on the following night, on payment of a shilling.
Elliston thus obtained two good houses at no other
extra expense than a few shillings for the cartage
of the pretended giant's stone ball, the Bohemian
being merely a creation of his own fertile imagina-
tion.

Sampoeman's arrangement with Elliston having
proved a failure, the little Dutchman was transferred
to Gyngell, who exhibited him in his show in Bar-
tholomew Fair and elsewhere, in 1815. There are
three portraits of Simon Paap in existence, showing
a striking resemblance to little Mr. Stratton, com-
monly known as Tom Thumb. One of them, drawn
by Woolley, and engraved by Worship, probably
for advertising purposes, bears the following in-
scription : —

MR. SIMON PAAP.
" The celebrated Dutch dwarf, 26 years of age, weighs

And the Old London Fairs. 239

27 pounds, and only 28 inches high; 1/ad the
of being presented to the Prince Regent and tJte ivhole
of the Royal Family at Carleton House, May oth,
1815, and was introduced by Mr. Dan. Gyngell to
the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Sept. 1st,
1815; a.nd was exhibited in the course of 4 days in
Smith-field to upwards of 20,000 persons • is univer-
sally admitted to be the greatest wonder of the age."

Another portrait, engraved by Cooper, and pub-
lished by Robins and Co., is better executed ; but
the third is a poor sketch, taken three years later,
and unsigned.

Richardson presented this year, on the first day
of Bartholomew Fair, The Maid and the Magpie,
and a pantomime, " expressly written for this
theatre," entitled Harlequin in the Deep, ter-
minating with a panorama, " taken from the spot,
by one of our most eminent artists," representing
Longwood, in the island of St. Helena, and the
adjacent scenery, interesting to the public at that
time as the place of exile selected by the Powers
lately in arms against France for Napoleon I. Po-
cock's drama was, of course, greatly abridged, for
drama and pantomime, with a comic song between,
were got through in half an hour, and often in
twenty minutes, when the influx of visitors ren-
dered it expedient to abbreviate the performance.

240 The Old Showmen,

Shuter's signal, corrupted into John Orderly, was
used by Richardson on such occasions.

A daily change of performances had at this time
become necessary, and Richardson presented on the
second day " an entire new Chinese romantic melo-
drama," called TJie Children of the Desert, and a
comic pantomime, entitled Harlequin and the Devil.
On the third day the pantomime was the same, pre-
ceded by " an entire new melodrama/' called The
Roman Wife.

This year there first appeared in the fair an ec-
centric character named James Sharp England,
known as "the flying pieman." He was always
neatly dressed, with a* clean white apron before
him, but wore no hat, and had his hair powdered
and tied behind in a queue. Like the famous
Tiddy-dol of a century earlier, he aimed at a profit-
able notoriety through a fantastic exterior and a
droll manner ; and he succeeded, his sales of plum-
pudding, which he carried before him on a board,
and vended in slices, being very great wherever he
appeared. The present representative of the per-
ambulating traders of the eccentric order is a man
who has for many years strolled about the western
districts of the metropolis, wearing clean white
sleeves and a black velvet cap placed jauntily on his
head, and carrying before him a tray of what, in

And the Old London Fairs. 241

oily and mellifluous accents, he proclaims to be,
" Brandy balls as big as St. PauFs ! Oh, so nice \
They are all sugar and brandy ! "

• The following year is memorable among show-
men, and especially among menagerists, for the
attack of Ballard's lioness on the Exeter mail-
coach. On the night of the 20th of October, the
caravans containing the animals were standing in a
line along the side of the road, near the inn called
the Winterslow Hut, seven miles from Salisbury, to
the fair of which city the menagerie was on its way.
The coach had just stopped at this inn for the guard
to deliver his bag of local letters, when one of the
leaders was attacked by some large animal. The
alarm and confusion produced by this incident were
so great that two of the inside passengers left the
coach, ran into the house, and locked themselves in
a room above stairs ; while the horses kicked and
plunged so violently that the coachman feared that
the coach would be overturned. It was soon per-
ceived by the coachman and guard, by the light of
the lamps, that the assailant was a large lioness.
A mastiff attacked the beast, which immediately
left the horse, and turned upon him ; the dog then
fled, but was pursued and killed by the lioness
about forty yards from the coach.

An alarm being given, Ballard and his keepers

242 The Old Showmen,

pursued the lioness to a granary in a farm-yard,
where she ran underneath the building, and was
there barricaded in to prevent her escape. She
growled for some time so loudly as to be heard half
a mile distant. The excited spectators called loudly
to the guard to despatch her with his blunderbuss,
which he seemed disposed to attempt, but Ballard
oried out, <( For God's sake, don't kill her ! She
cost me five hundred pounds, and she will be as
quiet as a lamb if not irritated." This arrested the
guard's hand, and he did not fire. The lioness was
afterwards easily enticed from beneath the granary
by the keepers, and taken back to her cage. The
horse was found to be severely lacerated about the
neck and chest, the lioness having fastened the
talons of her fore feet on each side of his throat,
while the talons of her hind feet were forced into
his chest, in which position she hung until attacked
by the dog. Death being inevitable, a fresh horse
was procured, and the coach proceeded on its
journey, after having been detained three-quarters
of an hour.

A coloured print of this encounter adorns, or did
thirty years ago adorn, the parlour of the Winters -
low Hut, and was executed, according to the in-
scription, from the narrative of Joseph Pike, the
guard, who, next to the lioness, is the most con-

And the Old London Fairs. 243

spicuous object in the group. The lioness has
seized the off leader by the throat, and the guard is
standing on his seat with a levelled carbine, as if
about to fire. In the foreground is the dog, which
looks small for a mastiff, as if diminished by the
artist for the purpose of making the lioness appear
larger by the comparison, as Jbhe human figures on
the show-cloths of the menageries always are. The
terrified faces in the inside of the coach, and at the
upper windows of the inn, and the blue coats and
yellow vests of the outside passengers, each grasp-
ing an umbrella or a carpet-bag, as if determined
not to die without a struggle, make up a vivid and
sensational picture, which would have found imme-
diate favour with the conductor of the ' Police
News,' had such a periodical existed in those days.
The following year was signalised by the first
appearance at Bartholomew Fair of the learned pig,
Toby, who was exhibited by a showman named
Hoare. There seems to have been a succession of
learned pigs bearing the same name, on the same
principle, probably, as Richardson's theatre con-
tinues to be advertised at Easter or Whitsuntide as
at the Crystal Palace, or the Agricultural Hall, or
the Spaniards, at Hampstead Heath, twenty years
after the component parts of the structure were dis-
persed under the auctioneer's hammer.

B 2

244 The Old Showmen,

The wonder of 1818 was an athletic French
woman, who was advertised as follows : —

" The strongest woman in Europe, the celebrated
French Female Hercules, Madame Gobert, who will
lift with her teeth a table five feet long and three
feet wide, with several persons seated upon it ; also
carry thirty- six weights, fifty- six pounds each,
equal to 2016 Ibs. and will disengage herself from
them without any assistance ; will carry a barrel
containing 340 bottles ; also an anvil 400 pounds
weight, on which they will forge with four hammers
at the same time she supports it on her stomach ;
she will also lift with her hair the same anvil, swing
it from the ground, and suspend it in that position
to the astonishment of every beholder; will take
up a chair by the hind stave with her teeth, and
throw it over her head ten feet from her body.
Her travelling caravan (weighing two tons) on its
road from Harwich to Leominster, owing to the
neglect of the driver and badness of the road, sunk
in the mud, nearly to the box of the wheels ; the
two horses being unable to extricate it, she de-
scended, and, with apparent ease, disengaged the
caravan from its situation, without any assistance
whatever."

Caulfield says that he visited the show " for the
purpose of accurately observing her manner of per-

And the Old London Fairs. 245

formance, which was by lying extended at length
on her back on three chairs; pillows were then
placed over her legs, thighs, and stomach, over
those two thick blankets, and then a moderately
thick deal board ; the thirty-six weights were then
placed on the board, beginning at the bottom of
the legs, and extending upwards above the knees
and thighs, but none approaching towards the sto-
mach. She held the board on each side with her
hands, and when the last weight was put on, she
pushed the board upwards on one side, and tumbled
the weights to the ground. On the whole, there
appeared more of trick than of personal strength in
this feat. Her next performance was raising the
anvil (which might weigh nearly 200 Ibs.) from the
ground with her hair, which is thick, black, and as
strong as that in the tail of a horse ; this is platted
on each side, and fixed to two cords, which are
attached to the anvil ; then rising from a bending
to an erect posture, she raises and swings the anvil
several times backwards and forwards through her
legs. Her next feat was raising a table with her
teeth, a slight, rickety thing, made of deal, with a
bar across the legs, which, upon her grasping it, is
sustained against her thighs, and enables her more
easily to swing it round several times, maintaining
her hold only by her teeth. The chair she makes

246 The Old Showmen^

nothing of, but canters it over her head like a play-
thing. That she is a wonderfully strong woman is
evident, but that she can perform what is promised
in her bills is a notorious untruth. She has an
infant which now sucks at her breast, about eleven
months old, that lifts, with very little exertion, a
quarter of a hundred weight."

Greenwich and Stepney Fairs became popular
places of resort with the working classes of the
metropolis during the second decade of the present
century. Old showmen assert that the former was
then declining, a state of things which they ascribe
to the growing popularity of the latter ; and it is
certain that the number of persons who resort to a
fair is no criterion of the number, size, and quality
of the shows by which it is attended, or of the gains
of the showmen. Croydon Fair was never visited
by so many thousands of persons as in the years of
its decadence, which commenced with the opening
of the railway ; but the average expenditure of each
person, so far from increasing in the same propor-
tion, must have considerably diminished.

The Easter Fair at Greenwich was the opening
event of the season, and during its best days
Richardson's theatre always occupied the best po-
sition. John Cartlitch, the original representative
of Mazeppa, and James Barnes, afterwards famous

And the Old London Fairs. 247

as the pantaloon of the Covent Garden pantomimes,
were members of Richardson's company at this
time; and it was joined at Greenwich by Nelson
Lee, well known to the present generation as an
enterprising theatrical manager and a prolific pro-
ducer of pantomimes, but at that time fresh from
school, with no other experience of theatrical busi-
ness than he had gained during a brief engagement
as a supernumerary at the old Royalty to serve as
the foundation of the fame to which he aspired.

James and Nelson Lee were the sons of Colonel
Lee, who commanded a line regiment of infantry
during the period of the Peninsular war. At their
father's death, the elder boy was articled to a wine
merchant in the City of London, but evinced so
much dislike to trade, and such strong theatrical
proclivities, that the articles were cancelled, and he
was placed under the tuition of Bradley, the famous
swordsman of the Coburg. He declined a second
time, however, to fulfil his engagement, and, leaving
Bradley at the expiration of the first year, joined
Bannister's circus company, in what capacity my
researches have failed to show.

The Whitsuntide Fair at Greenwich was followed
at this time by a small fair at Deptford, on the
occasion of the annual official visit of the Master of
the Trinity House, which was always made on the

248 The Old Showmen,

morrow of the festival of the Trinity. Baling,
Fairlop, Mitcham, and Camberwell followed; then
came Bartholomew ; the round of the fairs within
ten miles of the metropolis being completed by
Enfield and Croydon.

Eichardson generally proceeded from Baling to
Portsmouth, where the three weeks' town fair was
immediately followed by another of a week's dura-
tion on Portsdown Hill. One of the many stories
which are current among showmen and actors of
his eccentricities of character has its scene at a
public-house on the Portsmouth road, at which he
had, in the preceding year, been refused water and
provender for his horses, the innkeeper growling
that he had been " done " once by a showman, and
did not want to have anything more to do with
show folks. Richardson bore the insult in his
mind, and on approaching the house again sent his
company forward, desiring each to order a glass of
brandy-and- water, but not to touch it until he
joined them. Twenty glasses of brandy-and-water,
all wanted at once, was an unprecedented demand
upon that roadside hostelry; and the landlord, as
he summoned all his staff to assist him, wondered
what could be the cause of such an influx of visitors.
While the beverage was being concocted the wag-
gons came up, with Eichardson walking at the
head.

And the Old London Fairs. 249

" Here we are, governor ! " exclaimed one of the
actors, who had, in the meantime, strolled out upon
a little green before the inn.

" Hullo ! " said Richardson, affecting surprise.
"I thought you had gone on to the Black Bull.
What are you all doing here ? "

" Waiting for you to pay for the brandy-and-
water, governor," replied the comedian.

" Not if I know it ! " returned Richardson, with a
scowl at the expectant innkeeper. " That's the
crusty fellow that wouldn't give the poor beasts a
pail of water and a mouthful of hay last year, and
not a shilling of my money shall ever go into his
pocket. So come on, my lads, and Fll stand
glasses all round at the Black Bull."

And with these words he strode on, followed by
his company, leaving the disappointed innkeeper
aghast behind his twenty glasses of brandy-and-
water.

At Portsmouth some dissension arose between
Richardson and William Cooke, whose equestrians,
as the consequence or the cause, paraded in front of
the theatre, and prevented free access to it.

"We must move them chaps from before our
steps, Lewis," said Richardson to his stage-man-
ager ; and having a basket-horse among his pro-
perties, he had some squibs and crackers affixed to

250 The Old Showmen,

it, and sent one of the company to caper in it in the
rear of Cooke's horses.

Very few of the horses used for circus parades
being trained for the business of the ring, the fire-
works no sooner began to fizz and bang than the
equine obstructives became so restive that Cooke
found it expedient to recall them to his own parade
waggon.

Eichardson always returned to the metropolis for
Bartholomew Fair, where the shows were, in 1820,
arranged for the first time in the manner described
by Hone five years later. They had previously
formed a block on the site of the sheep-pens; but
this year swings and roundabouts were excluded, so
as to preserve the area open, and the shows were
built round the sides of the quadrangle. As the
fair existed at this time, there were small uncovered
stalls from the Skinner Street corner of Giitspur
Street, along the whole length of the churchyard ;
and on the opposite side of Giitspur Street there
were like stalls from the Newgate Street corner,
along the front of the Compter prison. At these
stalls were sold fruit, oysters, toys, gingerbread,
baskets, and other articles of trifling value. They
were held by the small fry of the stall-keeping fra-
ternity, who lacked means to pay for space and
furnish out a tempting display. The fronts of these

And the Old London Fairs. 251

standings were towards the passengers in the
carriage-way.

Then, with occasional distances of three or four
feet for footways from the road to the pavement,
began lines of covered stalls, with their open fronts
opposite the fronts of the houses and close to the
curbstone, and their enclosed backs to the road.
On the St. Sepulchre's side they extended to Cock
Lane, and thence to the Smithfield corner of Gilt-
spur Street, then, turning the corner into Smith-
field, they extended to Hosier Lane, and from
thence all along the west side of Smithfield to Cow
Lane, where, on that side, they terminated in a
line with the opposite corner leading to St. John
Street, where the line was resumed, and continued
to Smithfield Bars, and there, on. the west side,
ended. Crossing over to the east side, and return-
ing south, these covered stalls commenced opposite
to their termination on the west, and ran towards
Smithfield, turning into which they extended
westerly towards the pig-market, and thence to
Long Lane, from which point they ran along the
east side of Smithfield to the great gate of Cloth
Fair. From Duke Street they continued along the
south side to the great front gate of St. Bartholo-
mew's Hospital, and from thence to the carriage
entrance of the hospital, from whence they ex-

252 The Old Showmen,

tended along Giltspur Street to the Compter, where
they joined the uncovered stalls.

These covered stalls, thus surrounding Smith-
field, belonged to dealers in gingerbread, toys,
hardwares, pocketbooks, trinkets, and articles of all
prices, from a halfpenny to ten shillings. The
largest stalls were those of the toy-sellers, some
of which had a frontage of twenty-five feet, and
many of eighteen feet. The frontage of the ma-
jority of the stalls was eight to twelve feet ; they
were six or seven feet high in front, and five at the
back, and all formed of canvas stretched upon a
light frame- work of wood; the canvas roofs sloped
to the backs, which were enclosed by canvas to the
ground. The fronts were open to the thronging
passengers, for whom a clear way was preserved on
the pavements between the stalls and the houses, all
of which, necessarily, had their shutters up and
their doors closed.

The shows had their fronts towards the area of
Smith field, and their backs to the backs of the
stalls, without any passage between them in any
part. The area of Smithfield was thus entirely open,
and persons standing in the carriage-way could
see all the shows at one view. They surrounded
Smithfield entirely, except on the north side.
Against the pens in the centre there were no shows,

And the Old London Fairs. 253

the space between being kept free for spectators
and persons making their way to the exhibitions.
Yet, although no vehicle of any kind was permitted
to pass, this immense carriage-way was always so
thronged as to be almost impassable. Officers
were stationed at the Giltspur Street, Hosier Lane,
and Duke Street entrances to prevent carriages and
horsemen from entering, the only ways by which
these were allowed ingress to Smithfield being
through Cow Lane, Chick Lane, Smithfield Bars,
and Long Lane ; and they were to go on and pass,
without stopping, through one or other of these
entrances, and without turning into the body of the
fair. The city officers, to whom was committed the
execution of these regulations, enforced them with
rigour, never swerving from their instructions, but
giving no just ground of offence to those whom the
regulations displeased.

The shows were very numerous this year. There
were four menageries, the proprietors of which are
not named in the newspapers of the day, which
inform us further that there was "the usual
variety of conjurors, wire-dancers, giants, dwarfs,
fat children, learned pigs, albinoes, &c." Ballard,
Wombwell, and Atkins were probably among the
menagerists, though I have found no bill or other
memorial of either of the two great menageries of

254 The Old Showmen.

the second quarter of the eighteenth century of an
earlier date than 1825.

Gyngell, like Bichardson, never missed Bartholo-
mew Fair in those days ; and he was now supported
by a clever grown-up family, consisting of Joseph,
who was a good juggler and balancer ; Horatio,
who, besides being a dancer, was a self-taught
artist of considerable ability ; George, who was a
pyrotechnist; and Louisa, a very beautiful young
woman and graceful tight-rope dancer, who after-
wards fell, and broke one of her arms, in ascending
from the stage of Covent Garden Theatre to the
gallery. Nelson Lee joined Gyngell's company on
the termination of his engagement with Richard-
son; and, having learned the juggling business
from a Frenchman in the troupe, shortly afterwards
exhibited his skill at the Adelphi, and other London
theatres.

CHAPTEE X.

Saker and the Lees — Richardson's Theatre — Wombwell, the
Menagerist — The Lion Fights at Warwick — Maughan, the
Sho\vman — Miss Hipson, the Fat Girl — Lydia Walpole,
the Dwarf — The Persian Giant and the Fair Circassian —
Ball's Theatre — Atkins's Menagerie — A Mare with Seven
Feet — Hone's Visit to Richardson's Theatre — Samwell's
Theatre — Clarke's Circus — Brown's Theatre of Arts — Bal-
lard's Menagerie — Toby, the Learned Pig — William White -
head, the Fat Boy — Elizabeth Stock, the Giantess — Chap-
pell and Pike's Theatre— The Spotted Boy— Wombwell' s
" Bonassus " — Gouffe, the Man- Monkey — De Berar's Phan-
tasmagoria— Scowton's Theatre — Death of Richardson.

NELSON LEE had just completed a round of en-
gagements at the London theatres when, in 1822,
his brother, having terminated his engagement with
Bannister's circus, came to the metropolis, and
fitted up an unoccupied factory in the Old Kent
Road as a theatre. Nelson joined him in the enter-

256 The Old Showmen,

prise, which for a time was tolerably successful;
but they had omitted the requisite preliminary of
obtaining a licence, and one night a strong force
of constables invaded the theatre, and arrested
every one present, audience as well as actors, with
one exception. Saker, who afterwards won some
distinction as a comedian, ascended into a loft on
the first alarm, and drew up the ladder by which he
had escaped. When all was quiet, he descended,
and left the building through a window. The
watch-houses of Southwark,Newington, Camberwell,
and Greenwich were filled with the offenders, most
of whom, however, were discharged on the following
day, while the Lees, who pleaded ignorance of the
law, escaped with a small fine.

The same year witnessed the final performances-
of "Lady Holland's Mob." About five thousand
of the rabble of the City assembled in the neigh-
bourhood of Skinner Street, about midnight of the
eve of St. Bartholomew, and roared and rioted till
between three and four o'clock next morning,
without interference from the watch or the con-
stables. From this time, however, this annual
Saturnalia was not observed, or was observed so
mildly that the newspapers contain no record of
the circumstance.

In 1823, Richardson presented his patrons with

the Old London Fairs. 257

a drama called The Virgin Bride, and an extrava-
ganza entitled Tom, Logic, and Jerry, founded upon
MoncriefPs drama, and concluding with ^ a pano-
rama of the metropolis. On the third day, a
romantic drama called The Wanderer was sub-
stituted.

Wombwell's menagerie comes prominently into
notice about this time. Its proprietor is said to
have begun life as a cobbler in Monmouth Street,
Seven Dials, then a famous mart of the second-hand
clothes trade, and now called Dudley Street. The
steps by which he subsequently advanced to the
position of an importer of wild animals and pro-
prietor of one of the largest and finest collections
that ever travelled are unknown; but that he
preceded Jamrach and Eice in the former vocation.
is proved by the existence of a small yellow card,
bearing the device of a tiger, and the inscription —

WOMBWELL,

WILD BEAST MERCHANT,

Commercial Road,

LONDON.

All sorts of Foreign Animals, Birds, fyc., bought,
sold, or exchanged, at the Repository, or the Tra-
velling Menagerie.

Wombwell never missed Bartholomew Fair, as
long as it continued to be held, but a story is told

s

258 The Old Showmen, ,

of him wliicli shows that he was once very near
doing so. His menagerie was at Newcastle-on-Tyne
within a fortnight of the time when it should be in
Smithfield, and it did not seem possible to reach
London in time ; but, being in the metropolis on
some business connected with his Commercial Eoad
establishment, he found that Atkins was advertising
that his menagerie would be " the only wild beast
show in the fair." The rivalry which appears to
have existed at that time between the two great
menagerists prompted Wombwell to post down to
Newcastle, and immediately commence a forced
march to London. By making extraordinary exer-
tions, he succeeded in reaching the metropolis on
the morning of the first day of the fair. But his
elephant had exerted itself so much on the journey
that it died within a few hours after its arrival on the
ground.

Atkins heard by some means of his rival's loss, and
immediately placarded the neighbourhood with the
announcement that his menagerie contained "the
only living elephant in the fair." Wombwell re-
solved that his rival should not make capital of his
loss in this manner, and had a long strip of canvas
painted with the words — " The only dead elephant
in the fair." This bold bid for public patronage
proved a complete success. A dead elephant was a

A nd the Old L ondon Fa irs. 259

greater rarity than a live one, and his show was
crowded every day of the fair, while Atkins's was
comparatively deserted. The keen rivalry which
this story illustrates did not endure for ever, for,
during 'the period of my earliest recollections, from
forty to fifty years ago, the two great menageries
never visited Croydon Fair together, their pro-
prietors agreeing to take that popular resort in
their tours in alternate years.

I never failed, in my boyhood, to visit Womb well's,
or Atkins's show, whichever visited Croydon Fair,
and could never sufficiently admire the gorgeously-
uniformed bandsmen, whose brazen instruments
brayed and blared from noon till night on the ex-
terior platform, and the immense pictures, suspended
from lofty poles, of elephants and giraffes, lions and
tigers, zebras, boa constrictors, and whatever else
was most wonderful in the brute creation, or most
susceptible of brilliant colouring. The difference in
the scale to which the zoological rarities within
were depicted on the canvas, as compared with the
figures of men that were represented, was a very
characteristic feature of these pictorial displays.
The boa constrictor was given the girth of an ox,
and the white bear should have been as large as an
elephant, judged by the size of the sailors who were
attacking him among his native ice-bergs,

s2

260 The Old Showmen,

I have a perfect recollection of Womb well's two
famous lions, Nero and Wallace, and their keeper,
" Manchester Jack/' as he was called, who used to
enter Nero's cage, and sit upon the animal, open
his mouth, etc. It is said that, when Van Amburgh
arrived in England with his trained lions, tigers,
and leopards, arrangements were made for a trial
of skill and daring between him and Manchester
Jack, which was to have taken place at Southampton,
but fell through, owing to the American showing
the white feather. The story seems improbable,
for Van Amburgh's daring in his performances has
never been excelled.

Lion-tamers, like gymnasts, are generally killed
half-a-dozen times by rumour, though they die in
their beds in about the same proportion as other
men; and I remember hearing an absurd story
which conferred upon Manchester Jack the unen-
viable distinction of having his head bitten off by a
lion. He was said to have been exhibiting the
fool-hardy trick, with which Van Amburgh's name
was so much associated, of putting his head in the
lion's mouth, and to have been awakened to a sense
of his temerity and its consequences by hearing the
animal growl, and feeling its jaw close upon his
neck.

" Does he whisk his tail, Bill ? " he was reported

And the Old London Fairs. 261

to have said to another keeper while in this horri-
ble situation.

« Yes/' replied Bill.

" Then I am a dead man ! " groaned Manchester
Jack.

A moment afterwards, the lion snapped its for-
midable jaws, and bit off the keeper's head. Such
was the story ; but it is contradicted by the fact
that Manchester Jack left the menagerie with a
whole skin, and for many years afterwards kept
an inn at Taunton, where he died in 1865.

Nero's tameness and docility made him a public
favourite, but the " lion," par excellence, of Womb-
well's show, after the lion-baitings at Warwick, was
Wallace. At the time when the terrible death of
the lion-tamer, Macarthy, had invested the subject
with extraordinary interest, a narrative appeared in
the columns of a metropolitan morning journal,
purporting to relate the experiences of " an ex-lion
king," in which the story of these combats was
revived, but in a manner not easily reconciled
with the statement of the man who communicated
his reminiscences to the " special commissioner "
of the journal in question, that he knew the animals
and their keeper.

" Did you ever," the ex-lion, king was reported
to have said, " hear of old Wallace's fight with the

262 The Old Showmen.

dogs ? George Wombwell was at very low water,
and not knowing how to get his head up again, he
thought of a fight between an old lion he had —
sometimes called Wallace, sometimes Nero — and a
dozen of mastiff dogs. Wallace was as tame as a
sheep j I knew him well — I wish all lions were like
him. The prices of admission ranged from a guinea
up to five guineas, and every seat was taken, and
had the menagerie been three times as large it
would have been full. It was a queer go, and 110
mistake ! Sometimes the old lion would scratch a
lump out of a dog, and sometimes the dogs would
make as if they were going to worry the old lion ; but
neither side showed any serious fight, and at length
the patience of the audience got exhausted, and
they went away in disgust. George's excuse was,
1 We can't make 'em fight, can we, if they won't ? '
There was no getting over this, and George cleared
over two thousand pounds by the night's work."

According to the newspaper reports of the
time, two of these lion-baitings took place ;
and some vague report or dim recollection of
the events as they actually occurred seems to
have been in the mind of the " ex-lion king " when
he gave the preceding account of them. The com-
bats were said to have originated in a bet between
two sporting gentlemen, and the dogs were not a

And the Old London Fairs. 263

dozen mastiffs, but six bull-dogs, and attacked the
lion in "heats" of three. The first fight, the
incidents of which were similar in character to those
described in the foregoing story, was between Nero
and the dogs, and took place in July, 1825; at
which time the menagerie was located in the Old
Factory Yard, in the outskirts of Warwick, on the
road to Northampton. This not being considered
satisfactory and conclusive, a second encounter was
arranged, in which Wallace, a younger animal, was
substituted for the old lion, with very different
results. Every dog that faced the lion was killed
or disabled, the last being carried about in Wallace's
mouth as a rat is by a terrier or a cat.

Shows had been excluded from Greenwich Fair
this year, and 'Bartholomew's was looked forward
to by the showmen as the more likely on that
account to yield an abundant harvest. Hone says
that Greenwich Fair was this year suppressed by
the magistrates, and the absence of shows may be
regarded as evidence of some bungling and wrong-
headed interference ; but a score of booths for drink-
ing and dancing were there, only two of which,
Algar's and the Albion, made any charge for ad-
mission to the " assembly room/' the charge for
tickets at these being a shilling and sixpence re-
spectively. Algar's was three hundred and twentjr-

264 The Old Showmen,

three feet long by sixty wide, seventy feet of the
length constituting the refreshment department, and
the rest of the space being devoted to dancing, to
the music of two harps, three violins, bass viol, two
clarionets, and flute.

According to the account preserved in Hone's
* Everyday Book/ the number of shows assembled in
Smithfield this year was twenty-two, of which, one
was a theatre for dramatic performances, five theatres
for the various entertainments usually given in
circuses, four menageries, one an exhibition of glass-
blowing, one a peep-show, one a mare with seven feet,
and the remaining nine, exhibitions of giants, dwarfs,
albinoes, fat children, etc. Of course, the theatre
was Richardson's, and the following bill was posted
on the exterior, and given to every one who asked
for it on entering : —

*** Change of Performance each Day.

RICHARDSON'S THEATRE.
This day will be performed, an entire new Melo-
Drama, called the

" WANDERING OUTLAW ;
or, the Hour of Retribution.

" Gustavus, Elector of Saxony, Mr. Wright. Or-
sina, Baron of Holstein, Mr. Cooper. Ulric and
Albert, Vassals to Orsina, Messrs. Grove and Moore.
St. Clair, the Wandering Outlaw, Mr. Smith.

And the Old London Fairs. 265

Rinalda, the Accusing Spirit, Mr. Darling. Monks,
Yassals, Hunters, &c. Rosabella, Wife to the Out-
law, Mrs. Smith. Nuns and Ladies.

" The Piece concludes with the DEATH OF OESINA,
and the Appearance of the

ACCUSING SPIRIT!

" The Entertainments to conclude with a New
Comic Harlequinade, with New Scenery, Tricks,
Dresses, and Decorations, called

" HARLEQUIN FAUSTUS !

OR, THE

DEVIL WILL HAVE HIS OWN.

" Luciferno, Mr. Thomas. Daemon Amozor, after-
wards Pantaloon, Mr. Wilkinson. Daemon Ziokos,
afterwards Clown, Mr. Hayward. Violencello Player,
Mr. Hartem. Baker, Mr. Thompson* Landlord,
Mr. Williiii.*. Fisherman, Mr. Rae. Doctor Faus-
tus, afterwards Harlequin, Mr. S alter. Adelada,
afterwards Columbine, Miss Wilmot. Attendant
Daemons, Sprites, Fairies, Ballad Singers, Flower
Girls, &c., &c.

The Pantomime will finish with
A SPLENDID PANORAMA,

Painted by the First Artists.
Boxes, 2s. Pit, Is. Gallery, 6d."
The theatre had an elevation exceeding thirty-

266 The Old Showmen,

feet, and occupied a hundred feet in width. The
back of the exterior platform,, or parade-waggon,
was formed of green baize, before which deeply
fringed crimson curtains were festooned, except at
two places where the money-takers sat in wide and
roomy projections, fitted up like Gothic shrines, with
columns and pinnacles. Fifteen hundred variegated
lamps were disposed over various parts of this plat-
form, some of them depending from the top in the
shape of chandeliers and lustres, and others in
wreaths and festoons. A band of ten performers,
in scarlet dresses, similar to those worn by the
Queen's yeomen, played continually, passing alter-
nately from the parade -waggon and the orchestra,
and from the interior to the open air again.

The auditorium was about a hundred feet long,
and thirty feet wide, and was hung with green
baize and crimson festoons. The seats were rows
of planks, rising gradually from the ground at the
end, and facing the stage, without any distinction
of boxes, pit, or gallery. The stage was elevated,
and there was a painted proscenium, with a green
curtain, and the royal arms above, and an orchestra
lined with crimson cloth. Between the orchestra
and the bottom row of seats was a large space,
which, after the seats were filled, and greatly to the
discomfiture of the lower seat-holders, was nearly

the Old London Fairs. 267

occupied by spectators. There were at least a thou-
sand persons present on the occasion of Hone's
visit.

" The curtain drew up/' he says, " and presented
the Wandering Outlaw, with a forest scene and a
cottage ; the next scene was a castle ; the third was
another scene in the forest. The second act com-
menced with a scene of an old church and a market-
place. The second scene was a prison, and a ghost
appeared to the tune of the evening hymn. The
third scene was the castle that formed the second
scene in the first act, and the performance was here
enlivened by a murder. The fourth scene was rocks,
with a cascade, and there was a procession to an
unexecuted execution; for a ghost appeared, and
saved the Wandering Outlaw from a fierce-looking
headsman, and the piece ended. Then a plump
little woman sang, ' He loves, and he rides away/
and the curtain drew up to Harlequin Faustus,
wherein, after Columbine and a Clown, the most
flaming character was the devil, with a red face and
hands, in a red Spanish mantle and vest, red ' con-
tinuations/ stockings and shoes ditto to follow, a
red Spanish hat and plume above, and a red ' brass
bugle horn/ As soon as the fate of Faustus was
concluded, the sound of a gong announced the happy
event, and these performances were, in a quarter of

268 The Old Showmen,

an hour, repeated to another equally intelligent and
brilliant audience."

John Clarke, an elderly, gentlemanly-looking
showman, whom I saw a few years afterwards
" mountebanking " on a piece of waste land at Nor-
wood, and whose memory, in spite of his infirmity
of temper, is cherished by the existing generation
of equestrians and acrobats, was here with Iris circus,
a large show, with its back against the side of
SamwelPs, and its front in a line with Hosier Lane,
and therefore looking towards Smithfield Bars.
The admission to this show was sixpence. The
spacious platform outside was lighted with gas, a
distinction from the other shows in the fair which
extended to the interior, where a single hoop, about
two feet six inches in diameter, with little jets of
gas about an inch and a half apart, was suspended
over the arena.

" The entertainment," says Hone, " commenced
by a man dancing on the tight rope. The rope was
removed and a light bay horse was mounted by a
female in trousers, with a pink gown fully frilled,
flounced, and ribboned, with the shoulders in large
puffs. While the horse circled the ring at full
speed, she danced upon him, and skipped with a
hoop like a skipping-rope ; she performed other
dexterous feats, and concluded by dancing on the

And the Old London Fairs. 269

saddle with, a flag in each hand, while the horse
flew round the ring with great velocity. These
and the subsequent performances were enlivened
by tunes from a clarionet and horn, and jokes from
a clown, who, when she had concluded, said to an
attendant, 'Now, John, take the horse off, and
whatever you do, rub him down well with a
cabbage/ Then a man rode and danced on an-
other horse, a very fine animal, and leaped from
him three times over garters, placed at a consider-
able height and width apart, alighting on the
horse's back while he was going round. This rider
was remarkably dexterous.

(C In conclusion, the clown got up, and rode with
many antic tricks, till, on the sudden, an apparently
drunken fellow rushed from the audience into the
ring, and began to pull the clown from the horse.
The manager interfered, and the people cried,
1 Turn him out ; ' but the man persisted, and the
clown getting off, offered to help him up, and threw
him over the horse's back to the ground. At
length the intruder was seated, with his face to the
tail, though he gradually assumed a proper position,
and, riding as a man thoroughly intoxicated would
ride, fell off"; he then threw off his hat and great
coat, and his waistcoat, and then an under waist-
coat, and a third, and a fourth, and more than a.

270 The Old Showmen,

dozen waistcoats. Upon taking off the last, his
trousers fell down, and he appeared in his shirt;
whereupon he crouched, and drawing his shirt off
in a twinkling, appeared in a handsome fancy dress,
leaped into the saddle, rode standing with great
grace, received great applause, made his bows, and
so the performance concluded."

The remainder of the shows of this class charged
a penny only for admission. Of Samwell's, Hone
says, — "I paid my penny to the money-taker, a
slender c fine lady/ with three feathers in a ' jewelled
turban/ and a dress of blue and white muslin, and
silver ; and within-side I saw the ' fat, contented,
easy ' proprietor, who was arrayed in corresponding
magnificence. If he loved leanness, it was in ' his
better half/ for himself had none of it. Obesity had
disqualified him for activity, and therefore in his
immensely tight and large satin jacket, he was, as
much as possible, the active commander of his
active performers. He superintended the dancing
of a young female on the tight rope. Then he an-
nounced ' A little boy will dance a horn-pipe on
the rope/ and he ordered his ' band ' inside to play ;
this was obeyed without difficulty, for it merely
consisted of one man, who blew a hornpipe tune on
a Pan's-pipe ; while it went on, the little boy danced
on the tight rope ; so far it was a hornpipe dance,

And the Old London Fairs. 271

and no farther. ' The little boy will stand on his
head on the rope/ said the manager ; and the little
boy stood on his head accordingly. Then another
female danced on the slack wire j and after her
came a horse, not a dancing horse, but a c learned'
horse, quite as learned as the horse at Ball's
theatre."

At the show last mentioned was a man who
balanced chairs on his chin, and holding a knife in
his mouth, balanced a sword on the edge of the
knife ; he then put a pewter plate on the hilt of the
sword horizontally, and so balanced the sword with
the plate on the edge of the knife as before, the
plate having previously had imparted to it a rotary
motion, which it communicated to the sword, and
preserved during the balance. He also balanced
the sword and plate in like manner, with a crown-
piece placed edge-wise between the point of the
sword and the knife ; and afterwards with two
crown-pieces, and then with a key. These feats
were accompanied by the jokes and grimaces of a
clown, and succeeded by an acrobatic performance
by boys, and a hornpipe by the lady of the company.
Then a learned horse was introduced, and, as de-
sired by his master, indicated a lady who wished to
be married, a gentleman who preferred a quart of
ale to a sermon, a lady who liked lying in bed when

272 The Old Slwwmen,

she should be up, and other persons of various
proclivities amusing to the rest of the spectators.

Chappell and Pike's was a very large show, fitted
up after the manner of Richardson's, with a parade,
on which a clown and several acrobats in tights and
trunks, and young ladies in ballet costume, alter-
nately promenaded and danced, until the interior
filled, and the performances commenced. These
consisted of tumbling, slack-rope dancing, etc., as
at Ball's, but better executed. The names of these
showmen do not appear again in the records of the
London fairs, from which it may be inferred that
the show was a new venture, and failed. There was
a performer named Chappell in the company of
Richardson's theatre, while under the management
of Nelson Lee ; but whether related to the show-
man of 1 825 I am unable to say.

The performances of " Brown's Grand Troop,
from Paris," commenced with an exhibition of
conjuring ; among other tricks, the conjurer gave
a boy beer to drink out of a funnel, making him
blow through it to show that it was empty, and
afterwards applying it to each of the boy's ears,
from whence, through the funnel, the beer appeared
to reflow, and poured on the ground. Afterwards
girls danced on the single and double slack wire,
and a melancholy-looking clown, among other

And the Old London Fairs. 273

things, said they were " as clever as the barber and
blacksmith who shaved magpies at twopence a
dozen/' The show concluded with a learned
horse.

The menageries of Wombwell and Atkins were
two of the largest shows in the fair. The back of
the former abutted on the side of Chappell and
Pike's theatre, on the north side of Smithfield, with
the front looking towards Giltspur Street, at which
avenue it was the first show. The front was
entirely covered with painted show- cloths repre-
senting the animals, with the proprietor's name in
immense letters above, and the inscription, " The
Conquering Lion," very conspicuously displayed.
There were other show-cloths along the whole
length of the side, surmounted by this inscription,
stretching out in one line of large capital letters,
" Nero and Wallace, the same lions that fought at
Warwick." One of the front show-cloths re-
presented the second fight ; a lion stood up, with a
bleeding dog in his mouth, and his left fore paw
resting upon another dog. A third dog was in the
act of flying at him ferociously, and one, wounded
and bleeding, was retreating. There were seven
other show-cloths on this front, with the inscription
" Nero and Wallace " between them. One of these
show-cloths, whereon the monarch of the forest was

T

274 The Old Showmen,

painted, was inscribed, ' ' Nero, the Great Lion, from
Caffraria."

Wo nib welV s collection comprised at this time four
lions and a lioness, two leopardesses, with cabs, a
hyena, a bitch wolf and cubs, a polar bear, a pair of
zebras, two onagers or wild asses, and a large assort-
ment of monkeys and exotic birds. The bills an-
nounced " a remarkably fine tigress in the same den
with a noble British lion ; " but Hone notes that
this conjunction, the announcement of which was
probably suggested by the attractiveness of the lion-
tiger cubs and their parents in Atkins's menagerie,
was not to be seen in reality. The combats at
Warwick produced a strong1 desire on the part of the
public to see the lions who had figured in them,
and the menagerie was crowded each day from morn
till night. "Manchester Jack " entered Nero's cage,
and invited the visitors to follow, which many ven-
tured to do, paying sixpence for the privilege, on his
assurance that they might do so with perfect safety.

Hone complains of the confusion and disorder
which prevailed, and which are inseparable from a
crowd, and may be not uncharitably suspected of
being exaggerated in some degree by the evident
prejudice which had been created in his mind by the
lion-baitings at Warwick. It is certain, however,
that gardens like those of the Zoological Society

And the Old London Fairs. 275

afford conditions for the health, and comfort of the
animals, and for their exhibition to the public, much
more favourable than can be obtained in the best
regulated travelling caravan, or in buildings such as
the Tower menagerie and Exeter Change. It is
impossible to do justice to animals which are cooped
within the narrow limits of a travelling show, or in
any place which does not admit of thorough ventila-
tion. Apart from the impracticability of allowing
sufficient space and a due supply of air, a consider-
able amount of discomfort to the animals is insepa-
rable from continuous jolting about the country in
caravans, and from the braying of brass bands and
the glare of gas at evening exhibitions.

It took even the Zoological Society some time to
learn the conditions most favourable to the main-
tenance of the mammal tribes of tropical countries in
a state of health, while subject to the restraint neces-
sary for their safe keeping. Too much importance
was at first attached to warming the cages in which
the monkeys and carnivora of India and Africa were
kept, and too little to ventilating them. I remember
the time when the carnivora-house in the Society' s
gardens was a long, narrow building, with double
folding-doors at each end, and a range of cages on
each side. The cages were less than half the size of
the light and lofty apartments now appropriated to

T2

276 The Old Showmen,

the same species, and were artificially heated to such
a degree that the atmosphere resembled that of the
small glass-house in Kew Gardens in which the paper-
reed and other examples of the aquatic vegetation
of tropical countries are grown, and was rendered
more stifling by the strong ammoniacal odour which
constantly prevaded it.

It was found, however, that the mortality among
the animals, notwithstanding all the care that was
taken to keep them warm, was very great ; and the
idea gradually dawned upon the minds of the
Council of the Society that ventilation might be
more conducive to the health and longevity of the
animals than any amount of heat. As lions and
tigers, leopards and hyenas, baboons and monkeys,
live, in a state of nature, in the open air of their
native forests, the imperfect ventilation of the old
carnivora-house and monkey-house seemed, when
once the idea was broached, to be a very likely
cause of the excessive mortality, which, as lions and
tigers cost from a hundred and fifty to two hundred
and fifty pounds, was a constant source of heavy
demands upon the Society's funds. It was deter-
mined, therefore, to try the experiment of construct-
ing larger cages, and admitting the pure external
air to them ; and the results were so satisfactory
that everybody wondered that the improved hygienic
conditions had not been thought of before.

And the Old London Fairs. 2,77

Atkins had a very fine collection of the feline
genus, and was famous for the production of hybrids
between the lion and the tigress. The cubs so pro-
duced united some of the external characteristics of
both parents, their colour being tawny, marked
while they were young with darker stripes, such as
may be observed in black kittens, the progeny of
a tabby cat. These markings disappeared, however,
as the lion- tigers approached maturity, at which
time the males had the mane entirely deficient, or
very little developed. I remember seeing a male
puma and a leopardess in the same cage in this
menagerie, but I am unable to state whether the
union was fruitful.

The display of show-cloths on the outside of this
menagerie extended about forty feet in length,
and the proprietor's name flamed along the front in
coloured lamps. A brass band of eight performers,
wearing scarlet tunics and leopard-skin caps, played
on the outside; and Atkins shouted from time to
time, " Don't be deceived ! The great performing
elephant is here ; also the only lion and tigress in
one den to be seen in the fair, or I'll forfeit a thou-
sand guineas ! Walk up ! — walk up ! "

The following singularly descriptive bill was
posted on the outside and wherever else it could
be displayed : —

278 The Old Showmen,

"MORE WONDERS IN

ATKINS'S KOYAL MENAGERIE.

Under the Patronage of His MAJESTY.

G. R.

" Wonderful Phenomenon in Nature! The sin-
gular and hitherto deemed impossible occurrence of
a LION and TIGRESS cohabiting and producing young,
has actually taken place in this menagerie, at Wind-
sor. The tigress, on Wednesday, the 27th of Oc-
tober last, produced three fine cubs ; one of them
strongly resembles the tigress ; the other two are
of a lighter colour, but striped. Mr. Atkins had
the honour (through the kind intervention of the
Marquis of Conyngham) of exhibiting the lion-
tigers to His Majesty, on the first of November,
1824, at the Royal Lodge, Windsor Great Park;
when His Majesty was pleased to observe, they
were the greatest curiosity of the beast creation
he had ever witnessed.

"The royal striped Bengal Tigress has again
whelped three fine cubs, (April 22,) two males and
one female ; the males are white, but striped ; the
female resembles the tigress, and, singular to observe,
she fondles them with all the care of an attentive
mother. The sire of the young cubs is the noble

And the Old London Fairs. 279

male lion. This remarkable instance of subdued
temper and association of animals to permit the
keeper to enter their den, and introduce their
young to the spectators, is the greatest phenomenon
in natural philosophy.

" That truly singular and wonderful animal, the
AUROCHOS. Words can only convey but a very
confused idea of this animal's shape, for there are
few so remarkably formed. Its head is furnished
with two large horns, growing from the forehead,
in a form peculiar to no other animal; from the
nostrils to the forehead is a stiff tuft of hair, and
underneath the jaw to the neck is a similar brush
of hair, and between the forelegs is hair growing
about a foot and a half long. The mane is like that
of a horse, white, tinged with black, with a beau-
tiful long flowing white tail; the eye remarkably
keen, and as large as the eye of the elephant :
colour of the animal, dark chesnut ; the appearance
of the head, in some degree similar to the buffalo,
and in some part formed like the goat, the hoof
being divided ; such is the general outline of this
quadruped, which seems to partake of several
species. This beautiful animal was brought over
by Captain White, from the south of Africa, and
landed in England, September 20th, 1823 ; and is
the same animal so frequently mistaken by travellers

280 The Old Showmen,

for the unicorn : further to describe its peculiarities
would occupy too much space in a handbill. The
only one in England.

" That colossal animal,, the wonderful performing

ELEPHANT,

Upwards of ten feet high ! ! Five tons weight ! !
His consumption of hay, corn, straw, carrots, water,
&c.j exceeds 800 Ibs. daily. The elephant, the
human race excepted, is the most respectable of
animals. In size, he surpasses all other terrestrial
creatures, and by far exceeds any other travelling
animal in England. He has ivory tusks, four feet
long, one standing out on each side of his trunk.
His trunk serves him instead of hands and arms,
with which he can lift up and seize the smallest as
well as the largest objects. He alone drags ma-
chines which six horses cannot move. To his pro-
digious strength, he adds courage, prudence, and an
exact obedience. He remembers favours as well as
injuries ; in short, the sagacity and knowledge of this
extraordinary animal are beyond anything human
imagination can possibly suggest. He will lie down
and get up at the word of command, notwith-
standing the many fabulous tales of their having no
joints in their legs. He will take a sixpence from
the floor, and place it in a box he has in the caravan ;
bolt and unbolt a door ; take his keeper's hat off,

And the Old London Fairs. 281

and replace it ; and by the command of his keeper,
will perform so many wonderful tricks that he will
not only astonish and entertain the audience, but
justly prove himself the half-reasoning beast. He
is the only elephant now travelling.

" A full grown LION and LIONESS with four cubs,
produced December 12, 1824, at Cheltenham.

"Male Bengal Tiger. Next to the lion, the tiger
is the most tremendous of the carnivorous class ; and
whilst he possesses all the bad qualities of the former,
seems to be a stranger to the good ones ; to pride,
to strength, to courage, the lion adds greatness,
and sometimes, perhaps, clemency ; while the tiger,
without provocation, is fierce — without necessity, is
cruel. Instead of instinct, he hath nothing but
a uniform rage, a blind fury ; so blind, indeed, so
undistinguishing, that he frequently devours his
own progeny ; and if the tigress offers to defend
them he tears in pieces the dam herself.

" The Onagra, a native of the Levant, the eastern
parts of Asia, and the northern parts of Africa.
This race differs from the Zebra, by the size of the
body, (which is larger,) slenderness of the legs, and
lustre of the hair. The only one now alive in
England.

" Two Zebras, one full grown, the other in its
infant state, in which it seems as if the works of art

282 The Old Showmen,

had been combined with those of nature in this
wonderful production. In symmetry of shape, and
beauty of colour, it is the most elegant of all quad-
rupeds ever presented ; uniting the graceful figure
of a horse, with the fleetness of a stag ; beautifully
striped with regular lines, black and white.

" A. Nepaul Bison, only twenty-four inches high.

" Panther, or spotted tiger of Buenos Ayres, the
only one travelling.

" A pair of rattle-tail Porcupines.

" Striped untamable Hyoena, a tiger-wolf.

"An elegant Leopard, the handsomest marked
animal ever seen.

" Spotted Laughing Hycena, the same kind of
animal described never to be tamed ;. but, singular
to observe, it is perfectly tame, and its attachment
to a dog in the same den is very remarkable.

" The spotted Cavy.

" Pair of Jackalls.

" Pair of interesting Sledge Dogs, brought over by
Captain Parry from one of the northern expeditions ;
they are used by the Esquimaux to draw the sledges
on the ice, which they accomplish with great ve-
locity.

" A pair of Rackoons, from North America.

t( The Oggouta, from Java.

" A pair of Jennetts. or wild cats.

And the Old London Fairs. 2,83

t( The Coatimondi, or ant-eater.

" A pair of those extraordinary and rare birds,
PELICANS of the wilderness ; the only two alive in the
three kingdoms. — These birds have been represented
on all crests and coats of arms, to cut their breasts
open with the points of their bills, and feed their
young with their own blood, and are justly allowed by
all authors to be the greatest curiosity of the
feathered tribe.

" Ardea Dubia, or adjutant of Bengal, gigantic
emew, or Linnseus's southern ostrich. The pecu-
liar characteristics that distinguish this bird from
the rest of the feathered tribe, — it comes from
Brazil, in the new continent ; it stands from eight
to nine feet high when full grown ; it is too large to
fly, but is capable of outrunning the fleetest horses
of Arabia ; what is still more singular, every quill
produces two feathers. The only one travelling.

" A pair of rapacious Condor Minors, from the
interior of South America, the largest birds of flight
in the world when full grown ; it is the same kind
of bird the Indians have asserted to carry off a deer
or young calf in their talons, and two of them are
sufficient to destroy a buffalo, and the wings are as
much as eighteen feet across.

" The great Horned Owl of Bohemia. Several
species of gold and silver pheasants, of the most

284 The Old Showmen,

splendid plumage, from China and Peru. Yellow-
crested cockatoo. Scarlet and buff macaws.—
Admittance to see the whole menagerie, Is. — Chil-
dren 6d. — Open from ten in the forenoon till feed-
ing-time, half-past nine, 2s."

Hone says that this menagerie was thoroughly
clean, and that the condition of the animals told that
they were well taken care of. The elephant, with his
head protruded between the stout bars of his house,
whisked his proboscis diligently in search of eat-
ables from the spectators, who supplied him with
fruit and biscuits, or handed him halfpence which
he uniformly conveyed by his trunk to a retailer of
gingerbread, and got his money's worth in return.
Then he unbolted the door to let in his keeper, and
bolted it after him ; took up a sixpence with his trunk,
lifted the lid of a little box fixed against the wall,
and deposited it within it, and some time afterwards
relifted the lid, and taking out the sixpence with a
single motion, returned it to the keeper ; he knelt
down when told, fired off a blunderbuss, took off
the keeper's hat, and afterwards replaced it on his
head as well as the man's hand could have done it ;
in short, he was perfectly docile, and well main-
tained the reputation of his species for a high
degree of intelligence.

" The keeper/' says Hone, " showed every animal

And the Old London Fairs. 285

in an intelligent manner, and answered the questions
of the company readily and with civility. His
conduct was rewarded by a good parcel of halfpence
when his hat went round with a hope that * the
ladies and gentlemen would not forget the keeper
before he showed the lion and tigress/ The latter
was a beautiful young animal, with playful cubs
about the size of bull-dogs, but without the least
fierceness. When the man entered the den, they
frolicked and climbed about him like kittens; he
took them up in his arms, bolted them in a back
apartment, and after playing with the tigress a little,
threw back a partition which separated her den from
the lion's, and then took the lion by the beard.
This was a noble animal ; he was couching, and
being inclined to take his rest, only answered the
keeper's command to rise by extending his whole
length, and playfully putting up one of his magni-
ficent paws, as a cat does when in a good humour.
The man then took a short whip, and after a smart
lash or two upon his back, the lion rose with a yawn,
and fixed his eye on his keeper with a look that
seemed to say, 'Well, I suppose I must humour
you/

" The man then sat down at the back of the den,
with his back at the partition, and after some order-
ing and coaxing, the tigress sat on his right hand,

286 The Old Showmen,

and the lion on his left, and, all three being thus
seated, he threw his arms round their necks, played
with their noses, and laid their heads in his lap.
He rose, and the animals with him; the lion stood
in a fine majestic position, but the tigress reared,
and putting one foot over his shoulder, and patting
him with the other, as if she had been frolicking
with one of her cubs, he was obliged to check her
playfulness. Then by coaxing, and pushing him
about, he caused the lion to sit down, and while in
that position opened the animal's ponderous jaws
with his hands, and thrust his face down into the
lion's throat, wherein he shouted, and there held his
head nearly a minute. After this he held up a
common hoop for the tigress to leap through, and
she did it frequently. The lion seemed more diffi-
cult to move to this sport. He did not appear to be
excited by command or entreaty ; at last, however,
he went through the hoop, and having been once
roused, he repeated the action several times; the
hoop was scarcely two feet in diameter. The ex-
hibition of these two animals concluded by the lion
lying down on his side, when the keeper stretched
himself to his whole length upon him, and then
calling to the tigress she jumped upon the man, ex-
tended herself with her paws upon his shoulders,
placed her face sideways upon his, and the whole

And the Old London Fairs. 287

three lay quiescent till the keeper suddenly slipped
himself off the lion's side, with the tigress on him,
and the trio gambolled and rolled about on the floor
of the den, like playful children on the floor of a
nursery.

" Of the beasts there is not room to say more than
that their number was surprising, considering that
they formed a better selected collection, and showed
in higher condition from cleanliness and good feed-
ing, than any assemblage I ever saw. Their variety
and beauty, with the usual accessory of monkeys,
made a splendid picture. The birds were equally
admirable, especially the pelicans and the emew.
This show would have furnished a dozen sixpenny
shows, at least, to a Bartlemy Fair twenty years ago."

The other menageries were penny shows. One
was Ballard's, of which the great attraction was still,
though nine years had elapsed since the event, the
lioness which attacked the Exeter mail-coach. The
collection contained besides a fine lion, a tiger, a
large polar bear, and several smaller quadrupeds,
monkeys, and birds. Hone has not preserved the
name of the owner of the fourth collection, which he
says was " a really good exhibition of a fine lion,
with leopards, and various other beasts of the forest.
They were mostly docile and in good condition.
One of the leopards was carried by his keeper a

288 The Old Showmen,

pick-a-back/' This was probably Morgan' s, which
we find at this fair three years later.

The daily cost of the food of the animals in a
menagerie is no trifle. The amount of animal food
required for the carnivora in a first class menagerie
is about four hundredweight daily, consisting chiefly
of the shins, hearts, and heads of bullocks. A. full-
grown lion or tiger will consume twelve pounds of
meat per day, and this is said to have been the
allowance in Wombwell's menagerie ; but it is more,
I believe, than is allowed in the gardens of the
Zoological Society. Bears are allowed meat only
in the winter, their food at other seasons consisting
of bread, sopped biscuit, or boiled rice, sweetened
with sugar. Then there are the elephants, camels,
antelopes, etc., to be provided for ; and the quantity
of hay, cabbages, bread, and boiled rice which an
elephant will consume, in addition to the buns and
biscuits given to it by the visitors, is, as Dominie
Sampson would say, prodigious. There is a story
told of an elephant belonging to a travelling mena-
gerie which escaped from the stable in which it had
been placed for the night, and, wandering through
the village, found a baker's shop open. It pushed
its head in, and, helping itself with its trunk,
devoured sixteen four-pound loaves, and was be-
ginning to empty the glass jars of the sweets they

And the Old London Fairs. 289

contained when the arrival of its keeper interrupted
its stolen repast.

I now come to the minor exhibitions, of which
the first from Hosier Lane, where it stood at the
corner, was a peep-show, in which rudely painted
pictures were successively lowered by the showmen,
and viewed through circular apertures, fitted with
glasses of magnifying power. A green curtain
separated the spectators from the outer throng while
they gazed upon such strangely contrasted scenes
as the murder of Weare and the Queen of Sheba's
visit to Solomon, the execution of Probert and the
conversion of St. Paul, the Greenland whale fishery
and the building of Babel, Wellington at Waterloo
and Daniel in the lions' den !

Next to this stood a show, on the exterior of
which a man beat a drum with one hand, and played
a hurdy-gurdy with the other, pausing occasionally
to invite the gazers to walk up, and see the living
wonders thus announced on the show-cloths : — " Miss
Hipson, the Middlesex Wonder, the Largest Child in
the Kingdom, when young the Handsomest Child in
the World. — The Persian Giant. — The Fair Circassian
luith Silver Hair. — The Female Dwarf, Two Feet
Eleven Indies high. — Two Wild Indians from the
Malay Islands in the East." When a company had
collected, the wonders were shown from the floor of

U

290 The Old Showmen ,

a caravan on wheels, one side being taken out, and
replaced by a curtain, which was drawn or thrown
back as occasion required. After the audience had
dispersed, Hone was permitted by the proprietor of
the show, Nicholas Maughan, of Ipswich, to go
" behind the curtain/' where the artist who accom-
panied him completed his sketches for the illustra-
tions in the ' Every-day Book/ while Hone entered
into conversation with the persons exhibited.

" Miss Hipson, only twelve years of age, is," he
says, " remarkably gigantic, or rather corpulent, for
her age, pretty, well-behaved, and well-informed;
she weighed sixteen stone a few months before, and
has since increased in size; she has ten brothers
and sisters, nowise remarkable in appearance : her
father, who is dead, was a bargeman at Brentford.
The name of the ' little lady ' is Lydia Walpole ;
she was born at Addiscombe, near Yarmouth, and
is sociable, agreeable, and intelligent. The fair
Circassian is of pleasing countenance and manners.
The Persian giant is a good-natured, tall, stately
negro. The two Malays could not speak English,
except three words, ' drop o* rum/ which they re-
peated with great glee. One of them, with long
hair reaching below the waist, exhibited the posture
of drawing a bow. Mr. Maughan described them
as being passionate, and showed me a severe wound

And the Old London Fairs. 29 r

on his finger which the little one had given him
by biting, while he endeavoured to part him and
his countryman, during a quarrel a few days ago.
A l female giant ' was one of the attractions of this
exhibition, but she could not be shown for illness :
Miss Hipson described her to be a very good young
woman.

"There was an appearance of ease and good
condition, with content of mind, in the persons
composing this show, which induced me to put
several questions to them, and I gathered that I
was not mistaken in my conjecture. They described
themselves as being very comfortable, and that they
were taken great care of, and well treated by the
proprietor, Mr. Maughan, and his partner in the
show. The ' little lady' had a thorough good
character from Miss Hipson as an affectionate
creature ; and it seems the females obtained ex-
ercise by rising early, and being carried out into the
country in a post-chaise, where they walked, and
thus maintained their health. This was to me the
most pleasing show in the fair."

Between this show and Richardson's theatre was
a small temporary stable, in which was exhibited a
mare with seven feet : the admission to this sight
was threepence. The following is a copy of the
printed bill : —

u2

292 The Old Showmen,

" To Sportsmen and Naturalists. — Now exhibiting,
one of the greatest living natural curiosities in the
world ; namely, a thorough-bred chesnut MARE, with
seven legs ! four years of age, perfectly sound, free
from blemish, and shod on six of her feet. She is
very fleet in her paces, being descended from that
famous horse Julius Caesar, out of a thorough-bred
race mare descended from Eclipse, and is remark-
ably docile and temperate. She is the property of
Mr. J. Checketts, of Belgrave hall, Leicestershire ;
and will be exhibited for a few days as above."

Each of this mare's hind legs, besides its natural
foot, had another growing out from the fetlock joint ;
one of these additions was nearly the size of the
natural foot; the third and least grew from the
same joint of the fore leg. Andrews, the exhibitor,
told Hone that they grew slowly, and that the new
hoofs were, at first, very soft, and exuded during
the process of growth.

The line of shows on the east side of Smithfield,
commencing at Long Lane, began with an exhibition
of an Indian woman, a Chinese lady, and a dwarf;
and next to this stood a small exhibition of wax-
figures, to which a dwarf and a Maori woman were
added. On a company being assembled, the show-
man made a speech : " Ladies and gentlemen,
before I show you the wonderful prodigies of nature,

And the Old London Fairs. 293

let me introduce you to the wonderful works of art ; "
and then he drew a curtain, behind which the wax-
figures stood. " This/' said he, " ladies and gentle-
men, is the famous old Mother Shipton; and here
is the unfortunate Jane Shore, the beautiful mistress
of Edward the Fourth ; next to her is his Majesty
George the Fourth of most glorious memory ; and
this is Queen Elizabeth in all her glory ; then here
you have the Princess Amelia, the daughter of his
late Majesty, who is dead ; this is Mary, Queen of
Scots, who had her head cut off ; and this is O'Brien,
the famous Irish giant ; this man here is Thornton,
who was tried for the murder of Mary Ashford ; and
this is the exact resemblance of Othello, the Moor
of Venice, who was a jealous husband, and depend
upon it every man who is jealous of his wife will be
as black as thajb negro. Now, ladies and gentlemen,
the two next are a wonderful couple, John and
Margaret Scott, natives of Dunkeld, in Scotland ;
they lived about ninety years ago ; John Scott
was a hundred and five years old when he died, and
Margaret lived to be a hundred and twelve ; and,
what is more remarkable, there is not a soul
living can say he ever heard them quarrel."

Here he closed the curtain, and while undrawing
another, continued his address as follows : " Having
shown you the dead, I have now to exhibit to you

294 The Old Showmen,

two of the most extraordinary wonders of the living ;
this is the widow of a New Zealand chief, and this
is the little old woman of Bagdad; she is thirty-
inches high, twenty-two years of age, and a native of
Boston, in Lincolnshire/'

The next show announced, for one penny, " The
Black Wild Indian Woman — The White Indian
Youth — and the Welsh Dwarf — All Alive ! " There
was this further announcement on the outside :
" The Young American will Perform after the Manner
of the French Jugglers at Vauxhall Gardens, with
Balls, Rings, Daggers, fyc" The Welsh dwarf was
William Phillips, of Denbigh, fifteen years of age.
The (( White Indian youth )} was an Esquimaux ; and
the exhibitor assured the visitors upon his veracity
that the " black wild Indian woman " was a Court
lady of the island of Madagascar. The young
American was the exhibitor himself, an intelligent
and clever fellow in a loose striped frock, tied
round the middle. He commenced his performances
by throwing up three balls, which he kept constantly
in the air, as he afterwards did four, and then five,
with great dexterity, using his hands, shoulders,
and elbows apparently with equal ease. He after-
wards threw up three rings, each about four inches
in diameter, and then four, which he kept in motion
with similar success. To end his performance, he

And the Old London Fairs. 295

produced three knives, which, by throwing up and
down, he contrived to preserve in the air altogether.
The young American's dress and knives were very
similar to those of the Anglo-Saxon glee-man, as
Strutt has figured them from a MS. in the Cotton
collection.

The inscriptions and paintings on the outside of
the next show announced " The White Negro, who
was rescued from her Black Parents by the bravery of
a British Officer — the only White Negro Girl Alive —
The Great Giantess and Dwarf — Six Curiosities
Alive ! — Only a Penny to see them All Alive ! " One
side of the interior was covered by a pictorial repre-
sentation of a tread-mill, with convicts at work upon
it, superintended by warders. On the other side
were several monkeys in cages, an old bear in a
jacket, and sundry other animals. When a suffi-
cient number of persons had assembled, a curtain
was withdrawn, and the visitors beheld the giantess
and the white negro, whom the showman pronounced
" the greatest curiosity ever seen — the first that has
been exhibited since the reign of George II. — look
at her head and hair, ladies and gentlemen, and feel
it ; there's no deception — it's like ropes of wool ! "
The girl, who had the flat nose, thick lips, and
peculiarly-shaped skull of the negro, stooped to
have her hair examined. It was of a dull flaxen

296 The Old Showmen,

hue, and hung, acccording to Hone's description,
" in ropes, of a clothy texture, the thickness of a
quill, and from four to six inches in length." Her
skin was the colour of an European's. Then there
stepped forth a little fellow about three feet high,
in a military dress, with top boots, who " strutted
his tiny legs, and held his head aloft with not less
importance than the proudest general officer could
assume upon his promotion to the rank of field
marshal."

The next show was announced as an " exhibition
of real wonders," and the following bill was put
forth by its proprietor : —

" REAL WONDEKS !

SEE AND BELIEVE.

Have you seen
THE BEAUTIFUL DOLPHIN,
The Performing Pig, and the Mermaid ?
If not, pray do ! as the exhibition contains more
variety than any other in England. Those ladies
and gentlemen who may be pleased to honour it
with a visit will be truly gratified.

TOBY,
The Swinish Philosopher, and Ladies' Fortune

Teller.

That beautiful animal appears to be endowed with
the natural sense of the human race. He is in

And the Old London Fairs. 297

colour the most beautiful of his race ; in symmetry
the most perfect ; in temper the most docile ; and
far exceeds anything yet seen for his intelligent
performances. He is beyond all conception : he
has a perfect knowledge of the alphabet, understands
arithmetic, and will spell and cast accounts, tell the
points of the globe, the dice-box, the hour by any
person's watch, &c.

The Real Head of

MAHOURA,

THE CANNIBAL CHIEF !

At the same time the public will have an oppor-
tunity of seeing what was exhibited so long in
London, under the title of

THE MERMAID :

The wonder of the deep ! not a fac-simile or copy,
but the same curiosity.

ADMISSION MODERATE.
*** Open from Eleven in the Morning till Nine

in the Evening."

Foremost among the attractions of this show were
the performing pig and the show-woman, who drew
forth the learning of the " swinish philosopher "
admirably. He went through the alphabet, and
spelt monosyllabic words with his nose ; and did a
sum of two figures in addition. Then, at her desire,
he indicated those of the company who were in love,

298 The Old Showmen,

or addicted to excess in drink ; and grunted
his conviction that a stout gentleman, who might
have sat to John Leech for the portrait of John
Bull " loved good eating, and a pipe, and a jug of ale
better than the sight of the Living Skeleton." The
" beautiful dolphin " was a fish-skin stuffed. The
mermaid was the last manufactured imposture of
that name, exhibited for half-a-crown in Piccadilly,
about a year before. The " real head of Mahoura,
the cannibal chief," was a skull, with a dried skin
over it, and a black wig ; ' ' but it looked sufficiently
terrific," says Hone, " when the show- woman put
the candle in at the neck, and the flame illuminated
the yellow integument over the holes where eyes,
nose, and a tongue had been."

Adjoining this was another penny show, with
pictures large as life on the show- cloths outside of
the living wonders within, and the following in-
scription : — " All Alive ! No False Paintings ! The
Wild Indian, the Giant Boy, and the Dwarf Family !
Never here before. To be seen alive ! " Thomas
Day, the reputed father of the dwarf family, was
also proprietor of the show ; he was thirty-five years
of age, and only thirty-five inches high. There was
a boy six years old, only twenty-seven inches high.
The ' ' wild Indian " was a mild-looking mulatto.
The " giant boy," William Wilkinson Whitehead,

And the Old London Fairs. 299

was fourteen years of age, stood five feet two inches
high, measured five feet round the body, twenty-
seven inches across the shoulders, twenty inches
round the arm, twenty-four inches round the calf,
and thirty-one inches round the thigh, and weighed
twenty -two stones. His father and mother were
' ' travelling merchants " of Manchester ; he was
born at Glasgow, during one of their journeys, and
was a fine healthy youth, fair conaplexioned, intelli-
gent looking, active in his movements, and sensible
in speech. He was lightly dressed in plaid to show
his limbs, with a bonnet of the same.

Holders glass-working and blowing was the last
show on the east side of Smithfield, and was limited
to a single caravan. The first on the south side,
with its side towards Cloth Fair, and the back to-
wards the corner of Duke Street, presented pictures
of a giant, a giantess, and an Indian chief, with the
inscription, " They're all alive ! Be assured they're
all alive! The Yorkshire Giantess — Waterloo Giant —
Iti'iian Chief. Only a penny !" An overgrown girl
was the Yorkshire giantess. A tall man with his
hair frizzed and powdered, aided by a military coat
and a plaid roquelaire, made the Waterloo giant.

Next to this stood another show of the same
kind and quality, the attractions of which were
a giantess and two dwarfs. The giantess was

3OO The Old Showmen,

a Somerset girl, who arose from the chair where-
on she was seated to the height of six feet nine
inches and three-quarters, with " Ladies and
gentlemen, your most obedient." She was
good-looking and affable, and obliged the company
by taking off her tight-fitting slipper, and handing
it round for their examination. It was of such
dimensions that the largest man present could have
put his booted foot into it. Ske said that her name
was Elizabeth Stock, and that she was only sixteen
years of age. This completed the number of shows
pitched in Smithfield in 1825.

There was a visible falling off in the following
year, when the number of shows diminished to
eight. The west side of Griltspur Street, along its
whole length, was occupied by book-stalls ; and
grave-looking men in black suits, with white cravats,
looking like waiters out of employment, walked
solemnly through the fair, giving to all who would
take them tracts headed with the startling question —
" Are you prepared to die ? " Richardson's theatre
was there, and Clarke's circus ; but Samwell, and
Ball, and Chappell and Pike did not attend, and
Wombwell's was the only menagerie. " Brown's
grand company, from Paris," presented a juggling
and tight-rope performance, with the learned horse,
and a clown who extracted musical sounds from a

And the Old London Fairs. 301

salt-box, with the aid of a rolling-pin ; Holden, the
glass-blower, in a glass wig, made tea-cups for
threepence each, and tobacco-pipes for a penny;
the learned pig displayed his acquirements in ortho-
graphy and arithmetic ; there was a twopenny
exhibition of rattlesnakes and young crocodiles,
hatched by steam from imported eggs ; and a show in
which a dwarf and a " silver-haired lady " were
exhibited for a penny.

Among the unique of the living curiosities ex-
hibited by the showmen of this period was the
famous spotted boy, described in the bills issued by
his original exhibitor as " one of those wonderful
productions of Nature, which excite the curiosity,
and gratify the beholder with the surprising works
of the Creator ; he is the progeny of Negroes, being
beautifully covered over by a diversity of spots of
transparent brown and white ; his hair is interwoven,
black and white alternately, in a most astonishing
manner ; his countenance is interesting, with limbs
finely proportioned ; his ideas are quick and pene-
trating, yet his infantine simplicity is truly capti-
vating. He must be seen to convince ; it is not in
the power of language to convey an adequate idea of
this Fanciful Child of Nature, formed in her most
playful mood, and allowed by every lady and gen-
tleman that has seen it, the greatest curiosity ever

3<D2 The Old Showmen,

beheld. May be seen from Ten in the Morning till
Ten in the Evening. Admittance for Ladies and
Gentlemen Is. Servants and Children half price.
Ladies and Gentlemen wishing to see this Wonder-
ful Child at their own houses, may be accommodated
by giving a few hours' notice. Copper- plate Like-
nesses of the Boy may be had at the Place of
Exhibition."

Richardson introduced this boy several seasons,
between the drama and the pantomime ; and became
so much attached to him that he directed, by his
will, that he should be buried in the grave in which,
a few years before, he had deposited the remains of
the lively, docile, and affectionate African lad, in
the church-yard of Great Marlow. ,

I have found no account of the number of shows
which attended Bartholomew Fair in 1827, but in
the following year they must have been nearly as
numerous as in 1825, an enumeration of the
principal ones reaching to sixteen. All the
menageries attended, and, besides Richardson's and
Ball's theatres, Keyes and Lame's, Frazer's, Pike's,
and a couple of clever Chinese jugglers. The
receipts of these and the other principal shows were
returned, in round numbers, as follows : — Womb-
well's menagerie, £1,700 ; Richardson's theatre,
£1,200; Atkins's menagerie, £1,000; Morgan's

And the Old London Fairs. 303

menagerie, £150; exhibition of "the pig-faced
lady," £150; ditto, fat boy and girl, £140; ditto,
head of William Corder, who was hanged at
Chelmsford for the murder of Maria Martin, a
crime which had created a great sensation, owing
to its discovery through a dream of the victim's
mother, £100; Ballard's menagerie, £90; Ball's
theatre, £80; diorama of the battle of Navarino,
£60; the Chinese jugglers, £50; Pike's theatre,
£40; a fire-eater, £30; Frazer's theatre, £26;
Keyes and Laine's theatre, £20 ; exhibition of a
Scotch giant, £20. Some curious lights are thrown
by these figures on the comparative attractiveness
of different entertainments and exhibitions.

Considerable excitement was created among the
visitors to the fair in the following year by the
announcement that Wombwell had on exhibition
"that most wonderful animal, the bonassus, being
the first of the kind which had ever been brought
to Europe." As no one had ever seen or heard of
the animal before, or had the faintest conception of
what it was, the curious flocked in crowds to see
the beast, which proved to be a very fine bull bison,
or American buffalo. Under the name given to it
by Wombwell, it was introduced into the epilogue
of the Westminster play as one of the wonders of
the year. It was afterwards sold by Wombwell to

304 The Old Showmen,

the Zoological Society, and placed in their col-
lection in the Regent's Park ; but it had been en-
feebled by confinement and disease, and it died
soon afterwards. The Hudson's Bay Company
subsequently supplied its place by presenting the
Society with a young cow.

Atkins offered the counter attractions of an
elephant ten feet high, and another litter of lion-
tigers, the latter addition to his collection being
announced as follows : —

" Wonderful Phenomenon in Nature — The singular
and hitherto deemed impossible occurrence of a
Lion and Tigress cohabiting and producing young
has again taken place in the Menagerie, on the 28th
of October, 1828, at Windsor, when the Royal
Tigress brought forth three fine cubs ! ! ! And they
are now to be seen in the same den with their sire
and dam. The first litter of these extraordinary
animals were presented to Our Most Gracious
Sovereign, when he was pleased to express consi-
derable gratification, and to denominate them
Lion-Tigers, than which a more appropriate name
could not have been given. The great interest the
Lion and Tigress have excited is unprecedented;
they are a source of irresistible attraction, especially
as it is the only instance of the kind ever known of
animals so directly opposite in their dispositions

And the Old London Fairs. 305

forming an attachment of such a singular nature ;
their beautiful and interesting progeny are most
admirable productions of Nature. The Group is
truly pleasing and astonishing, and must be
witnessed to form an adequate idea of them. The
remarkable instance of subdued temper and asso-
ciation of animals to permit the Keeper to enter
their Den, and to introduce their performance to
the Spectators, is the greatest Phenomenon in
Natural History."

Most of the shows enumerated in the list of 1828
attended Bartholomew Fair in 1830, and there were
a few additional ones, making the total number
about the same. They comprised the menageries
of Wombwell, Atkins, and Ballard, the first con-
taining " the great Siam elephant, and the two
smallest elephants ever seen in Europe," and the
last offering an unique attraction in a seal,
floundering in a large tub of water ; Richardson's
theatre, Ball's tumbling and rope-dancing, Keyes
and Laine's conjuring, Frazer's conjuring, a learned
pony, the pig-faced lady, a shaved bear (to expose
the imposture preceding), the " living skeleton/'
the fire-eater, the Scotch giant, the diorama of
Navarino, the fat boy and girl, and a couple of
peep-shows, one exhibiting, as its chief attraction,
the lying in state of George IV., the other the mur-
der of Maria Martin. x

306 The Old Showmen,

One of the novel characters whom Kichardson
picked up in his wanderings was the once famous
Gouffe, " the man-monkey/' as he was called. His
real name was Vale, and when the old showman
became acquainted with him he was following the
humble occupation of a pot-boy in a low public-
house. Kichardson, happening to enter the
tap -room in which Master Yale waited, found the
young gentleman amusing the guests by walk-
ing about on pewter pint measures, with his hob-
nailed boots turned towards the smoke-begrimed
ceiling. The performance was a novel one, and
Richardson, calling the lad aside on its conclusion,,
made him an offer too gratifying to be refused.
After travelling with Richardson for some time,
Yale appeared at several of the minor theatres of
the metropolis, always in the part of an ape, and
under the assumed name of Gouffe. His panto-
mimic powers were considerable, and his agility
was scarcely inferior to that of the four-handed
brutes whom he represented.

The receipts of the shows were not always so
large as in 1828. In 1831, which seems to have
been a bad year for them, Richardson lost fifty
pounds by Bartholomew Fair, though he had half
the receipts of Swing's wax-work exhibition in
addition to those of the theatre, under an agree-

And the Old London Fairs. 307

ment with the proprietor, by which he paid for the
ground and the erection of the show. Wombwell
only cleared his expenses, though he had at that
time acquired Morgan's menagerie, which stood at
the corner of the Greyhound Yard, and by that
means secured the pennies as well as the six-
pences.

In 1832, the charge for admission to Clarke's
circus was reduced from sixpence to threepence.
There was a novelty in Bartholomew Fair that year
in the show of an Italian conjuror, named CapelK,
namely, a company of cats, that beat a drum, turned
a spit, ground knives, played the organ, hammered
upon an anvil, ground coffee, and rang a bell. One
of them understood French as well as Italian, obey-
ing orders in both languages. Capelli's bills
announce also a wonderful dog, to "play any
gentleman at dominoes that will play with
him/'

In 1833, the number of shows at this fair rose to
thirty-two, Richardson's theatre, Clarke's circus,
five for tumbling, rope-dancing, etc., three
menageries, four wax- work exhibitions, three phan-
tasmagorias, Holden's glass-blowing, two learned
pigs, six exhibitions of giants, dwarfs, etc., and six
peep-shows, in which the coronation of William IV.,
the battle of Navarino., the murder of Maria Martin,

x 2

308 The Old Showmen,

and other events of contemporary interest were
shown. Only two shows charged so much as
sixpence for admission, namely, Richardson' s and
Wombwell's. The threepenny shows were Ewing's
and Clarke's, the latter giving " an excellent display
for the money," according to a contemporary
account, which continues as follows : —

" The performance began by tight-rope dancing
by Miss Clarke, with and without the balance pole,
through hoops, with ( flip-flaps/ standing on chairs,
&c. Slack-rope vaulting by a little boy named
Benjamin Saffery, eight years of age ; he exhibited
several curious feats. There was also some very
extraordinary posturing by1 two young men, one
dressed as a Chinese, the other in the old costume
of Pierrot ; among many other exploits, they walked
round the ring with each a leg put up to their neck,
and another on each other's shoulders. They also
performed an extraordinary feat of lying on their
backs, and throwing their legs up under their arms,
and going round the ring by springing forward
upon the ground, without the aid of their hands ;
one of them, while on the ground, supported two
men on his thighs. A black man also exhibited
some feats of strength; among others, he threw
himself backward and, resting on his hands, formed
an arch, and then bore two heavy men on his

And the Old London Fairs. 309

stomach with ease. The horsemanship commenced
with the old performance of the rider going round
the ring tied up in a sack. During the going round
a transformation took place, and he who went into
the sack a man came out to all appearance a woman
on throwing the sack off. The whole concluded
with a countryman who, suddenly starting from the
ring, desires to be permitted to ride, which is at
first refused, but at length allowed ; he mounts,
and after a short time, beginning to grow warm,
pulls off his coat, then his waistcoat, then another
and another to the number of thirteen, at last with
much apparent modesty and reluctance his shirt ;
having done this, he appears a splendid rider, and
after a few evolutions, terminates the performance.
This rider's name was Price. The show was well
attended."

The other shows of this class were Ball's, which,
besides tumbling and rope-dancing, gave a panto-
mime, but without scenery ; Keyes and Laiue's,
which now presented posturing, balancing, and
rope-dancing ; Samwell's, in which, besides tum-
bling and dancing, a real Indian executed the war-
dance of his tribe; the Chinese jugglers; and a
posturing and tumbling show, the proprietor of
which was too modest to announce his name. The
Chinese jugglers had performed during- the summer

310 The -Old Showmen^

at Saville House, the building on the north side of
Leicester Square, which, after being the locality of
several exhibitions, was converted into a music-hall,
called the Imperial, and afterwards Eldorado. One
of these pig-tailed entertainers pretended to swal-
low fifty needles, which were afterwards produced
from his mouth, each with a thread in its eye.
Another balanced a bowl on a stick nine feet long ;
while a third played the Chinese violin with a
single string.

WombwelPs menagerie extended from the hos-
pital gate nearly to Duke Street, and was the
largest show in the fair. Drury and Drake's was
a small but interesting collection, consisting of a
very tame leopard, a couple of hyenas, a good show
of monkeys, and several very fine boa constrictors.
The third menagerie was Wombwell's smaller con-
cern, formerly Morgan's.

The best of the wax-work exhibitions was
Ewing's, which was well arranged in ten caravans.
The others were Ferguson's, with the additional
attraction of " the beautiful albiness/' a really beau-
tiful woman, named Shaw, who was then in her
twenty-second year ; Hoyo's ; and a small and poor
collection at a house in Giltspur Street, where the
wax figures were supplemented by the exhibition of
twin infants united at the breast, " extremely well
preserved."

Ana tlie Old London Fairs. 311

Phantasmagorial exhibitions were at this time a
novelty to the masses. The best of those shown
this year in Smithfield was the Optikali Illusio of a
Frenchman, named De Berar, who startled the
spectators with the appearance of a human skele-
ton, the vision of Death on a pale horse, etc.
There was another in Long Lane ; and a third at a
house in Giltspur Street, where the public were
invited to witness ' c the raising of the devil ! " A
fire-eater named Haines stood at the door of the
last show, emitting a shower of sparks from a lump
of burning tow in his mouth. Sir David Brewster,
who witnessed a phantasmagorial exhibition at
Edinburgh, describes it as follows : —

" The small theatre of exhibition was lighted only
by one hanging lamp, the flame of which was drawn
up into an opaque chimney or shade when the per-
formance began. In this ' darkness visible ' the
curtain rose, and displayed a cave, with skeletons
and other terrific figures in relief upon its walls.
The flickering light was then drawn up beneath its
shroud, and the spectators, in total darkness, found
themselves in the midst of thunder and lightning.
A thin transparent screen had, unknown to the
spectators, been let down after the disappearance of
the light, and upon it the flashes of lightning, and
.all the subsequent appearances, were represented.

312 The Old Showmen,

This screen, being halfway between the spectators
and the cave which was first shown, and being
itself invisible, prevented the observers from having
any idea of the real distance of the figures, and
gave them the entire character of aerial pictures.

" The thunder and lightning were followed by
the figures of ghosts, skeletons, and known indi-
viduals, whose eyes and mouths were made to move
by the action of combined sliders. After the first
figure had been exhibited for a short time, it began
to grow less and less, as if removed to a great
distance, and at last vanished in a small cloud of
light. Out of this same cloud the germ of another
figure began to appear, and gradually grew larger
and larger, and approached the spectators, till it
attained its perfect development. In this manner
the head of Dr. Franklin was transformed into a
skull; figures which retired with the freshness of
life came back in the form of skeletons, and the
retiring skeletons returned in the drapery of flesh
and blood. The exhibition of these transmutations
was followed by spectres, skeletons, and terrific
figures, which, instead of receding and vanishing as
before, suddenly advanced upon the spectators, be-
coming larger as they approached them, and finally
vanished by appearing to sink into the ground.
The effect of this part of the exhibition was natu-

And the Old London Fairs. 3 1 3

rally the most impressive. The spectators were not
only surprised, but agitated, and many of them
were of opinion that they could have touched the
figures."

Dupain's French theatre combined the exhibition
of a dwarf, Jonathan Dawson, three feet high, and
fifty years of age, with posturing by a performer
named Finch, and two mechanical views, one repre-
senting Algiers, with the sea in motion, and vessels
entering and leaving the harbour; the other a
storm at sea, with a vessel in distress, burning blue
lights, firing guns, and finally becoming a wreck.

Broomsgrove's show, which made its first ap-
pearance, contained three human curiosities, namely,
Clancy, an Irishman, whose height was seven feet
two inches ; Farnham, who was only three feet two
inches in height, but so strong that he carried two
big men on his shoulders with ease ; and Thomas
Pierce, " the gigantic Shropshire youth," aged
seventeen years, five feet ten inches in height, and
thirty-five stones in weight.

Simmett's show contained four " living wonders "
of this kind, namely, Priscilla and Amelia Weston,
twin Canadian giantesses, twenty years of age;
Lydia Walpole, the dwarf exhibited in Maughan's
show in 1825; and an albino woman, aged nine-
teen. Harris added to a peep-show a twelve years

314 The Old Showmen^

old dwarf, named Eliza Webber; a sheep with,
singularly formed hind hoofs ; and a very fine boa
constrictor. Another show combined the perform-
ances of a monkey, which, in the garb of an old
woman, smoked a pipe, wheeled a barrow, etc.,
with the exhibition of several mechanical figures,
representing artisans working at their various
trades, and a juvenile albino, named Mary Anne
Chapman. Another exhibited, as an "extraordi-
nary hermit," a man named Daniel Mackenzie,
whose only distinction rested upon his statement
that he had voluntarily secluded himself from the
world for five years, which he had passed in a coal-
mine near Dalkeith.

Toby, the learned pig, if he was the original
porcine wonder of that name, must have been, at
least, seventeen years of age, but showed no symp-
toms of declining vigour or diminished intelligence.
He was now exhibited by James Burchall, in con-
junction with the proprietor's monstrously fat child,
and was announced as, —

"The Unrivalled Chinese Swinish Philosopher,
Toby the Real Learned Pig. He will spell, read,
and cast accounts, tell the points of the sun's rising
and setting, discover the four grand divisions of the
Earth, kneel at command, perform blindfold with
20 handkerchiefs over his eyes, tell the hour to a

And the Old London Fairs. 315

minute by the watch, tell a card, and the age of any
party. He is in colour the most beautiful of his
race, in symmetry the most perfect, in temper the
most docile. And when asked a question, he will
give an Immediate Answer/'

Toby had a rival this year in the " amazing pig
of knowledge," exhibited by James Fawkes, at the
George Inn. This pig could tell the number of
pence in a shilling, and of shillings in a pound,
count the spectators, tell their thoughts (so at least
it was pretended), distinguish colours, and do many
other wonderful things. The following doggrel
verses, extracted from Fawkes's bill, are offered as
a curiosity; they seem apropos of nothing, and
show that the exhibitor was ignorant or oblivious of
the fact that George IV. had been dead three
years : —

" A learned Pig in George's reign

To .Esop's Brutes an equal Boast ;
Then let Mankind again combine
To rentier Friendship still a Toast.

" Let Albion's Fail* superior soar,

To Galh'c Fraud, or Gallic Art ;
Britons will e'er bow down before
The Virtues seated in the Heart."

In 1836, a new show appeared in the field,
namely, Brown's Theatre of Arts, in which were

316 The Old Showmen,

shown mechanical representations of the battle of
Trafalgar, the passage of the Alps by the French
army, and the Marble Palace at St. Petersburg, the
ships in the first and the figures in the others being
in actual motion.

Scowton, who had been absent from Bartholomew
Fair for several years, made a final appearance
there in 1837, when his bills contained the follow-
ing announcement : —

"Mr. SCOWTON, deeply impressed with heartfelt
gratitude for the liberal Patronage and Support
which he has for a series of Years experienced from
his Friends and a Generous Public, and which will
enable him to spend his future Days in comfortable
Retirement : begs leave to announce that the whole
of his Extensive Concern, is to be disposed of by
Private Contract ; and, therefore, at the same time,
as he takes leave, requests them to believe that the
Memory of their favours and indulgence will never
be eradicated from his Memory."

Richardson's theatre stood beside Scowton's, and
it is remarked by a newspaper of the time that
"the former displayed the trappings of modern
grandeur, and the latter evinced his taste for the
ancient by exposing to view a couple of centaurs
and a sphynx." Scowton presented a " new grand
dramatic romance," called The Treacherous Friend,.

And the Old London Fairs. 3 1 7

in which he played the character of Alphonsus him-
self.

This was the last appearance of both these vete-
ran showmen. Scowton retired, and Richardson
died shortly afterwards at his cottage in Horse-
monger Lane, and was buried, as his will directed,
at Great Mario w, in the same grave with the
spotted boy. He bequeathed the greater part of
his property to Charles Reed, who had travelled
with him for many years ; his old friend, Johnson,
afterwards co-lessee with Nelson Lee of the City of
London Theatre, received a legacy of five hundred
pounds, and Davy, who had superintended the
building and removal of the theatre from the be-
ginning of its existence, two hundred pounds.

Looking backward forty years, I can recall the
quaint figure of the old showman as he stood on the
steps of his portable theatre, clad in a loose drab
coat and a long scarlet vest, which looked as if it
had been made in the reign of George II. As I
think of Croydon Fair as it ased to be in Richard-
son's days, with the show standing between Clarke's
circus and Wombwell's menagerie, I can almost
fancy that I hear the booming of the old man's
gong. Many a time afterwards have I seen Nelson
Lee beating that memorable instrument of discord,
and heard him shouting, " Walk up ! walk up !

318 The Old Showmen.

Just going to begin ! " But lie wore a suit of black,
and did not impress me half so much as his prede-
cessor. The change seemed, indeed, a symptom of
the declining glory of the fair, which has, within
the last few years, become a thing of the past.

CHAPTER XL

Successors of Scowton and Richardson — Nelson Lee — Crow-
ther, the Actor — Paul Herring — Newman and Allen's
Theatre — Fair in Hyde Park — Hilton's Menagerie — Bar-
tholomew Fair again threatened — Wombwell's Menagerie —
Charles Freer — Fox Cooper and the Bosjesmans — Destruc-
tion of Johnson and Lee's Theatre — Reed's Theatre —
Hales, the Norfolk Giant — Affray at Greenwich — Death of
Wombwell — Lion Queens — Catastrophe in a Menagerie —
World's Fair at Bays water— Abbott's Theatre— Charlie
Keith, the Clown — Robson, the Comedian — Manders's Me-
nagerie— Macomo, the Lion-Tamer — Macarthy and the
Lions — Fairgrieve's Menagerie — Lorenzo and the Tigress
— Sale of a Menagerie — Extinction of the London Fairs —
Decline of Fairs near the Metropolis — Conclusion.

THE change in the proprietorship of the travelling
theatres conducted during so many years by Scow-
ton and Richardson may be regarded as a stage
in the history of the people's amusements. The
decline which showmen had noted during the pre-

320 The Old Showmen,

ceding years had not been perceptible to the public,
who had crowded the London fairs more densely
than ever, and found as many showmen catering for
their entertainment as in earlier years. But while
the crowds that gazed at Wombwell's show-cloths,
and the parades of Richardson's theatre and Clarke's
circus, became more dense every year, the showmen
found their receipts diminish and their expenses
increase. The people had more wants than formerly,
and their means of supplying them had not, at the
time of the decadence of the London fairs, ex-
perienced a corresponding increase. The vast and
ever-growing population of the metropolis furnished
larger crowds, but the middle-class element had
diminished, and continued to diminish ; and the
showmen found reduced charges to be a necessity,
without resulting in the augmented gains which
follow a reduction of prices in trade.

Scow ton's theatre was sold by private contract
to Julius Haydon, who, after expending a consider-
able sum upon it, making it rival Richardson's in
size, found the results so little to his advantage
that he disposed of the whole concern a year after-
wards to the successors of Richardson.

These were the showman's old friends, John
Johnson, to whom he left a legacy of five hundred
pounds, and Nelson Lee, who, after the unfortunate

And the Old London Fairs. 321

speculation with his brother in the Old Kent Road,
had travelled for a time with Holloway's show, then
gone to Scotland with Grey's fantoccini, and, after
a turn at Edinburgh with Dodsworth and Stevens's
automatons, had returned to London, and was at
the time of Richardson's death managing Sadler's
Wells theatre for Osbaldiston. When he saw
Richardson's property advertised for sale, he con-
ferred with Johnson on the subject of its purchase
by them, which they effected by private contract,
Lee resigning his post at Sadler's Wells to un-
dertake the management.

The new proprietors furnished the theatre with
a new front, and provided new dresses for the
ballet in Esmeralda-, which was then attracting large
audiences to the Adelphi. They did not propose to
open with this drama, but they thought the ballet
would be a success on the parade outside, which
managers of travelling theatres find it necessary to
make as attractive as possible, the public forming
their anticipations of the entertainment to be wit-
nessed inside by what they see outside, as they do
of tenting circus performances by the extent and
splendour of the parade round the town and neigh-
bourhood which precedes them. I once saw a very
pretty harvest-dance of reapers and gleaners on the
parade of Richardson's theatre, and on another

Y

322 The Old Showmen,

occasion a fantastic dance • of Indians., who held
cocoa-nuts in their hands, and struck them together,
assuming every variety of attitude, each dancer
sometimes striking his own nuts together, and
sometimes his own against those of his vis-a-vis.

They were in time for the Whitsuntide Fair at
Greenwich, where the theatre stood at the extreme
end of the fair, near the bridge at Deptford Creek.
The Esmeralda dance was a great success, and
Oscar Byrne, who had arranged the ballet for the
Adelphi, visited the theatre,, and complimented Lee
on the manner in which it was produced. The
drama was The Tyrant Doge, and the pantomime,
arranged by Lee for the occasion, had local colour
given to it, and the local title of One Tree Hill. The
season opened very favourably, though both the
management and the public experienced considerable
annoyance from a party of dissolute young men, of
whom the Marquis of Waterford was one, and who
threw nuts at the actors, and talked and laughed
loudly throughout the performance.

Delamore had succeeded Lewis as stage -manager,
scene-shifter, and wardrobe-keeper, a few years
before Richardson's death, and he was retained in
that position by the new proprietors. John Doug-
lass and Paul Herring were in the company at this
time ; also Crowther, who was subsequently engaged

And the Old London Fairs. 323

at Astley's, and married Miss Vincent, wlio was for so
many years a popular favourite at the Victoria as the
heroine of a series of successful domestic dramas.

Among the minor shows attending the fairs of
the southern counties at this period was the portable
theatre of Newman and Allen, which, towards the
end of the summer, was pitched upon a piece of
waste ground at Norwood, and remained there two
or three weeks. The fortunes of the company
seemed at low ebb, and the small " houses " which
they had nightly, with a charge for admission of
twopence to front seats, and a penny to the back,
did not place the treasury in a very flourishing
condition. Small as the company was, they aimed
at a higher performance than was usually given in
a portable theatre, for on the two occasions that I
patronised the canvas temple of Thespis the plays
were Virginius and John Bull, considerably cut
down, as was to have been expected, the smallness
of the company rendering it necessary to excise
some of the characters.

Only one performance was given each night, and
a farce preceded the play, the interval between the
pieces being filled up with a comic song, sung by
the low comedy man, and an acrobatic performance
by a young lady whose name I learned was Sarah
Saunders. Whether she was related to old Abraham

Y 2

The Old Showmen,

Saunders, I do not know; but the tendency of
show- folks to make their vocations hereditary
renders it very probable. She was the first female
acrobat I ever saw, and an actress besides ; and the
peculiarity of her acrobatic performance was, that
she did not don trunks and tights for it, like
Madame Stertzenbach and others of her sex at the
present day, but did her " flips/' etc., in her ordi-
nary attire, like the little drabs from the back slums
of Westminster who may sometimes be seen turning
heels over head in St. James's Park.

When the brief season of the canvas theatre was
brought to a close, and the fittings, scenery, pro-
perties, etc., had left the village behind a bony
horse, it seemed that the proprietors had dissolved
the partnership which had existed between them;
for a living carriage remained on the ground, the
occupants of which were old Newman, who had
played the heavy parts, and his nephew, Charles
Little, the low comedy man. Whether the old
gentleman had realised a competency which satisfied
his wants, or had some small pension or annuity,
or investment of some kind, never became known ;
but there the wheeled abode of the two men stood
for several years, Newman cultivating a patch of
the waste, and producing therefrom all the vegetables
they required for their own table, while his nephew

And the Old London Fairs. 325

perambulated the neighbourhood with a basket,
offering for sale tapes and cottons, needles and pins,
and other small wares of a similar description. This
new vocation seemed more lucrative than that of
low comedian and comic singer in a travelling
theatre ; for Charlie, as he was familiarly called,
dressed better every year, and, on the death of his
uncle, took to himself a wife, and, abandoning the
living carriage, settled in a neighbouring cottage.

From this episode of show-life I must return to
Johnson and Lee, who, after visiting Deptford and
Camberwell Fairs, took their renovated theatre to*
Smithfield, where it stood with its back to the
George Inn. At Croydon Fair it occupied its usual
position between Clarke's circus and WombwelPs
menagerie 3 and there a singular and amusing ad-
venture occurred to the clown, who, however, clid
not find it so amusing himself. The first day being
very wet, and the fair in consequence very thinly
attended, he thought to divert the tedium of the
situation by strolling through the town, and for this
purpose put on the uniform over-coat of a policeman,
a character then, as now, always diverting in the
pantomime. Some short time previously, several
robberies had been committed in the town by a thief
similarly dressed ; and a constable on duty in High
Street, seeing a seeming policeman whom he did

32,6 The Old Showmen,

not know, and who gazed about him as if he was
a stranger, took the astonished clown into custody
on the charge of personating a constable and loiter-
ing about for an unlawful purpose. On being taken
to the station-house, the clown made an explanatory
statement, and the inspector sent a constable to the
theatre to ascertain its truth, testimony to which
was given by Lee. The clown was thereupon re-
leased from custody, and hurried back to the fair,
vowing that he would never promenade in the garb
of a policeman again.

In the following year, Johnson and Lee presented
a memorial to the Home Office, asking permission
to hold a fair in Hyde Park, to celebrate the corona-
tion of the Queen. The Government acceded to the
request, and Superintendent Mallalieu was associated
with the memorialists in the organisation and man-
agement of the undertaking. A tent was pitched
in the centre of the ground selected for the purpose,
and the three managers attended daily to arrange
the plan, classify the shows, stalls, etc., and receive
applications for space, which were so numerous
that it became necessary to post constables before
the tent to maintain order. As each applicant
stated the nature of his business, the application
was entered in a book kept for the purpose, and a
day was named for the allotment of ground. Every

And the Old London Fairs. 327

foot of space granted for the purpose by the Commis-
sioners of Her Majesty's Woods and Forests was
taken within a week, and every intending exhibitor
received a ticket in the following form : —

FAIR IN HYDE PARK.

No. ALLOTMENT OF GEOUND.

The Bearer , of ,__ ,

is hereby entitled to feet frontage on the_

side of the area for the purpose of erecting a .

June, 1838.

J. M. MALLALIEU,

Supt.

Every ticket-holder was requested to fit up his
show or stall in a becoming manner, and to display
as illumination some device suitable to the occasion.
The undertaking to this effect was adhered to in a
commendable manner, and a very pretty effect was
thus produced when the fair was opened, on the
28th of June, and the numerous shows, booths, and
stalls were illuminated at night with so many thou-
sands of coloured lamps. As the boom of the first
gun announcing the departure of the Queen for
Westminster Abbey was heard, Nelson Lee, stand-
ing on the parade of his theatre, struck the gong,
and all the showmen unfurled their show-cloths, and

32,8 The Old Showmen,

the keepers of booths and stalls rolled up their
canvas fronts, and commenced business.

The fair was a great success, the financial results
being as satisfactory as its organisation and man-
agement. Many of the nobility visited it, and even
patronised the amusements, as they had been wont
to do at Bartholomew Fair in the seventeenth
century, and the first half of the eighteenth. John-
son and Lee's theatre filled on the opening day in
five minutes, and the time occupied by the perform-
ances was reduced to fifteen minutes. The drama
was The Mysterious Stranger, which, thus contracted,
became more mysterious than ever. All the prin-
cipal avenues were crowded from noon till night,
and the demand upon the resources of the refresh-
ment booths was so great that Algar and other
principal booth-keepers charged, and had no diffi-
culty in obtaining, a shilling for a pot of beer, and
sixpence for a lettuce or a penny loaf, other articles
being sold at proportionate rates.

During the fair, the wife of a gingerbread vendor
gave birth to a child, which, in commemoration of
the occasion was registered by the name of Hyde
Park. The stall was, in consequence of this event,
allowed to remain several days after the time by
which the promoters of the fair had undertaken to
have the ground cleared, and it was visited by

And the Old London Fairs. 329

many ladies, who made presents to the child and its
parents. Though the ground had been let at a low
rate, a surplus of sixty pounds remained after defray-
ing all expenses, and this sum was awarded to
Johnson and Lee ; but they did not apply for it, and
it was divided among the constables who did police
duty in the fair. The services of Johnson and
Lee in promoting and organising the fair, and of
Superintendent Mallalieu in supervising the arrange-
ments and maintaining order, were so well appre-
ciated by the showmen and the keepers of booths
and stalls, that they joined in presenting each with
a silver cup, at a dinner which took place at the
Champion Tavern, Paddington.

At the ordinary fairs visited during the latter
part of this year, Johnson and Lee exhibited a
panorama of the coronation, painted by Marshall,
which proved very attractive. Enfield Fair being"
spoiled by wet weather, application was made to the
local magistrate for an extra day, which at Croydon
was always conceded in such circumstances ; but it
was refused, the Enfield justice seeming to be of
opinion that actors and acrobats were vagabonds
who ought to be discouraged by every possible
means. Resolved not to be disappointed, Johnson
and Lee issued a bill in the name of Jones, a man
who sold refreshments in the theatre, announcing

33° The Old Showmen,

that, in consequence of the wet weather having pre-
vented him from clearing his stock of nuts, the pro-
prietors had given him the use of the theatre for an
extra day, when the usual performances would be
given without charge, but prices ranging from a
shilling to three shillings would be charged for nuts
to be supplied to the persons admitted.

Hay don's theatre made its last appearance at
Croydon Fair, where great exertions were made to
render it as attractive as Johnson and Lee's, but it
was not patronised to near the same extent as the
latter ; and Johnson and Lee's offer to purchase the
concern being entertained by the proprietor, it from
that time ceased to exist, being absorbed into the
more popular establishment.

Croydon Fair used, at this time, to be visited by
large numbers of persons, not only from the
surrounding villages, but even from the metropolis.
All the inhabitants of the town prepared for visitors,
for everyone who had a relative or acquaintance in
Croydon was sure to make the fair an occasion for a
visit. Two time-honoured customs were connected
with the October fair, everybody commencing fires
in their sitting-rooms on the first day of the fair,
and dining on roast pork or goose. The latter
custom was observed even, by those who, having no
friends to visit, dined in a booth ; and the number

And the Old London Fairs. 33 1

of geese and legs of pork to be seen roasting before
glowing charcoal fires in grates of immense width,
in the rear of the booths, was one of the sights of
the fair.

There were two entrances to the fair from the
town, one at the gate which gave access at ordinary
times to the foot-path across the field, leading to
Park Hill; and the other, made for the occasion,
further southward, for the accommodation of those
who approached the field from the avenues on the
east side of High Street. Each was bordered for a
short distance by the standings of itinerant vendors
of walnuts, oysters, and fried sausages, beyond
which was a long street of gingerbread stalls,
terminated, in the one case, by the shows of the
exhibitors of wax-work, living curiosities, and pic-
torial representations of great historical events, and
in the other by the smaller and less pretentious
drinking-booths. At right angles to these canvas
streets, and opening from them near their com-
mencement, was a third, covered over with an
awning, and composed of the stalls of the dealers in
toys and fancy goods. This \vas called Bond
Street.

Parallel with this avenue, and connecting the
further ends of the two streets of gingerbread stalls,
was one broader than the others, bordered on the

33 2 The Old Showmen,

side from which it was approached with gingerbread
stalls, and on the further side with the principal
shows and booths. First in order, on the latter
side, stood Clarke's circus, with the proprietor
on the steps, in a scarlet coat and white breeches,
smacking a whip, and shouting, " This way for the
riders ! the riders ! " Three or four spotted and
cream-coloured horses, gaily caparisoned, stood on
the platform, and a clown cracked his " wheeze"
with a couple of young fellows in tights and trunks,
in their intervals of repose from acrobatic feats of
the ordinary character.

Next to the circus stood a portable theatre,
usually Scowton's, in rivalry with the neighbouring
show of the famous Richardson, which was always
the largest, and was worked by the strongest com-
pany. On the exterior platforms of both, practical
jokes were played upon the pantaloon by the
harlequin and the clown ; young ladies in short
muslin skirts danced to the lively strains of the
orchestra, and broad-sword combats were fought in
the approved one ! two ! three ! over and under
style. Next to Richardson's show stood the
menagerie of Womb well or Atkins, where a broad
array of pictorial canvas attracted a wondering
crowd, and the brazen instruments of musicians,
attired in uniforms copied from those of the royal

And the Old London Fairs. 333

" beef-eaters," brayed and blared from noon till
night.

Then came the principal booths, wherein eating
and drinking was the order of the day, and dancing
that of the night. The largest and best appointed
of these was the Crown and Anchor, well known to
fair-goers for half a century, the name of Algar
being "familiar in their mouths as household
words," as that of an experienced caterer for their
entertainment. There was a tolerable quadrille
band in attendance from eve till midnight, and, in
the best days of the fair, the sons and daughters of
the shopkeepers of the town and the farmers of the
surrounding neighbourhood mingled in the dance
in the " assembly room " of Algar's booth without
fear of scandal or loss of caste. There was dancing
in the other booths, but they were smaller, the
music and the lighting were inferior, and the com-
pany less select. Among those that stood in a line
with Algar's were the Fives Court, kept by an ex-
pugilist, and patronised chiefly by gentlemen of the
" fancy ; " and the gipsies' booth, which had no other
sign than the ancient one of a green bough, and was
resorted to for the novelty of being waited upon by
dark-eyed and dusky-complexioned Romanies, wear-
ing bright-coloured silk handkerchiefs over their
shoulders, and long gold pendants in their ears.

334 Tht Old Showmen,

Within the area enclosed by these avenues were
swings and round-abouts, while the " knock 'em
downs/' the " three shies a penny " fellows, the
predecessors of the Aunt Sallies of a later day,
occupied the vacant spaces on the skirts of the
pleasure fair, wherever the ground was not covered,
on the first day, with horses, sheep, and cattle.

At midnight on the 1 st the fair was opened by
the ceremony of carrying an enormous key through
it, and the booth-keepers were then allowed to
serve any customers who might offer. By daylight
next morning the roads leading to the fair-field were
thronged with sheep and cattle, thousands of which,
with scores of horses, changed owners before sunset.
There was little movement in the long avenues of
shows, booths, and stalls, until near noon, when
nursery maids led their charges through Bond
Street, and m others took their younger children
there to buy toys. About mid-day the showmen
unfurled their pictures, which appealed so strongly
to the imaginations of the spectators, the bands of
the larger shows began to play, and clowns and
acrobats, dancers and jugglers, appeared upon the
exterior platforms. From this time till sunset the
throng of visitors increased rapidly, and on fine days
the crowd before the principal shows was so dense
as to offer considerable impediment to locomotion.

And the Old London Fairs. 335

When darkness began to descend upon the field,
lamps flared and flickered on the fronts of the
shows, smaller lights glimmered along the toy and
gingerbread stalls, and thousands of tiny lamps,
blue, and amber, and green, and ruby, arranged in
the form of crowns, stars, anchors, feathers, etc.,
illuminated the booths. Then the showmen beat
their gongs with redoubled vigour, and bawled
through speaking-trumpets till they were hoarse :
the bands brayed and blared louder than before;
and the sounds of harps and violins showed that
dancing had commenced in the booths.

In those days it sometimes happened that two
circuses attended the fair, when the larger of the
two was pitched in a field on the west side of the
road, and bounded on the south side by Mint Walk,
one of the avenues by which the fair was ap-
proached from High Street. In a circus thus
located — I think it was Clarke's — Miss Woolford,
afterwards the second wife of the great equestrian,
Andrew Ducrow, exhibited her grace and agility on
the tight-rope in a blaze of fireworks, in emulation
of the celebrated Madame Saqui's performance at
Vauxhall Gardens. The equestrian profession still
numbers Ducrows in its ranks, two young men of
that name belonging at the present time to New-
some's circus company; but I have not met with

336 The Old Showmen,

the name of Woolford since 1842, when a young
lady of that name, and then about twelve or thir-
teen years of age, danced on the tight-rope in a
small show pitched at the back of the town-hall at
Croydon, during the July Fair.

The October fair at Croydon closed the season
of the shows which confined their perambulations
to a distance of fifty miles from the metropolis,
where, or in the provincial towns possessing
theatres, the actors, clowns, acrobats, etc., ob-
tained engagements for the pantomime season.
This year, the entire company of Johnson and Lee's
theatre was engaged for the Marylebone.

In 1839, this theatre, with John Douglass and
Paul Herring still in the company, stood next to
Hilton's menagerie at Greenwich, where the season
commenced with most of the shows which made Lon-
don their winter quarters. It was about this time
that James Lee, who was then manager of Hilton's
menagerie, suggested the certain attractiveness of
the exhibition by a young woman of the perform-
ances with lions and tigers which had been found
so productive to the treasuries of the Sangers,
Batty, and Howes and Gushing, when exhibited by
a man. It was proposed to bring out as a "lion
queen" the daughter of Hilton's brother Joseph, a
circus proprietor; and the young lady, being fa-

And the Old London Fairs. 337

miliar with her uncle's lions, did not shrink from
the distinction. She made her first public appear-
ance with the lions at Stepney Fair, and the per-
formance proved so attractive that the example was
contagious. Edmunds had at this time a fine
group of lions, tigers, and leopards, and a young-
woman named Chapman (now Mrs. George Sanger)
volunteered to perform with them, as a rival to
Miss Hilton.

Miss Chapman, who had the honour of appearing
before the royal family at Windsor Castle, had not
long been before the public when a third "lion
queen " appeared in Wombwell's menagerie in the
person of Helen Blight, the daughter of a musician
in the band. The career of this poor girl was as
brief as its termination was shocking. She was
performing with the animals at Greenwich Fair,
when a tiger exhibited some sullenness or wayward-
ness, for which she very imprudently struck it with
a riding-whip which she carried. With a terrible
roar, the infuriated beast sprang upon her, seized
her by the throat, and killed her before she could
be rescued. This melancholy affair led to the pro-
hibition of such performances by women; but the
leading menageries have continued to have "lion
kings " attached to them to the present day.

It was in this year that the war against the-

z

338 The Old Showmen }

shows was renewed by the authorities of the City of
London, who doubled the charges hitherto made for
space in Smithfield, Wombwell, for instance, having
his rent raised from forty to eighty pounds, Clarke's
from twenty-five to fift}^, and others in the same
proportion. After the fair, the London City
Missions Society presented a memorial to the Cor-
poration, praying for the suppression of the fair,
and the City Lands Committee was instructed by
the Court of Aldermen to consider whether, and by
what means, its suppression could be legally ac-
complished. The committee referred the question
to the solicitor of the City, who was requested to
report to the Markets Committee " as to the right
of the Corporation of London to suppress Bartho-
lomew Fair, or otherwise to remove the nuisances
and obstructions to trade to which it gives rise."

The solicitor accordingly examined the archives
in the town-clerk's office, as well as books in the
City Library and the British Museum, for the pur-
pose of tracing the history of the fair, and of other
fairs which formerly existed in the metropolis, and
the right to hold which was likewise founded upon
charters, and which had been abolished or fallen
into disuse. His researches led him to the con-
clusion that "the right to hold both fairs having
been granted for the purpose of promoting the

And the Old London Fairs. 339

interests of trade, it is quite clear that no prescrip-
tive right can be set up to commit any nuisance
incompatible with the purposes for which they were
established; if, therefore,, the Corporation should
be satisfied that the interests of the public can be
no otherwise protected than by confining the fair to
its original objects and purposes, they may un-
doubtedly do so, and this would in fact, be equiva-
lent to its entire suppression."

This course was, however, that which had been
adopted, without success, in 1735, and the legal
adviser of the Corporation could not avoid seeing
that " it is at all times difficult, by law, to put down
the ancient customs and practices of the multitude."
Both May Fair and Lady Fair had been suppressed
without the intervention of Parliament, however, and
it seemed probable that " old Bartlemy " would be
extinguished before long by natural decay, and that
the best course would be to provide for its due
regulation during its decline.

" When we consider," said the report, " the im-
proved condition and conduct of the working classes
in the metropolis, and reflect upon the irrefragable
proofs continually before us, that the humbler
orders are fast changing their habits, and sub-
stituting country excursions by railroad and steam-
boat, and other innocent recreations, for vicious

z 2

34-O The Old Showmen,

amusements of the description which prevailed in
Bartholomew Fair, it is, perhaps, not too much to
conclude that it is unnecessary for the Corporation
to apply to Parliament to abate the nuisance ; but
that, if they proceed to lay down and enforce the
observance of judicious regulations in the fair, and
to limit its duration and extent, it may be permitted
to continue, in the confident belief that many years
will not elapse ere the Corporation may omit to
proclaim the fair, and thus suppress it altogether,
without exciting any of those feelings of discontent
and disapprobation with which its compulsory abo-
lition would probably be now attended."

When this report was submitted to the Court of
Common Council, in July, 1840, considerable di-
versity of opinion was found to prevail as to the
course which should be adopted. The majority
either adopted the view of the London City Missions
Society, or the more moderate sentiments of the
reporter, Mr. Charles Pearson ; but the principles
therein enunciated did not pass without challenge.
Mr. Anderton was "decidedly opposed to the canting
and Methodistical grounds for interfering with one
of the only amusements now remaining to the poor
inhabitants of London." Mr. Wells thought that
the fair, under proper regulations for the prevention
of disorder, would be innoxious, and that the gaming-

And the Old London Fairs. 341

houses of the metropolis were a fitter subject for
suppression. Mr. Taylor regarded the objections to
the fair as " the wild chimeras of fanaticism." But
after a long discussion, the report was adopted by
forty-three votes against fourteen. The Market
Committee declined, however, to limit the fair to two
days, or to exclude shows entirely, though they re-
solved to again raise the rents of the shows that
were admitted, to permit no disturbance of the
pavement, to continue the exclusion of swings and
roundabouts, and to admit no theatres for dramatic
performances.

The policy resolved upon was, therefore, simply
one of vexation and annoyance, and contributed
nothing to the promotion of morality and order.
Johnson and Lee's theatre, Clarke's circus, Frazer's
acrobatic entertainment, Laskey's giant and giantess,
and Crockett's and Reader's exhibitions of living
curiosities, were refused space in Smithfield; and
the only shows admitted were the menageries of
Womb well, Hilton, and Wright, and Grove's theatre
of arts. Why the performances of lions and tigers
should be regarded with more favour than those of
horses, Miss Clarke on the tight-rope be considered
a more demoralising spectacle then Miss Hilton or
Miss Chapman in a cage of wild beasts, and the
serpents and crocodile in Crockett's caravan more

The Old Showmen,

suggestive of immoral ideas than the monkeys in
the menageries, is a problem which does not admit
of easy solution, and which only an aldermanic mind
could have framed.

The suburban fairs were declining so much at this
time that Johnson and Lee were deterred by their
diminished receipts at Greenwich and Deptford from
visiting Baling, Camberwell, and Enfield; and, on
being excluded from Smithfield, proceeded to
Chatham, whence they moved to Croydon. The
decadence was still more manifest in the following
year, and at Enfield an attempt was made by the
magistrate to prevent them from opening on the
third day, the more officious than learned adminis-
trator of the law being ignorant of the fact that,
though the fair had for many years been held 011
two days only, the charter by which it was held
allowed three days. Lee had taken care to obtain
a copy of the charter, and on the superintendent of
police going to the theatre with the magistrate's
order for its immediate removal, he positively
refused obedience to the mandate, and produced the
charter. The superintendent thereupon apologised,
and returned to the magistrate) with the news of his
discomfiture,

At Bartholomew Fair, WombwelFs was the only
show of any consequence. His collection had at

And the Old London Fairs. 343

this time grown to be, not only the largest and best
travelling, but equal, and in some respects superior,
to any in the world. He had twelve lions, besides
lionesses and cubs, and eight tigers, a tigress, and
cubs, in addition to a puma, a jaguar, a black tiger,
several leopards, an ocelot, a serval, and a pair of
genets. There were also striped and spotted hyenas,
wolves, jackals, coati-mondies, racoons, a polar bear,
a sloth bear, black and brown bears, a honey bear,
and a couple of porcupines. The hoofed classes
were represented by three elephants, a fine one-
horned rhinoceros, a pair of gnus, a white antelope,
a Brahmin cow, an axis deer, and three giraffes,
which had lately been brought from Abyssinia by
M. Kiboulet, a French traveller, and were the first
of their kind ever exhibited in the fair.

Croydon Fair was disturbed this year by a fight
between the youths of the East India Company's
military -college at Addiscombe, about a mile from
the town, and the members of Johnson and Lee's
company. The fracas originated with an insulting
remark made by one of the cadets, as they were
generally called, to a young lady of the theatrical
company, promenading at the time on the parade.
The insult was promptly resented by a male member
of the troupe, who hurled the offender down the steps.
A dozen of his companions immediately rushed

344 The Old Showmen,

np the steps, and assailed the champion, who was
supported by the rest of the company ; and the con-
sequence was a sharp scrimmage, ending in the
arrival of several constables, and the removal to the
station-house of as many of the cadets as could not
escape by flight. Next morning they were taken
before the magistrates, and, being proved to have
been the aggressors, they were fined; and from
that time the military aspirants of Addiscombe were
forbidden to enter the town during the three days
of the fair.

Charles Freer was the leading actor of the com-
pany at this time, and the principal lady was Mrs.
Hugh Campbell, whom I remember seeing a year
or two afterwards at the Gravesend theatre. She
was subsequently engaged, as was Freer also, at the
Pavilion. Her successor on the Bichardsonian
boards was Mrs. Yates, who was afterwards engaged
at the Standard.

The harlequin was a nervous, eccentric, one-eyed
young man named Charles Shaw, who was dismissed
from the company towards the close of the season
on account of his freaks reaching a pitch which at
times raised a doubt as to his sanity, besides threat-
ening detriment to the interests of the theatre.
When the time approached at which the campaign
of 1842 was to be commenced, it was found neces-

And the Old London Fairs. 345

sary to advertise for a harlequin ; and the announce-
ment of the want produced a response from Charles
Wilson, who stated that he had been engaged
through the preceding pantomime season at the
Birmingham theatre. This gentleman seeming eli-
gible, he was engaged, but was not seen by Lee,
or any of the company, until he presented himself
at the theatre on Easter Sunday, at Greenwich.
Lee was immediately struck with the new harle-
quin^ remarkable resemblance to the old one, which
extended to every feature but the eyes ; these were
the same colour as Shaw's, but he had two, while
Shaw had lost one. On the second day of the fair,
however, it was discovered that the eye which had
thus long puzzled every one as to his identity was a
glass one ; and on his being charged with being
Shaw, he acknowledged the deception, observing
that he had felt sure that he would not be re-engaged
if he applied in his proper name. The deception was
pardoned, and Shaw's subsequent freaks seem to
have been fewer, and of a milder character.

The effects of the policy resolved upon by the
City authorities in 1840 became more perceptible
every year. In 1842, only one of the few shows
that appeared in Smithfield issued a bill, which, as
a curiosity, being the last ever issued for Bartholo-
mew Fair, I subjoin : —

346 The Old Showmen,

EXTRAORDINARY PHENOMENON ! ! !
THE GREATEST WONDER IN THE WORLD

Now Exhibiting Alive,
At tie Globe Coffee House, No. 30, King Street,

SMITHFIELD,

A FEMALE CHILD WITH Two PERFECT HEADS,
Named Elizabeth Bedbury, Daughter of Daniel and
Jane Bedbury, Born at Wandsworth, Surrey, April
17th, 1842. The public is respectfully informed
that the Child is now LIVING; and hundreds of
persons has been to see it, and declares that it is
the most Wonderful Phenomenon of Nature they'd
ever seen.

ADMISSION Id. Each.

No Deception ; if dissatisfied, the Money Eeturned.
Nelson Lee played a trick at Croydon Fair this
year which can only be defended on the principle
that "all is fair at fair time." Finding that the
Bosjesmans were being exhibited in the town, and
were attracting great numbers of persons to their
"receptions," he hung out, on the second day of
the fair, a show-cloth with the announcement, in
large black letters, " Arrival of the Real Bosjesmen."
Three or four of the company were then " made up "
to represent the strange specimens of humanity
which had lately been discovered in South Africa,
and their appearance on the parade in an antic

And the Old London Fairs. 347

dance produced a rush to witness the further re-
presentations of the manners and sports of savage
life to be seen inside.

A startling event occurred on the following
morning. One of Wombwell's elephants escaped
from confinement,, and at the early hour of three in
the morning was seen, to the amazement and alarm
of old Winter, the watchman, walking in a leisurely
manner down High Street. He was in the habit of
being taken every morning by his keeper to bathe
in Scarbrook pond, a small piece of water skirted
by a lane connecting the modern and now principal
portion of the town with the Old Town ; and on
such occasions he was regaled with a bun at a con-
fectioner' s shop at the corner which he had to turn
out of High Street, near the Green Dragon. While
a constable ran to the George the Fourth, where
some of Woinbwell's employes were known to be
located, the elephant reached the confectioner's shop,
and, finding it closed, butted the shutters with his
enormous head, and, amidst a crash of wood and
glass, proceeded to help himself to the delicacies
inside. On the arrival of his keeper, the docile
beast submitted himself to his guidance, and was
led back to his stable ; but Wombwell had to pay
the confectioner seven or eight pounds for the
damage done to the shop window and shutters.

348 The Old Showmen,

Johnson and Lee commenced the season of 1843
with several members of the Pavilion company in
their fair corps ; but they attended fewer fairs than
in any previous year, and in 1844 their theatre ap-
peared only at Greenwich, Enfield, and Oroydon.
In the following year, it was burned, while standing
in a field at Partford, and the proprietors, not being
insured, suffered a loss of seventeen hundred pounds.
Nothing was saved but the parade waggon, which
was dragged away before the flames reached it, and,
with the scene waggon and other effects which had
been bought of Haydon in 1838, formed the nucleus
of the new theatre with which the proprietors opened
the fair campaign of 1847. Henry Howard joined
the travelling company in that year at Baling Fair,
on the closing of the Standard.

During the latter part of their career as proprietors
of a travelling theatre, the successors of Richardson
found it more profitable to conduct their business
on the system, since adopted by Newsome and
Hengler with their circuses, of locating the theatre
for two or three weeks at a time in some consider-
able town, than to wander from fair to fair, staying
at each place only three or four days. At the pre-
sent day, the circuses just named draw good houses,
as a rule, for three months; but a quarter of a
•century ago this was not thought practicable, and

And ihe Old London Fairs. 349

in 1849, when Johnson and Lee erected their
theatre at Croydon (in the Fair Field, but some
time before the fair) , they did not deem it expedient
to extend their stay beyond three weeks. The
company was drawn chiefly from the minor theatres
of the metropolis, and included Leander Melville,
Billington, Seaman, Phillips, Mrs. Barnett, Mrs.
Campbell, and Miss Slater. The Stranger was
selected for the first night, and drew a good audi-
ence, as it invariably does, wherever it is played.
Under the able and judicious management of Nelson
Lee, and with a change of performances every night,
good business was done to the last. The experiment
was repeated with equal success at Uxbridge and
Reading.

Another step towards the extinction of Bartholo-
mew Fair was taken this year by the exclusion from
Smithfield of shows of every description ; a step
which would have been at least consistent, if the
civic authorities had not made arrangements for the
standing of shows of all kinds on a large piece of
ground adjoining the New North Road, called
Britannia Fields, near the site of the Britannia
theatre. If the suppression of the fair had been
sought on the ground of its interference with the
trade and traffic of the city, this step would have
been intelligible -, but the moral grounds upon

35O The Old Showmen,

which it was urged served to cover with, ridicule the
removal of what was alleged to be a hot-bed of vice
from Smithfield to Hoxton. What right had the
corporation to demoralise the dwellers in one part
of the metropolis, in order to preserve from further
contamination the inhabitants of another part ?

Bartholomew Fair was reduced by this step to a
dozen stalls, and from that time may be considered
as practically extinct. In Britannia Fields, what
was called New Bartholomew Fair was attended by
the shows which of late years had resorted to Smith-
field and one or two others, among which was Reed's
theatre, the prices of admission to which ranged
from sixpence to two shillings. The performances
consisted of The Scottish Chieftain, in which Saker
played Eonald, the principal character, and a panto-
mime called Harlequin Rambler. Among the minor
shows was that of Hales and his sister, the Norfolk
giant and giantess, who issued a bill containing the
following effusion of the Muse that inspired the
poet of Mrs. Jarley's wax-work : —

" Miss Hales and her Brother are here to be seen,

0 come let us visit the sweet lovely Queen ;
Behold she is handsome — in manners polite —
Both she and her brother near eight feet in height !

1 have seen all the tallest in towns far and near,
But never their equal to me did appear !

And the Old London Fairs. 351

All England and Scotland, and Ireland declare,
Their like was ne'er seen yet in them anywhere.

" Here's the smallest of women creation can show,
Complete in proportion from top to the toe ;
And a Lady of rank from New Zealand secured,
Escap'd from the murder her husband endured !
And a fine youthful female presented to sight,
All spangled and spotted with brown and with white ,
Large Crocodiles here, and a Boa behold,
With a fine Anaconda all glistening with gold.

" Here's a silver-haired Lady, with skin white as snow,
Whose eyes are like rubies that roll to and fro !
You will find her a species different from all,
The black and the whites, or the low and the tall !
But to sing all her beauties I need not begin,
Nor the fine azure veins that appear through her skin ;
For these, mind, no poet or painter can show,
But when you behold her, O then you may know !

" Exhibitions like this may to us be of use —
What a contrast of creatures this world can produce !
See the tallest and smallest before us in state.
What a prodigy rare and phenomena great !
From such wonders eccentric presented to view
We now may our study of nature pursue ;
And philosophy truly may draw from it then,
That Temp'rance produces the tallest of men."

Hales made enough money by the exhibition of
himself to purchase the lease and goodwill of a

35 2 The Old Showmen ,

public-house in Drury Lane, where lie lived several
years. Many persons visited the house purposely
to see him, but he never appeared in the bar before
eleven o' clock, and was careful to avoid making
himself too cheap. I saw him once, in crossing the
street towards his house, stoop to raise in his
arms a little girl, suggesting to my mind the giant
and fairy of a pantomime.

In pursuance of the policy indicated in the report
of 1840, Bartholomew Fair, now represented by a
few stalls, was proclaimed in 1850 by deputy; and
this course was followed until 1855, when not a
single stall-keeper applied for space, and the
ceremony of proclaiming the fair was omitted alto-
gether. The new fair in Britannia Fields was held
only two or three years, that concession to the
showmen and to the fair-going portion of the public
having been designed only for the purpose of facili-
tating the extinction of the old fair in Smithfield.

Greenwich Fair was the scene in 1850 of an out-
rageous and dastardly attack on Johnson and Lee's
theatre by a body of soldiers from Woolwich. It
seems to have originated in a practical joke played
by a soldier upon a young man in the crowd before
the theatre, and which, being resented, was followed
by an assault. On the latter retreating up the steps
of the parade waggon, followed by his assailant,

And the Old London Fairs. 353

Nelson Lee interposed for his protection, and was
himself assaulted by the soldier, who was thereupon
ejected. A number of soldiers, witnessing the dis-
comfiture of their comrade, immediately rushed up the
steps, and began an indiscriminate attack upon every-
body on the parade. The company, finding them-
selves over-matched, took refuge in the interior, or
jumped off the parade, and fled as if for their lives.

An actor named Chappell stood by Nelson Lee after
the rest had fled, but he joined in the stampede
ultimately, and the proprietor of the theatre was
left alone, defending himself and property against a
swarm of foes. The story told long afterwards of
the harlequin of the company was, that he ran with-
out pause to the railway station, and jumped into a
train just- star ting for London. He then ran from
London Bridge to Shoreditch, and rushing, ex-
hausted and excited, into a public-house adjoining
the City of London theatre, gasped, " Blood —
soldiers — Mr. Lee — frightful affair — three pen'orth
o' brandy ! "

The soldiers, having driven their opponents off the
field, began destroying the front of the theatre, and
smashing the lamps, which, fortunately, were not
lighted. If they had been burning, the result would
probably have been a terrific conflagration, which
might have swept the fair, and destroyed many

2 A

354 The Old Showmen,

thousands of pounds3 worth of property. Nelson
Lee, resisting with all his might the destruction of
his property, had a rope made fast round his body,
and was about to be hoisted to the top of the front,
when a dozen constables arrived, and the assailants
immediately abandoned the field, and, leaping off
the parade, mixed with the crowd. Many of them
were captured, however, and, being taken before a
magistrate, were committed for trial at the ensuing
Old Bailey sessions. Johnson and Lee withdrew
from the prosecution, however, expecting that their
forbearance would be rewarded by pecuniary com-
pensation for the destruction of their property,
which the Recorder had suggested should be given
by the officers of the regiment to which the offenders
belonged ; but, on application being made to the
officers, they informed Lee that there were no regi-
mental funds available for the purpose, and I believe
not a penny was ever received by Johnson and Lee
by way of compensation.

During the Whitsuntide Fair, the soldiers were
confined to their barracks ; but, as many of them
were in the habit of visiting the theatre with their
friends, this measure diminished the receipts, and
thus added loss to loss. Johnson and Lee attended
no other fairs that year, but removed the theatre to
Croydon, where they erected it in a field adjoining

And the Old London Fairs. 355

the Addisconabe Road, near the Brighton and South-
Eastern railway stations. Henry Howard and Mrs.
Campbell played the leading characters here, and
afterwards at Hertford and Uxbridge.

Wombwell died this year in his living carriage at
Richmond, at the age of seventy-three. He was
buried in Highgate cemetery, his coffin being made
of oak from the timbers of the Royal George, which
sank off Spithead in 1782. As his executors were
instructed by his will to have no nails used in its
construction, it was put together on the dove-tailing
system. The menagerie was divided in accordance
with his will into three parts, which were bequeathed
respectively to his widow, a niece named Edmunds,
and another relative named Day.

The expectation of such results as attended the
Hyde Park Fair of 1838 from the concourse of
people nocking into the metropolis duringthe summer
of 1851 , when the first great international exhibition
was held, caused arrangements to be made for a
<f world's fair " on a large scale, to be held during
the same time at Bayswater. A committee was
formed for its organisation and management, con-
sisting of Johnson and Lee, Algar, Mussett, Mills,
Trebeck, and Young. Algar was the proprietor of
the Crown and Anchor refreshment and dancing
booth, well-known to the frequenters of Greenwich

2 A 2

356 The Old Showmen,

and Croydon Fairs ; Mussett and Mills were almost
as well known as leading names among the stall-
keepers attending the great fairs ; Trebeck was a
toy-dealer in Sun Street, Bishopsgate.

The undertaking was as complete a failure, how-
ever, as the fair of 1838 had been a success. The
ground was in bad condition, and its softness was a
difficulty at the commencement. Mrs. Wombwell's
elephant waggon stuck in the mud, and had to be
left there until the next day; and the elephant
extricated himself with difficulty by lifting one leg
at a time, and stepping upon trusses of straw laid
down to give him a firm footing. Edmunds would
not venture to the ground which he had taken for
his menagerie, but arranged his caravans at the
entrance of the field. The weather was cold and
cheerless when the fair was opened, and the railway
companies had not begun running trains at low fares.
When the fine weather and the excursion trains did
come, the fair had come to be regarded as a failure,
and it never recovered from the chill and blight of
its commencement.

Johnson and Lee's theatre appeared at Greenwich
Fair for the last time in 1852, and proceeded thence
to Uxbridge, where the company was joined by
James Robson, afterwards so famous as a comedian
at the Olympic. In the following year, the property

And the Old London Fairs. 357

was sold by auction, and, as a memorial of an event
which has seldom occurred, and will never occur
again, I subjoin the advertisement : —

"Notice. — To Carmen, Builders, Proprietors of
Tea Gardens, Exhibitors, Van Proprietors, Travelling
Equestrians, Providers of Illuminations, &c. — The
Travelling Theatrical Property known as Richard-
son's Theatre, comprising Covered Vans and Parade
Waggons, Scenery, Wings, Stage Front, Orchestra,
with a double stock of beautiful scenery, waterproof
covering, draperies, massive chandeliers, a great
quantity of baize, flags, &c. Large coat of arms,
variegated lamps and devices, eight capital 6-inch
wheels, parade waggons, with two large flaps to
each, two capital excursion vans, trucks, double
stock of new scenery, shifting flies, fourteen long
forms, large stock of book-cloths and baize of large
dimensions, battened dancing-boards, erection of
booths, handsome imitation stone front, two capital
money-takers' boxes, with fittings up, handsome
ornamental urns, large figures on pedestals, four
guns and carriages, handsome pilasters, machinery,
flooring throughout the building, with numerous
scenery and stage devices, and every other article
connected with the stage, a quantity of quartering,
iron, old wheels, &c., &c., &c. Which will be sold
by auction by Mr. Lloyd, on the premises, Richard-

358 The Old Showmen,

son's Cottage, Horsemonger-lane, Boro'. May be
viewed, and catalogues had on the premises, and of
the Auctioneers, 5, Hatfield- street, Blackfriars-
road."

The property was completely dispersed ; the tim-
ber and wood-work being purchased by builders,
the waggons by wheelwrights, the canvas and tilt-
cloths by farmers, and the green baize, curtains,
fittings, etc., by Jew dealers. There is not the
shadow of a pretence, therefore, for the use of the
name, " Kichardson's theatre," by any showman of
the present day.

The shows travelling after the sale and dispersion
of Johnson and Lee's were, exclusive of menageries
and exhibitions, Abbott's theatre, Jackman's the-
atre, and Fossett's circus. I am not sure that
Heed's theatre was still in existence. Abbott's
theatre was at the Easter fair at Greenwich in 1852,
when Charlie Keith, since famous all over Europe
as "the roving English clown," was fulfilling his
first engagement in it as an acrobat. Eobson, the
comedian, was at the same time performing in
Jackman's theatre, from which he transferred his
services to Johnson and Lee's.

Fossett's circus was pitched that summer at
Primrose Hill for a few days, when one of the
irregular fairs which are occasionally held in the

And the Old London Fairs. 359

neighbourhood of London was held. It is a small
concern, with only two or three horses. Miss
Fossett, the proprietor's daughter, is a tight-rope
performer, in which capacity she appeared a few
years ago in Talliott's circus, when the company
and stud appeared one winter in a temporary build-
ing at the rear of some small houses in New Street,
Lambeth Walk. James Talliott, to whom the
houses belong, was then well known to the fre-
quenters of the London music-halls, and may be
remembered as a trapeze performer in conjunction
with Burnett, who called himself Burnetti, but was
known among the professional fraternity as Bruiser.
He afterwards performed singly at the Strand
Music-hall, now the Gaiety Theatre, and other
places of amusement in the metropolis, and has
since owned a small circus, with which he travels
during the summer within a circle of a dozen miles
from London.

Hilton's menagerie had at this time passed into
the possession of Manders, and the lion-tamer of
the show was an Irishman named James Strand,
who had formerly kept a gingerbread- stall, and had
been engaged to perform with the beasts when
those attractive exhibitions had been threatened
with temporary suspension by the abruptness with
which his predecessor, Newsoine — a brother, I be-

360 The Old Showmen,

lieve, to the circus-proprietor of that name — had
terminated his engagement. Strand's qualifications
for the profession were not equal to his own esti-
mate of them, however, and Manders had to look'
out for his successor.

One day, when the menagerie was at Greenwich
Pair, a powerful-looking negro accosted one of the
musicians, saying that he was a sailor just returned
from a voyage, and would like a berth in the show.
The musician communicated the man's wish to
Manders, and the negro was invited to enter the
show. His appearance and confident manner im-
pressed the showman favourably, and, on his being
allowed to enter the lion's cage, at his own request,
he displayed so much address and ability to control
the animals that he was engaged at once, and c< the
gingerbread king/' as Strand was called, was in-
formed that his services could, for the future, be
dispensed with. This remarkable black man was
the famous Macorao, who for several years after-
wards travelled with the menagerie, exhibiting in
his performances with lions and tigers as much
daring as Van Amburgh, and as much coolness as
Crocketb.

One of the finest tigers ever imported into this
country, and said to be the identical beast that
escaped from Mr. Jamrach's premises in St.

And the Old London Fairs. 361

George's Street (better known by its old name of
Katcliffe Highway), and killed a boy before it was
recaptured, was purchased by Manders, and placed
in a cage with another tiger. The two beasts soon
began fighting furiously, upon which Macomo
entered the cage, armed only with a riding-whip,
and attempted to separate them. His efforts caused
both the tigers to turn their fury upon him, and
they severely lacerated him ; but, covered with
blood as he was, he continued the struggle for
supremacy until the beasts cowered before him, and
he was able, with the assistance of the keepers, to
separate them.

It is worthy of remark, in connection with the
causes of accidents with lions and tigers, that
Macomo, like Crockett, was a strictly sober man,
never touching intoxicating liquors of any kind.
"It's the drink/' said the ex-lion king, who was
interviewed by the special commissioner of a Lon-
don morning journal two years ago ; " It's the drink
that plays the mischief with us fellows. There are
plenty of people always ready to treat the daring
fellow that plays with the lions as if they were
kittens ; and so he gets reckless, lets the dangerous
animal — on which, if he were sober, he would know
he must always keep his eye — get dodging round
behind him ; or hits a beast in which he ought to

362 The Old Showmen,

know that a blow rouses the sleeping devil; or
makes a stagger, and goes down, and then they set
upon him."

• Macomo's fight with the two tigers was not the
only occasion on which he received injuries, the
scars of which he bore upon him to the day of his
death, which, contrary to the expectation of every
one who witnessed his performances, was a peaceful
one. He died a natural death in 1870, when he
was succeeded by an Irishman named Macarthy,
who had previously been attached in a similar
capacity to the circus of Messrs. Bell and Myers.
While performing, in 1862, with the lions belonging
to that establishment, he had had his left arm so
severely mangled by one of the beasts that amputa-
tion became necessary. This circumstance seems
to have added to the eclat of his performances ; but
he had neither the nerve of Macomo, nor his resolu-
tion to abstain from stimulants. Unlike his pre-
decessor, he frequently turned his back upon the
lions, though he had frequently been cautioned
against the danger he thereby incurred; .and it was
believed that his disregard of the warning was one
of the causes of the terrible encounter which termi-
nated his existence.

Macarthy was bitten on two occasions while per-
forming with Manders's lions, prior to the disaster

And the Old London Fairs. 363

at Bolton. The first time was while performing at
Edinburgh, when one of the beasts made a snap at
his remaining arm, but only slightly grazed it.
The second occasion was a few days before the-
fatal accident occurred, when one of the lions bit
him slightly on the wrist. He lost his life in
representing a so-called " lion hunt," an exhibition
which was introduced by Macomo, and consists in
chasing the animals about the cage, the performer
being armed with a sword and pistols, and throw-
ing into the mimic sport as much semblance of
reality as the circumstances allow. The exhibition
is acknowledged by lion-tamers themselves to be a
dangerous one, and it should never be attempted
with any but young animals. For their ordinary
performances, most lion-tamers prefer full-grown
animals, as being better trained ; but a full-grown
lion does not like to be driven and hustled about,
as the animals are in the so-called " lion hunt," and
when such are used for this exhibition they are
frequently changed.

Macarthy was driving the animals from one end
of the cage to the other when one of them IMH
against his legs, and threw him down. He soon
regained his feet, however, and drove the animals
into a corner. Whilst stamping his feet upon the
floor, to • make the animals run past him, one of

364 The Old Showmen,

them crept stealthily out from the group, and
sprang upon him, seizing him by the right hip and
throwing him down upon his side. For a moment
the spectators imagined that this was part of the
performance, but Macarthy's agonised features soon
convinced them of the terrible reality of the scene
before them. As he struggled to rise, three other
lions sprang upon him, one of them seizing his arm,
from which he immediately dropped the sword.

The keepers now hurried to the unfortunate
man's assistance, some of them endeavouring to
beat off the infuriated lions, while others inserted a
partition between the bars of the cage, with a view
to driving the animals behind it. This was a task
of considerable difficulty, however, for as one beast
was obliged to relinquish its hold of the unfortunate
man, another rushed into its place. Heated irons
were then brought, and by their aid, and the dis-
charge of fire-arms, four of the lions were driven
behind the partition. Macarthy was lying in the
centre of the cage, still being torn by the lion that
had first attacked him. A second partition was
attempted to be inserted, but was found to be too
large ; and then one of the keepers drew the first
one out a little, with the view of driving the fifth
lion among the rest. More blank cartridges were
fired without effect, and it was not until the hot

And the Old London Fairs. 365

irons were applied to the nose of the infuriated
brute that it loosed its hold,, and ran behind the
partition.

Even then, before the opening could be closed,
the lion ran out again, seized the dead or dying
man by one . of his feet and dragged him into the
corner, where four of the beasts again fell upon him
with unsatiated thirst of blood. The terrible scene
had now been going on for a quarter of an hour,
and, even when all the animals were at length
secured, it was found that they were next the
entrance of the cage, the opposite end of which
had to be broken open before the mangled corpse
of the lion-tamer could be lifted out.

As lion-tamers are well paid, and this was only
the second fatal accident in the course of half a
century, it is not surprising that, as soon as the
catastrophe became known, there were several can-
didates for the vacancy created by Macarthy's
death. Mrs. Manders had resolved to discontinue
the exhibition, however, and the applicants for the
situation received an intimation to that effect.

Mrs. Womb well retired from the menagerie busi-
ness in 1866, and was succeeded in the proprietor-
ship by Fairgrieve, who had married her niece.

Fairgrieve retired from the occupation in the
spring of 1872, when his fine collection of animals

366 The Old Showmen,

was sold by auction at Edinburgh. As the public
-sale of a menagerie is a rare event, and Mr. Jamrach
and Mr. Rice do not publish prices current, the
reader may be glad to learn the prices realised.

The first lot was a racoon — "a very pleasant,
playful pet/' the auctioneer said — which was knocked
down to the Earl of Roseberry for one pound. Mr.
Bell Lamonby, another private collector, became
the possessor of a pair of agoutis, which he was
assured Were "sharp, active little animals, and
could sing like canaries/' for an equally moderate
sum. Then came a strange-looking and ferocious
animal called the Tasmanian devil, of which there
is a specimen in the gardens of the Zoological
Society, and which the auctioneer assured his hearers
was as strong in the jaw as a hyena, but not to
be recommended for purchase as a domestic pet.
Bids were slow, and even the prospect of purchasing
the devil for three pounds did not render buyers
enthusiastic ; so that Mrs. Day bought the animal
for five shillings more.

Then came the baboons and monkeys. The Diana
monkey, a white and rose-breasted little animal,
was purchased by Dr. Mackendrick for seven
pounds ; while the Capuchin monkey, full of intelli-
gence, and belonging to a kind fancied by Italian
•organ-grinders, was knocked down to Mr. Rice for

And the Old London Fairs. 367

thirty shillings. Mr. Jamrach purchased the drill,
"a playful little drawing-room pet, worth twenty
pounds to put on the kitchen shelf to look at," for
five guineas; and Mr. Rice paid thirty pounds for
a male mandrill, five for a female of the same species,
eighteen guineas for a pair of Anubis baboons, and
fifteen pounds for five dog-faced baboons.

Passing on to the bird carriage, the first specimen
submitted to competition was the black vulture, one
of the largest birds of the species, and in excellent
plumage. Mr. Eice bought this bird for three
pounds ten shillings, and the condor, which had
been forty years in the show, for fifteen pounds.
Next came the emu, "a very suitable bird for a
gentleman's park, and a nice show thing for the
ladies in the morning, after breakfast," which Mrs.
Day secured for her collection at seven pounds. Mr.
Jamrach gave thirteen pounds for the pair of peli-
cans, bought at the sale of the Knowsley collection,
and which had been trained to run races. The fine
collection of parrots, macaws, and cockatoos was
dispersed among a number of local fanciers of
ornithological beauties.

Proceeding to the larger mammals, the auctioneer
knocked down a male nylghau to Mr. Van Amburgh,
the great American menagerist, for twenty-six
pounds, and a female of the same species to the

368 The Old Showmen^

proprietor of the Manchester Zoological Gardens
for ten guineas ; while Mr. Jamrach secured a llama
for fifteen pounds, and Mr. Rice a young kangaroo
for twelve pounds. Professor Edwards, who had
come over from Paris to pick up a few good speci-
mens for the Jardin des Plantes, purchased the
white bear, " young, healthy, and lively as a trout,"
for forty pounds, and a jackal for three pounds. A
Thibet bear and three performing leopards were
knocked down to Mr. Jamrach for five guineas and
sixty pounds respectively. Another leopard, ad-
vanced in years, realised only six guineas. Mr.
Yan Amburgh secured the spotted hyena for fifteen
pounds; while a performing striped hyena brought
only five shillings above three pounds. Among
objects of minor interest, a pair of wolves were sold
for two guineas., an ocelot for six pounds ten shill-
ings, three porcupines for ten pounds more, a wom-
bat for seven pounds, a Malabar squirrel for five
pounds, and a pair of boa constrictors for twelve
pounds.

The large carnivora excited much attention, and
fair prices were realised, though in some instances
they were less than was expected. Mr. Rice gave
a hundred and eighty-five pounds for the famous
lion with which Signer Lorenzo used to represent
the well-known story of Androcles, two other lions

And the Old London Fairs. 369

for a hundred and forty pounds each, two young
ones for ninety pounds each, and a lioness for
eighty pounds. A black-maned lion, said to be the
largest and handsomest lion in Britain, was sold to
Mr. Jackson, for the Bristol Zoological Gardens,
for two hundred and seventy pounds; and his mate,
in the interesting condition of approaching mater-
nity, to Mr. Jennison, of the Belle Yue Gardens,
Manchester, for a hundred guineas. Mr. Jamrach
gave two hundred pounds for a fine lion, and a
hundred and fifty-five pounds for the magnificent
tigress that used to figure conspicuously in the
performances of Signor Lorenzo.

Mr. Eice, who was the largest purchaser, bought
the gnu for eighty-five pounds, and the zebra for
fifty pounds. The camels and dromedaries, bought
principally for travelling menageries, realised from
fourteen to thirty pounds each, with the exception
of a young one, bought by Dr. Mackendrick for
nine pounds ten shillings. Menagerists restrict the
word " camel " to the two-humped or Bactrian
variety, and call the one-humped kind dromedaries ;
but the dromedary, according to naturalists, is a
small variety of the Syrian camel, bearing the same
relation to the latter as a pony does to a horse.
The dromedaries of Mr. Fairgrieve's collection were,
on the contrary, taller than the Bactrian camels.

2 B

370 The Old Showmen,

There was a spirited competition for the two
elephants, ending in the magnificent full-tusked
male, seven feet six inches in height, being knocked
down to Mr. Jennison for six hundred and eighty
pounds, and the female, famous for her musical
performances, to Mr. Rice for a hundred and forty-
five pounds. The former animal was described as
the largest and cleverest performing elephant ever
exhibited. In stature he is exceeded, it is said, by
the elephant kept by the Emperor of Russia at the
gardens of Tsarski-Seloe ; but, while the perform-
ances of that beast have been confined to the
occasional killing of a keeper, the animal now in
the Belle Vue Gardens at Manchester, besides per-
forming many tricks evincing great docility and
intelligence, was accustomed to draw the band
carriage, would pull a loaded waggon up a hill, and
had for the last eighteen months preceding the
sale placed all the vans of the menagerie in position,
with the assistance of a couple of men. The entire
proceeds of the sale were a little under three thou-
sand pounds.

I do not remember ever visiting a travelling
menagerie that afforded me greater pleasure than
one of the smaller class which I saw some thirty
years ago at Mitcham Fair, and subsequently at
Camberwell Fair. There were no lions or tigers in

And the Old London Fairs. 371

the collection, but it included four performing
leopards, a tame hyena, and a wolf that seemed
equally tame, if such an inference could be drawn
from the presence of a lamb in its cage. The
showman, who wore neither spangled trunks, nor a
coat of chain-mail, but corduroy breeches and a
sleeved vest of cat's skin, entered the leopard's
cage, with a riding whip in one hand and a hoop
in the other. The animals leaped over the whip,
through the hoop, and over the man's back, ex-
hibiting throughout the performance as much do-
cility as dogs or cats. The whip was used merely as
part of the " properties/' The man afterwards
entered the cage of the hyena, which rubbed its
head against him, after the manner of a cat, and
allowed him to open its mouth. The hyena has the
reputation of being untameable ; but, in addition
to this instance to the contrary, Bishop Heber had
a hyena at Calcutta which followed him about like
-a dog.

Tigers are little used as performing animals,
partly perhaps from being less easily procured, but
also, I believe, from greater distrust of them on the
part of brute-tamers. There was a splendid tigress
in Fairgrieve's menagerie, however, with which
Signer Lorenzo used to do a wonderful performance ;
and I saw, some five-and-thirty years ago, in a show

2 B 2

372 The Old Showmen,

pitched upon a piece of waste ground at Norwood,
a tiger that played a prominent part in a sensational
drama, the interest of which was evolved from the
hair-breadth escapes of a British traveller in the
wilds of Africa. The author did not seem to have
been aware that there are no tigers in that part of
the world, the animals so called by the Cape colonists
being leopards ; but, as the old woman who took
money replied to my remonstrance that one tiger
could not, without an outrage upon Lindley Murray,
be called performing animals, " what can you expect
for a penny ? "

The old showmen are now virtually extinct, and
the London fairs have all ceased to exist. " Old
Bartlemy " died hard, but its time must soon have
come, in the natural order of things. Its extinction
was followed closely by that of all the other fairs
formerly held in the suburbs of the metropolis.
Camberwell Fair was abolished in 1856, and the
Greenwich Fairs in the following year. I cannot
better express my opinion as to the causes which
have led to the decline of fairs generally, but
especially of those held within half an hour's journey
from the metropolis, and the suppression of most of
those formerly held within a shorter distance, than
by quoting a brief dialogue between a showman and
an acrobat in ' Bob Lumley's Secret/ a story which

And the Old London Fairs. 373

appeared anonymously a few years ago in a popular
periodical : —

" ' Fairs is nearly worked out, Joe/ said the red-
faced individual, speaking between the whiffs of
blue smoke from his dhudeen. 'Why, I can re-
member the time when my old man used to take
more money away from this fair with the Russian
giant, and the Polish dwarf, and the Circassian lady,
than I can make now in a month. Them was the
times, when old Adam Lee, the Romany, used to
come to this fair with his coat buttons made of
guineas, and his waistcoat buttons of seven-shilling
pieces. Ah, you may laugh, Joey Alberto ; but I
have heard my old man speak of it many's the
time/

"'There's good fairs now down in the shires/
observed the younger man ; ' but this town is too
near the big village/

' ' ' That's it ! ' exclaimed the showman ' It's all
along o' them blessed railways. They brings down
lots o' people, it is true ; but, lor' ! they don't
spend half the money the yokels used to in former
times.'

" ' Besides which/ rejoined he of the spangled
trunks, f the people about here can run up to London
and back for a shilling any day in the week, all
the year round, and see all the living curiosities in

374 The Old Showmen,

the Zoo, and the stuffed ones in the Museum, and go
in the evening to a theatre or a music-hall/ '

The fair referred to was the October fair at
Croydon ; arid I may add that views similar to those
which I have put into the mouths of the acrobat and
the showman were expressed to me in 1846 by a
showman named Gregory, who exhibited various
natural curiosities and well-contrived mechanical
representations of the falls of Niagara and a storm
at sea. He had just received from the printer five
thousand bills, which he carefully stowed away.

" This fair don't pay for bills/' said he. " I want
these for Canterbury Fair, where there's more money
to be taken in one day than in this field in three."

" Which do you reckon the best fair in your
circuit ? " I inquired.

" Sandwich," he replied. " That's a good distance
from London, you see, and though it's a smaller
town than this, there's plenty of money in it. This
is too near London, now the rail enables people to
go there and back for a shilling, see all the sights
and amusements, and get back home the same
night."

The fairs within half an hour's journey from
London which are still held are in a state of visible
decadence. I walked through Kingston Fair last
year, about three o'clock in the afternoon, at which

And the Old London Fairs. 375

time Croydon Fair would, even twenty or thirty
years ago, have been crowded. The weather was
unusually fine, the sun shining with unwonted bril-
liance for the season, and the ground in better con-
dition for walking than I had ever seen the field at
Croydon on the 2nd of October. Yet there were
fewer people walking through the fair than I had
seen in the market-place. The gingerbread vendors
and other stall-keepers looked as if they were weary
of soliciting custom in vain ; the swings and the
roundabouts stood idle ; some of the showmen had
not thought the aspect of the field sufficiently
promising to be encouraged to unfurl their pictorial
announcements, and those who had done so failed to
attract visitors.

Day's menagerie was there, and was the principal
show in the fair ; but the few persons who paused to
gaze at the pictures passed on without entering, and
even the beasts within were so impressed with the
pervading listlessness and inactivity that I did not
hear a sound from the cages as I walked round to
the rear of the show to observe its extent. There
was no braying of brass bands, no beating of gongs
or bawling through speaking-trumpets. One forlorn
showman ground discordant sounds from a barrel-
organ with an air of desperation, and another feebly
clashed a pair of cymbals ; but these were all the

376 The Old Showmen,

attempts made to attract attention, and they were
made in vain.

This was on Saturday afternoon, too, when a
large number of the working classes are liberated
who could not formerly have attended the fair at
that time without taking a holiday. There was a
good attendance in the evening, I heard; but,
however well the shows and stalls may be patron-
ised after six o' clock, it is obvious that their receipts
must be less than half what they amounted to in the
days when they were thronged from noon till
night.

Fairs are becoming extinct because, with the
progress of the nation, they have ceased to possess
any value in its social economy, either as marts of
trade or a means of popular amusement. All the
large towns now possess music-halls, and many of
them have a theatre; the most populous have two or
three. The circuses of Newsome and Hengler are
located for three months at a time in permanent
buildings in the larger towns, and the travelling
circuses visit in turn every town in the kingdom.
Bristol and Manchester have Zoological Gardens,
and Brighton has its interesting Aquarium. The
railways connect all the smaljer towns, and most of
the villages, with the larger ones, in which amuse-
ments may be found superior to any ever presented

And the Old London Fairs. 377

by the old showmen. What need, then,, of fairs
and shows ? The nation has outgrown them, and
fairs are as dead as the generations which they
have delighted, and the last showman will soon be
as great a curiosity as the dodo.

INDEX.

PAGE

Abbott's theatrical booth 358

Adams, the dancer 154

African dwarfs 80

Albinoes 295, 310, 313

Albion dancing- booth 263

Algar's dancing-booth 263, 328, 333, 355

Allen, the dwarf 205

Ambroise, the showman 189

Amburgh, Yan, the lion-tamer 260

American juggler 294

Annesley, Mrs., the dancer 164

Appleby, the showman 63

Arthur, the comedian 144

Astley, the equestrian 211

Aston, the comedian 109, 121

Atkins's menagerie 258, 277, 302, 304

Baker, Mrs., the theatrical manageress 196

Ball, the showman 271, 303, 309

Ballard's animal comedians . . . . . . 169

„ menagerie .... 232, 241, 287, 303, 305

Banks and his performing horse 23

Barnes, the showman 63

„ „ pantaloon 246

Barnett, Mrs., the actress 349

Basil, the showman 191

Baudouin, the comic dancer 131

380 Index.

PAGH

Bearded women 33, 47

Belzoni's feats of strength 216

Berar's optiJcali illusio 311

Biffin, Miss, the armless portrait painter .... 210, 231

Billington, the comedian 349

Birds, performing 178, 182, 188

Bisset, the animal trainer 177

Blacker, the dwarf 167

Blight, Helen, the lion- performer 337

Boh erne, the tragedian . 96

Booth, the theatrical manager 94

Bradshaw, Miss, the actress 144

Breslaw, the conjuror 187, 192

Bridge's theatrical booth 152, 163

Broomsgrove, the showman 313

Brown, the showman 272, 300

Brown's theatre of arts 315

Brunn, the juggler 189

Bullock, the comedian . . .78, 95, 105, 107, 114, 119, 132

Burchall, the showman 314

Burnett, the trapezist 359

Cadman, the flying man 145

Campbell, Mrs., the actress 344, 349, 355

Canterel, Mrs., the actress . . . . • . . . 110

Capelli, the conjuror 307

Carey, the actor 223, 230

Cartlitch, the actor 246

Cats, performing 178, 307

Chapman, Mary Anne, the albino 314

„ Miss, the lion-performer 337

the comedian . . . 114, 119, 127, 132, 138, 143
Chappell, the actor 353

„ the showman 272

Charke, Mrs,, the actress 114

Cheshire girl, wonderful 49

Chettle's theatrical booth 151

Chetwood, the prompter . 105

Chinese jugglers 302, 309

„ lady 292

Christoff, the rope-dancer 20

Cibber, the tragedian 107, 114

Circassian lady 290

Clancy, the giant 313

Clark, the posturer 59

Clarke's circus 268, 307, 332, 341

Index. 381

PAGE

Clarke, Miss, the rope-dancer 308

Clarkson, the showman 191

Clench, the whistling man 80

Coan, the dwarf 167

Cooke's circus 249

Corder, the murderer, head of 303

Cornwell, the showman 61

Corsican dwarf 155^ 188

Cousins's theatrical booth 154

Cow, a double 161

Cox, the comedian 37

Crawley, the puppet-showman 88

Crockett, the showman 341

Crocodile, the first exhibited 167

Crowther, the actor 322

Cushings, the pantomimists 150, 165

Dale's music booth 64

Dancey, Mrs. and Miss, the dancers 131

Day, the showman 298

Day's menagerie 355, 375

Dawson, the dwarf 313

Derrum, Miss, the female tumbler 115

Doggett, the comedian 74, 79

Dogs, performing 85, 169, 178, 307

Drury's menagerie 310

Ducrow, Madame, the rope-dancer ...... 335

DunstaU's theatrical booth . 175

Dupain, the showman ........ 313

Dutch boy, wonderful 70

" rope-dancer 53, 150

Dwarf family 298

Dyan, Ursula, the bearded woman ...... 47

Ednmnds, the menagerist 337, 355

Egleton, Mrs., the actress 108

Elephant, performing 281

„ escape of an 288, 347

Elliston, the theatrical manager 236

England, the flying pieman . . . . . . 240

Esquimaux youth . 294

Evans, the wire-walker 172

Ewirg's wax-work exhibition 306, 310

Excell, the duettist 123

Fairgrieve's menagerie 365

382 Index.

PAGE

Farnham, the dwarf 313

Faucit, the actor 221

Fawkes, the conjuror 110, 112, 117

„ „ showman 11(5, 123, 139, 150

Ferguson's wax-work exhibition 310

Fielding, the novelist . . 103, 107, 110, 113, 119, 124, 127

Finch, the posturer 313

Finley, the acrobat 73

„ Mary, the rope-dancer 73, 78

Fitzgerald, Mrs., the actress 110, 123

Fives Court drinking booth 333

Flemish giantess 47

Flockton, the juggler and showman . . 191, 200, 202. 206

Ford, the gingerbread vendor 99

Fossett's circus 358

Frano, MdUe. de, the dancer 131

Frazer, the conjuror 303

Frazer's acrobatic entertainment 341

Freer, the tragedian . 344

French, the single-stick player 158

Gaetano, the bird imitator 187

Garrick, the actor 165

G-erman rope-dancers 50, 63, 73

Giffard, the theatrical manager . . . . . 106, 130

Gipsies' drinking booth 333

Girardelli, Josephine, the fire-eater 235

Glee-men and glee-maidens ....... 19

Gobert, Madame, the athlete 244

Godwin, the showman . 151

Goodwin's theatrical booth 143

Gouffe, the man-monkey 306

Gregory, the showman 374

Griffin,' the actor 107, 114, 137

Grosette, the actor 225

Grove's theatre of arts 341

Gyngell, the showman 207, 238, 254

Humes, the fire-eater 311

Hales, the Norfolk giant 350

Hall, the rope-dancer . 43, 45

„ „ actor 108, 119

Hall's museum 192

Hallatn, the tragedian . . 107, 114, 119, 127, 131, 138, 143
Harper, the comedian . . 96, 103, 109, 111, 114, 118, 137
Harris, the cat imitator . . .... 182

Index. 383

PAGE

Harris, the showman 313

Hay don's theatrical booth 320

Heads, lecture on 186

Heidegger, Master of the Revels 139

Herring, the pantomimist 322, 336

Hewet, the comedian 109

Hilton's menagerie 336, 341, 359

Hilton, Miss, the lion-performer 336

Hind, the actor 121

Hippisley, the tragedian . 108, 110, 113, 119, 127, 132, 138, 143

„ Miss, the actress 162

Hipson, Miss, the fat girl 289

Hoare, the showman 243

Hocus Pocus, the King's conjuror 30

Hog, enormous ......... 154

Holden's glass-blowing exhibition 299, 301

Holland's, Lady, mob 125, 201, 256

Horses, performing . . .20, 23, 43, 83, 164, 178, 202, 305

Horton, Mrs., the actress 94

Howard, the actor 348, 355

Hoyo's wax-work exhibition 310

Hulett, the comedian 105, 109, 114, 120

Hussey's theatrical booth .... 145, 151, 153, 156
Hyenas, tame 308, 371

Inchbald, Elizabeth, the actress .... .196

Irish giant .......... 52

Italian rope-dancer 40

„ sword-dancers 154

Ives, the showman 191

Jack, Manchester, the lion-keeper 260

Jackman's theatrical booth 358

Jano, the rope-dancer . 115, 130

Jefferies, the actor 225

Jobson, the puppet-showman 191, 202, 208

Johnson, the showman 317, 320

„ and Lee's theatrical booth . . . 321, 325, 336, 341,

343, 348, 352, 356

Kean, the tragedian 214, 221

Keith, the clown 358

Keyes and Laine, the conjurors 303

Killigrew, Charles, Master of the Bevels 50

„ Thomas, the King's jester 49

Lacy, Mrs., the actress 121

384 Index.

pi.au

Ladder dance 85

Laguerre, the actor 119

Lane, the conjuror 191

Laskey, the showman 341

Lee, Nelson, the theatrical manager . . 247, 254, 320, 346
Lee's theatrical booth . . 102, 106, 108, 111, 114, 119, 121,

132, 138, 152, 163
, unlicensed theatre . . 255

Legar, the actor
Leigh, the comedian
Leopard, escape of a

„ a tame
Leopards, performing
Lincolnshire dwarf

. 132
. 95
. 232

287, 310

368, 371

, 294

Lion, a tame 32, 274, 285

„ baiting with dogs 261

Lioness, escape of a 241

Lion-tiger cubs 277, 285, 304

Little, the comedian-hawker 324

Living skeleton, the 305

Lorenzo, the lion performer 368

Lorme, Madlle. de, the dancer 106

Luce, the dancer 106

Macarthy, the lion performer . . . . . . 362

Mackenzie, the hermit 314

Macklin, the comedian 144

Macomo, the lion performer 360

Madagascar woman 294

Mahoura, the cannibal chief, head of 298

Malay savages 290

Manchester Jack, the lion keeper 260

Manders's menagerie 359

March, the clown 50

Maori woman 292, 351

Mare with seven feet 291

Master of the Eevels, office of 30

Matthews, the dancer 164

Maughan, the showman 289

Melville, the actor 349

Menagerie, the first 88

Mermaids 162, 298

Miles's music booth 64, 85

„ menagerie 209

Miller, the comedian .... 75, 77, 107, 114, 119
Mills, the comedian 107, 114, 119

Index. 385

PACE

Monkeys, performing . . .20, 23, 40, 169, 178, 314
Monstrosities . 22, 32, 60, 161, 204, 217, 291, 310, 314, 346

Morgan, the comedian 121

„ Miss, the dwarf 205

Morgan's menagerie 287, 302

Morosini, the rope-dancer 115

Mullart, the tragedian Ill

Mussulmo, the rope-dancer 151

Mynn's theatrical booth 86

Negro, wonderful 168

Newmarr and Allen's theatrical booth 323

Newsorue, the lion performer. ...... 359

Nichols, the comedian . . . . . . . 109

Nokes, Mrs., the actress 10 i

Gates, the comedian .... 105, 114, 119, 134, 162

„ Miss, the actress 114, 120

O'Brien, the Irish giant 194, 229

Ogden, Mrs., the dancer ....... 154

Oronutu savage 154

Orsi, the singer 204

Owen, the clown .196

Oxberry, the comedian 221

Paap, the dwarf 236

Pack, the comedian 95

Palmer, the theatrical bill-sticker 165

Parker's theatrical booth 79

Peep-shows 289, 305, 307

Penkethman, the elder, comedian ... 71, 79, 95, 106

„ „ younger, comedian . 106, 108, 113, 120, 132

Penley, the showman 200

Perry's menagerie 159

Persian giant 290

Peters, the comic dancer 131

Petit, the showman 115

Phantasmagorial exhibitions 311

Philips, the fiddler and clown 54, 57

Phillips, the posturer . , 113

„ „ showman 164

,, „ comedian . . . . . . . 133

„ Mrs., the dancer 134

„ the Welsh dwarf 294

Pidcock's menagerie 186

Pierce, the gigantic Shropshire youth 313

2 c

Index.

PAGE

Pig-faced lady 303, 305

Pigs, learned 178, 243, 297, 301, 314

Pike's theatrical booth 303

Pinchbeck, the mechanist . . . 110, 116, 123, 134, 139

Pinkethman, the puppet showman 83

Polito's menagerie 187, 209

Powell, the comedian 105

„ „ fire-eater 179

„ „ puppet showman .83

Price, the equestrian 309

Pritchard, Mrs., the actress . . . . . 1 13, 120, 127

Pullen's theatrical booth 105

Punch and Judy shows 27

Punchinello, the puppet showman ...... 29

Purden, Mrs., the actress ....... 121

Quin, the comedian 95

Rapinese, the posturer . . . . . . . .131

Ray, the comedian ........ 104

Rayner's theatrical booth ....... 105

„ the tumbler 149

,, Miss, the rope-dancer . . . . . .149

Reader, the showman .341

Reed, the actor 225, 317

Reed's theatrical booth 350

Reverant, Madlle. de, the rope-dancer . . . . .115

Reynolds, the comedian. ...... 104, 106

„ „ showman ...... 151, 154

Richardson, the fire-eater 48

„ showman . 217, 230, 235, 239, 248, 264, 302,

306, 316

River, the tumbler . .115

Roberts, the tragedian 121

Roberts, Mrs., the actress 114

Robinson, the conjuror . . . . . . . . 191

Robson, the comedian ....... 356, 358

Rose's, Miss, imitations of actresses ..... 187

Rossignol, the bird trainer 188, 193

Roy, Madlle. le, the dancer 131

Rudderford, the mountebank ....... 50

Ryan, the comedian 95, 119, 127

Saffery, the rope-vaulter 308

Saffry's theatrical booth 50

Saker, the comedian 256, 350

Salway, the comedian 113

Index. 387

VAGK

Samwell, the showman 270, 309

Saunders, Sarah, actress and acrobat ..... 323

the showman 209, 219, 221, 231

Scotch dwarf 61

„ giant .......... 303

Scowton's theatrical booth ...... 230, 316

Seaman, the actor ......... 349

Serpents, performing 190

Settle, the dramatist 86

Shaw, Miss, the beautiful albino 310

„ the harlequin ........ 344

Shuter, the comedian .... . 174, 179, 182

Silver-haired lady 301, 351

Simmett, the showman ........ 313

Simpson, the vaulter 80

Skeleton, the living 305

Slater, Miss, the columbine 349

Smith, the hand-bell ringer 179

Spanish youth, wonderful 61

Spellman, Mrs., the actress 110

Spiller, the comedian ........ 95

„ Mrs., the actress 109, 111, 121

Spotted boy 301

„ girl 351

Steward, the slack-wire performer ...... 168

•Stock, Elizabeth, the giantess 300

Stokes, the vaulter . .58

Strand, the lion performer 359

Strength, feats of 40, 98, 168, 244

Sword dancers 64, 85

Talliott's circus 359

Tarvey, the clown 197

Taylor, the dancer .123

Terwin, the showman ........ 134

Thwaites, the actor 225

Thompson, the comic dancer 131

Tiger, a tame 159, 285

Tigers, performing . 371

Tarbutt, the comedian 138, 143

Turkish rope-dancer 33, 151

„ wire-walker 144, 188

Vanbeck, Barbara, the bearded woman 33

Vaughan, the actor . 225

Vidina, Signora, the singer 204

Violantes, the, rope-walkers . . . . . . .144

388

Index.

PAGE

Walker, the comedian 94

Wallack, the actor 221

Walpole, Lydia, the dwarf 290, 313

Warner's theatrical booth 150, 163, 174

Waterloo giant 299

Wax-work exhibition, the first 31

Webber, Eliza, the dwarf 313

Wells, the actor 225

Welsh dwarf 167

Weston, Priscilla and Amelia, the twin giantesses . . .313

Whitehead, the fat boy 298

Whiteland, the dwarf 203

Wignell, the poet 179

Williamson, Mrs., the actress 109

Wombwell's Menagerie . 257, 273, 302, 305, 307, 310, 337, 341,

347, 355, 365
Woodward, harlequin and actor .... 97, 138, 144

Woolford, Miss, the rope-dancer 336

Wright's menagerie 341

Yates, the comedian . . . 134, 138, 143, 162, 174, 180

„ Mrs., the actress 144

„ Miss, the actress . 164

Yeates, the showman 116, 131, 163, 168

„ the conjuror 116, 131, 133, 149, 151, 153, 157, 163, 168

„ Mrs., the actress 157

Yorkshire giantess 299

THE END.

PKINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO.,
LITTLE QUEEN STKEET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY