X THE OLD SHOWMEN, AXD THE OLD LONDON FAIES. THE OLD SHOWMEN, AND THE OLD LONDON FAIES. THOMAS FEOST, OF "CIBCUS LIFE AND CIECU3 CELEBRITIES," ETC. SECOND EDITION. LONDOX: TINSLBY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND., 1875. [All Right* SeaerceJ.-] PBINTKD IIT T4YIOK AM) CO., LITTLE QCLIIN 8TKEBT, LINCOLN'S INN PEEFACE. 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 * '5 851523 i-t CO 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 Southwark, 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, Womb well, 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, Richardson, and Womb well, 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 I. 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 Contents. CHAPTEE III. TAC.E Strolling Players in the Seventeenth Century Southwark 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 Clarke, the Posturer William Philips, the Zany William Stokes, the Vaulter A Show in Threadneedie Street 36 CHAPTEE IV. Attempts to Suppress the Shows at Bartholomew Fair A remarkable Dutch Boy Theatrical Booths at the London Fairs Pcnkethman, the Comedian May Fair Barnes and Finley Lady Mary Doggett, the Comedian Simp- sou, 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 CHAPTEE V. Bartholomew Fair Theatricals Lee, the Theatrical Printer Harper, the Comedian Rayner 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 Hallarn'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 CHAPTEE VI. VAGB A new Race of Showmen Yeates, the Conjuror The Turkish Kope- 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 CHAPTEE 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 CHAPTEE 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 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 213 CHAPTER 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 Seven Feet Hone's Visit to Richardson's Theatre Samwell' 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 XL Successors of Scowton and Richardson Nelson Lee Crow- tlier, 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 Q.ueens 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 MBS 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. 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 au 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- B 2 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 j 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 fair 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 Maitland, 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 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 jo The Old Showmen^ 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 Re- 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. n 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- G eneral ; 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 wifies had nother meate nor drink before iiij of cloke in the same day. And the chese went very well away for Id. q. the pounde. Besides the great and might! 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 Fairs. 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 da}^s, that is to say, the 7th, 8th, 9th days of September, to be holden, 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 Soiithwark, with its appurte- nances.'" 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 on 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-officera 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 1789, 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 u 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 sheriffs 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- bearer'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 his 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-DancerBarbara 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. 19 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 heir, 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 fc 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, Greorge Christoff, who repre- sented the Pompeian performer on the corde elas- tique, 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 medieval 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 ft 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 22 The Old Showmen, to be operated upon lying upon the table, apparently headless, while the head of the other assistant appears in the dish. That lusus naturae, 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." 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 Ealeigh 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 The 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 Eue 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; 5 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. 25 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 astonishment of a company of cockoloaches. Amongst these, you shall see a gray goosecap (as wise as the rest), with a f 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 ont 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 28 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 y 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. 29 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 "Rec. ot 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 ' 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 talontuSj 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 Bevels, 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 : omc : JOCOR : MASCAR : ET REVELL : DNIS REG." 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 doggrel ballad, printed as a broad-sheet, called The Dagonizing of Bartholomew Fair, which de- scribes, with coarse humour, the grossness 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 Lord Mayor 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 1654, "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 ot the most amusing, as well as the most common, of the simial 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 moustachios, 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 Vanbeck, wife bo Michael Yanbeck, 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 delin. et sc. 1653." One of Gaywood'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 and 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 OD purpose to carry her about for a show," CHAPTEE III. Strolling Players in the Seventeenth Century Southwark 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 Ked 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 f 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 the Old London Fairs. 39 irom the strolling players who had 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 pleriod 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 Restoration, 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, 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. 1 83 Harris opened his 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 for 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. " What is your complaint ? you look exceedingly well." 1 84 The Old Showmen, e 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 Adain 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, ' the people about here can run up to London and back for a shilling any day in the week, all tlie 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 ; and 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 fche 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 OP 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 smaller 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. PAGH 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 Ainbroise, the showman . . . , . . . . 189 Amburgh, Tan, the lion-tamer 260 American juggler . . . 294 Anneeley, 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 1 69 menagerie .... 232, 241, 287, 303, 305 Banks and his performing hor.-e 23 Barnes, the showman ........ 63 pantaloon 246 Barnett, Mrs., the actress 3-1 SJ Basil, the showman 191 Baudouin, the comic dancer 131 380 Index. PAGB Bearded women 33, 47 Belzoni's feats of strength 216 Berar's optikali illusio 311 Biffin, Miss, the armless portrait painte- .... 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 Boheme, the tragedian 96 Booth, the theatrical manager 94 Bradshaw, Miss, the actres* , 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 Cartiitch, 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 2G8, 307, 332, 341 Index. 381 PAGE Clarke, Miss, the rope-dancer t 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 83 Crockett, the showman 341 Crocodile, the first exhibited 167 Crowther, the actor 322 Cushings, the pantomimists ...... 150, 166 Dale's music booth ..... 64 Dancey, Mrs. and Miss, the dancers 4 * 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 Dunstall'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 Edmunds, the menagerist ..*.. 337, 355 Egleton, Mrs., the actress 108 Elephant, performing ....*.. 284 escape of an 288, 347 Elliston, the theatrical manager ...*.. 236 England, the flying pieman 240 Esquimaux youth 294 Kvans, the wire-walker 172 Ewiog's wax-work exhibition 306, 310 Excell, the duettist 123 Fairgrieve's menagerie ... .... 365 3 82 Index. PAGE Farnham, the dwarf 313 Faucit, the actor 221 Fawkes, the conjuror 110, 112, 117 showman 116, 123, 139, 150 Ferguson's wax-work exhibition 310 Fielding, the novelist . . 103, 107, 110, 113, 119, 121, 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, Mdlle. 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 . k . . . , .187 Garrick, the actor 165 German 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 Haines, the fire-eater 311 Hales, the Norfolk giant 350 Hall, the rope-dancer 43, 45 actor 108,119 Hall's museum 192 Hallam. 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 Hariis, the showman 313 Hay don' s theatrical booth 320 Heads, lecture on k 186 Heidegger, Master of the Revels 139 Herring, the pantomjmist 322, 336 He\vet, 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 j.25, 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 Revels 50 Thomas, the King's jester 49 Lacy, Mrs., the actress 121 384 Index. PAGB Ladder dance 8> Laguerre, the actor . 119 Lane, the conjuror 191 Laskev, 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 . 132 Leigh, the comedian 95 Leopard, escape of a > 232 a tame 287, 310 Leopards, performing . . . . . . 368, 371 Lincolnshire dwarf 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 dance c *.... 106 Luce, the dancer ......... 106 Macarthy, the lion performer 362 Mackenzie, the hermit ........ 314 Macklin, the comedian ....... 144 Hacomo, the lion performer 360 Madagascar woman 294 Mahoura, the cannibal chie f , 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. 383 Monkeys, performing . . . 20,23,40,169,178,314 Monstrosities . 22, 32, 60, 101, 204, 217, 291, 310, 314, 346 Morgan, the comedian 121 Miss, the dwarf . 205 Morgan's menagerie 287, 302 Morosini, the rope-dancer 115 Mull art, the tragedian .111 Mussulmo, the rope-dancer 151 Mynn's theatrical booth 86 . Negro, wonderful .108 Newman and Allen's theatrical booth 323 Newsome, the lion performer 359 Nirhols, the comedian . . . . . . . . 109 Nokes, Mrs., the actress. . .... 104 Gates, the comedian .... 105, 114, 119, 13 4, 162 Miss, the actress Ill, 120 O'Brien, tlie Irish giant 191,229 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 . '00, 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 o r * ~ L 386 Index. PA OB 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 113,120,127 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 Kay, the comedian 104 Earner'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 1 15 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 Roasignol, the bird trainer 188, 193 Roy, Madlle. le, the dancer 131 Rudderford, the mountebank 50 Ryan, the comedian 95, 119, 127 Saffery, the ropo-vaulter 308 Saffry's theatrical booth 50 Saker, the comedian 256, 350 Salway, the comedian 113 Index. 387 PAGB Samwell, the showman . 270, 309 Sauiiders, 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 Sworddancers 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, 183 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 ac -tress 100 Womb well'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. PHTNTE7) BT TAYLOR AND CO., IITTLE QUiBN BliiJBT, tIMCOLN'3 INS FIELDS. 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