From a paragraph in a newspaper we subsequently find the Boarded House at Mary-le-bon to have been used as a Theatre for Pugilism.
The Prince of Wales frequently visited the Theatre during his father's first absence in Germany. The visit of Thursday night the 6th of December, 1716, appears to have been a dangerous one, and very similar to that of his successor George III. in May 1799; and, what is more remarkable, Drury-lane was the place selected for a Royal assassination twice within a century. A Mr. Freeman attempted to enter a box facing the Prince's in a very coarse dress, which excited suspicion of the Box-keeper, who, with the assistance of a centinel, discovered a pistol under his coat; this he immediately discharged at the Soldier,
and wounded him in the neck; but before he could accomplish farther mischief, the people knocked him down, and, searching his person, found other loaded pistols. These circumstances led to farther enquiries, when it was found that he had a servant in waiting with a horse at the door of the Theatre. It is observed in the papers which relate this occurrence, that the Prince evinced no signs of agitation, though there was every reason to suppose the assassin aimed at his life; and in this particular he has been emulated by his present Majesty under more trying circumstances.
Mr. Freeman committed horrid outrages some time after his commitment to Newgate, which he commenced by a pretended quarrel with a woman occasionally admitted to his cell. Two of the keepers proceeding to the spot found Freeman without the door, who immediately stabbed Mr. Russell in the breast with a rusty fork he had held in his hand behind him, and then returned to his room, shutting the door, which he refused to open. A guard of Soldiers was called by Mr. Smith, who endeavoured to force it open; and an unfortunate man introducing his hand, Freeman, who was upon the watch, almost severed it with a knife from the wrist. They then threatened to fire through the door: this alarmed him, and he opened it; but the Soldiers met with a fierce resistance in attempting to secure him; and he
actually overpowered two ere he was mastered and conveyed to the condemned hole. It is singular that during this contest he had planned the firing of Newgate; and his handkerchief was found burning within his hat in a convenient part of the room for communication. Freeman was afterwards tried at Kingston for the murder of a Trooper, and acquitted as a lunatic.
Moorfields was occasionally used by Showmen and Merry-andrews as their Theatre. The Act of the 12th of Queen Anne was aimed at the suppression of these low amusements. The proprietors of them, fearful of the penalties annexed, endeavoured to prevail upon Mr. Justice Fuller to license them in April 1717, but in vain. Finding this worthy Magistrate obdurate, they ventured to begin their operations; which he was no sooner acquainted with, than he assembled thirty constables, and issued his warrant, supported by the signature of Mr. Rand for their apprehension. When the High Constable and his posse proceeded to Windmill-hill, they found it occupied by Messrs. Saunders and Margaret, two Middlesex Justices, who forbade the execution of the warrant, and declared they would protect the Showmen. The intrepid Fuller, conscious of his own rectitude, commanded the arrest of the principals, which was promptly obeyed; and when conveyed to his residence at Clerkenwell, he committed them to the House of Correction,
where they had been but a few hours, when three other upright Magistrates set them at liberty.
The next occurrence under this head seems perfectly in unison with the preceding articles: the proprietors of the Boarded House Soho advertised a savage entertainment for the 21st of May, 1717, which required the support of such Magistrates as Margaret and Saunders, and such spectators as Freeman. They had, during the period between the baiting of the Leopard and May 21, refined upon cruelty to the very acme , and were ready to exhibit an African Tiger on a stage four feet high worried by six bull and bear dogs, for 100l.; a mad bull, and a bear, both covered with fire-works; and, lest those pleasant spectacles should fail to amuse, six young men were to play at blunts ; in other words he that broke most heads obtained a hat. The miscreants had even the audacity to conclude their detestable advertisement with "Vivat Rex."
Tottenham Court-road was another place of resort for the lower orders of society; and their successors even now presume at Easter and Whitsuntide to set order and magistracy at defiance. "Information having been given upon oath to divers of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Middlesex, that several lewd and disorderly persons, and players of interludes, had erected booths and sheds at Tottenham-Court in
the County of Middlesex aforesaid, wherein were used a great deal of prophane cursing and swearing, together with many lewd and blasphemous expressions, as also several rude, riotous, and disorderly actions committed; eleven of his Majesty's Justices, having duly considered the evil tendency of such wicked and abominable practices, for suppression thereof, and for preventing the like for the future, granted a warrant under their hands and seals, dated the 10th instant, for the apprehension of several of the persons concerned in the management of the said interludes, which hath since been put in execution, and the same have been suppressed accordingly, and the said booths and sheds pulled down and taken away[148:A]."