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, therefore, to relate the rise, progress, and declension of the fairs formerly held in and about the metropolis as comprehensively and as thoroughly as the imperfect records of such institutions render possible; and to weave into the narrative all that is known of 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, Richardson, Wombwell, and other showmen of the last half century 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 half of the last century, the showmen seldom advertised 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 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.
| PAGE | |
| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| Origin of Fairs—Charter Fairs at Winchester and Chester—Croydon Fairs—Fairs in the Metropolis—Origin of BartholomewFair—Disputes between the Priors and the Corporation—The Westminster Fairs—Southwark Fair—Stepney Fair—Ceremoniesobserved in opening Fairs—Walking the Fair at Wolverhampton—The Key of the Fair at Croydon—Proclamation of Bartholomew Fair | [1] |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| Amusements of the Fairs in the Middle Ages—Shows and Showmen of the Sixteenth Century—Banks and his Learned Horse—BartholomewFair in the time of Charles I.—Punch and Judy—Office of the Revels—Origin of Hocus Pocus—Suppression of BartholomewFair—London Shows during the Protectorate—A Turkish Rope-Dancer—Barbara Vanbeck, the Bearded Woman | [18] |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| Strolling Players in the Seventeenth Century—Southwark Fair—Bartholomew Fair—Pepys and the Monkeys—Polichinello—JacobHall, the Rope-Dancer—Another Bearded Woman—Richardson, the Fire-Eater—The Cheshire Dwarf—Killigrew and the Strollers—Fair onthe 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 Threadneedle Street | [36] |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| Attempts to Suppress the Shows at Bartholomew Fair—A remarkable Dutch Boy—Theatrical Booths at the LondonFairs—Penkethman, the Comedian—May Fair—Barnes and Finley—Lady Mary—Doggett, the Comedian—Simpson,the Vaulter—Clench, the Whistler—A Show at Charing Cross—Another Performing Horse—Powell andCrawley, 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—Woodward,the Comedian—A Female Hercules—Tiddy-dol, the Gingerbread Vendor | [66] |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| Bartholomew Fair Theatricals—Lee, the Theatrical Printer—Harper, the Comedian—Rayner and Pullen—Fielding,the Novelist, a Showman—Cibber’s Booth—Hippisley, the Actor—Fire in Bartholomew Fair—Fawkes, the Conjuror—RoyalVisit 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—MoreTheatrical Booths—Their Suppression at Bartholomew Fair—Hogarth at Southwark Fair—Violante, the Rope-Dancer—Cadman, the Flying Man | [102] |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| A new Race of Showmen—Yeates, the Conjuror—The Turkish Rope-Walker—Pan and the Oronutu Savage—The CorsicanFairy—Perry’s Menagerie—The Riobiscay and the Double Cow—A Mermaid at the Fairs—Garrick at BartholomewFair—Yates’s Theatrical Booth—Dwarfs and Giants—The Female Samson—Riots at BartholomewFair—Ballard’s Animal Comedians—Evans, the Wire-Walker—Southwark Fair—Wax-work Show—Shuter, theComedian—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, theConjuror—Reappearance of the Corsican Fairy—Gaetano, the Bird Imitator—Rossignol’s Performing Birds—Ambroise,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, theIrish Giant—Baker’s Theatre—Joel Tarvey and Lewis Owen, the popular Clowns | [180] |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| Lady Holland’s Mob—Kelham Whiteland, the Dwarf—Flockton, the Conjuror and Puppet-Showman—WonderfulRams—Miss Morgan, the Dwarf—Flockton’s Will—Gyngell, the Conjuror—Jobson, the Puppet-Showman—AbrahamSaunders—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—Richardson’sTheatre—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 FairIncidents—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 OriginalMazeppa—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, theShowman—Miss Hipson, the Fat Girl—Lydia Walpole, the Dwarf—The Persian Giant and the Fair Circassian—Ball’sTheatre—Atkins’s Menagerie—A Mare with Seven Feet—Hone’s Visit to Richardson’s Theatre—Samwell’sTheatre—Clarke’s Circus—Brown’s Theatre of Arts—Ballard’s Menagerie—Toby, the Learned Pig—WilliamWhitehead, 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] |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
| Successors of Scowton and Richardson—Nelson Lee—Crowther, the Actor—Paul Herring—Newman and Allen’sTheatre—Fair in Hyde Park—Hilton’s Menagerie—Bartholomew Fair again threatened—Wombwell’s Menagerie—CharlesFreer—Fox Cooper and the Bosjesmans—Destruction 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’sFair at Bayswater—Abbott’s Theatre—Charlie Keith, the Clown—Robson, the Comedian—Manders’sMenagerie—Macomo, the Lion-Tamer—Macarthy and the Lions—Fairgrieve’s Menagerie—Lorenzo and the Tigress—Saleof a Menagerie—Extinction of the London Fairs—Decline of Fairs near the Metropolis—Conclusion | [319] |