Chapter I: 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 Bartholomew
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 1

CHAPTER 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-Dancer--Barbara Vanbeck, the Bearded Woman 18

CHAPTER III.

Strolling Players in the Seventeenth Century--Southwark
Fair--Bartholomew Fair--Pepys and the Monkeys--Polichinello--
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 Threadneedle Street 36

CHAPTER IV.

Attempts to Suppress the Shows at Bartholomew Fair--A
remarkable Dutch Boy--Theatrical Booths at the London Fairs--
Penkethman, the Comedian--May Fair--Barnes and Finley--Lady
Mary--Doggett, the Comedian--Simpson, 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--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--Royal Visit
to Fielding's Booth--Yeates, the Showman--Mrs. Pritchard, the
Actress--Southwark Fair--Tottenham Court Fair--Ryan, the
Actor--Hallam's Booth--Griffin, the Actor--Visit of the
Prince of Wales to Bartholomew Fair--Laguerre's Booth--
Heidegger--More Theatrical Booths--Their Suppression at
Bartholomew Fair--Hogarth at Southwark Fair--Violante, the
Rope-Dancer--Cadman, the Flying Man 102

CHAPTER VI.

A new Race of Showmen--Yeates, the Conjuror--The Turkish
Rope-Walker--Pan and the Oronutu Savage--The Corsican Fairy--
Perry's Menagerie--The Riobiscay and the Double Cow--A
Mermaid at the Fairs--Garrick at Bartholomew Fair--Yates's
Theatrical Booth--Dwarfs and Giants--The Female Samson--Riots
at Bartholomew Fair--Ballard's Animal Comedians--Evans, the
Wire-Walker--Southwark Fair--Wax-work Show--Shuter, the
Comedian--Bisset, the Animal Trainer--Powell, the
Fire-Eater--Roger Smith, the Bell-Player--Suppression of
Southwark Fair 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--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, the Irish Giant--Baker's Theatre--Joel
Tarvey and Lewis Owen, the popular Clowns 180

CHAPTER VIII.

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

CHAPTER IX.

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

CHAPTER XI.

Successors of Scowton and Richardson--Nelson Lee--Crowther,
the Actor--Paul Herring--Newman and Allen's Theatre--Fair in
Hyde Park--Hilton's Menagerie--Bartholomew Fair again
threatened--Wombwell's Menagerie--Charles Freer--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's Fair at Bayswater--Abbott's Theatre--
Charlie Keith, the Clown--Robson, the Comedian--Manders's
Menagerie--Macomo, the Lion-Tamer--Macarthy and the Lions--
Fairgrieve's Menagerie--Lorenzo and the Tigress--Sale of a
Menagerie--Extinction of the London Fairs--Decline of Fairs
near the Metropolis--Conclusion 319

THE OLD SHOWMEN, AND THE OLD LONDON FAIRS