THE OLD SHOWMEN, AND THE OLD LONDON FAIRS. BY THOMAS FROST , AUTHOR OF “CIRCUS LIFE AND CIRCUS CELEBRITIES,” ETC. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND, 1875. [ All Rights Reserved. ] PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELD...

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 me

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. 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. T

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. 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 peo

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 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 entertain

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

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 Ba

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 Sout

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. The relations betw

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. While the character of the theatrical entertainments presented at the London fairs declined from the middle of the eighteenth century, when Yates and Shuter ceased to appear in Smithfield “during the short time of Bartholomew Fair,”

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 Origi

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

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