The Old Showmen and the Old London Fairs Part 7

"As we are well a.s.sured that that most wonderful living curiosity, the double cow, has given uncommon satisfaction to the several learned bodies by whom it has. .h.i.therto been seen, we hope the following account and description of it will not be disagreeable to our readers. This wonderful prodigy was bred at Cookfield in Suss.e.x, being one entire beautiful cow, from the middle of whose back issues the following parts of the other cow, viz., a leg with the blade-bone quite perfect, and about two feet long; the gullet, bowels, teats, and udder, from which udder, as well as from the udder of the perfect cow, it gives milk in great plenty, though more than a yard asunder; and what is very extraordinary, and has astonished the most curious observers, is the discontinuation of the back-bone about sixteen inches from the shoulder. This wonderful beast is so healthy as to travel twenty miles a day, is extremely gentle, and by all the gentlemen and ladies who have already seen it is thought as agreeable as astonis.h.i.+ng. It is now shewn in a commodious room, facing Craigg's Court, Charing Cross, at one s.h.i.+lling each person."

There was also exhibited at the Heath c.o.c.k, Charing Cross, "a surprising young Mermaid, taken on the coast of Aquapulca, which, though the generality of mankind think there is no such thing, has been seen by the curious, who express their utmost satisfaction at so uncommon a creature, being half like a woman, and half like a fish, and is allowed to be the greatest curiosity ever exposed to the public view."

In 1749, there was again a large muster of shows on the ancient arena of West Smithfield. Yates re-appeared as a theatrical manager, and in some measure restored the former repute of the fair, Oates and Miss Hippisley being members of his company. His booth stood in George Yard, where he played Gormandize Simple, while Oates personated Jupiter and Miss Hippisley the wanton chambermaid, Dorothy Squeezepurse, in "a New, Pleasant, and Diverting Droll, call'd the DESCENT of the HEATHEN G.o.dS, with the LOVES of JUPITER and ALCMENA; or, Cuckoldom no Scandal.

Interspersed with several Diverting Scenes, both Satyrical and Comical, particularly the Surprising Metamorphosis of _Jupiter_ and _Mercury_; the very remarkable Tryal before _Judge Puzzlecause_, with many Learned Arguments on both sides, to prove that One can't be Two. Likewise the Adventures and whimsical Perplexities of _Gormandize Simple_ the Hungarian Footman; with the wonderful Conversation he had with, and the dreadful Drubbing he received from, _His Own Apparition_; together with the Intrigues of _Dorothy Squeezepurse_ the Wanton Chambermaid."

Opposite the George stood the theatrical booth of the elder Yeates, who had been absent from the fair for a few years, and whom Mr. Henry Morley confounds with his son, now in partners.h.i.+p with Warner and Mrs. Lee. He produced _The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green_, with singing and dancing between the acts, and the pantomime of _The Amours of Harlequin_. Cross and Bridges, whose booth stood opposite the gate of the hospital, produced a new drama, called _The Fair Lunatic_, "founded on a story in real life, as related in the memoirs of the celebrated Mrs. Constantia Phillips,"

with dancing by Master Matthews and Mrs. Annesley. Next to this booth stood that of Lee, Yeates, and Warner, in which was revived the "true and ancient history of _Whittington_, Lord Mayor of London," as performed in Lee's booth fourteen years before, with singing and dancing between the acts. Cus.h.i.+ng whom we have seen playing Harlequin three years before in Warner and Fawkes's booth, but who was now performing at Covent Garden, set up a booth opposite the King's Head, and produced _King John_, the part of Lady Constance being sustained by Miss Yates, a Drury Lane actress, while Cus.h.i.+ng's wife personated Prince Arthur, and the manager the mirth-provoking Sir Lubberly Lackbrains.

At a house in Hosier Lane (No. 20), a performing Arabian pony was exhibited. There were also shows in the fair, which did not advertise, and the memory of which has, in consequence, not been preserved. Of one, owned by a person named Phillips, the only record is a very brief newspaper report of a fatal accident, occasioned by the breaking down of the gallery, by which four persons were killed, and several others severely injured.

Garrick, who had married the dancer Violette two months previously, took his bride to Bartholomew Fair, where they visited the theatrical booth of Yates, which was the best in the fair. He was one of the few great actors of the period who had not performed in the fair; and was probably impelled by curiosity, rather than by the expectation of seeing good acting, though it was not many years since he had made his first appearance on any stage at Goodman's Fields, playing Harlequin at a moment's notice when Yates was seized with a sudden indisposition as he was about to go on the stage. The crowd pressing upon his wife and himself very unpleasantly as he approached the portable theatre, he called out to Palmer, the Drury Lane bill-sticker, who was acting as money-taker at the booth, to protect them.

"I can't help you here, sir," said Palmer, shaking his head. "There aren't many people in Smithfield as knows Mr. Garrick."

It was probably not at Yates's booth, but at one of much inferior grade, that the money-taker rejected Garrick's offer to pay for admission, with the remark, "We never take money of one another." The story would be pointless if the incident occurred at any booth in which dramatic performances were given by comedians from the princ.i.p.al London theatres.

We now approach a period when a new series of strenuous efforts for the suppression of the London fairs was commenced by persons who would willingly have suppressed amus.e.m.e.nts of every kind, and were aided in their endeavours by persons who had merely a selfish interest in the matter. In the summer of 1750, a numerously signed pet.i.tion of graziers, cattle salesmen, and inhabitants of Smithfield was presented to the Court of Aldermen, praying for the suppression of Bartholomew Fair, on the ground that it annoyed them in their occupations, and afforded opportunities for debauchery and riot. The annual Lord Mayor's procession might have been objected to on the same grounds, and the civic authorities well knew that the riots which had sometimes occurred in the fair had been occasioned by their own acts, in the execution of their edicts for the exclusion of puppet-shows and theatrical booths. Their action to this end was generally taken so tardily that booths were put up before the proprietors received notice of the intention of the Court of Aldermen to exclude them; and then the tardiness of the owners in taking them down, and the sudden zeal of the constables, produced quarrels and fights, in which the bystanders invariably took the part of the showmen.

The revenues which the Corporation derived from rents and tolls during the fair const.i.tuted an element of the question which could not be overlooked, and which kept it in a state of oscillation from year to year. The civic authorities would have been willing enough to suppress the fair, if the question of finance had not been involved. If the fair was abolished, some other source of revenue would have to be found. So they compounded with their belief that the fair was a fount of disorder and immorality by again limiting its duration to three days, and excluding theatrical booths and puppet-shows, while abstaining from interference with the gambling-tables and the gin-stalls.

Giants and dwarfs, and learned pigs and performing ponies had now the fair to themselves, though their showmen probably took less money than they did when the theatrical booths and puppet-shows attracted larger numbers of people. Henry Blacker, a native of Cuckfield, in Suss.e.x, twenty-seven years of age, and seven feet four inches in height, exhibited himself at the Swan, in Smithfield, during the three days to which the fair was restricted in 1751. The princ.i.p.al show seems to have been one containing two dwarfs, a remarkable negro, a female one-horned rhinoceros, and a crocodile, said to have been the first ever seen alive in this country.

The more famous of the two dwarfs was John Coan, a native of Norfolk, who at this time was twenty-three years of age, and only three feet two inches in height, and of thirty-four pounds weight. His fellow pigmy was a Welsh lad, fourteen years of age, two feet six inches in height, and weighed only twelve pounds. The negro could throw back his clasped hands over his head and bring them under his feet, backward and forward; and was probably "the famous negro who swings his arms about in every direction,"

mentioned in the 'Adventurer.'

The exclusion of the theatrical booths and puppet-shows from the fair produced, in the following year, a serious disturbance in Smithfield, in the suppression of which Birch, the deputy-marshal of the City, received injuries which proved fatal. This resistance to their edict did not, however, deter the civic authorities from applying the same rule to Southwark Fair, which was this year limited to three days, and diminished of its attractions by the exclusion of theatrical booths and puppet-shows.

The princ.i.p.al shows were Yeates's, which stood in George Yard, and consisted of an exhibition of wax figures, the conjuring tricks of young Yeates, and the feats on the slack wire of a performer named Steward; and the female Samson's, an Italian woman, who exhibited feats of strength in a booth opposite the Greyhound, similar to those of the French woman seen by Carter at May Fair, with the addition of supporting six men while resting on two chairs only by the head and heels.

Towards the close of this year a man named Ballard brought from Italy a company of performing dogs and monkeys, and exhibited them as a supplementary attraction to the musical entertainments then given at a place in the Haymarket, called Mrs. Midnight's Oratory. The Animal Comedians, as they were called, became famous enough to furnish the theme of an 'Adventurer.' The author states that the repeated encomiums on their performances induced him to be present one evening at the entertainment, when he "was astonished at the sagacity of the monkies; and was no less amazed at the activity of the other quadrupeds--I should have rather said, from a view of their extraordinary elevations, bipeds.

"It is a peculiar happiness to me as an Adventurer," he continues, "that I sally forth in an age which emulates those heroick times of old, when nothing was pleasing but what was unnatural. Thousands have gaped at a wire-dancer daring to do what no one else would attempt; and thousands still gape at greater extravagances in pantomime entertainments. Every street teems with incredibilities; and if the great mob have their little theatre in the Haymarket, the small vulgar can boast their cheaper diversion in two enormous bears, that jauntily trip it to the light tune of a Caledonian jig.

"That the intellectual faculties of brutes may be exerted beyond the narrow limits which we have hitherto a.s.signed to their capacities, I saw a sufficient proof in Mrs. Midnight's dogs and monkies. Man differs less from beasts in general, than these seem to approach man in rationality.

But while I applaud their exalted genius, I am in pain for the rest of their kindred, both of the canine and cercopithecan species." The writer then proceeds to comment humorously upon the mania which the exhibition had created for teaching dogs and monkeys to perform the tricks for which the Animal Comedians were famous. "Every boarding-house romp and wanton school-boy," he says, "is employed in perverting the end of the canine creation."

The contributor of this paper seems to have had a familiar acquaintance with the shows attending the London fairs, for it was he, whoever he was, who wrote the third number of the 'Adventurer,' in which, giving the details of a scheme for a pantomime, he says that he has "not only ransacked the fairs of Bartholomew and Southwark, but picked up every uncommon animal, every prodigy of nature, and every surprising performer, that has lately appeared within the bills of mortality." He proceeds to enumerate them, and to a.s.sign parts in his intended entertainment for "the Modern Colossus," "all the wonderful tall men and women that have been lately exhibited in this town," "the Female Sampson," "the famous negro who swings his arms about in every direction," "the noted ox, with six legs and two bellies," "the beautiful panther mare," "the noted fire-eater, smoking out of red-hot tobacco pipes, champing lighted brimstone, and swallowing his infernal mess of broth," "the most amazing new English _Chien Savant_," "the little woman that weighs no more than twenty-three pounds," "the wonderful little Norfolk man," "the fellow with Stentorian lungs, who can break gla.s.ses and shatter window-panes with the loudness of his vociferation," and "the wonderful man who talks in his belly, and can fling his voice into any part of a room." Incidentally he mentions also "the so much applauded stupendous ostrich," "the sorcerer's great gelding," "the wire dancer," and dancing bears.

The showmen's bills and advertis.e.m.e.nts of the period enable us to identify most of the wonders enumerated by this writer. The female Samson and the wire-walker had been seen that year in the fairs, the famous negro and the Norfolk dwarf the year before, and the Corsican fairy and the double cow in 1748. The fire-eater was probably Powell, though I have seen no advertis.e.m.e.nt of that human salamander earlier than 1760.

The Bartholomew Fair riot was repeated in 1753, when Buck, the successor of the unfortunate Birch, was very roughly handled by the rioters, and severely bruised. This tumult was followed by an accident to a wire-walker, named Evans, who, by the breaking of his wire, was precipitated to the ground, breaking one of his thighs and receiving other injuries. This was the year of the demonstration against the claim of the Corporation to levy tolls upon the goods of citizens, as well as upon those of strangers, during the time of Bartholomew Fair. Richard Holland, a leather-seller in Newgate Street, had, in the preceding year, refused the toll demanded on a roll of leather with which he had attempted to enter the fair, and, on the leather being seized by the collector, had called a constable, and charged the impounder with theft. The squabble resulted in an action against the Corporation, which was not tried, however, till 1754, when the judge p.r.o.nounced in favour of the citizens.

While the action was pending, Holland's cart was driven through the fair with a load of hay, and was not stopped by the collector of the tolls, who had, probably, been instructed to hold his hand until the matter was determined. The horses' heads were decorated with ribbons, and on the leader's forehead was a card, upon which the following doggrel lines were written in a bold round hand:--

"My master keeps me well, 'tis true, And justly pays whatever is due; Now plainly, not to mince the matter, No toll he pays but with a halter."

On each side of the load of hay hung a halter, and a paper bearing the following announcement:--

"The time is approaching, if not already come, That all British subjects may freely pa.s.s on; And not on pretence of Bartholomew Fair Make you pay for your pa.s.sage, with all you bring near.

When once it is try'd, ever after depend on, 'Twill incur the same fate as on Finchley Common.

Give Caesar his due, when by law 'tis demanded, And those that deserve with this halter be hanged."

The disturbances occasioned by the interference of the authorities with the entertainers of the fair-goers were not renewed in 1754, though the elements of disorder seem to have been present in tolerable strength; for on a swing breaking down in Smithfield, without any person being seriously hurt, a number of persons broke up the apparatus, and throwing the wreck into a heap, set it on fire. Every swing in the fair was then attacked and wrecked in succession, and the frames and broken cars thrown upon the blazing pile, which soon sent a column of fire high into the air, to the immense danger of the many combustible erections on every side. To keep up the fire, all the tables and benches of the sausage-vendors were next seized, and cast upon it; and the feeble police of that period was inadequate to the prevention of this wholesale destruction, which seems to have gone on without a check.

The exclusion of theatrical entertainments from Southwark Fair was not maintained in 1755, when Warner set up a booth on the bowling-green, in conjunction with the widow of Yeates (who had died about this time), and revived the favourite London fair drama of _The Unnatural Parents_. In the following year, Warner's name appears alone, as the proprietor of a "great tiled booth," in which he produced _The Lover's Metamorphosis_, with dancing between the acts, and a pantomimic entertainment called _The Stratagems of Harlequin_.

In 1757, Yates and Shuter, the former engaged at the time at Drury Lane, and the latter at Covent Garden, tried the experiment of a variety entertainment, at the large concert-room of the Greyhound Inn, in Smithfield, "during the short time of Bartholomew Fair," as all bills and advertis.e.m.e.nts had announced since the duration of the fair had been limited to three days. By this device, they evaded the edict of the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, which applied only to temporary erections in Smithfield. They did not repeat the experiment in Southwark, where the only booth advertised was Warner's, with "a company of comedians from the theatres," in _The Intriguing Lover_ and _Harlequin's Vagaries_.

Yates and Shuter re-appeared at the Greyhound next year, when they presented _Woman turned Bully_, with singing and dancing between the acts, and a representation of the storming of Louisbourg. Theatrical representations were this year permitted or connived at in the fair, for Dunstall and Vaughan set up a booth in George Yard, a.s.sociating with them in the enterprise the more experienced Warner, and announcing "a select company from the theatres royal." _The Widow Bewitched_ was performed, with an entertainment of singing and dancing. Next door to the George Inn was an exhibition of wax-work, the chief feature of which was a collection of figures representing the royal family of Prussia.

Southwark Fair was this year extended to four days, so fitful and varying was the policy of the Court of Aldermen with regard to the fairs, which, while they professed to regard them as incentives to idleness and vice, they encouraged in some years as much as they restricted in others. The names of Dunstall and Vaughan do not appear in the bills issued by Warner for this fair, but the comedy performed was the same as at Bartholomew Fair, followed by a representation of the capture of Louisbourg, concluding with a procession of colours and standards, and a song in praise of the heroes of the victory.

Yates and Shuter again attended Bartholomew Fair in the following year.

Mr. Henry Morley claims for the latter the invention of the showman's device of announcing to the players, by a cant word, that there was another audience collected in front, and that the performances might be drawn to a close as soon as possible. Shuter's mystic words are said to have been "John Audley," shouted from the front. The practice appears, however, to have been in operation in the earliest days of Sadler's Wells, where, according to a description of the place and the entertainments given by Macklin, in a conversation recorded in the fortieth volume of the 'European Magazine,' the announcement was made in the query, "Is Hiram Fistoman here?"

It was about this time that the "cat's opera" was announced by the famous animal-trainer, Bisset, whose pupils, furred and feathered, were regarded as one of the most wonderful exhibitions ever witnessed. Bisset was originally a shoemaker at Perth, where he was born in 1721, but, on coming to London, and entering the connubial state, he commenced business as a broker, and acc.u.mulated a little capital. Having read an account of a performing horse, which was exhibited at the fair of St. Germain in 1739, he was induced to try his own skill in the teaching of animals upon a dog, and afterwards upon a horse, which he bought for the purpose. Succeeding with these, he procured a couple of monkeys, one of which he taught to play a barrel-organ, while the other danced and vaulted on the tight-rope.

Cats are generally regarded as too susceptible of nervous excitement to perform in public, though their larger relatives, lions, tigers, and leopards, have been taught to perform a variety of tricks before spectators, and cats are readily taught to perform the same tricks in private. Bisset aimed at something higher than the exhibition of the leaping feats of the species, and succeeded in teaching three cats to play the dulcimer and squall to the notes. By the advice of Pinchbeck, with whom he had become acquainted, he hired a large room in the Haymarket, and announced a public performance of the "cat's opera," supplemented by the tricks of the horse, the dog, and the monkeys. Besides the organ-grinding and rope-dancing performance, the monkeys took wine together, and rode on the horse, pirouetting and somersaulting with the skill of a practised acrobat. One of them also danced a minuet with the dog.

The "cat's opera" was attended by crowded houses, and Bisset cleared a thousand pounds by the exhibition in a few days. He afterwards taught a hare to walk on its hind legs, and beat a drum; a feathered company of canaries, linnets, and sparrows to spell names, tell the time by the clock, etc.; half-a-dozen turkeys to execute a country dance; and a turtle (according to Wilson, but probably a tortoise) to write names on the floor, having its feet blackened for the purpose. After a successful season in London, he sold some of the animals, and made a provincial tour with the rest, rapidly acc.u.mulating a considerable fortune. Pa.s.sing over to Ireland in 1775, he exhibited his animals in Dublin and Belfast, afterwards establis.h.i.+ng himself in a public-house in the latter city.

There he remained until 1783, when he reappeared in Dublin with a pig, which he had taught to perform all the tricks since exhibited by the learned grunter's successors at all the fairs in the kingdom. He was on his way to London with the pig when he became ill at Chester, where he shortly afterwards died.

The question of suppressing both Bartholomew and Southwark Fairs was considered by the Court of Common Council in 1760, and the City Lands Committee was desired to report upon the tenures of the fairs, with a view to that end. Counsel's opinion was taken, and the committee reported the result of the inquiry, upon which the Court resolved that Southwark Fair should be abolished henceforth, but that the interests of Lord Kensington in the revenues of Bartholomew Fair prevented the same course from being pursued in Smithfield. The latter fair was voted a nuisance, however, and the Court expressed a determination to abate it with the utmost strictness. Shuter produced a masque, called _The Triumph of Hymen_, in honour of the approaching royal nuptials; it was the production of a forgotten poet named Wignell, in a collected edition of whose poems it was printed in 1762. Among the minor entertainers of this year at Bartholomew Fair were Powell, the fire-eater, and Roger Smith, who gave a musical performance upon eight bells, two of which were fixed upon his head-gear, and one upon each foot, while two were held in each hand.

CHAPTER VII.

Yates and Shuter--Cat Harris--Mechanical Singing Birds--Lecture on Heads--Pidc.o.c.k'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 between Yates and Shuter in the last two or three years of their appearance as showmen at Bartholomew Fair are somewhat doubtful; but all the evidence that I have been able to obtain points to the conclusion that they did not co-operate subsequently to 1758. In 1761 they seemed to have been in rivalry, for the former's name appears singly as the director of the "company of comedians from both the theatres" that performed in the concert-room at the Greyhound, while an advertis.e.m.e.nt of one of the minor shows of the fair describes it as located in George Yard, "leading to Mr. Shuter's booth." I have not, however, been able to find an advertis.e.m.e.nt of Shuter's booth.

Yates's company performed _The Fair Bride_, which the bills curiously describe as "containing many surprising Occurrences at Sea, which could not possibly happen at Land. The Performance will be highly enlivened with several entertaining Scenes between England, France, Ireland, and Scotland, in the diverting Personages of Ben Bowling, an English Sailor; Mons. Soup-Maigre, a French Captain; O'Flannaghan, an Irish Officer; M'Pherson, a Scotch Officer. Through which the Manners of each Nation will be characteristically and humorously depicted. In which will be introduced as singular and curious a Procession as was ever exhibited in this Nation.

The objects that comprise the Pageantry are both Exotic and British. The Princ.i.p.al Figure is the Glory and Delight of OLD ENGLAND, and Envy of our ENEMIES. With Variety of Entertainments of Singing and Dancing. The whole to conclude with a Loyal Song on the approaching Marriage of our great and glorious Sovereign King GEORGE and the Princess CHARLOTTE of Mecklenberg."

There were two shows in George Yard, in one of which "the famous learned canary bird" was exhibited, the other consisting of a moving picture of a city, with an artificial cascade, and "a magnificent temple, with two mechanical birds which have all the exact motions of living animals; 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. 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 pa.s.senger, 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 complaints put together are nothing to mine. Oh, nothing!--mine is dreadful but to think of."

"Indeed, sir!" said the stout pa.s.senger, with a look of astonishment.

"What is your complaint? you look exceedingly well."