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," the various other shows underwent a gradual
improvement. Menageries became larger and better arranged, while with the
progress of zoological science, they were rendered better media for its
diffusion. Panoramas and mechanical exhibitions began to appear, and,
though it is impossible to estimate the degree in which such agencies
were instrumental in educating the people, it is but fair to allow them
some share in the intellectual progress of the latter half of the century.
The good or evil arising from the amusements of any class of the people
can only be fairly judged by comparing the amusements with those of other
classes at the same period; and those who will study the dramas and
novels, and especially the newspapers of the last century, will not find
more to commend in the manners and pursuits of the upper and middle
classes than in those of the lower orders of society, as exemplified in
the London fairs. The hand that painted Gin Lane for the contemplation of
posterity left an instructive picture of the morals and manners of the
upper strata of society in the 'Rake's Progress' and the 'Midnight
Conversation.'
The amusements of the people partake of the mutability of all mundane
matters, and the newspapers of the period show that the London fairs had
begun, at the beginning of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, to
be regarded by the educated portion of society much less favourably than
they had been in earlier times. When St. James's ceased to patronize them,
Bloomsbury voted them low, and Cornhill declared them a nuisance.
Journalists, having as yet no readers in the slums, and therefore writing
exclusively for St. James's, or Bloomsbury, or Cornhill, as the case might
be, adapted their tone to the views current in those sections of London
society. If we first place a paragraph of the 'Times' of the present day
recording a cock-fight or a pugilistic contest, by the side of a report of
a similar encounter in a journal of thirty years ago, we shall have no
difficulty in understanding why Bartholomew Fair was described by the
'Morning Chronicle' in 1784 in language so different to that used by Pepys
and Evelyn a century before.
After recounting the misdoings of "Lady Holland's mob," the paragraphist
tells his readers that:--
"The elegant part of the entertainment was confined to a few booths. At
the Lock and Key, near Cloth Fair, a select company performed the musical
opera of the _Poor Soldier_, with Columbine's escape from Smithfield. Mr.
Flockton, whose name can never be struck off Bartholomew roll, had a
variety of entertainments without and within. The King's conjuror, who
takes more money from out the pocket than he puts in, made the lank-haired
gentry scratch their pates; the walking French puppet-show had hired an
apartment, with additional performers; Punch and the Devil, in his little
moving theatre, were performing without doors, to invite the company into
the grand theatre. Men with wooden mummies in show-boxes were found
straggling about the fair; tall women in cellars, dropping upon their
knees to be kissed by short customers; dwarfs mounted on stools for the
same civil purposes; and men without arms writing with their feet."
The sneering tone, and the disposition to write down the fair, perceptible
in this account, are more strongly exhibited in the 'Public Advertiser' of
the 5th of September, in the following year:--
"Saturday being Bartholomew Fair day, it was, according to annual custom,
ushered in by Lady Holland's Mob, accompanied with a charming band of
music, consisting of marrow-bones and cleavers, tin kettles, &c., &c.,
much to the gratification of the inhabitants about Smithfield; great
preparations were then made for the reception of the Lord Mayor, the
Sheriffs, and other City officers, who, after regaling themselves with a
cool tankard at Mr. Akerman's, made their appearance in the fair about one
o'clock, to authorise _mimic_ fools to make _real_ ones of the gaping
spectators. The proclamation being read, and the Lord Mayor retiring, he
was saluted by a flourish of trumpets, drums, rattles, salt-boxes, and
other delightful musical instruments. The noted Flockton, and the
notorious Jobson, with many new managers, exhibited their tragic and comic
performers, as did Penley his drolls. There were wild beasts from all
parts of the world roaring, puppets squeaking, sausages frying, Kings and
Queens raving, pickpockets diving, round-abouts twirling, hackney coaches
and poor horses driving, and all Smithfield alive-o! The Learned Horse
paid his obedience to the company, as did about a score of monkeys,
several _beautiful young_ ladies of forty, Punches, Pantaloons,
Harlequins, Columbines, three giants, a dwarf, and a giantess. These were
not all who came to Smithfield to gratify the public; there were several
sleight-of-hand men and fire-eaters; the last, however, were not quite so
numerous as those who eat of the deliciously flavoured sausages and
oysters with which the fair abounded. The company were _remarkably
genteel_ and crowded, and the different performances went off with loud
and unbounded bursts of applause; they will be repeated this day and
to-morrow for the last times this season." Reports similar in tone to the
foregoing continued to appear in the newspapers for many years.
That the fairs were visited at and from this time almost exclusively by
the lower orders of society is tolerably obvious from the fact that,
though the number and variety of the shows were greater, and advertising
was more largely resorted to every year as a medium of publicity, the
showmen had ceased to use the columns of the London press for this
purpose. Bills were given away in the fair, or displayed on the outsides
of the shows, but few of these have been preserved, though the few extant
are the only memorials of the London fairs during several years.
The only bill of 1787 which I have succeeded in finding announces a dwarf
with the remarkable name of Kelham Whiteland; he is said to have been born
at Ipswich, but his height, strange to say, is not stated, a blank being
left before the word _inches_. Probably he was growing, and his exhibitor
deemed it advisable, as a matter of financial economy, to have a large
number of bills printed at one time.
Flockton, who was the leading showman of this period, was the sole
advertiser of 1789, when he put forth the following announcement:--
"MR. FLOCKTON'S Most Grand and Unparallelled Exhibition. Consisting,
first, in the display of the Original and Universally admired ITALIAN
FANTOCCINI, exhibited in the same Skilful and Wonderful Manner, as well as
Striking Imitations of Living Performers, as represented and exhibited
before the Royal Family, and the most illustrious Characters in this
Kingdom. MR. FLOCKTON will display his inimitable DEXTERITY OF HAND,
Different from all pretenders to the said Art. To which will be perform'd
an ingenious and Spirited Opera called The PADLOCK. Principal vocal
performers, Signor Giovanni Orsi and Signora Vidina. The whole to conclude
with his grand and inimitable MUSICAL CLOCK, at first view, a curious
organ, exhibited three times before their Majesties."
In this clock nine hundred figures were said to be shown at work at
various trades.
In the following year, two wonderful rams were exhibited in Bartholomew
Fair. One of them had a single horn, growing from the centre of the
forehead, like the unicorn of the heralds; the other had six legs. One of
the principal shows of this year was advertised as "the Original Theatre
(Late the celebrated Yates and Shuter, of facetious Memory), Up the
Greyhound Inn Yard, the only real and commodious place for Theatrical
Performances. The Performers selected from the most distinguished Theatres
in England, Scotland, &c. The Representation consists of an entirely New
Piece, called, The Spaniard Well Drub'd, or the British Tar Victorious."
This clap-trap drama concluded with "a Grand Procession of the King,
French Heroes, Guards, Municipal Troops, &c., to the Champ de Mars, to
swear to the Revolution Laws, as established by the Magnificent National
Assembly, on the 14th of July, 1790." There was "hornpipe dancing by the
renowned Jack Bowling," and an "Olio of wit, whim, and fancy, in Song,
Speech, and Grimace."
Two years later, the London Fairs were visited by a couple of dwarfs,
almost as famous in their day as Tom Thumb and his Lilliputian bride in
our own. These were Thomas Allen, described in the bill of the show as
"the most surprising small man ever before the public," and who had
previously been exhibited at the Lyceum, where he was visited by the Duke
of York and the Duke of Clarence; and, again to quote the bill, which
seems to have been based on the announcements of the Corsican Fairy, some
of the passages being identical,--
"MISS MORGAN, the Celebrated WINDSOR FAIRY, known in _London_ and
_Windsor_ by the Addition of LADY MORGAN, a Title which His Majesty was
pleased to confer on her.
"This unparallelled Woman is in the 35th year of her age, and only 18
pounds weight. Her form affords a pleasing surprise, and her admirable
symmetry engages attention. She was introduced to their MAJESTIES at the
_Queen's Lodge, Windsor_, on Saturday the 4th of August, 1781, by the
recommendation of the late Dr. _Hunter_; when they were pleased to
pronounce her the finest Display of Human Nature in _miniature_ they ever
saw.--But we shall say no more of these great Wonders of Nature: let those
who honour them with their visits, judge for themselves.
"Let others boast of stature, or of birth,
This glorious Truth shall fill our souls with mirth.
'That we now are, and hope, for years, to sing,
The SMALLEST subject of the GREATEST King!'
"[Pointing Hand] Admittance to Ladies and Gentlemen, 1_s._ Children, Half
Price.
"[Asterism] In this and many other parts of the Kingdom, it is too common
to show deformed persons, with various arts and deceptions, under
denominations of persons in miniature, to impose on the public.
"This little couple are, beyond contradiction, the most wonderful display
of nature ever held out to the admiration of mankind.
"N.B. The above Lady's mother is with her, and will attend at any Lady or
Gentleman's house, if required."
Flockton died in 1794, at Peckham, where he had lived for several years in
comfort and respectability, having realised what was then regarded as a
considerable fortune. He had attended the London Fairs, and many of the
chief provincial ones, for many years, retiring to his cottage at Peckham
in the winter. His representation of Punch was not only superior in every
way to that of the open air puppet shows, but famous for the introduction
of a struggle between the mimic representative of the Prince of Darkness
and a fine Newfoundland dog, in which the canine combatant seized the
enemy by the nose, and finally carried him off the stage.
Flockton had no children, and probably no other relatives, for he
bequeathed his show, with all the properties pertaining to it, to Gyngell,
a clever performer of tricks of sleight of hand, and a widow named Flint,
both of whom had travelled with it for several years; and between these
two persons and other members of his company he divided the whole of his
accumulated gains, amounting to five thousand pounds. His successors were
announced next Bartholomew Fair as "the Widow Flint and Gyngell, at
Flockton's original Theatre, up the Greyhound Yard." Gyngell exhibited his
conjuring tricks, and performed on the musical glasses; and his wife sang
between this part of the entertainment and the exhibition of the
_fantoccini_ and Flockton's celebrated clock, which seems either to have
been over-puffed by its original exhibitor, or to have fallen out of
repair, for it was now said to contain five hundred figures, instead of
the nine hundred originally claimed for it. Perhaps, however, the larger
number was a misprint.
Widow Flint seems to have died soon after Flockton, or to have disposed of
her share in the show to Gyngell; for the bill of 1795 is the only one I
have found with her name as co-proprietor. Gyngell attended the London
fairs, and the principal fairs for many miles round the metropolis, for
thirty years after Flockton's death, and is spoken of by persons old
enough to remember him as a quiet, gentlemanly man.
Jobson, the puppet-showman, who had been in the field as long as Flockton,
was prosecuted in 1797, with several other owners of similar shows, for
making his puppets speak, which was held to be an infraction of the laws
relating to theatrical licences. This circumstance proves Strutt to have
been in error in describing Flockton as the last of the "motion-masters,"
the latter having been dead three years when his contemporaries were
prosecuted. I have not found Jobson's name among the showmen at the London
fairs in later years, however; and Gyngell's puppets appear to have
dropped out of existence with the musical clock, during the early years of
his career as a showman.
The suppression of Bartholomew Fair was strongly urged upon the Court of
Common Council in 1798, and the expediency of the measure was referred by
the Court to the City Lands Committee, but nothing came of the discussion
at that time. It was proposed to limit the duration of the fair to one
day, but this suggestion was rejected by the Court of Common Council on
the ground that the limitation would cause the fair to be crowded to an
extent that would be dangerous to life and limb. It is doubtful, however,
whether the showmen would have found the profits of one day sufficient to
induce them, had the experiment been tried, to incur the expense of
putting up their booths.
The fair went on as before, therefore, and Rowlandson's print sets before
us the scene which it presented in 1799 as thoroughly and as vividly as
Setchel's engraving has done the Bartholomew Fair of the first quarter of
the century. Gyngell's "grand medley" (a name adopted from Jobson) was
there; and the menageries of Miles and Polito, the Italian successor of
Pidcock, and very famous in his day; and Abraham Saunders, whom we meet
with for the first time, with the theatre which he appears to have
sometimes substituted for the circus, perhaps when an execution had
deprived him of his horses, or a bad season had obliged him to sell them;
and Miss Biffin, who, having been born without arms, painted portraits
with a brush affixed to her right shoulder, and exhibited herself and her
productions at fairs as the best mode of obtaining patronage.
Down to the end of the last century there are no records of a circus
having appeared at the London fairs. Astley is said to have taken his stud
and company to Bartholomew Fair at one time, but I have not succeeded in
finding any bill or advertisement of the great equestrian in connection
with fairs. The amphitheatre which has always borne his name (except
during the lesseeship of Mr. Boucicault, who chose to call it the
Westminster Theatre, a title about as appropriate as the Marylebone would
be in Shoreditch), was opened in 1780, and he had previously given open
air performances on the same site, only the seats being roofed over. The
enterprising character of Astley renders it not improbable that he may
have tried his fortune at the fairs when the circus was closed, as it has
usually been during the summer; and he may not have commenced his season
at the amphitheatre until after Bartholomew Fair, or have given there a
performance which he was accustomed to give in the afternoon at a large
room in Piccadilly, where the tricks of a performing horse were varied
with conjuring and _Ombres Chinoises_, a kind of shadow pantomime.
But though Astley's was the first circus erected in England, equestrian
performances in the open air had been given before his time by Price and
Sampson. The site of Dobney's Place, at the back of Penton Street,
Islington, was, in the middle of the last century, a tea-garden and
bowling-green, to which Johnson, who leased the premises in 1767, added
the attraction of tumbling and rope-dancing performances, which had become
so popular at Sadler's Wells. Price commenced his equestrian performances
at this place in 1770, and soon had a rival in Sampson, who performed
similar feats in a field behind the Old Hats public-house. It was not
until ten years later, according to the historians of Lambeth, that Philip
Astley exhibited his feats of horsemanship in a field near the Halfpenny
Hatch, forming his first ring with a rope and stakes, after the manner of
the mountebanks of a later day, and going round with his hat after each
performance to collect the largesses of the spectators, a part of the
business which, in the slang of strolling acrobats and other entertainers
of the public in bye-streets and market-places, and on village greens, is
called "doing a nob."
This remarkable man was born in 1742, at Newcastle-under-Lyme, where his
father carried on the business of a cabinet maker. He received little or
no education--no uncommon thing at that time,--and, having worked a few
years with his father, enlisted in a cavalry regiment. His imposing
appearance, being over six feet in height, with the proportions of a
Hercules, and the voice of a Stentor, attracted attention to him; and his
capture of a standard at the battle of Emsdorff, made him one of the
celebrities of his regiment. While serving in the army, he learned many
feats of horsemanship from an itinerant equestrian named Johnson, and
often exhibited them for the amusement of his comrades. On his discharge
from the army, being presented by General Elliot with a horse, he bought
another in Smithfield, and with these two animals gave the open air
performances in Lambeth, which have been mentioned.