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.
Nelson Lee had just completed a round of engagements at the London
theatres when, in 1822, his brother, having terminated his engagement with
Bannister's circus, came to the metropolis, and fitted up an unoccupied
factory in the Old Kent Road as a theatre. Nelson joined him in the
enterprise, which for a time was tolerably successful; but they had
omitted the requisite preliminary of obtaining a licence, and one night a
strong force of constables invaded the theatre, and arrested every one
present, audience as well as actors, with one exception. Saker, who
afterwards won some distinction as a comedian, ascended into a loft on the
first alarm, and drew up the ladder by which he had escaped. When all was
quiet, he descended, and left the building through a window. The
watch-houses of Southwark, Newington, Camberwell, and Greenwich were
filled with the offenders, most of whom, however, were discharged on the
following day, while the Lees, who pleaded ignorance of the law, escaped
with a small fine.
The same year witnessed the final performances of "Lady Holland's Mob."
About five thousand of the rabble of the City assembled in the
neighbourhood of Skinner Street, about midnight of the eve of St.
Bartholomew, and roared and rioted till between three and four o'clock
next morning, without interference from the watch or the constables. From
this time, however, this annual Saturnalia was not observed, or was
observed so mildly that the newspapers contain no record of the
circumstance.
In 1823, Richardson presented his patrons with a drama called _The Virgin
Bride_, and an extravaganza entitled _Tom, Logic, and Jerry_, founded upon
Moncrieff's drama, and concluding with a panorama of the metropolis. On
the third day, a romantic drama called _The Wanderer_ was substituted.
Wombwell's menagerie comes prominently into notice about this time. Its
proprietor is said to have begun life as a cobbler in Monmouth Street,
Seven Dials, then a famous mart of the second-hand clothes trade, and now
called Dudley Street. The steps by which he subsequently advanced to the
position of an importer of wild animals and proprietor of one of the
largest and finest collections that ever travelled are unknown; but that
he preceded Jamrach and Rice in the former vocation is proved by the
existence of a small yellow card, bearing the device of a tiger, and the
inscription--
WOMBWELL,
WILD BEAST MERCHANT,
_Commercial Road_,
LONDON.
_All sorts of Foreign Animals, Birds, &c., bought, sold, or exchanged, at
the Repository, or the Travelling Menagerie._
Wombwell never missed Bartholomew Fair, as long as it continued to be
held, but a story is told of him which shows that he was once very near
doing so. His menagerie was at Newcastle-on-Tyne within a fortnight of the
time when it should be in Smithfield, and it did not seem possible to
reach London in time; but, being in the metropolis on some business
connected with his Commercial Road establishment, he found that Atkins was
advertising that his menagerie would be "the only wild beast show in the
fair." The rivalry which appears to have existed at that time between the
two great menagerists prompted Wombwell to post down to Newcastle, and
immediately commence a forced march to London. By making extraordinary
exertions, he succeeded in reaching the metropolis on the morning of the
first day of the fair. But his elephant had exerted itself so much on the
journey that it died within a few hours after its arrival on the ground.
Atkins heard by some means of his rival's loss, and immediately placarded
the neighbourhood with the announcement that his menagerie contained "the
only living elephant in the fair." Wombwell resolved that his rival should
not make capital of his loss in this manner, and had a long strip of
canvas painted with the words--"The only dead elephant in the fair." This
bold bid for public patronage proved a complete success. A dead elephant
was a greater rarity than a live one, and his show was crowded every day
of the fair, while Atkins's was comparatively deserted. The keen rivalry
which this story illustrates did not endure for ever, for, during the
period of my earliest recollections, from forty to fifty years ago, the
two great menageries never visited Croydon Fair together, their
proprietors agreeing to take that popular resort in their tours in
alternate years.
I never failed, in my boyhood, to visit Wombwell's, or Atkins's show,
whichever visited Croydon Fair, and could never sufficiently admire the
gorgeously-uniformed bandsmen, whose brazen instruments brayed and blared
from noon till night on the exterior platform, and the immense pictures,
suspended from lofty poles, of elephants and giraffes, lions and tigers,
zebras, boa constrictors, and whatever else was most wonderful in the
brute creation, or most susceptible of brilliant colouring. The difference
in the scale to which the zoological rarities within were depicted on the
canvas, as compared with the figures of men that were represented, was a
very characteristic feature of these pictorial displays. The boa
constrictor was given the girth of an ox, and the white bear should have
been as large as an elephant, judged by the size of the sailors who were
attacking him among his native ice-bergs.
I have a perfect recollection of Wombwell's two famous lions, Nero and
Wallace, and their keeper, "Manchester Jack," as he was called, who used
to enter Nero's cage, and sit upon the animal, open his mouth, etc. It is
said that, when Van Amburgh arrived in England with his trained lions,
tigers, and leopards, arrangements were made for a trial of skill and
daring between him and Manchester Jack, which was to have taken place at
Southampton, but fell through, owing to the American showing the white
feather. The story seems improbable, for Van Amburgh's daring in his
performances has never been excelled.
Lion-tamers, like gymnasts, are generally killed half-a-dozen times by
rumour, though they die in their beds in about the same proportion as
other men; and I remember hearing an absurd story which conferred upon
Manchester Jack the unenviable distinction of having his head bitten off
by a lion. He was said to have been exhibiting the fool-hardy trick, with
which Van Amburgh's name was so much associated, of putting his head in
the lion's mouth, and to have been awakened to a sense of his temerity and
its consequences by hearing the animal growl, and feeling its jaw close
upon his neck.
"Does he whisk his tail, Bill?" he was reported to have said to another
keeper while in this horrible situation.
"Yes," replied Bill.
"Then I am a dead man!" groaned Manchester Jack.
A moment afterwards, the lion snapped its formidable jaws, and bit off the
keeper's head. Such was the story; but it is contradicted by the fact that
Manchester Jack left the menagerie with a whole skin, and for many years
afterwards kept an inn at Taunton, where he died in 1865.
Nero's tameness and docility made him a public favourite, but the "lion,"
_par excellence_, of Wombwell's show, after the lion-baitings at Warwick,
was Wallace. At the time when the terrible death of the lion-tamer,
Macarthy, had invested the subject with extraordinary interest, a
narrative appeared in the columns of a metropolitan morning journal,
purporting to relate the experiences of "an ex-lion king," in which the
story of these combats was revived, but in a manner not easily reconciled
with the statement of the man who communicated his reminiscences to the
"special commissioner" of the journal in question, that he knew the
animals and their keeper.
"Did you ever," the ex-lion king was reported to have said, "hear of old
Wallace's fight with the dogs? George Wombwell was at very low water, and
not knowing how to get his head up again, he thought of a fight between an
old lion he had--sometimes called Wallace, sometimes Nero--and a dozen of
mastiff dogs. Wallace was as tame as a sheep; I knew him well--I wish all
lions were like him. The prices of admission ranged from a guinea up to
five guineas, and every seat was taken, and had the menagerie been three
times as large it would have been full. It was a queer go, and no mistake!
Sometimes the old lion would scratch a lump out of a dog, and sometimes
the dogs would make as if they were going to worry the old lion; but
neither side showed any serious fight, and at length the patience of the
audience got exhausted, and they went away in disgust. George's excuse
was, 'We can't make 'em fight, can we, if they won't?' There was no
getting over this, and George cleared over two thousand pounds by the
night's work."
According to the newspaper reports of the time, two of these lion-baitings
took place; and some vague report or dim recollection of the events as
they actually occurred seems to have been in the mind of the "ex-lion
king" when he gave the preceding account of them. The combats were said to
have originated in a bet between two sporting gentlemen, and the dogs were
not a dozen mastiffs, but six bull-dogs, and attacked the lion in "heats"
of three. The first fight, the incidents of which were similar in
character to those described in the foregoing story, was between Nero and
the dogs, and took place in July, 1825; at which time the menagerie was
located in the Old Factory Yard, in the outskirts of Warwick, on the road
to Northampton. This not being considered satisfactory and conclusive, a
second encounter was arranged, in which Wallace, a younger animal, was
substituted for the old lion, with very different results. Every dog that
faced the lion was killed or disabled, the last being carried about in
Wallace's mouth as a rat is by a terrier or a cat.
Shows had been excluded from Greenwich Fair this year, and Bartholomew's
was looked forward to by the showmen as the more likely on that account to
yield an abundant harvest. Hone says that Greenwich Fair was this year
suppressed by the magistrates, and the absence of shows may be regarded as
evidence of some bungling and wrong-headed interference; but a score of
booths for drinking and dancing were there, only two of which, Algar's and
the Albion, made any charge for admission to the "assembly room," the
charge for tickets at these being a shilling and sixpence respectively.
Algar's was three hundred and twenty-three feet long by sixty wide,
seventy feet of the length constituting the refreshment department, and
the rest of the space being devoted to dancing, to the music of two harps,
three violins, bass viol, two clarionets, and flute.
According to the account preserved in Hone's 'Everyday Book,' the number
of shows assembled in Smithfield this year was twenty-two, of which, one
was a theatre for dramatic performances, five theatres for the various
entertainments usually given in circuses, four menageries, one an
exhibition of glass-blowing, one a peep-show, one a mare with seven feet,
and the remaining nine, exhibitions of giants, dwarfs, albinoes, fat
children, etc. Of course, the theatre was Richardson's, and the following
bill was posted on the exterior, and given to every one who asked for it
on entering:--
[Asterism] _Change of Performance each Day._
RICHARDSON'S THEATRE.
This day will be performed, an entire new Melo-Drama, called the
"WANDERING OUTLAW;
or, the Hour of Retribution.
"Gustavus, Elector of Saxony, _Mr. Wright_. Orsina, Baron of Holstein,
_Mr. Cooper_. Ulric and Albert, Vassals to Orsina, _Messrs. Grove_ and
_Moore_. St. Clair, the Wandering Outlaw, _Mr. Smith_. Rinalda, the
Accusing Spirit, _Mr. Darling_. Monks, Vassals, Hunters, &c. Rosabella,
Wife to the Outlaw, _Mrs. Smith_. Nuns and Ladies.
"The Piece concludes with the DEATH OF ORSINA, and the Appearance of the
ACCUSING SPIRIT!
"_The Entertainments to conclude with a New Comic Harlequinade, with New
Scenery, Tricks, Dresses, and Decorations, called_
"HARLEQUIN FAUSTUS
OR, THE
DEVIL WILL HAVE HIS OWN.
"Luciferno, _Mr. Thomas_. Dæmon Amozor, afterwards Pantaloon, _Mr.
Wilkinson_. Dæmon Ziokos, afterwards Clown, _Mr. Hayward_. Violencello
Player, _Mr. Hartem_. Baker, _Mr. Thompson_. Landlord, _Mr. Wilkins_.
Fisherman, _Mr. Rae_. Doctor Faustus, afterwards Harlequin, _Mr. Salter_.
Adelada, afterwards Columbine, _Miss Wilmot_. Attendant Dæmons, Sprites,
Fairies, Ballad Singers, Flower Girls, &c., &c.
_The Pantomime will finish with_
A SPLENDID PANORAMA,
_Painted by the First Artists_.
Boxes, 2_s._ Pit, 1_s._ Gallery, 6 _d._"
The theatre had an elevation exceeding thirty-feet, and occupied a
hundred feet in width. The back of the exterior platform, or
parade-waggon, was formed of green baize, before which deeply fringed
crimson curtains were festooned, except at two places where the
money-takers sat in wide and roomy projections, fitted up like Gothic
shrines, with columns and pinnacles. Fifteen hundred variegated lamps were
disposed over various parts of this platform, some of them depending from
the top in the shape of chandeliers and lustres, and others in wreaths and
festoons. A band of ten performers, in scarlet dresses, similar to those
worn by the Queen's yeomen, played continually, passing alternately from
the parade-waggon and the orchestra, and from the interior to the open air
again.
The auditorium was about a hundred feet long, and thirty feet wide, and
was hung with green baize and crimson festoons. The seats were rows of
planks, rising gradually from the ground at the end, and facing the stage,
without any distinction of boxes, pit, or gallery. The stage was elevated,
and there was a painted proscenium, with a green curtain, and the royal
arms above, and an orchestra lined with crimson cloth. Between the
orchestra and the bottom row of seats was a large space, which, after the
seats were filled, and greatly to the discomfiture of the lower
seat-holders, was nearly occupied by spectators. There were at least a
thousand persons present on the occasion of Hone's visit.
"The curtain drew up," he says, "and presented the Wandering Outlaw, with
a forest scene and a cottage; the next scene was a castle; the third was
another scene in the forest. The second act commenced with a scene of an
old church and a market-place. The second scene was a prison, and a ghost
appeared to the tune of the evening hymn. The third scene was the castle
that formed the second scene in the first act, and the performance was
here enlivened by a murder. The fourth scene was rocks, with a cascade,
and there was a procession to an unexecuted execution; for a ghost
appeared, and saved the Wandering Outlaw from a fierce-looking headsman,
and the piece ended. Then a plump little woman sang, 'He loves, and he
rides away,' and the curtain drew up to Harlequin Faustus, wherein, after
Columbine and a Clown, the most flaming character was the devil, with a
red face and hands, in a red Spanish mantle and vest, red 'continuations,'
stockings and shoes ditto to follow, a red Spanish hat and plume above,
and a red 'brass bugle horn.' As soon as the fate of Faustus was
concluded, the sound of a gong announced the happy event, and these
performances were, in a quarter of an hour, repeated to another equally
intelligent and brilliant audience."
John Clarke, an elderly, gentlemanly-looking showman, whom I saw a few
years afterwards "mountebanking" on a piece of waste land at Norwood, and
whose memory, in spite of his infirmity of temper, is cherished by the
existing generation of equestrians and acrobats, was here with his circus,
a large show, with its back against the side of Samwell's, and its front
in a line with Hosier Lane, and therefore looking towards Smithfield Bars.
The admission to this show was sixpence. The spacious platform outside was
lighted with gas, a distinction from the other shows in the fair which
extended to the interior, where a single hoop, about two feet six inches
in diameter, with little jets of gas about an inch and a half apart, was
suspended over the arena.
"The entertainment," says Hone, "commenced by a man dancing on the tight
rope. The rope was removed and a light bay horse was mounted by a female
in trousers, with a pink gown fully frilled, flounced, and ribboned, with
the shoulders in large puffs. While the horse circled the ring at full
speed, she danced upon him, and skipped with a hoop like a skipping-rope;
she performed other dexterous feats, and concluded by dancing on the
saddle with a flag in each hand, while the horse flew round the ring with
great velocity. These and the subsequent performances were enlivened by
tunes from a clarionet and horn, and jokes from a clown, who, when she had
concluded, said to an attendant, 'Now, John, take the horse off, and
whatever you do, rub him down well with a cabbage.' Then a man rode and
danced on another horse, a very fine animal, and leaped from him three
times over garters, placed at a considerable height and width apart,
alighting on the horse's back while he was going round. This rider was
remarkably dexterous.
"In conclusion, the clown got up, and rode with many antic tricks, till,
on the sudden, an apparently drunken fellow rushed from the audience into
the ring, and began to pull the clown from the horse. The manager
interfered, and the people cried, 'Turn him out;' but the man persisted,
and the clown getting off, offered to help him up, and threw him over the
horse's back to the ground. At length the intruder was seated, with his
face to the tail, though he gradually assumed a proper position, and,
riding as a man thoroughly intoxicated would ride, fell off; he then threw
off his hat and great coat, and his waistcoat, and then an under
waistcoat, and a third, and a fourth, and more than a dozen waistcoats.
Upon taking off the last, his trousers fell down, and he appeared in his
shirt; whereupon he crouched, and drawing his shirt off in a twinkling,
appeared in a handsome fancy dress, leaped into the saddle, rode standing
with great grace, received great applause, made his bows, and so the
performance concluded."
The remainder of the shows of this class charged a penny only for
admission. Of Samwell's, Hone says,--"I paid my penny to the money-taker,
a slender 'fine lady,' with three feathers in a 'jewelled turban,' and a
dress of blue and white muslin, and silver; and within-side I saw the
'fat, contented, easy' proprietor, who was arrayed in corresponding
magnificence. If he loved leanness, it was in 'his better half,' for
himself had none of it. Obesity had disqualified him for activity, and
therefore in his immensely tight and large satin jacket, he was, as much
as possible, the active commander of his active performers. He
superintended the dancing of a young female on the tight rope. Then he
announced 'A little boy will dance a horn-pipe on the rope,' and he
ordered his 'band' inside to play; this was obeyed without difficulty, for
it merely consisted of one man, who blew a hornpipe tune on a Pan's-pipe;
while it went on, the little boy danced on the tight rope; so far it was a
hornpipe dance, and no farther. 'The little boy will stand on his head on
the rope,' said the manager; and the little boy stood on his head
accordingly. Then another female danced on the slack wire; and after her
came a horse, not a dancing horse, but a 'learned' horse, quite as learned
as the horse at Ball's theatre."
At the show last mentioned was a man who balanced chairs on his chin, and
holding a knife in his mouth, balanced a sword on the edge of the knife;
he then put a pewter plate on the hilt of the sword horizontally, and so
balanced the sword with the plate on the edge of the knife as before, the
plate having previously had imparted to it a rotary motion, which it
communicated to the sword, and preserved during the balance. He also
balanced the sword and plate in like manner, with a crown-piece placed
edge-wise between the point of the sword and the knife; and afterwards
with two crown-pieces, and then with a key. These feats were accompanied
by the jokes and grimaces of a clown, and succeeded by an acrobatic
performance by boys, and a hornpipe by the lady of the company. Then a
learned horse was introduced, and, as desired by his master, indicated a
lady who wished to be married, a gentleman who preferred a quart of ale to
a sermon, a lady who liked lying in bed when she should be up, and other
persons of various proclivities amusing to the rest of the spectators.
Chappell and Pike's was a very large show, fitted up after the manner of
Richardson's, with a parade, on which a clown and several acrobats in
tights and trunks, and young ladies in ballet costume, alternately
promenaded and danced, until the interior filled, and the performances
commenced. These consisted of tumbling, slack-rope dancing, etc., as at
Ball's, but better executed. The names of these showmen do not appear
again in the records of the London fairs, from which it may be inferred
that the show was a new venture, and failed. There was a performer named
Chappell in the company of Richardson's theatre, while under the
management of Nelson Lee; but whether related to the showman of 1825 I am
unable to say.
The performances of "Brown's Grand Troop, from Paris," commenced with an
exhibition of conjuring; among other tricks, the conjurer gave a boy beer
to drink out of a funnel, making him blow through it to show that it was
empty, and afterwards applying it to each of the boy's ears, from whence,
through the funnel, the beer appeared to reflow, and poured on the ground.
Afterwards girls danced on the single and double slack wire, and a
melancholy-looking clown, among other things, said they were "as clever
as the barber and blacksmith who shaved magpies at twopence a dozen." The
show concluded with a learned horse.
The menageries of Wombwell and Atkins were two of the largest shows in the
fair. The back of the former abutted on the side of Chappell and Pike's
theatre, on the north side of Smithfield, with the front looking towards
Giltspur Street, at which avenue it was the first show. The front was
entirely covered with painted show-cloths representing the animals, with
the proprietor's name in immense letters above, and the inscription, "The
Conquering Lion," very conspicuously displayed. There were other
show-cloths along the whole length of the side, surmounted by this
inscription, stretching out in one line of large capital letters, "Nero
and Wallace, the same lions that fought at Warwick." One of the front
show-cloths represented the second fight; a lion stood up, with a bleeding
dog in his mouth, and his left fore paw resting upon another dog. A third
dog was in the act of flying at him ferociously, and one, wounded and
bleeding, was retreating. There were seven other show-cloths on this
front, with the inscription "Nero and Wallace" between them. One of these
show-cloths, whereon the monarch of the forest was painted, was
inscribed, "Nero, the Great Lion, from Caffraria."
Wombwell's collection comprised at this time four lions and a lioness, two
leopardesses, with cubs, a hyena, a bitch wolf and cubs, a polar bear, a
pair of zebras, two onagers or wild asses, and a large assortment of
monkeys and exotic birds. The bills announced "a remarkably fine tigress
in the same den with a noble British lion;" but Hone notes that this
conjunction, the announcement of which was probably suggested by the
attractiveness of the lion-tiger cubs and their parents in Atkins's
menagerie, was not to be seen in reality. The combats at Warwick produced
a strong desire on the part of the public to see the lions who had figured
in them, and the menagerie was crowded each day from morn till night.
"Manchester Jack" entered Nero's cage, and invited the visitors to follow,
which many ventured to do, paying sixpence for the privilege, on his
assurance that they might do so with perfect safety.
Hone complains of the confusion and disorder which prevailed, and which
are inseparable from a crowd, and may be not uncharitably suspected of
being exaggerated in some degree by the evident prejudice which had been
created in his mind by the lion-baitings at Warwick. It is certain,
however, that gardens like those of the Zoological Society afford
conditions for the health and comfort of the animals, and for their
exhibition to the public, much more favourable than can be obtained in the
best regulated travelling caravan, or in buildings such as the Tower
menagerie and Exeter Change. It is impossible to do justice to animals
which are cooped within the narrow limits of a travelling show, or in any
place which does not admit of thorough ventilation. Apart from the
impracticability of allowing sufficient space and a due supply of air, a
considerable amount of discomfort to the animals is inseparable from
continuous jolting about the country in caravans, and from the braying of
brass bands and the glare of gas at evening exhibitions.
It took even the Zoological Society some time to learn the conditions most
favourable to the maintenance of the mammal tribes of tropical countries
in a state of health, while subject to the restraint necessary for their
safe keeping. Too much importance was at first attached to warming the
cages in which the monkeys and carnivora of India and Africa were kept,
and too little to ventilating them. I remember the time when the
carnivora-house in the Society's gardens was a long, narrow building, with
double folding-doors at each end, and a range of cages on each side. The
cages were less than half the size of the light and lofty apartments now
appropriated to the same species, and were artificially heated to such a
degree that the atmosphere resembled that of the small glass-house in Kew
Gardens in which the paper-reed and other examples of the aquatic
vegetation of tropical countries are grown, and was rendered more stifling
by the strong ammoniacal odour which constantly prevaded it.
It was found, however, that the mortality among the animals,
notwithstanding all the care that was taken to keep them warm, was very
great; and the idea gradually dawned upon the minds of the Council of the
Society that ventilation might be more conducive to the health and
longevity of the animals than any amount of heat. As lions and tigers,
leopards and hyenas, baboons and monkeys, live, in a state of nature, in
the open air of their native forests, the imperfect ventilation of the old
carnivora-house and monkey-house seemed, when once the idea was broached,
to be a very likely cause of the excessive mortality, which, as lions and
tigers cost from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty pounds, was
a constant source of heavy demands upon the Society's funds. It was
determined, therefore, to try the experiment of constructing larger cages,
and admitting the pure external air to them; and the results were so
satisfactory that everybody wondered that the improved hygienic conditions
had not been thought of before.
Atkins had a very fine collection of the feline genus, and was famous for
the production of hybrids between the lion and the tigress. The cubs so
produced united some of the external characteristics of both parents,
their colour being tawny, marked while they were young with darker
stripes, such as may be observed in black kittens, the progeny of a tabby
cat. These markings disappeared, however, as the lion-tigers approached
maturity, at which time the males had the mane entirely deficient, or very
little developed. I remember seeing a male puma and a leopardess in the
same cage in this menagerie, but I am unable to state whether the union
was fruitful.
The display of show-cloths on the outside of this menagerie extended about
forty feet in length, and the proprietor's name flamed along the front in
coloured lamps. A brass band of eight performers, wearing scarlet tunics
and leopard-skin caps, played on the outside; and Atkins shouted from time
to time, "Don't be deceived! The great performing elephant is _here_; also
the only lion and tigress in one den to be seen in the fair, or I'll
forfeit a thousand guineas! Walk up!--walk up!"
The following singularly descriptive bill was posted on the outside and
wherever else it could be displayed:--
"MORE WONDERS IN
ATKINS'S ROYAL MENAGERIE.
Under the Patronage of HIS MAJESTY.
G. [Illustration] R.
"Wonderful Phenomenon in Nature! The singular and hitherto deemed
impossible occurrence of a LION and TIGRESS cohabiting and producing
young, has actually taken place in this menagerie, at Windsor. The
tigress, on Wednesday, the 27th of October last, produced _three fine
cubs_; one of them strongly resembles the tigress; the other two are of a
lighter colour, but striped. Mr. Atkins had the honour (through the kind
intervention of the Marquis of Conyngham) of exhibiting the _lion-tigers_
to His Majesty, on the first of November, 1824, at the Royal Lodge,
Windsor Great Park; when His Majesty was pleased to observe, they were the
greatest curiosity of the beast creation he had ever witnessed.
"The royal striped _Bengal Tigress_ has again whelped three fine cubs,
(April 22,) two males and one female; the males are white, but striped;
the female resembles the tigress, and, singular to observe, she fondles
them with all the care of an attentive mother. The sire of the young cubs
is the noble male lion. This remarkable instance of subdued temper and
association of animals to permit the keeper to enter their den, and
introduce their young to the spectators, is the greatest phenomenon in
natural philosophy.
"That truly singular and wonderful animal, the AUROCHOS. Words can only
convey but a very confused idea of this animal's shape, for there are few
so remarkably formed. Its head is furnished with two large horns, growing
from the forehead, in a form peculiar to no other animal; from the
nostrils to the forehead is a stiff tuft of hair, and underneath the jaw
to the neck is a similar brush of hair, and between the forelegs is hair
growing about a foot and a half long. The mane is like that of a horse,
white, tinged with black, with a beautiful long flowing white tail; the
eye remarkably keen, and as large as the eye of the elephant: colour of
the animal, dark chesnut; the appearance of the head, in some degree
similar to the buffalo, and in some part formed like the goat, the hoof
being divided; such is the general outline of this quadruped, which seems
to partake of several species. This beautiful animal was brought over by
Captain White, from the south of Africa, and landed in England, September
20th, 1823; and is the same animal so frequently mistaken by travellers
for the unicorn: further to describe its peculiarities would occupy too
much space in a handbill. The only one in England.
"That colossal animal, the wonderful performing
ELEPHANT,
Upwards of ten feet high!! Five tons weight!! His consumption of hay,
corn, straw, carrots, water, &c., exceeds 800 lbs. daily. The elephant,
the human race excepted, is the most respectable of animals. In size, he
surpasses all other terrestrial creatures, and by far exceeds any other
travelling animal in England. He has ivory tusks, four feet long, one
standing out on each side of his trunk. His trunk serves him instead of
hands and arms, with which he can lift up and seize the smallest as well
as the largest objects. He alone drags machines which six horses cannot
move. To his prodigious strength, he adds courage, prudence, and an exact
obedience. He remembers favours as well as injuries; in short, the
sagacity and knowledge of this extraordinary animal are beyond anything
human imagination can possibly suggest. He will lie down and get up at the
word of command, notwithstanding the many fabulous tales of their having
no joints in their legs. He will take a sixpence from the floor, and place
it in a box he has in the caravan; bolt and unbolt a door; take his
keeper's hat off, and replace it; and by the command of his keeper, will
perform so many wonderful tricks that he will not only astonish and
entertain the audience, but justly prove himself the half-reasoning beast.
He is the only elephant now travelling.
"A full grown LION and LIONESS with four cubs, produced December 12, 1824,
at Cheltenham.
"_Male Bengal Tiger._ Next to the lion, the tiger is the most tremendous
of the carnivorous class; and whilst he possesses all the bad qualities of
the former, seems to be a stranger to the good ones; to pride, to
strength, to courage, the lion adds greatness, and sometimes, perhaps,
clemency; while the tiger, without provocation, is fierce--without
necessity, is cruel. Instead of instinct, he hath nothing but a uniform
rage, a blind fury; so blind, indeed, so undistinguishing, that he
frequently devours his own progeny; and if the tigress offers to defend
them he tears in pieces the dam herself.
"The _Onagra_, a native of the Levant, the eastern parts of Asia, and the
northern parts of Africa. This race differs from the Zebra, by the size of
the body, (which is larger,) slenderness of the legs, and lustre of the
hair. The only one now alive in England.
"_Two Zebras_, one full grown, the other in its infant state, in which it
seems as if the works of art had been combined with those of nature in
this wonderful production. In symmetry of shape, and beauty of colour, it
is the most elegant of all quadrupeds ever presented; uniting the graceful
figure of a horse, with the fleetness of a stag; beautifully striped with
regular lines, black and white.
"A Nepaul _Bison_, only twenty-four inches high.
"_Panther_, or spotted tiger of Buenos Ayres, the only one travelling.
"A pair of _rattle-tail Porcupines_.
"Striped untamable _Hyæna_, a tiger-wolf.
"An elegant _Leopard_, the handsomest marked animal ever seen.
"Spotted _Laughing Hyæna_, the same kind of animal described never to be
tamed; but, singular to observe, it is perfectly tame, and its attachment
to a dog in the same den is very remarkable.
"The spotted _Cavy_.
"Pair of _Jackalls_.
"Pair of interesting _Sledge Dogs_, brought over by Captain Parry from one
of the northern expeditions; they are used by the Esquimaux to draw the
sledges on the ice, which they accomplish with great velocitv.
"A pair of _Rackoons_, from North America.
"The _Oggouta_, from Java.
"A pair of Jennetts, or wild cats.
"The _Coatimondi_, or ant-eater.
"A pair of those extraordinary and rare birds, PELICANS of the wilderness;
the only two alive in the three kingdoms.--These birds have been
represented on all crests and coats of arms, to cut their breasts open
with the points of their bills, and feed their young with their own blood,
and are justly allowed by all authors to be the greatest curiosity of the
feathered tribe.
"_Ardea Dubia_, or adjutant of Bengal, gigantic emew, or Linnæus's
southern ostrich. The peculiar characteristics that distinguish this bird
from the rest of the feathered tribe,--it comes from Brazil, in the new
continent; it stands from eight to nine feet high when full grown; it is
too large to fly, but is capable of outrunning the fleetest horses of
Arabia; what is still more singular, every quill produces two feathers.
The only one travelling.
"A pair of rapacious _Condor Minors_, from the interior of South America,
the largest birds of flight in the world when full grown; it is the same
kind of bird the Indians have asserted to carry off a deer or young calf
in their talons, and two of them are sufficient to destroy a buffalo, and
the wings are as much as eighteen feet across.
"The great _Horned Owl_ of Bohemia. Several species of gold and silver
pheasants, of the most splendid plumage, from China and Peru.
Yellow-crested cockatoo. Scarlet and buff macaws.--Admittance to see the
whole menagerie, 1_s._--Children 6_d._--Open from ten in the forenoon till
feeding-time, half-past nine, 2_s._"
Hone says that this menagerie was thoroughly clean, and that the condition
of the animals told that they were well taken care of. The elephant, with
his head protruded between the stout bars of his house, whisked his
proboscis diligently in search of eatables from the spectators, who
supplied him with fruit and biscuits, or handed him halfpence which he
uniformly conveyed by his trunk to a retailer of gingerbread, and got his
money's worth in return. Then he unbolted the door to let in his keeper,
and bolted it after him; took up a sixpence with his trunk, lifted the lid
of a little box fixed against the wall, and deposited it within it, and
some time afterwards relifted the lid, and taking out the sixpence with a
single motion, returned it to the keeper; he knelt down when told, fired
off a blunderbuss, took off the keeper's hat, and afterwards replaced it
on his head as well as the man's hand could have done it; in short, he was
perfectly docile, and well maintained the reputation of his species for a
high degree of intelligence.
"The keeper," says Hone, "showed every animal in an intelligent manner,
and answered the questions of the company readily and with civility. His
conduct was rewarded by a good parcel of halfpence when his hat went round
with a hope that 'the ladies and gentlemen would not forget the keeper
before he showed the lion and tigress.' The latter was a beautiful young
animal, with playful cubs about the size of bull-dogs, but without the
least fierceness. When the man entered the den, they frolicked and climbed
about him like kittens; he took them up in his arms, bolted them in a back
apartment, and after playing with the tigress a little, threw back a
partition which separated her den from the lion's, and then took the lion
by the beard. This was a noble animal; he was couching, and being inclined
to take his rest, only answered the keeper's command to rise by extending
his whole length, and playfully putting up one of his magnificent paws, as
a cat does when in a good humour. The man then took a short whip, and
after a smart lash or two upon his back, the lion rose with a yawn, and
fixed his eye on his keeper with a look that seemed to say, 'Well, I
suppose I must humour you.'
"The man then sat down at the back of the den, with his back at the
partition, and after some ordering and coaxing, the tigress sat on his
right hand, and the lion on his left, and, all three being thus seated,
he threw his arms round their necks, played with their noses, and laid
their heads in his lap. He rose, and the animals with him; the lion stood
in a fine majestic position, but the tigress reared, and putting one foot
over his shoulder, and patting him with the other, as if she had been
frolicking with one of her cubs, he was obliged to check her playfulness.
Then by coaxing, and pushing him about, he caused the lion to sit down,
and while in that position opened the animal's ponderous jaws with his
hands, and thrust his face down into the lion's throat, wherein he
shouted, and there held his head nearly a minute. After this he held up a
common hoop for the tigress to leap through, and she did it frequently.
The lion seemed more difficult to move to this sport. He did not appear to
be excited by command or entreaty; at last, however, he went through the
hoop, and having been once roused, he repeated the action several times;
the hoop was scarcely two feet in diameter. The exhibition of these two
animals concluded by the lion lying down on his side, when the keeper
stretched himself to his whole length upon him, and then calling to the
tigress she jumped upon the man, extended herself with her paws upon his
shoulders, placed her face sideways upon his, and the whole three lay
quiescent till the keeper suddenly slipped himself off the lion's side,
with the tigress on him, and the trio gambolled and rolled about on the
floor of the den, like playful children on the floor of a nursery.
"Of the beasts there is not room to say more than that their number was
surprising, considering that they formed a better selected collection, and
showed in higher condition from cleanliness and good feeding, than any
assemblage I ever saw. Their variety and beauty, with the usual accessory
of monkeys, made a splendid picture. The birds were equally admirable,
especially the pelicans and the emew. This show would have furnished a
dozen sixpenny shows, at least, to a Bartlemy Fair twenty years ago."
The other menageries were penny shows. One was Ballard's, of which the
great attraction was still, though nine years had elapsed since the event,
the lioness which attacked the Exeter mail-coach. The collection contained
besides a fine lion, a tiger, a large polar bear, and several smaller
quadrupeds, monkeys, and birds. Hone has not preserved the name of the
owner of the fourth collection, which he says was "a really good
exhibition of a fine lion, with leopards, and various other beasts of the
forest. They were mostly docile and in good condition. One of the leopards
was carried by his keeper a pick-a-back." This was probably Morgan's,
which we find at this fair three years later.
The daily cost of the food of the animals in a menagerie is no trifle. The
amount of animal food required for the carnivora in a first class
menagerie is about four hundredweight daily, consisting chiefly of the
shins, hearts, and heads of bullocks. A full-grown lion or tiger will
consume twelve pounds of meat per day, and this is said to have been the
allowance in Wombwell's menagerie; but it is more, I believe, than is
allowed in the gardens of the Zoological Society. Bears are allowed meat
only in the winter, their food at other seasons consisting of bread,
sopped biscuit, or boiled rice, sweetened with sugar. Then there are the
elephants, camels, antelopes, etc., to be provided for; and the quantity
of hay, cabbages, bread, and boiled rice which an elephant will consume,
in addition to the buns and biscuits given to it by the visitors, is, as
Dominie Sampson would say, prodigious. There is a story told of an
elephant belonging to a travelling menagerie which escaped from the stable
in which it had been placed for the night, and, wandering through the
village, found a baker's shop open. It pushed its head in, and, helping
itself with its trunk, devoured sixteen four-pound loaves, and was
beginning to empty the glass jars of the sweets they contained when the
arrival of its keeper interrupted its stolen repast.
I now come to the minor exhibitions, of which the first from Hosier Lane,
where it stood at the corner, was a peep-show, in which rudely painted
pictures were successively lowered by the showmen, and viewed through
circular apertures, fitted with glasses of magnifying power. A green
curtain separated the spectators from the outer throng while they gazed
upon such strangely contrasted scenes as the murder of Weare and the Queen
of Sheba's visit to Solomon, the execution of Probert and the conversion
of St. Paul, the Greenland whale fishery and the building of Babel,
Wellington at Waterloo and Daniel in the lions' den!
Next to this stood a show, on the exterior of which a man beat a drum with
one hand, and played a hurdy-gurdy with the other, pausing occasionally to
invite the gazers to walk up, and see the living wonders thus announced on
the show-cloths:--"_Miss Hipson, the Middlesex Wonder, the Largest Child
in the Kingdom, when young the Handsomest Child in the World.--The Persian
Giant.--The Fair Circassian with Silver Hair.--The Female Dwarf, Two Feet
Eleven Inches high.--Two Wild Indians from the Malay Islands in the
East._" When a company had collected, the wonders were shown from the
floor of a caravan on wheels, one side being taken out, and replaced by a
curtain, which was drawn or thrown back as occasion required. After the
audience had dispersed, Hone was permitted by the proprietor of the show,
Nicholas Maughan, of Ipswich, to go "behind the curtain," where the artist
who accompanied him completed his sketches for the illustrations in the
'Every-day Book,' while Hone entered into conversation with the persons
exhibited.
"Miss Hipson, only twelve years of age, is," he says, "remarkably
gigantic, or rather corpulent, for her age, pretty, well-behaved, and
well-informed; she weighed sixteen stone a few months before, and has
since increased in size; she has ten brothers and sisters, nowise
remarkable in appearance: her father, who is dead, was a bargeman at
Brentford. The name of the 'little lady' is Lydia Walpole; she was born at
Addiscombe, near Yarmouth, and is sociable, agreeable, and intelligent.
The fair Circassian is of pleasing countenance and manners. The Persian
giant is a good-natured, tall, stately negro. The two Malays could not
speak English, except three words, 'drop o' rum,' which they repeated with
great glee. One of them, with long hair reaching below the waist,
exhibited the posture of drawing a bow. Mr. Maughan described them as
being passionate, and showed me a severe wound on his finger which the
little one had given him by biting, while he endeavoured to part him and
his countryman, during a quarrel a few days ago. A 'female giant' was one
of the attractions of this exhibition, but she could not be shown for
illness: Miss Hipson described her to be a very good young woman.
"There was an appearance of ease and good condition, with content of mind,
in the persons composing this show, which induced me to put several
questions to them, and I gathered that I was not mistaken in my
conjecture. They described themselves as being very comfortable, and that
they were taken great care of, and well treated by the proprietor, Mr.
Maughan, and his partner in the show. The 'little lady' had a thorough
good character from Miss Hipson as an affectionate creature; and it seems
the females obtained exercise by rising early, and being carried out into
the country in a post-chaise, where they walked, and thus maintained their
health. This was to me the most pleasing show in the fair."
Between this show and Richardson's theatre was a small temporary stable,
in which was exhibited a mare with seven feet: the admission to this sight
was threepence. The following is a copy of the printed bill:--
"To Sportsmen and Naturalists.--Now exhibiting, one of the greatest living
natural curiosities in the world; namely, a thorough-bred chesnut MARE,
with seven legs! four years of age, perfectly sound, free from blemish,
and shod on six of her feet. She is very fleet in her paces, being
descended from that famous horse Julius Cæsar, out of a thorough-bred race
mare descended from Eclipse, and is remarkably docile and temperate. She
is the property of Mr. J. Checketts, of Belgrave hall, Leicestershire; and
will be exhibited for a few days as above."
Each of this mare's hind legs, besides its natural foot, had another
growing out from the fetlock joint; one of these additions was nearly the
size of the natural foot; the third and least grew from the same joint of
the fore leg. Andrews, the exhibitor, told Hone that they grew slowly, and
that the new hoofs were, at first, very soft, and exuded during the
process of growth.
The line of shows on the east side of Smithfield, commencing at Long Lane,
began with an exhibition of an Indian woman, a Chinese lady, and a dwarf;
and next to this stood a small exhibition of wax-figures, to which a dwarf
and a Maori woman were added. On a company being assembled, the showman
made a speech: "Ladies and gentlemen, before I show you the wonderful
prodigies of nature, let me introduce you to the wonderful works of art;"
and then he drew a curtain, behind which the wax-figures stood. "This,"
said he, "ladies and gentlemen, is the famous old Mother Shipton; and here
is the unfortunate Jane Shore, the beautiful mistress of Edward the
Fourth; next to her is his Majesty George the Fourth of most glorious
memory; and this is Queen Elizabeth in all her glory; then here you have
the Princess Amelia, the daughter of his late Majesty, who is dead; this
is Mary, Queen of Scots, who had her head cut off; and this is O'Brien,
the famous Irish giant; this man here is Thornton, who was tried for the
murder of Mary Ashford; and this is the exact resemblance of Othello, the
Moor of Venice, who was a jealous husband, and depend upon it every man
who is jealous of his wife will be as black as that negro. Now, ladies and
gentlemen, the two next are a wonderful couple, John and Margaret Scott,
natives of Dunkeld, in Scotland; they lived about ninety years ago; John
Scott was a hundred and five years old when he died, and Margaret lived to
be a hundred and twelve; and, what is more remarkable, there is not a soul
living can say he ever heard them quarrel."
Here he closed the curtain, and while undrawing another, continued his
address as follows: "Having shown you the dead, I have now to exhibit to
you two of the most extraordinary wonders of the living; this is the
widow of a New Zealand chief, and this is the little old woman of Bagdad;
she is thirty inches high, twenty-two years of age, and a native of
Boston, in Lincolnshire."
The next show announced, for one penny, "_The Black Wild Indian Woman--The
White Indian Youth--and the Welsh Dwarf--All Alive!_" There was this
further announcement on the outside: "_The Young American will Perform
after the Manner of the French Jugglers at Vauxhall Gardens, with Balls,
Rings, Daggers, &c._" The Welsh dwarf was William Phillips, of Denbigh,
fifteen years of age. The "White Indian youth" was an Esquimaux; and the
exhibitor assured the visitors upon his veracity that the "black wild
Indian woman" was a Court lady of the island of Madagascar. The young
American was the exhibitor himself, an intelligent and clever fellow in a
loose striped frock, tied round the middle. He commenced his performances
by throwing up three balls, which he kept constantly in the air, as he
afterwards did four, and then five, with great dexterity, using his hands,
shoulders, and elbows apparently with equal ease. He afterwards threw up
three rings, each about four inches in diameter, and then four, which he
kept in motion with similar success. To end his performance, he produced
three knives, which, by throwing up and down, he contrived to preserve in
the air altogether. The young American's dress and knives were very
similar to those of the Anglo-Saxon glee-man, as Strutt has figured them
from a MS. in the Cotton collection.
The inscriptions and paintings on the outside of the next show announced
"_The White Negro, who was rescued from her Black Parents by the bravery
of a British Officer--the only White Negro Girl Alive--The Great Giantess
and Dwarf--Six Curiosities Alive!--Only a Penny to see them All Alive!_"
One side of the interior was covered by a pictorial representation of a
tread-mill, with convicts at work upon it, superintended by warders. On
the other side were several monkeys in cages, an old bear in a jacket, and
sundry other animals. When a sufficient number of persons had assembled, a
curtain was withdrawn, and the visitors beheld the giantess and the white
negro, whom the showman pronounced "the greatest curiosity ever seen--the
first that has been exhibited since the reign of George II.--look at her
head and hair, ladies and gentlemen, and feel it; there's no
deception--it's like ropes of wool!" The girl, who had the flat nose,
thick lips, and peculiarly-shaped skull of the negro, stooped to have her
hair examined. It was of a dull flaxen hue, and hung, according to Hone's
description, "in ropes, of a clothy texture, the thickness of a quill, and
from four to six inches in length." Her skin was the colour of an
European's. Then there stepped forth a little fellow about three feet
high, in a military dress, with top boots, who "strutted his tiny legs,
and held his head aloft with not less importance than the proudest general
officer could assume upon his promotion to the rank of field marshal."
The next show was announced as an "exhibition of real wonders," and the
following bill was put forth by its proprietor:--
"REAL WONDERS!
SEE AND BELIEVE.
Have you seen
THE BEAUTIFUL DOLPHIN,
_The Performing Pig, and the Mermaid_?
If not, pray do! as the exhibition contains more variety than any other in
England. Those ladies and gentlemen who may be pleased to honour it with a
visit will be truly gratified.
TOBY,
_The Swinish Philosopher, and Ladies' Fortune Teller_.
That beautiful animal appears to be endowed with the natural sense of the
human race. He is in colour the most beautiful of his race; in symmetry
the most perfect; in temper the most docile; and far exceeds anything yet
seen for his intelligent performances. He is beyond all conception: he has
a perfect knowledge of the alphabet, understands arithmetic, and will
spell and cast accounts, tell the points of the globe, the dice-box, the
hour by any person's watch, &c.
_The Real Head of_
MAHOURA,
THE CANNIBAL CHIEF!
At the same time the public will have an opportunity of seeing what was
exhibited so long in London, under the title of
THE MERMAID:
The wonder of the deep! not a fac-simile or copy, but the same curiosity
ADMISSION MODERATE.
[Asterism] _Open from Eleven in the Morning till Nine in the Evening._"
Foremost among the attractions of this show were the performing pig and
the show-woman, who drew forth the learning of the "swinish philosopher"
admirably. He went through the alphabet, and spelt monosyllabic words with
his nose; and did a sum of two figures in addition. Then, at her desire,
he indicated those of the company who were in love, or addicted to excess
in drink; and grunted his conviction that a stout gentleman, who might
have sat to John Leech for the portrait of John Bull "loved good eating,
and a pipe, and a jug of ale better than the sight of the Living
Skeleton." The "beautiful dolphin" was a fish-skin stuffed. The mermaid
was the last manufactured imposture of that name, exhibited for
half-a-crown in Piccadilly, about a year before. The "real head of
Mahoura, the cannibal chief," was a skull, with a dried skin over it, and
a black wig; "but it looked sufficiently terrific," says Hone, "when the
show-woman put the candle in at the neck, and the flame illuminated the
yellow integument over the holes where eyes, nose, and a tongue had been."
Adjoining this was another penny show, with pictures large as life on the
show-cloths outside of the living wonders within, and the following
inscription:--"_All Alive! No False Paintings! The Wild Indian, the Giant
Boy, and the Dwarf Family! Never here before. To be seen alive!_" Thomas
Day, the reputed father of the dwarf family, was also proprietor of the
show; he was thirty-five years of age, and only thirty-five inches high.
There was a boy six years old, only twenty-seven inches high. The "wild
Indian" was a mild-looking mulatto. The "giant boy," William Wilkinson
Whitehead, was fourteen years of age, stood five feet two inches high,
measured five feet round the body, twenty-seven inches across the
shoulders, twenty inches round the arm, twenty-four inches round the calf,
and thirty-one inches round the thigh, and weighed twenty-two stones. His
father and mother were "travelling merchants" of Manchester; he was born
at Glasgow, during one of their journeys, and was a fine healthy youth,
fair complexioned, intelligent looking, active in his movements, and
sensible in speech. He was lightly dressed in plaid to show his limbs,
with a bonnet of the same.
Holden's glass-working and blowing was the last show on the east side of
Smithfield, and was limited to a single caravan. The first on the south
side, with its side towards Cloth Fair, and the back towards the corner of
Duke Street, presented pictures of a giant, a giantess, and an Indian
chief, with the inscription, "_They're all alive! Be assured they're all
alive! The Yorkshire Giantess--Waterloo Giant--Indian Chief. Only a
penny!_" An overgrown girl was the Yorkshire giantess. A tall man with his
hair frizzed and powdered, aided by a military coat and a plaid
roquelaire, made the Waterloo giant.
Next to this stood another show of the same kind and quality, the
attractions of which were a giantess and two dwarfs. The giantess was a
Somerset girl, who arose from the chair whereon she was seated to the
height of six feet nine inches and three-quarters, with "Ladies and
gentlemen, your most obedient." She was good-looking and affable, and
obliged the company by taking off her tight-fitting slipper, and handing
it round for their examination. It was of such dimensions that the largest
man present could have put his booted foot into it. She said that her name
was Elizabeth Stock, and that she was only sixteen years of age. This
completed the number of shows pitched in Smithfield in 1825.
There was a visible falling off in the following year, when the number of
shows diminished to eight. The west side of Giltspur Street, along its
whole length, was occupied by book-stalls; and grave-looking men in black
suits, with white cravats, looking like waiters out of employment, walked
solemnly through the fair, giving to all who would take them tracts headed
with the startling question--"_Are you prepared to die?_" Richardson's
theatre was there, and Clarke's circus; but Samwell, and Ball, and
Chappell and Pike did not attend, and Wombwell's was the only menagerie.
"Brown's grand company, from Paris," presented a juggling and tight-rope
performance, with the learned horse, and a clown who extracted musical
sounds from a salt-box, with the aid of a rolling-pin; Holden, the
glass-blower, in a glass wig, made tea-cups for threepence each, and
tobacco-pipes for a penny; the learned pig displayed his acquirements in
orthography and arithmetic; there was a twopenny exhibition of
rattlesnakes and young crocodiles, hatched by steam from imported eggs;
and a show in which a dwarf and a "silver-haired lady" were exhibited for
a penny.
Among the unique of the living curiosities exhibited by the showmen of
this period was the famous spotted boy, described in the bills issued by
his original exhibitor as "one of those wonderful productions of Nature,
which excite the curiosity, and gratify the beholder with the surprising
works of the Creator; he is the progeny of Negroes, being beautifully
covered over by a diversity of spots of transparent brown and white; his
hair is interwoven, black and white alternately, in a most astonishing
manner; his countenance is interesting, with limbs finely proportioned;
his ideas are quick and penetrating, yet his infantine simplicity is truly
captivating. He must be seen to convince; it is not in the power of
language to convey an adequate idea of this Fanciful Child of Nature,
formed in her most playful mood, and allowed by every lady and gentleman
that has seen it, the greatest curiosity ever beheld. May be seen from
Ten in the Morning till Ten in the Evening. Admittance for Ladies and
Gentlemen 1_s._ Servants and Children half price. Ladies and Gentlemen
wishing to see this Wonderful Child at their own houses, may be
accommodated by giving a few hours' notice. Copper plate Likenesses of the
Boy may be had at the Place of Exhibition."
Richardson introduced this boy several seasons, between the drama and the
pantomime; and became so much attached to him that he directed, by his
will, that he should be buried in the grave in which, a few years before,
he had deposited the remains of the lively, docile, and affectionate
African lad, in the church-yard of Great Marlow.
I have found no account of the number of shows which attended Bartholomew
Fair in 1827, but in the following year they must have been nearly as
numerous as in 1825, an enumeration of the principal ones reaching to
sixteen. All the menageries attended, and, besides Richardson's and Ball's
theatres, Keyes and Laine's, Frazer's, Pike's, and a couple of clever
Chinese jugglers. The receipts of these and the other principal shows were
returned, in round numbers, as follows:--Wombwell's menagerie, £1,700;
Richardson's theatre, £1,200; Atkins's menagerie, £1,000; Morgan's
menagerie, £150; exhibition of "the pig-faced lady," £150; ditto, fat boy
and girl, £140; ditto, head of William Corder, who was hanged at
Chelmsford for the murder of Maria Martin, a crime which had created a
great sensation, owing to its discovery through a dream of the victim's
mother, £100; Ballard's menagerie, £90; Ball's theatre, £80; diorama of
the battle of Navarino, £60; the Chinese jugglers, £50; Pike's theatre,
£40; a fire-eater, £30; Frazer's theatre, £26; Keyes and Laine's theatre,
£20; exhibition of a Scotch giant, £20. Some curious lights are thrown by
these figures on the comparative attractiveness of different
entertainments and exhibitions.
Considerable excitement was created among the visitors to the fair in the
following year by the announcement that Wombwell had on exhibition "that
most wonderful animal, the bonassus, being the first of the kind which had
ever been brought to Europe." As no one had ever seen or heard of the
animal before, or had the faintest conception of what it was, the curious
flocked in crowds to see the beast, which proved to be a very fine bull
bison, or American buffalo. Under the name given to it by Wombwell, it was
introduced into the epilogue of the Westminster play as one of the wonders
of the year. It was afterwards sold by Wombwell to the Zoological
Society, and placed in their collection in the Regent's Park; but it had
been enfeebled by confinement and disease, and it died soon afterwards.
The Hudson's Bay Company subsequently supplied its place by presenting the
Society with a young cow.
Atkins offered the counter attractions of an elephant ten feet high, and
another litter of lion-tigers, the latter addition to his collection being
announced as follows:--
"Wonderful Phenomenon in Nature--The singular and hitherto deemed
impossible occurrence of a Lion and Tigress cohabiting and producing young
has again taken place in the Menagerie, on the 28th of October, 1828, at
Windsor, when the Royal Tigress brought forth three fine cubs!!! And they
are now to be seen in the same den with their sire and dam. The first
litter of these extraordinary animals were presented to Our Most Gracious
Sovereign, when he was pleased to express considerable gratification, and
to denominate them Lion-Tigers, than which a more appropriate name could
not have been given. The great interest the Lion and Tigress have excited
is unprecedented; they are a source of irresistible attraction, especially
as it is the only instance of the kind ever known of animals so directly
opposite in their dispositions forming an attachment of such a singular
nature; their beautiful and interesting progeny are most admirable
productions of Nature. The Group is truly pleasing and astonishing, and
must be witnessed to form an adequate idea of them. The remarkable
instance of subdued temper and association of animals to permit the Keeper
to enter their Den, and to introduce their performance to the Spectators,
is the greatest Phenomenon in Natural History."
Most of the shows enumerated in the list of 1828 attended Bartholomew Fair
in 1830, and there were a few additional ones, making the total number
about the same. They comprised the menageries of Wombwell, Atkins, and
Ballard, the first containing "the great Siam elephant, and the two
smallest elephants ever seen in Europe," and the last offering an unique
attraction in a seal, floundering in a large tub of water; Richardson's
theatre, Ball's tumbling and rope-dancing, Keyes and Laine's conjuring,
Frazer's conjuring, a learned pony, the pig-faced lady, a shaved bear (to
expose the imposture preceding), the "living skeleton," the fire-eater,
the Scotch giant, the diorama of Navarino, the fat boy and girl, and a
couple of peep-shows, one exhibiting, as its chief attraction, the lying
in state of George IV., the other the murder of Maria Martin.
One of the novel characters whom Richardson picked up in his wanderings
was the once famous Gouffe, "the man-monkey," as he was called. His real
name was Vale, and when the old showman became acquainted with him he was
following the humble occupation of a pot-boy in a low public-house.
Richardson, happening to enter the tap-room in which Master Vale waited,
found the young gentleman amusing the guests by walking about on pewter
pint measures, with his hobnailed boots turned towards the smoke-begrimed
ceiling. The performance was a novel one, and Richardson, calling the lad
aside on its conclusion, made him an offer too gratifying to be refused.
After travelling with Richardson for some time, Vale appeared at several
of the minor theatres of the metropolis, always in the part of an ape, and
under the assumed name of Gouffe. His pantomimic powers were considerable,
and his agility was scarcely inferior to that of the four-handed brutes
whom he represented.
The receipts of the shows were not always so large as in 1828. In 1831,
which seems to have been a bad year for them, Richardson lost fifty pounds
by Bartholomew Fair, though he had half the receipts of Ewing's wax-work
exhibition in addition to those of the theatre, under an agreement with
the proprietor, by which he paid for the ground and the erection of the
show. Wombwell only cleared his expenses, though he had at that time
acquired Morgan's menagerie, which stood at the corner of the Greyhound
Yard, and by that means secured the pennies as well as the sixpences.
In 1832, the charge for admission to Clarke's circus was reduced from
sixpence to threepence. There was a novelty in Bartholomew Fair that year
in the show of an Italian conjuror, named Capelli, namely, a company of
cats, that beat a drum, turned a spit, ground knives, played the organ,
hammered upon an anvil, ground coffee, and rang a bell. One of them
understood French as well as Italian, obeying orders in both languages.
Capelli's bills announce also a wonderful dog, to "play any gentleman at
dominoes that will play with him."
In 1833, the number of shows at this fair rose to thirty-two, Richardson's
theatre, Clarke's circus, five for tumbling, rope-dancing, etc., three
menageries, four wax-work exhibitions, three phantasmagorias, Holden's
glass-blowing, two learned pigs, six exhibitions of giants, dwarfs, etc.,
and six peep-shows, in which the coronation of William IV., the battle of
Navarino, the murder of Maria Martin, and other events of contemporary
interest were shown. Only two shows charged so much as sixpence for
admission, namely, Richardson's and Wombwell's. The threepenny shows were
Ewing's and Clarke's, the latter giving "an excellent display for the
money," according to a contemporary account, which continues as follows:--
"The performance began by tight-rope dancing by Miss Clarke, with and
without the balance pole, through hoops, with 'flip-flaps,' standing on
chairs, &c. Slack-rope vaulting by a little boy named Benjamin Saffery,
eight years of age; he exhibited several curious feats. There was also
some very extraordinary posturing by two young men, one dressed as a
Chinese, the other in the old costume of Pierrot; among many other
exploits, they walked round the ring with each a leg put up to their neck,
and another on each other's shoulders. They also performed an
extraordinary feat of lying on their backs, and throwing their legs up
under their arms, and going round the ring by springing forward upon the
ground, without the aid of their hands; one of them, while on the ground,
supported two men on his thighs. A black man also exhibited some feats of
strength; among others, he threw himself backward and, resting on his
hands, formed an arch, and then bore two heavy men on his stomach with
ease. The horsemanship commenced with the old performance of the rider
going round the ring tied up in a sack. During the going round a
transformation took place, and he who went into the sack a man came out to
all appearance a woman on throwing the sack off. The whole concluded with
a countryman who, suddenly starting from the ring, desires to be permitted
to ride, which is at first refused, but at length allowed; he mounts, and
after a short time, beginning to grow warm, pulls off his coat, then his
waistcoat, then another and another to the number of thirteen, at last
with much apparent modesty and reluctance his shirt; having done this, he
appears a splendid rider, and after a few evolutions, terminates the
performance. This rider's name was Price. The show was well attended."
The other shows of this class were Ball's, which, besides tumbling and
rope-dancing, gave a pantomime, but without scenery; Keyes and Laine's,
which now presented posturing, balancing, and rope-dancing; Samwell's, in
which, besides tumbling and dancing, a real Indian executed the war-dance
of his tribe; the Chinese jugglers; and a posturing and tumbling show, the
proprietor of which was too modest to announce his name. The Chinese
jugglers had performed during the summer at Saville House, the building
on the north side of Leicester Square, which, after being the locality of
several exhibitions, was converted into a music-hall, called the Imperial,
and afterwards Eldorado. One of these pig-tailed entertainers pretended to
swallow fifty needles, which were afterwards produced from his mouth, each
with a thread in its eye. Another balanced a bowl on a stick nine feet
long; while a third played the Chinese violin with a single string.
Wombwell's menagerie extended from the hospital gate nearly to Duke
Street, and was the largest show in the fair. Drury and Drake's was a
small but interesting collection, consisting of a very tame leopard, a
couple of hyenas, a good show of monkeys, and several very fine boa
constrictors. The third menagerie was Wombwell's smaller concern, formerly
Morgan's.
The best of the wax-work exhibitions was Ewing's, which was well arranged
in ten caravans. The others were Ferguson's, with the additional
attraction of "the beautiful albiness," a really beautiful woman, named
Shaw, who was then in her twenty-second year; Hoyo's; and a small and poor
collection at a house in Giltspur Street, where the wax figures were
supplemented by the exhibition of twin infants united at the breast,
"extremely well preserved."
Phantasmagorial exhibitions were at this time a novelty to the masses. The
best of those shown this year in Smithfield was the _Optikali Illusio_ of
a Frenchman, named De Berar, who startled the spectators with the
appearance of a human skeleton, the vision of Death on a pale horse, etc.
There was another in Long Lane; and a third at a house in Giltspur Street,
where the public were invited to witness "the raising of the devil!" A
fire-eater named Haines stood at the door of the last show, emitting a
shower of sparks from a lump of burning tow in his mouth. Sir David
Brewster, who witnessed a phantasmagorial exhibition at Edinburgh,
describes it as follows:--
"The small theatre of exhibition was lighted only by one hanging lamp, the
flame of which was drawn up into an opaque chimney or shade when the
performance began. In this 'darkness visible' the curtain rose, and
displayed a cave, with skeletons and other terrific figures in relief upon
its walls. The flickering light was then drawn up beneath its shroud, and
the spectators, in total darkness, found themselves in the midst of
thunder and lightning. A thin transparent screen had, unknown to the
spectators, been let down after the disappearance of the light, and upon
it the flashes of lightning, and all the subsequent appearances, were
represented. This screen, being halfway between the spectators and the
cave which was first shown, and being itself invisible, prevented the
observers from having any idea of the real distance of the figures, and
gave them the entire character of aerial pictures.
"The thunder and lightning were followed by the figures of ghosts,
skeletons, and known individuals, whose eyes and mouths were made to move
by the action of combined sliders. After the first figure had been
exhibited for a short time, it began to grow less and less, as if removed
to a great distance, and at last vanished in a small cloud of light. Out
of this same cloud the germ of another figure began to appear, and
gradually grew larger and larger, and approached the spectators, till it
attained its perfect development. In this manner the head of Dr. Franklin
was transformed into a skull; figures which retired with the freshness of
life came back in the form of skeletons, and the retiring skeletons
returned in the drapery of flesh and blood. The exhibition of these
transmutations was followed by spectres, skeletons, and terrific figures,
which, instead of receding and vanishing as before, suddenly advanced upon
the spectators, becoming larger as they approached them, and finally
vanished by appearing to sink into the ground. The effect of this part of
the exhibition was naturally the most impressive. The spectators were not
only surprised, but agitated, and many of them were of opinion that they
could have touched the figures."
Dupain's French theatre combined the exhibition of a dwarf, Jonathan
Dawson, three feet high, and fifty years of age, with posturing by a
performer named Finch, and two mechanical views, one representing Algiers,
with the sea in motion, and vessels entering and leaving the harbour; the
other a storm at sea, with a vessel in distress, burning blue lights,
firing guns, and finally becoming a wreck.
Broomsgrove's show, which made its first appearance, contained three human
curiosities, namely, Clancy, an Irishman, whose height was seven feet two
inches; Farnham, who was only three feet two inches in height, but so
strong that he carried two big men on his shoulders with ease; and Thomas
Pierce, "the gigantic Shropshire youth," aged seventeen years, five feet
ten inches in height, and thirty-five stones in weight.
Simmett's show contained four "living wonders" of this kind, namely,
Priscilla and Amelia Weston, twin Canadian giantesses, twenty years of
age; Lydia Walpole, the dwarf exhibited in Maughan's show in 1825; and an
albino woman, aged nineteen. Harris added to a peep-show a twelve years
old dwarf, named Eliza Webber; a sheep with singularly formed hind hoofs;
and a very fine boa constrictor. Another show combined the performances of
a monkey, which, in the garb of an old woman, smoked a pipe, wheeled a
barrow, etc., with the exhibition of several mechanical figures,
representing artisans working at their various trades, and a juvenile
albino, named Mary Anne Chapman. Another exhibited, as an "extraordinary
hermit," a man named Daniel Mackenzie, whose only distinction rested upon
his statement that he had voluntarily secluded himself from the world for
five years, which he had passed in a coal-mine near Dalkeith.
Toby, the learned pig, if he was the original porcine wonder of that name,
must have been, at least, seventeen years of age, but showed no symptoms
of declining vigour or diminished intelligence. He was now exhibited by
James Burchall, in conjunction with the proprietor's monstrously fat
child, and was announced as,--
"The Unrivalled Chinese Swinish Philosopher, Toby the Real Learned Pig. He
will spell, read, and cast accounts, tell the points of the sun's rising
and setting, discover the four grand divisions of the Earth, kneel at
command, perform blindfold with 20 handkerchiefs over his eyes, tell the
hour to a minute by the watch, tell a card, and the age of any party. He
is in colour the most beautiful of his race, in symmetry the most perfect,
in temper the most docile. And when asked a question, he will give an
Immediate Answer."
Toby had a rival this year in the "amazing pig of knowledge," exhibited by
James Fawkes, at the George Inn. This pig could tell the number of pence
in a shilling, and of shillings in a pound, count the spectators, tell
their thoughts (so at least it was pretended), distinguish colours, and do
many other wonderful things. The following doggrel verses, extracted from
Fawkes's bill, are offered as a curiosity; they seem _apropos_ of nothing,
and show that the exhibitor was ignorant or oblivious of the fact that
George IV. had been dead three years:--
"A learned Pig in George's reign
To Æsop's Brutes an equal Boast;
Then let Mankind again combine
To render Friendship still a Toast.
"Let Albion's Fair superior soar,
To Gallic Fraud, or Gallic Art;
Britons will e'er bow down before
The Virtues seated in the Heart."
In 1836, a new show appeared in the field, namely, Brown's Theatre of
Arts, in which were shown mechanical representations of the battle of
Trafalgar, the passage of the Alps by the French army, and the Marble
Palace at St. Petersburg, the ships in the first and the figures in the
others being in actual motion.
Scowton, who had been absent from Bartholomew Fair for several years, made
a final appearance there in 1837, when his bills contained the following
announcement:--
"Mr. SCOWTON, deeply impressed with heartfelt gratitude for the liberal
Patronage and Support which he has for a series of Years experienced from
his Friends and a Generous Public, and which will enable him to spend his
future Days in comfortable Retirement: begs leave to announce that the
whole of his Extensive Concern, is to be disposed of by Private Contract;
and, therefore, at the same time, as he takes leave, requests them to
believe that the Memory of their favours and indulgence will never be
eradicated from his Memory."
Richardson's theatre stood beside Scowton's, and it is remarked by a
newspaper of the time that "the former displayed the trappings of modern
grandeur, and the latter evinced his taste for the ancient by exposing to
view a couple of centaurs and a sphynx." Scowton presented a "new grand
dramatic romance," called _The Treacherous Friend_, in which he played
the character of Alphonsus himself.
This was the last appearance of both these veteran showmen. Scowton
retired, and Richardson died shortly afterwards at his cottage in
Horsemonger Lane, and was buried, as his will directed, at Great Marlow,
in the same grave with the spotted boy. He bequeathed the greater part of
his property to Charles Reed, who had travelled with him for many years;
his old friend, Johnson, afterwards co-lessee with Nelson Lee of the City
of London Theatre, received a legacy of five hundred pounds, and Davy, who
had superintended the building and removal of the theatre from the
beginning of its existence, two hundred pounds.
Looking backward forty years, I can recall the quaint figure of the old
showman as he stood on the steps of his portable theatre, clad in a loose
drab coat and a long scarlet vest, which looked as if it had been made in
the reign of George II. As I think of Croydon Fair as it used to be in
Richardson's days, with the show standing between Clarke's circus and
Wombwell's menagerie, I can almost fancy that I hear the booming of the
old man's gong. Many a time afterwards have I seen Nelson Lee beating that
memorable instrument of discord, and heard him shouting, "Walk up! walk
up! Just going to begin!" But _he_ wore a suit of black, and did not
impress me half so much as his predecessor. The change seemed, indeed, a
symptom of the declining glory of the fair, which has, within the last few
years, become a thing of the past.