Entertainment or amusement in Chelsea was very poor, as there was no room
or place for the purpose. The only one I can recollect was when a
professor of mesmerism and clairvoyance came down and took the skittle
ground at the back of the "George and Dragon." He was a thin, shabby old
man, dressed in black with very dirty linen. With him were his wife, and
two girls--his daughters, he informed us--one about twelve and the other
about fourteen, with ringlets, shabbily dressed and closely covered up in
old cloaks. They did all the advertising and canvassing themselves, by
taking round the bills and trying to sell tickets at sixpence each. The
sides of the skittle ground were decorated by the hanging of table
covers, curtains, pieces of carpet, sheets, or anything else that would
cover over the walls. The platform at the end was composed of the
taproom tables with some boards across, an old square piano belonging to
the house stood on the floor; the lighting was effected by double tin
sconces hung on the wall with two tallow dips in each. The seating
accommodation for the ticket holders consisted of chairs; those who paid
threepence at the doors had forms or planks to sit on with a gangway down
the middle. The performance commenced about seven by one of the young
ladies playing the piano, and the other a triangle, the old lady being
engaged in taking the money at the entrance. The professor mounted the
platform and addressed his audience, commenting upon the wonderful and
mysterious scene he was about to enact. He commenced with the usual
conjuring tricks of borrowing a hat and making a pudding in it and
bringing a live pigeon and a large cabbage out of it, and then returning
the hat undamaged to its owner, which to us children was a great wonder.
Then came the card tricks, and the ventriloquial dialogue with the
puppets, with a handkerchief over each hand to form the figures, and then
the grand event of the evening. The table was removed from the platform
and replaced by two chairs, and the two girls, dressed in white frocks
and yellow sashes, came on. After addressing the audience, he proceeded
to throw the elder one into a trance, which he appeared to succeed in
doing, for she stood perfectly upright and still. He then placed the two
chairs a certain distance apart, back to back, and taking the girl up in
his arms, laid her on her back with her head resting on the back of one
chair and her feet on the other, and she remained so for some minutes.
Next he lifted up the other girl and placed her standing with one foot on
her sister's chest, and the other at her knees, and she remained so for
some minutes, when she was taken down and placed with her back to the
company for the usual thought-reading performance. At the end, as an
extra, a pale, sickly youth was introduced, and sang "Wapping Old
Stairs," and "Sally in our Alley," the young lady playing the
accompaniment, much to the satisfaction of the company. At the
conclusion a plate was sent round to collect for the benefit of the
artist.
Chelsea Regatta was a grand day, usually about Whitsuntide, when rowing
took place for various prizes, subscribed for by the inhabitants, the
publicans being the most active promoters, and the leading gentry patrons
and liberal subscribers; first among them the Bayfords and the Owens,
great rowing men and very liberal to the watermen. I think one of the
Bayfords was the first winner of the silver sculls. The amount collected
at a time would be as much as fifty or sixty pounds. There was a grand
prize, a boat to cost twenty pounds, and various money prizes. The limit
of entries was twelve, to be drawn by lot by Chelsea watermen, with
certain restrictions. The race was in two heats, six in a heat, the
first and second in the two heats to row in the final; the course from a
point opposite the "Yorkshire Grey" stairs, round a boat moored opposite
the "Adam and Eve," back and round a boat moored opposite the Brunswick
Tea Gardens at Nine Elms, and back to the starting point. The waterside
on a regatta day was like a fair, as there were always two or three
mountebanks, a circus and a dancing booth on the various pieces of vacant
ground in the neighbourhood of the river. Some of the performers,
dressed as clowns, played a kind of river tournament, sitting
straddle-legged on beer barrels afloat, tilting at each other with long
poles; the fun was to see them tumble each other into the water. Then
there was the old woman drawn in a washing tub by four geese. After each
display the performers would march with a band to their different places
of entertainment. From out of the fund provided, there were prizes given
for running in sacks, and climbing the greasy pole for a leg of mutton
fixed at the top, and a prize for running along a greased pole placed
horizontally from the stem of a coal barge, and extending over the water
some twenty feet. On a barge moored opposite the end of the pole were
four spars radiating with a basket at the end of each from a capstan that
revolved, containing a prize, and just within reach of the end of the
greased pole. One was usually a small live pig, others a fat goose or a
live duck with its wings cut. The "running the pole" was most difficult,
for as soon as you got near the prize at the end of the pole it would be
dipped by the weight and slip you off into the water; while if you got to
the end of the pole and touched the basket as it revolved it would fly
away from you. The live prize was the most difficult to contend with,
for you had to fight with it to get it on shore. The proceedings all
finished up with a grand display of fireworks. On the following day the
boat decked with flags, in a van, would be drawn round the principal
streets with the watermen who had been engaged in the contest, singing
some doggerel verses composed for the occasion, and thanking the people
for their liberal subscriptions.