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Have you seen THE BEAUTIFUL DOLPHIN The Performing Pig & 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' For tune Teller.

That beautiful animal appears to be endowed with the natural sense of the human being. He is in colour the most beautiful of his race; in symmetry the most perfect; in temper the most docile; and far exceeds any thing 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 dicebox, the hour by any person's watch,

&c.

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into spelling" with his nose; and could do a sum of two figures "in addition." Then, at her desire, he routed out those of the company who were in love, or addicted to indulgence; and peremptorily grunted, that a "round, fat, oily"-faced personage at my elbow, "loved good eating, and a pipe, and a jug of good ale, better than the sight of the Living Skeleton!" The beautiful dolphin was a fishskin 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 Mahowra, the cannibal chief, was a skull that might have been some English clodpole's, with a dried skin over it, and bewigged; but it looked sufficiently terrific, when the lady 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. There was enough for " a penny!"

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DWARF FAMILY,
Never here before,

TO BE SEEN ALIVE!

Mr. Thomas Day was the reputed father of the dwarf family, and exhibited himself as small enough for a great wonder; as he was. He was also proprietor of the show, and said he was thirty-five years of age, and only thirty-five inches high. He fittingly descanted on the liv. ing personages in whom he had a vested interest. There was a boy six years old, only twenty-seven inches high. The Wild Indian was a civil-looking man of colour. The Giant Boy, William Wilkinson Whitehead, was fourteen years of age on the 26th of March last, stood five feet two inches high, measured five feet round the body, twenty-seven inches across the

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The admission was "Only a penny!" and the paintings flared on the show-cloths with this inscription, "They're all Alive Inside! Be assured They're All Alive! - The Yorkshire Giantess.- Waterloo Giant.-Indian Chief-Only a Penny!" An overgrown girl was the Yorkshire Giantess. A large man with a tail, and his hair frizzed and powdered, aided by a sort of uniform coat and a plaid rocquelaire, made the Waterloo Giant. The abdication of such an Indian Chief as this, in favour of Bartholomew Fair, was probably forced upon him by his tribe.

SHOW XX.

The "Greatest of all Wonders !-Gi-, antess and Two Dwarfs.-Only a Penny!" They were painted on the show-cloths quite as little, and quite as large, as life. The dwarfs inside were dwarfish, and the "Somerset girl, taller than any man in England," (for so said the show-cloth,) arose from a chair, wherein 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 ladies and gentlemen" by taking off her tight fitting slipper and handing it round. It was of such dimension, 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 old.

SHOW XXI.

CHAPPELL-PIKE.

This was a very large show, without any show-cloths or other announcement outside to intimate the performances, except a clown and several male and female performers, who strutted the platform in their exhibiting dresses, and in dignified silence; but the clown grimaced, and, assisted by others, bawled "Only a penny,' till the place filled, and then the show commenced. There was slack-rope dancing, tumbling, and other representations as at Ball's theatre, but better executed.

SHOW XXII.

WOMBWELL.

The back of this man's menagerie abutted on the side of the last show, and ran the remaining length of the north-side of Smithfield, with the front looking towards

Giltspur-street; at that entrance into the Fair it was the first show. This front was entirely covered by painted show-cloths representing the animals, with the proprietor's name in immense letters above, and the words "The Conquering Lion" very conspicuous. 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 one of the fights; a lion stood up with a dog in his mouth, cranched between his grinders; the blood ran from his jaws; his left leg stood upon another dog squelched by his weight. A third dog was in the act of flying at him ferociously, and one, wounded and bleeding, was fearfully retreating. There were seven other show-cloths on this front, with the words "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 !'

The printed bill described the whole collection to be in "fine order." Sixpence was the entrance money demanded, which having paid, I entered the show early in the afternoon, although it is now mentioned last, in conformity to its posi tion in the Fair. I had experienced some inconvenience, and witnessed some irregularities incident to a mixed multitude filling so large a space as Smithfield; yet no disorder without, was equal to the disorder within Wombwell's. There was no passage at the end, through which persons might make their way out: perhaps this was part of the proprietor's policy, for he might imagine that the universal disgust that prevailed in London, while he was manifesting his brutal cupidity at Warwick, had not subsided; and that it was necessary his show-place here should appear to fill well on the first day of the Fair, lest a report of general indifference to it, should induce many persons to forego the gratification of their curiosity, in accommodation to the natural and right feeling that induced a determination not to enter the exhibition of a man who had freely submitted his animals to be tortured. Be that as it may, his show, when I saw it, was a shamefu scene. There was no person in attendance to exhibit or point out the animals They were arranged on one side only, and

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I made my way with difficulty towards the end, where a loutish fellow with a broomstick, stood against one of the dens, from whom I could only obtain this information, that it was not his business to show the beasts, and that the showman would begin at a proper time. I patiently waited, expecting some announce

Here ends my account of the various shows in the Fair. In passing the stalls, the following bill was shipped into my hand, by a man stationed to give them away.

SERIOUS NOTICE,

IN PERFECT CONFIDENCE

formances at

Sadler's Wells,

Can only be given during the present week; the proprietors, therefore, most respectfully inform that fascinating sex, so properly distinguished by the appropriate appellation of

THE FAIR!

And all those well inclined gentlemen who are happy enough to protect them, that the amusements will consist of a romantic tale, of mysterious horror and broad grin, never acted, called the

ENCHANTED

ment of this person's arrival; but no inti- The following extraordinary comic per mation of it was given; at length I discovered over the heads of the unconscious crowd around, that the showman, who was evidently under the influence of drink, had already made his way one third along the show. With great difficulty I forced myself through the sweltering press somewhat nearer to him, and managed to get opposite Nero's den, which he had by that time reached and clambered into, and into which he invited any of the spectators who chose to pay him sixpence each, as many of them did, for the sake of saying that they had been in the den with the noble animal, that Wombwell, his master, had exposed to be baited by bull-dogs. The man was as greedy of gain as his master, and therefore without the least regard to those who wished for general information concerning the different animals, he maintained his post as long as there was a prospect of getting the sixpences. Pressure and heat were now so excessive, that I was compelled to struggle n.y way, as many others did, towards the door at the front end, for the sake of getting into the air. Unquestionably I should not have entered Wombwell's, but for the purpose of describing his exhibition in common with others. As I had failed in obtaining the information I sought, and could not get a printed bill when I entered, I re-ascended to endeavour for one again; here I saw Wombwell, to whom I civilly stated the great inconvenience within, which a little

alteration would have obviated; he affected to know nothing about it, refused to be convinced, and exhibited himself, to my judgment of him, with an understanding and feelings perverted by avarice. He is undersized in mind as well as form, "a weazen, sharp-faced man," with a skin reddened by more than natural spirits, and he speaks in a voice and language that accord with his feelings and propensities. His bill mentions, "A remarkably fine tigress in the same den

with a noble British lion !!" I looked for this companionship in his menagerie, without being able to discover it.

GIRDLES;

OR,

WINKI THE WITCH,
And the Ladies of Samarcand.
A most whimsical burletta, which sends
people home perfectly exhausted from

uninterrupted risibility, called

THE LAWYER, THE JEW

AND

THE YORKSHIREMAN.

With, by request of 75 distinguished families, and a party of 5, that never-to-besufficiently-praised pantomime, called

Magic in Two Colours;

OR,

FAIRY BLUE & FAIRY RED:
Or, Harlequin and the Marble Rock.
It would be perfectly superfluous for
any man in his senses to attempt any
thing more than the mere announcement
in recommendation of the above unparal
leled representations, so attractive in
themselves as to threaten a complete mo-
nopoly of the qualities of the magnet;
and though the proprietors were to talk
assert a more important truth than that
nonsense for an hour, they could not
they possess

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Bartholomew

"O, rare Ben Jonson!" To him we are indebted for the only picture of Smithfield at "Barthol'me'-tide" in his time.

In his play of "Bartholomew Fair," we have John Littlewit, a proctor "o' the Archdeacon's-court," and "one of the pretty wits o' Paul's" persuading his wife, Win-the fight, to go to the Fair. He says "I have an affair i' the Fair, Win, a puppet-play of mine own making.-I writ for the motion-man." She tells him that her mother, dame Purecraft, will never consent; whereupon he says, "Tut, we'll have a device, a dainty one: long to eat of a pig, sweet Win, i' the Fair; do you see? i' the heart o' the Fair; not at Pye-corner. Your mother will do any hing to satisfie your longing." Upon this hint, Win prevails with her mother, to consult Zeal-of the-land Busy, a Banbury man "of a most lunatick conscience and spleen ;" who is of opinion that pig "is a meat, and a meat that is nourishing, and may be eaten; very exceeding well eaten; but in the Fair, and as a Bartholmew pig, it cannot be eaten; for the very calling it a Bartholmew pig, and to eat it so, is a spice of idolatry." After much deliberation, however, he allows that so that the offence "be shadowed, as it were, it may be eaten, and in the Fair, I take it -in a booth." He says "there may be a good use made of it too, now I think on't, by the public eating of swine's flesh, to profess our hate and loathing of Julaisin," and therefore he goes with them.

In the Fair a quarrel falls out between Lanthor Leatherhead, "a hobby-horse

Fair in 1614.

seller," and Joan Trash, "a gingerbread woman."

"Leatherhead. Do you hear, sister Trash, lady o' the basket? sit farther with your gingerbread progeny there, and hinder not the prospect of my shop, or I'll ha' it proclaim'd i' the Fair, what stuff they are made on.

"Trash. Why, what stuff are they made on, brother Leatherhead? nothing but what's wholesome, I assure you.

"Leatherhead. Yes; stale bread, rotten eggs, musty ginger, and dead honey, you know.

"Trash. Thou too proud pedlar, do thy worst: I defy thee, I, and thy stable of hobby-horses. I pay for my ground, as well as thou dost, and thou wrongs't me, for all thou art parcel-poet, and an ingineer. I'll find a friend shall right me, and make a ballad of thee, and thy cattle all over. Are you puft up with the pride of your wares? your arsedine?

"Leatherhead. Go too, old Joan, I'll talk with you anon; and take you down too-I'll ha' you i' the Pie-pouldres."

They drop their abuse and pursue their vocation. Leatherhead calls," What do you lack? what is't you buy? what do you lack ? rattles, drums, halberts, horses, babies o' the best? fiddles o' the finest ?" Trash cries, "Buy my gingerbread, gilt gingerbread !" Acostard-monger" bawls out, "Buy any pears, pears! fine, very fine pears!" Nightingale, another character, sings,

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