Читать книгу Merrie England in the Olden Time - George Daniel - Страница 21

Up hill and down hill, 'tis always the same;

Mankind ever grumbling, and fortune to blame!

To fortune, 'tis uphill, ambition and strife;

And fortune obtain'd—then the downhill of life!

We toil up the hill till we reach to the top;

But are not permitted one moment to stop!

O how much more quick we descend than we climb!

There's no locking fast the swift wheels of Old Time.

Gay Greenwich! thy happy young holiday train

Here roll down the hill, and then mount it again.

The ups and downs life has bring sorrow and care;

But frolic and mirth attend those at the fair.

My Lord May'r of London, of high city lineage,

His show makes us glad with, and why shouldn't

Greenwich?

His gingerbread coach a crack figure it cuts!

And why shouldn't we crack our gingerbread nuts?

Of fashion and fame, ye grandiloquent powers,

Pray take your full swing—only let us take ours!

If you have grown graver and wiser, messieurs,

The grinning be ours, and the gravity yours!

To keep one bright spark of good humour alive,

Old holiday pastimes and sports we revive.

Be merry, my masters, for now is your time—

Come, who'll buy my ballads? they're reason and

rhyme.”

Peckham and Blackheath fairs were celebrated places of resort in former times, and had their modicum of strange monsters.

“Geo. I. R.

“To the lovers of living curiosities. To be seen during the time of Peckham Fair, a Grand Collection of Living Wild Beasts and Birds, lately arrived from the remotest parts of the World.

“1. The Pellican that suckles her young with her heart's, blood, from Egypt.

“2. The Noble Vultur Cock, brought from Archangell, having the finest talions of any bird that seeks his prey; the fore part of his head is covered with hair, the second part resembles the wool of a Black; below that is a white ring, having a Ruff, that he cloaks his head with at night.

“3. An Eagle of the Sun, that takes the loftiest flight of any bird that flies. There is no bird but this that can fly to the face of the Sun with a naked eye.

“4. A curious Beast, bred from a Lioness, like a foreign Wild Cat.

“5. The He-Panther, from Turkey, allowed by the curious to be one of the greatest rarities ever seen in England, on which are thousands of spots, and not two of a likeness.

“6 & 7. The two fierce and surprising Hyaenas, Male and female, from the River Gambia. These Creatures imitate the human voice, and so decoy the Negroes out of their huts and plantations to devour them. They have a mane like a horse, and two joints in their hinder leg more than any other creature. It is remarkable that all other beasts are to be tamed, but Hyaenas they are not.

“8. An Ethiopian Toho Savage, having all the actions of the human species, which (when at its full growth) will be upwards of five feet high.

“Also several other surprising Creatures of different sorts. To be seen from 9 in the morning till 9 at night, till they are sold. Also, all manner of curiosities of different sorts, are bought and sold at the above place by John Bennett.”

The grand focus of attraction was in the immediate vicinity of the “Kentish Drovers.” This-once merry hostelrie was a favourite suburban retreat of Dicky Suett. Cherub Dicky! who when (to use his own peculiar phrase) his “copper required cooling,” mounted the steady, old-fashioned, three mile an hour Peckham stage, and journeyed hither to allay his thirst, and qualify his alcohol with a refreshing draught of Derbyshire ale. The landlord (who was quite a character) and he were old cronies; and, in the snug little parlour behind the bar, of which Dicky had the entrée, their hob-and-nobbings struck out sparks of humour that, had they exhaled before the lamps, would have set the theatre in a roar. Suett was a great frequenter of fairs. He stood treat to the conjurors, feasted the tragedy kings and queens, and many a mountebank did he make muzzy. Once in a frolic he changed clothes with a Jack Pudding, and played Barker and Mr. Merriman to a precocious giantess; when he threw her lord and master into such an ecstacy of mirth, that the fellow vowed hysterically that it was either the devil, or (for his fame had travelled before him) Dicky Suett. He was a piscator, *

* All sports that inflict pain on any living thing, without

attaining some useful end, are wanton and cowardly. Wild

boars, wolves, foxes, &c. may be hunted to extermination,

for they are public robbers; but to hunt the noble deer, for

the cruel pleasure of hunting him, is base.

With all our love of honest Izaak Walton, we feel a

shuddering when the “sentimental old savage” gives his

minute instructions to the tyro in angling how most

skilfully to transfix the writhing worm, (as though you

“loved him!”) and torture a poor fish. Piscator is a

cowardly rogue to sit upon a fair bank, the sun shining

above, and the pure stream rippling beneath, with his

instruments of death, playing pang against pang, and life

against life, for his contemplative recreation. What would

he say to a hook through his own gullet? Would it mitigate

his dying agonies to hear his dirge (even the milkmaid's

song!) chanted in harmonious concert with a brother of the

angle, who had played the like sinister trick on his

companion in the waters?

and would make a huge parade of his rod, line, and green-painted tin-can, sallying forth on a fine morning with malice prepense against the gudgeons and perch: but Dicky was a merciful angler: he was the gudgeon, for the too cunning fishes, spying his comical figure, stole his bait, and he hooked nothing but tin pots and old shoes. Here he sat in his accustomed chair and corner, dreaming of future quarterns, and dealing out odd sayings that would make the man in the moon hold his sides, and convulse the whole planet with laughter. His hypocrene was the cream of the valley; *

* Suett had at one time a landlady who exhibited an

inordinate love for that vulgar fluid ycleped geneva; a

beverage which Dicky himself by no means held in abhorrence.

She would order her servant to procure supplies after the

following fashion:—“Betty, go and get a quartern loaf and

half a quartern of gin.” Off bolted Betty—she was speedily

recalled: “Betty, make it half a quartern loaf and a

quartern of gin.” But Betty had never got fairly across the

threshold, ere the voice was again heard:—“Betty, on second

thoughts, you may as well make it all gin!”

he dug his grave with his bottle, and gave up the ghost amidst a troop of spirits. Peace to his manes! Cold is the cheerful hearth, where he familiarly stirred the embers and silent the walls that echoed to “Old Wigs!” chanted by Jeffery Dunstan when he danced hop-scotch on a table spread out with tumblers and tobacco-pipes! Hushed is the voice of song. At this moment, as if to give our last assertion what Touchstone calls “the lie direct,” some Corydon from Petty France, the Apollo of a select singing party in the first floor front room, thus musically apostrophised his Blouzellinda of Bloomsbury.

She's all that fancy painted her, she's rosy without rouge,

Her gingham gown a modest brown turned up with

bright gamboge;

She learns to jar the light guitar, and plays the harpsi-

chols,

Her fortune's five-and-twenty pounds in Three per Cent

Consols.

At Beulah Spa, where love is law, was my fond heart

beguiled;

I pour'd my passion in her ear—she whisper'd, “Draw

it mild!”

In Clerkenwell you bear the bell: what muffin-man does

not?

And since, my Paul, you've gain'd your p'int, perhaps

you 'll stand your pot.

The Charlie quite, I've, honour bright, sent packing for a

cheat;

A watchman's wife, he'd whack me well when he was

on his beat.

“Adieu!” he said, and shook his head, “my dolor be

your dow'r;

And while you laugh, I 'll take my staff, and go and cry

—the hour.”

Last Greenwich Fair we wedded were; she's won, and

we are one;

And Sally, since the honey-moon, has had a little son.

Of all the girls that are so smart, there's none than Sally

smarter;

I said it 'fore I married her, and now I say it arter.

Geo. II. R.

“This is to give notice to all gentlemen, ladies and others, that there is to be seen from eight in the morning till nine at night, at the end of the great booth on Blackheath, a west of England woman 38 years of age alive, with two heads, one above the other; having no hands, fingers, nor toes; yet can she dress and undress, knit, sew, read, sing,” Query—a duet with her two mouths? “She has had the honour to be seen by Sir Hans Sloane, and several of the Royal Society. * “N.B. Gentlemen and ladies may see her at their own houses, if they please.

* That the caricaturist has been out-caricatured by Nature

no one will deny. Wilkes was so abominably ugly that he said

it always took him half an hour to talk away his face; and

Mirabeau, speaking of his own countenance, said, “Fancy a

tiger marked with the small-pox!” We have seen an Adonis

contemplate one of Cruikshank's whimsical figures, of which

his particular shanks were the bow-ideal, and rail at the

artist for libelling Dame Nature! How ill-favoured were Lord

Lovat, Magliabeeehi, Searron, and the wall-eyed, botde-nosed

Buekhorse the Bruiser! how deformed and frightful Sir Harry

Dimsdale and Sir Jeffrey Dunstan! What would have been said

of the painter of imaginary Siamese twins? Yet we have “The

true Description of two Monstrous Children, born in the

parish of Swanburne in Buekinghamshyre, the 4th of Aprill,

Anno Domini 1566; the two Children having both their belies

fast joyned together, and imbracing one another with their

armes: which Children were both alyve by the space of half

an hower, and wer baptised, and named the one John, and the

other Joan.”—A similar wonder was exhibited in Queen Anne's

reign, viz. “Two monstrous girls born in the Kingdom of

Hungary,” which were to be seen “from 8 o'clock in the

morning till 8 at night, up one pair of stairs, at Mr.

William Sutteliffe's, a Drugster's Shop, at the sign of the

Golden Anchor, in the Strand, near Charing-Cross.” The

Siamese twins of our own time are fresh in every one's

memory. Shakspere throws out a pleasant sarcasm at the

characteristic curiosity of the English nation. Trinculo,

upon first beholding Caliban, exclaims—“A strange fish!

were I in England now (as I once was), and had but this fish

painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of

silver: there would this monster make a man: when they will

not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out

ten to see a dead Indian”

This great wonder never was shown in England before this, the 13th day of March, 1741. “Vivat Rex.” Peckham * and Blackheath Fairs are abolished;——

* Peckham Fair, August 1787.—Of the four-footed race were

bears, monkeys, dancing-dogs, a learned pig, &c. Mr.

Flockton in his theatrical booth opposite the Kentish

Drovers, exhibited the Italian fantocini; the farce of the

Conjuror; and his “inimitable musical-clock.” Mr. Lane,

“first performer to the King,” played off his “snip-snap,

rip-rap, crick-crack, and thunder tricks, that the grown

babies stared like worried cats.” This extraordinary genius

“will drive about forty twelve-penny nails into any

gentleman's breech, place him in a loadstone chair, and draw

them out without the least pain! He is, in short, the most

wonderful of all wonderful creatures the world ever wondered

at.”

Sir Jeffrey Dunstan sported his handsome figure within his

booth; outside of which was displayed a likeness of the

elegant original in his pink satin smalls. His dress,

address, and oratory, fascinated the audience; in fact,

“Jeffy was quite tonish!”

In opposition to the “Monstrous Craws” at the Royal Grove,

were shown in a barn “four wonderful human creatures,

brought three thousand miles beyond China, from the

Kickashaw Mackabee country, viz.

“A man with a chin eleven inches Ions:.

“Another with as many M'ens and warts on his face as knots

on an old thornback.

“A third with two large teeth five inches long, strutting

beyond his upper lip, as if his father had been a man-tiger!

“And the fourth with a noble large fiery head, that looked

like the red-hot urn on the top of the monument!”

“These most wonderful wild-born human beings (the Monstrous

Craws), two females and a male, are of very small stature,

being little more than four feet high; each with a monstrous

craw under his throat. Their country, language, &c. are as

yet unknown to mankind. It is supposed they started in some

canoe from their native place (a remote quarter in South

America), and being wrecked were picked up by a Spanish

vessel. At that period they were each of a dark-olive

complexion, but which has astonishingly, by degrees, changed

to the colour of that of Europeans. They are tractable and

respectful towards strangers, and of lively and merry

disposition among themselves; singing and daneing in the

most extraordinary way, at the will and pleasure of the

company.”

and those of Camberwell * and Wandsworth ** are

* A petty session (how very petty!) was held at Union Hall

on the 4th July, 1823, in order to put down Camberwell Fair,

which is as old as Domesday Book. Shakspere has truly

described these ill-conditioned, peddling, meddling

Dogberrys “You wear out a good wholesome forenoon in hearing

a cause between an orange-wife and a fosset-seller; and then

rejourn the controversy of three-pence to a second day of

audience. When you speak best to the purpose, it is not

worth the wagging of your beards, and your beards deserve

not so honourable a grave, as to stuff a botcher's cushion,

or to be entombed in an ass's pack-saddle.”

** Wandsworth Fair exhibited sixty years ago Mount Vesuvius,

or the burning mountain by moonlight, rope, and hornpipe-

dancing; a forest, with the humours of lion-catching;

tumbling by the young Polander from Sadler's Wells; several

diverting comic songs; a humorous dialogue between Mr.

Swatehall and his wife; sparring matches; the Siege of

Belgrade, &c. all for three-penee!

On Whit-Monday, 1840, Messrs. Nelson and Lee sent down a

theatrical caravan to Wandsworth Fair, and were moderately

remunerated. But the “Grand Victoria Booth” was the rallying

point of attraction. Its refectory was worthy of the

ubiquitous Mr. Epps—of ham, beef, tongue, polony, portable

soup, and sheep's trotter memory!

Cold beef and ham, hot ribs of lamb, mock-turtle soup that's

portable,

Did blow, with stout, their jackets out, and made the folks

comfortable!

fast going the way of all fairs. Bow, Edmonton, * Highgate, ** Brook Green (Hammersmith,) and

* In the year 1820, the keeper of a menagerie at Edmonton

Fair walked into the den of a lioness, and nursed her cubs.

He then paid his respects to the husband and father, a

magnificent Barbary Lion. After the usual complimentary

greetings between them, the man somewhat roughly thrust open

the monster's jaws, and put his head into its mouth, giving

at the same time a shout that made it tremble. This he did

with impunity. But in less than two months afterwards, when

repeating the same exhibition at a fair in the provinces, he

eried, like the starling, “I can't get out!—I can't get

out!” demanding at the same time if the lion wagged its

tail? The lion, thinking the joke had been played quite

often enough, did wag its tail, and roared “Heads!” The

keeper fell a victim to his temerity.

** “July 2,1744.—This is to give notice that Highgate Fair

will be kept on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday next, in a

pleasant shady walk in the middle of the town.

“On Wednesday a pig will be turned loose, and he that takes

it up by the tail and throws it over his head, shall have

it. To pay two-pence entrance, and no less than twelve to

enter.

“On Thursday a match will be run by two men, a hundred yards

in two sacks, for a large sum. And, to encourage the sport,

the landlord of the Mitre will give a pair of gloves, to be

run for by six men, the winner to have them.

“And on Friday a hat, value ten shillings, will be run for

by men twelve times round the Green; to pay one shilling

entrance: no less than four to start; as many as will may

enter, and the second man to have all the money above four.”

West-end (Hampstead * ), Fairs, with their swings, roundabouts, spiced gingerbread, penny-trumpets, and halfpenny rattles are passed away. The showmen and Merry Andrews of Moorfields ** are

* “The Hampstead Fair Ramble; or, The World going quite Mad.

To the tune of 'Brother Soldier dost hear of the News,'

London: Printed for J. Bland, near Holbourn, 1708.” A

curious broadside.

** Moorfields during the holiday seasons was an epitome of

Bartlemy Fair. Its booths and scaffolds had flags flying on

the top. A stage near the Windmill Tavern, opposite Old

Beth-lem, was famous for its grinning-matches. Moorfields

had one novel peculiarity, viz. that whilst the Merry Andrew

was practising his buffooneries and legerdemain tricks in

one quarter, the itinerant Methodist preacher was holding

forth in another. Foote makes his ranting parson exclaim,

“Near the mad mansions of Moorfields I 'll bawl,

Come fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, all,

Shut up your shops and listen to my call!”

The Act 12 of Queen Anne aimed at the suppression of the

Moorfields' merriments. The showmen asked Justice Fuller to

license them in April, 1717, but in vain. Fuller had a

battle-royal with Messrs. Saunders and Margaret, two

Middlesex justices, who sided with the conjurors, and

forbade the execution of his warrant. Justice Fuller,

however, having declared war against Moorfields'

mountebanking, was inexorable, and committed the insurgents

to the house of correction; from whence, after three hours'

durance vile, they were released by three other magistrates.

Kennington Common was also a favourite spot for this odd

variety of sports. It was here that Mr. Mawworm encountered

the brick-bats of his congregation, and had his “pious tail”

illuminated with the squibs and crackers of the unre-

generate.

This fair commenced in the New River pipe-fields, and

continued in a direct line as far as the top of Elm Street,

where it terminated. The equestrians always made a point of

galloping their donkeys furiously past the house of

correction!

no more; the Gooseberry Fairs * of Clerkenwell and Tottenham Court Road, (the minor Newmarket and Doncaster of Donkey-racing!) are come to a brick-and-mortary end.

* “April 9, 1748.—At the Amphitheatrical Booth at Tottenham

Court, on Monday next (being Easter Monday), Mr. French,

designing to please all, in making his Country Wake complete

by doubling the prizes given to be played for, as well as

the sports, has engaged some of the best gamesters, Country

against London, to make sides. For Cudgelling, a laced hat,

value one pound five shillings, or one guinea in gold; for

Wrestling, one guinea; Money for Boxing, besides Stage-

money. And, to crown the diversion of the day, he gives a

fine Smock to be jigged for by Northern Lasses against the

Nymphs to the westward of St. Giles's Church—to be entered

at the Royal Oak, in High Street, by Hob, Clerk of the

Revels, or his deputy. The doors will be opened at eleven

o'clock; the sport to begin at two. Cudgelling as usual

before the prizes. Best seats, Two Shillings; Pit and First

Gallery, One Shilling; Upper Gallery, Sixpence.”

Mr. French advertises, May 12, 1748, at his booth at

Tottenham Court, six men sewed up in sacks to run six times

the length of the stage backwards and forwards for a prize—

a prize for wrestling and dancing to the pipe and tabor—

and the gladiator's dance. He also kept the race-course in

Tothill-Fields, August 4, 1749.

“August 8, 1730.—At Reynold's Great Theatrical Booth, in

Tottenham Court, during the time of the Fair, will be

presented a Comical, Tragical, Farcical Droll, called The

Rum Duke and the Queer Duke, or a Medley of Mirth and

Sorrow. To which will be added a celebrated Operatical

Puppet-Show, called Punch's Oratory, or the Pleasures of the

Town; containing several diverting passages, particularly a

very elegant dispute between Punch and another great Orator

(Henley?); Punch's Family Lecture, or Joan's Chimes on her

tongue to some tune. No Wires—all alive! With

entertainments of Daneing by Monsieur St. Luce, and others.”

High-smoking chimneys and acres of tiles shut out the once pleasant prospect, and their Geffray Gambados (now grey-headed jockeys!) sigh, amidst macadamisation and dust, for the green sward where, in their hey-day of life, they witched the fair with noble donkeyship!—Croydon (famous for roast-pork, and new walnuts ), Harley-Bush, and Barnet fairs, are as yet unsuppressed; but the demons of mischief—[the English populace (their Majesty the Many!) are notorious for this barbarity]—have

* “At the London Spaw (1754), during the accustomed time of

the Welsh Fair, will be the usual entertainment of Roast

Pork, with the fam'd soft-flavor'd Spaw Ale, and every other

liquor of the neatest and best kinds, agreeable

entertainments, and inviting usage from the Publick's most

obedient servant, George Dowdell.”

In the year 1795 a Dutch Fair was held at Frogmore, when a

grand fête was given by King George the Third, in

celebration of his Queen's birth-day, and the recent arrival

of the Princess of Wales. A number of dancers were dressed

as haymakers; Mr. Byrne and his company danced the Morris-

dance; and Savoyards, in character, assisted at the

merriments. Feats of horsemanship were exhibited by

professors from the Circus; and booths erected for good

eating and drinking, and the sale of toys, work-bags,

pocket-books, and fancy articles. Munden, Rock, and Incledon

diverted the company with their mirth and music; and Majesty

participated in the general joy. The Royal Dutch Fair lasted

two days, and was under the tasteful direction of the

Princess Elizabeth.

totally destroyed the magnificent oak that made Fairlop Fair * a favourite rendezvous with those who could afford a tandem, tax-cart, or Tim-whisky. How often have we sat, and pirouetted too, under its venerable shade.

May Fair (which began on May-day), during the early part of the last century, was much patronised by the nobility and gentry. It had nevertheless its Ducking Pond for the ruder class of holiday makers. **

* By an act passed 3rd of 2nd Victoria (not Victoria for the

Fair!) it was rendered unlawful to hold Fairlop Fair beyond

the first Friday (“Friday's a dry day!”) in July. This was

the handy work of the Barking Magistrates.

“And when I walk abroad let no dog bark!”

** “June 25, 1748.—At May Fair Ducking Pond, on Monday

next, the 27th inst., Mr. Hooton's Dog Nero (ten years old,

with hardly a tooth in his head to hold a duck, but well

known for his goodness to all that have seen him hunt) hunts

six ducks for a guinea, against the bitch called the Flying

Spaniel, from the Ducking Pond on the other side of the

water, who has beat all she has hunted against, excepting

Mr. Hooton's Good-Blood. To begin at two o'clock.

“Mr. Hooton begs his customers won't take it amiss to pay

Twopence admittance at the gate, and take a ticket, which

will be allowed as Cash in their reckoning. No person

admitted without a tickct, that such as are not liked may be

kept out.

“Note. Right Lincoln Ale.”

Apropos of other mirthful rendezvous.

“A new Ducking Pond to be opened on Monday next at

Lirneiouse Cause, being the 11th August, where four dogs

are to play for Four Pounds, and a lamb to be roasted whole,

to be given away to all gentlemen sportsmen. To begin at Ten

o'clock in the forenoon.”—Postman, 7th August 1707.

“Erith Diversion, 24th May 1790.—This is to acquaint the

publick, that on Whit-Monday, and during the holidays, the

undermentioned diversions will take place. First, a new Hat

to be run for by men; a fine Ham to be played for at Trap-

ball; a pair of new Pumps to be jumped for in a sack; a

large Plumb-pudding to be sung for; a Guinea to be cudgelled

for—with smoking, grinning through a collar, with many

other diversions too tedious to mention.

“N.B. A Ball in the evening as usual.”

But what are the hopes of man! A press-gang (this is the

freedom of the press with a vengeance! this the boasted

monarchy of the middle classes!) interrupted and put an end

to these water-side sports.

Kent has long been renowned for strong muscles and strong

stomachs!

“Bromley in Kent, July 14, 1726.—A strange eating worthy is

to perform a Tryal of Skill on St. James's Day, which is

the day of our Fair for a wager of Five Guineas—viz.: he

is to eat four pounds of bacon, a bushel of French beans,

with two pounds of butter, a quartern loaf, and to drink a

gallon of strong beer.”

The old proverb of “buttering bacon” here receives

farinaceous illustration!

“In a fore one-pair room, on the west side of Sun-court,” a Frenchman exhibited, during the time of May Fair, the “astonishing strength of the 'Strong Woman,' * his wife.”

“She first let down her hair, of a length descending to her knees, which she twisted round the projecting part of a blacksmith's anvil, and then lifted the ponderous weight from the floor. She also put her bare feet on a red-hot salamander, without receiving the least injury.” May Fair is now become the site of aristocratical dwellings, where a strong purse is required to procure a standing. At Horn Fair, a party of humorists of both sexes, counted in all the variety of Bull-Feather fashion, after perambulating round Cuckold Point, startled the little quiet village of Charlton on St. Luke's day, shouting their emulation, and blowing voluntaries on rams' horns, in honour of their patron saint. Ned Ward gives a curious picture of this odd ceremony—and the press of Stonecutter Street (the worthy successor of Aldermary Churchyard) has consigned it to immortality in two Broadsides ** inspired by the Helicon of the Fleet,

* This was probably Mrs. Alchorne, “who had exhibited as the

Strong Woman” and died in Drury Lane in 1817, at a very

advanced age. Madame also performed at Bartholomew Fair in

1752.

** “A New Summons to all the Merry (Wagtail) Jades to attend

at Horn Fair”—“A New Summons to Horn Fair” both without a

date.

“Around whose brink

Bards rush in droves, like cart-horses to drink,

Dip their dark beards among its streams so clear,

And while they gulp it, wish it ale or beer,”

and illustrated by the Cruikshank of his day. Mile-end Green, in ancient times, had its popular exhibitions;—

“Lord Pomp, let nothing that's magnificall,

Or that may tend to London's graceful state,

Be unperformed—as showes and solemne feastes,

Watches in armour, triumphes, cresset-lightes,

Bonefiers, belles, and peales of ordinance.

And, Pleasure, see that plaies be published,

Maie-games and maskes, with mirth and minstrelsie;

Pageants and School-feastes, beares and puppit-plaies:

Myselfe will muster upon Mile-end-greene,

As though we saw, and feared not to be seene.”

And the royal town of Windsor, * and the racecourse in Tothill-Fields ** were not without their merriments.

* “The Three Lordes and Three Ladies of London,” 1590.

** “On Wednesday the 13th, at Windsor, a piece of plate is

to be fought for at cudgels by ten men on a side, from,

Berkshire and Middlesex. The next day a hat and feather to

be fought for by ten men on a side, from the counties

aforesaid. Ten Bargemen are to eat ten quarts of hasty-

pudding, well buttered, but d——d hot! He that has done

first to have a silver spoon of ten shillings value; and the

second five shillings. And as they have anciently had the

title of The Merry Wives of Windsor, six old women belonging

to Windsor town challenge any six old women in the universe,

(we need not, however, go farther than our own country) to

out-scold them. The best in three heats to have a suit of

head-cloths, and, (what old women generally want!) a pair of

nut-crackers.”—Read's Journal, September 9, 1721.

“According to Law. September 22, 1749.—On Wednesday next,

the 27th inst., will be run for by Asses (I!) in Tothill

Fields, a purse of gold, not exceeding the value of Fifty

Pounds. The first will be entitled to the gold; the second

to two pads; the third to thirteen pence halfpenny; the last

to a halter fit for the neck of any ass in Europe. Each ass

must be subject to the following articles

“No person will be allowed to ride but Taylors and Chimney-

sweepers; the former to have a cabbage-leaf fixed in his

hat, the latter a plumage of white feathers; the one to use

nothing but his yard-wand, and the other a brush.

“No jockey-tricks will be allowed upon any consideration.

“No one to strike an ass but the rider, lest he thereby

cause a retrograde motion, under a penalty of being ducked

three times in the river.

“No ass will be allowed to start above thirty years old, or

under ten months, nor any that has won above the value of

fifty pounds.

“No ass to run that has been six months in training,

particularly above stairs, lest the same accident happen to

it that did to one nigh a town ten miles from London, and

that for reasons well known to that place.

“Each ass to pay sixpence entrance, three farthings of which

are to be given to the old clerk of the race, for his due

care and attendance.

“Every ass to carry weight for inches, if thought proper.”

Then follow a variety of sports, with “an ordinary of proper

victuals, particularly for the riders, if desired.”

“Run, lads, run! there is rare sport in Tothill Fields!”