Snow XV. sions of agony in his tears and moans Another, and a very good menagerie- horse having been procured, the mail were most pitious and affecting. A fresh the admission “only a penny!" It was drove on, after having been detained “GEORGE BALLARD's Caravan," with “ The Lioness that attacked the Exeter drew up it stood exactly abreast of the ca three quarters of an hour. As the mail mail.—The great Lion.-Royal Tiger.Large White Bear.- Tiger Owls,” with assault. The coachman at first proposed ravan from which the lioness made the monkies, and other animals, the usual accessories to the interior of a managerie. to alight and stab the lioness with a The chief attraction was the Lion- knife, but was prevented by the remoness.” Her attack on the Exeter Mail strance of the guard; who observed, that he would expose himself to certain was on a Sunday evening, in the year destruction, as the animal if attacked 1816. The coach had arrived at Winter- would naturally turn upon him and tear slow-hui, seven miles on the London side him to pieces. The prudence of the ad. of Salisbury. In a most extraordinary vice was clearly proved by the fate of the manner, at the moment when the coachman pulled up to deliver his bags, one of dog. It was the engagement between him and the lioness that afforded time for the leaders was suddenly seized by soine ferocious animal. This produced a great engaged herself from the horse, she did the keepers to rally. After she had disconfusion and alarm; two passengers not seem to be in any immediate hurry to who were inside the mail got out, ran into the house, and locked themselves up with her, as prey, the dog she had killed, move ; for, whether she had carried off in a rocm above stairs; the horses kicked and plunged violently, and it was with or from some other cause, she continued difficulty the coachman could prevent the growling and howling in so loud a tone, carriage from being overturned. It was had called out loudly to the guard to as to be heard for nearly half a mile. Al soon perceived by the coachman and guard, by the light of the lamps, that the despatch her with his blunderbuss, which animal which had seized the horse was a he appeared disposed to do, but the owner huge lioness. A large mastiff dog came kill her-she cost me 500l., and she will cried out to him, “For God's sake do not up and attacked her fiercely, on which she be as quiet as a lamb if not irritated." quitted the horse and turned upon him. The dog fled, but was pursued and killed This arrested his hand, and he did not fire. She was afterwards easily enticed by the lioness, within forty yards of the place. It appears that the beast had by the keepers, and placed in her usual confinement. escaped from its caravan which was stand The collection of animals in Ballard's ing on the road side with others belonging to the proprietors of the menagerie, menagerie is altogether highly interest on their way to Salisbury Fair. An alarming, but it seems impossible that the probeing given, the keepers pursued and prietor,could exhibit them for “ only a hunted the lioness into a hovel under a fomew Fair," where the people assemble penny" in any other place than “ Barthogranary, which served for keeping agri: in great multitudes, and the shows are cultural implements. About half-past eight they had secured her so effectually, thronged the whole day. by barricading the place, as to prevent Show XVI. her escape. The horse, when first attacked, fought with great spirit, and if at • Exhibition of Real Wonders." liberty, would probably have beaten This announcement, designed to asdown his antagonist with his fore feet, tonish, was inscribed over the show with but in plunging he embarrassed himself the usual notice, “ Only a Penny !"-the in the harness. The lioness attacked him “Wonders of the Deep!" the “Prodigies in the front, and springing at his throat, of the Age !" and “the Learned Pig!" in fastened the talons of her fore feet on large letters. The printed bill is a curieach side of his neck, close to the head, osity :while the talons of her hind feet were forced into his chest. In this situation To be Seen in a Commodious Pavilion in she hung, while the blood was seen flow this Place. ing as if a vein had been opened by a fleam. He was a capital horse, the off REAL WONDERS ! . . leader, the best in the set. The expres SEE AND BELIEVE, 66 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 around, 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, ex hibited for half-a-crown in Piccadilly, Have you seen about a year before. The real head of Mahowra, the cannibal chief, was a skull THE BEAUTIFUL DOLPHIN, that might have been some English clod The Performing Pig & the Mermaid ? pole's, with a dried skin over it, and beIf not, pray do! as the exhibition con- when the lady show-woman put the can wigged; but it looked sufficiently terrific, tains more variety than any other in Eng- dle in at the neck, and the flame illuminland. Those ladies and gentlemen who may be pleased to honour it with a visit ated the yellow integument over the will be truly gratified. holes where eyes, nose, and a tongue had been. There was enough for a penny!" TOBY, The Swinish Philosopher, and Ladies' For Show XVII. tune Teller. Another “ Only a penny!" with picThat beautiful animal appears to be en- tures“ large as life” on the show-cloths dowed with the natural sense of the hu- outside of the “living wonders within," man being. He is in colour the most and the following inscription :beautiful of his race; in symmetry the ALL ALIVE! most perfect; in temper the most docile; and far exceeds any thing yet seen for his No False Paintings ! intelligent performances. He is beyond all conception : he has a perfect know THE WILD INDIAN, ledge of the alphabet, understands arithmelic, and will spell and cast accounts, tell the points of the globe, the dice GIANT BOY, DWARF FAMILY, Never here before, TO BE SEEN ALIVE! At the same time, the public will have an opportunity of seeing what was exhi- Mr. Thomas Day was the reputed fabited so long in London, under the title ther of the dwarf family, and exhibited of himself as small enough for a great won der; as he was. He was also proprietor of THE MERMAID the show ; and said he was thirty-five The wonder of the deep! not a fac-simile years of age, and only thirty-five inches or copy, but the same curiosity. high. He fittingly descanted on the liv. Admission Moderate. ing personages in whom he had a vested interest. There was a boy six years old, Open from Eleven in the Morning till only twenty-seven inches high. The Wild Nine in the Evening: Indian was a civil-looking man of colour. The great “prodigies" of this show The Giant Boy, William Wilkinson were the “performing pig,” and the per- Whitehead, was fourteen years of age on forming show-woman. She drew forth the 26th of March last, stood five feet two the learning of the “swinish philosopher" inches high, measured five feet round the admirably. He told his letters, and got body, twenty-seven inches across the THE And the shoulders, twenty inches round the arm, countenance, active in motion, and of twenty-four inches round the calf, thirty- sensible speech. He was lightly dressed one inches round the thigh, and weighed in plaid to show his limbs, with a bonnet twenty-two stone. His father and mo of the same. The artist with me sketched ther were “ travelling merchants" of his appearance exactly as we saw bim, Manchester; he was born at Glasgow dur- and as the present engraving now repre ing one of their journies, and was as fine sents him ; it is a good likeness of his a youth as I ever saw, handsomely form- features, as well as of his form. ed, of fair complexion, an intelligent Show XVIII. I declined entering, though “Only “Holden's GlassWorking and Blowing." penny!" Show XIX. This was the last show on the east-side This was the first show on the southof Smithfield. It was limited to a single side of Smithfield. It stood, therefore, caravan; having seen exhibitions of the with its side towards Cloth-fair, and the same kind, and the evening getting late, back towards the comer of Duke-street The admission was “Only a penny!" and Giltspur-street ; at that entrance into the the paintings fared on the show-cloths Fair it was the first show. This front was with this inscription, “ They're all Alive entirely covered by painted show-cloths Inside! Be assured They're All Alive! representing the animals, with the – The Yorkshire Giantess.— Waterloo proprietor's name in immense letters Giant.— Indian Chief.-Only a Penny!" above, and the words “ The Conquering An overgrown girl was the Yorkshire Lion" very conspicuous. There were Giantess. A large man with a tail, and other show-cloths along the whole length his hair frizzed and powdered, aided by a of the side, surmounted by this inscripsort of uniform coat and a plaid rocque- tion, stretching out in one line of large laire, made the Waterloo Giant. The ab- capital letters, “Nero AND WALLACE; dication of such an Indian Chief as this, in THE SAME LIONS THAT FOUGHT AT WARfavour of Bartholomew Fair, was probably WICK.” One of the front show-cloths reforced upon him by his tribe. presented one of the fights; a lion stood up with a dog in his mouth, cranched beShow XX. tween his grinders; the blood ran from his jaws; his left leg stood upon another The “ Greatest of all Wonders !-Gi-, dog squelched by his weight. A third antess and Two Dwarfs.-Only a Penny!” dog was in the act of flying at him feroThey were painted on the show-cloths ciously, and one, wounded and bleeding, quite as little, and quite as large, as life. was fearfully retreating. There were The dwarfs inside were dwarfish, and the seven other 'show-cloths on this front, “Somerset girl, taller than any man in with the words “NERO AND Wallace" England," (for so said the show-cloth,) between them. One of these show-cloths, arose from a chair, wherein she was seated, whereon the monarch of the forest was to the height of six feet nine inches and painted, was inscribed, “ Nero, the Great three quarters, with, “ladies and gentle- Lion, from Caffraria! men, your most obedient." She was The printed bill described the whole good looking and affable, and obliged the collection to be in “ fine order." Six“ ladies and gentlemen" by taking off pence was the entrance money demanded, her tight-fitting slipper and handing it which having paid, I entered the show round. It was of such dimension, that early in the afternoon, although it is now the largest man present could have put mentioned last, in conformity to its posihis booted foot into it. She said that her tion in the Fair. I had experienced some name was Elizabeth Stock, and that she inconvenience, and witnessed some irrewas only sixteen years old. gularities incident to a mixed multitude filling so large a space as Smithfield ; yet Show XXI. no disorder without, was equal to the dis order within Wombwell's. There was CHAPPELL-PIKE. no passage at the end, through which This was a very large show, without persons might make their way out : perany show-cloths or other announcement haps this was part of the proprietor's outside to intimate the performances, ex. policy, for he might imagine that the cept a clown and several male and female universal disgust that prevailed in Lonperformers, who strutted the platform in don, while he was manifesting his brutal their exhibiting dresses, and in dignified cupidity at Warwick, had not subsided ; silence; but the clown grimaced, and, as- and that it was necessary his show-place sisted by others, bawled “Only a penny," here should appear to fill well on the till the place filled, and then the show first day of the Fair, lest a report of gecommenced. There was slack-rope danc- neral indifference to it, should induce ing, tumbling, and other representations many persons to forego the gratification as at Ball's theatre, but better executed. of their curiosity, in accommodation to the natural and right feeling that induced a SHow XXII. determination not to enter the exhibition of a man who had freely submitted his aniWOMBWELL. mals to be tortured. Be that as it may, his The back of this man's menagerie abut- show, when I saw it, was a shameful ted on the side of the last show, and ran scene. There was no person in attendthe remaining length of the porth-side of ance to exhibit or point out the animals Smithfield, with the front looking towards They were arranged on one side only, and I made my way with difficulty towards Here ends my account of the various the end, where a loutish fellow with a shows in the Fair. In passing the stalls, broomstick, stood against one of the dens, the following bill was slipped into my from whom I could only obtain this in- hand, by a man stationed to give them formation, that it was not his business to away. show the beasts, and that the showman SERIOUS NOTICE, would begin at a proper time. I pa IN PERFECT CONFIDENCE. tiently waited, expecting some announcement of this person's arrival; but no inti- The following extraordinary comic permation of it was given; at length I dis formances at covered over the heads of the unconscious Sadler's Wells, crowd around, that the showman, who was evidently under the influence of Can only be given during the present drink, had already made his way one week; the proprietors, therefore, most third along the show. With great diffi- respectfully inform that fascinating sex, culty I forced myself through the swelter- so properly distinguished by the approing press somewhat nearer to him, and priate appellation of managed to get opposite Nero's den, which he had by that time reached and THE FAIR! clambered into, and into which he invited And all those well inclined gentlemen any of the spectators who chose to pay who are happy enough to protect them, him sixpence each, as many of them did, that the amusements will consist of a for the sake of saying that they had been romantic tale, of mysterious horror and in the den with the noble animal, that broad grin, never acted, called the Wombwell, his master, had exposed to be baited by bull-dogs. The man was as ENCHANTED greedy of gain as his master, and therefore without the least regard to those who GIRDLES; wished for general information concerning OR, the different animals, he maintained his WINKI THE WITCH, post as long as there was a prospect of And the Ladies of Samarcand. getting the sixpences. Pressure and heat were now so excessive, that I was com- A most whimsical burletta, which sends pelled to struggle my way, as many others people home perfectly exhausted from did, towards the door at the front end, uninterrupted risibility, called for the sake of getting into the air. Unquestionably I should not have entered THE LAWYER, THE JEW, Wombwell's, but for the purpose of describing his exhibition in common with THE YORKSHIREMAN. others. As I had failed in obtaining the information I sought, and could not get a With, by request of 75 distinguished faprinted bill when I entered, I re-ascended milies, and a party of 5, that never-to-beto endeavour for one again; here I saw sufficiently-praised pantomime, called great inconvenience within, which a litle Magic in Two Colours; alteration would have obviated; he af. OR, fected to know nothing about it, refused FAIRY BLUE & FAIRY RED: to be convinced, and exhibited himself, to my judgment of him, with an understand Or, Harlequin and the Marble Roct. ing and feelings perverted by avarice. It would be perfectly superfluous for He is undersized in mind as well as form, any man in his senses to attempt any "a weazen, sharp-faced man,” with a thing more than the mere announcement skin reddened by more than natural spi- in recommendation of the above unparalrits, and he speaks in a voice and lan- leled representations, so attractive in guage that accord with his feelings and themselves as to threaten a complete mo propensities. His bill mentions, “A re- nopoly of the qualities of the mageet: markably fine tigress in the same den and though the proprietors were to talk with a noble British lion!!" I looked for nonsense for an hour, they could not this companionship in his menagerie, assert a more important truth than that without being able to discover it. they possess AND a |
