The Grand Jury of Middlesex presented May Fair in November 1703. And early in the ensuing year, the public mind had been so influenced by the dreadful storm of November, the effects of which were felt in every direction, that prelates, the clergy, authors, and in short all men of virtue, joined in one grand exclamation against the obscenity, the immorality, and the blasphemy of the stage, which its most ardent admirers must admit to have arrived at such a height as fully warranted an order from the Queen to restrain it. At the same period the Lord Mayor and Aldermen issued a proclamation, forbidding the cruel practice of throwing at Cocks on Shrove Tuesday; and the Tatler of April 18, 1709, mentions the total abolition of May Fair as far as related to the exhibition of puppets, and similar contemptible traps for the vulgar. The Theatre in the Haymarket was opened in 1705, when these strange and almost impious lines were pronounced as part of the Prologue: "Such was our Builder's art, that, soon as nam'd, This fabrick, like the infant World, was fram'd: The Architect must on dull order wait, But 'tis the Poet only can create. In the good age of ghostly ignorance, How did Cathedrals rise, and zeal advance; But now that pious pageantry no more, And Stages thrive as Churches did before." By Dr. GARTH. The Theatre in Dorset Garden was taken down about 1709, and the site immediately afterwards converted into a wood-yard and saw-pit. Firing at marks formed part of the amusement of a certain class of people in 1709; and prizes were offered of various descriptions, particularly one at Islington of a pair of doe-skin breeches worth 3_l._ The terms for the privilege of firing were a subscription of one shilling each by sixty men. A most tragical occurrence happened in September 1709, at that polite place of resort the Bear-garden at Hockley in the Hole. Christopher Preston, keeper of the Garden, had taught his Bears every thing but forgiveness of injuries; and this he experienced, at an unguarded moment, by an attack from one, who not only killed, but almost devoured him, before his friends were aware of the fact. In 1710 the publick were offered an exhibition something similar to the modern moving picture at Vauxhall; it was shown for sixpence and a shilling opposite Cecil-street in the Strand, and represented ships sailing out of port, a coach passing over a bridge leading to a city, a cart drawn by two horses with a woman in it, and many other things. Matches at Cricket were played for many years on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, at the Duke of Ormond's head near Lamb's Conduit-fields. The Tatler of April 25, 1710, advertises a Pastoral Mask to be performed at York-buildings on the 27th, composed by Mr. Clayton, and for his benefit, who is there said to have introduced the Italian Opera into England.