The first travelling _menagerie_ seems now to have appeared in this fair, and attracted considerable attention. It stood near the hospital gate. “Sir Hans Sloane cannot be supposed to have missed such an opportunity of studying animals little known, as he is said to have constantly visited the fair for that purpose, and to have retained the services of a draughtsman for their representation.” (Frost.) It may be noted that wild beasts had been kept at the Tower certainly from 1253 downwards. 1709. There was published “Bart’lemy Fair: or an Enquiry after Wit; in which due Respect is had to a Letter concerning Enthusiasm, To my Lord —. By Mr. Wotton. London Printed for R. Wilkin, at the King’s Head in St. Paul’s Church-Yard.” This 8vo. pamphlet of 175 pages contains no reference to the fair, and probably only took its title from reference to the disputations there conducted, and of which I have spoken. 1710. There was a curious half-sheet octavo tract, printed this year, entitled “The Wonders of England, containing Dogget and Penkethman’s Dialogue with Old Nick, on the suppression of Bartholomew Fair in Smithfield.” The title enumerates several other strange and wonderful matters, as being contained in the book, but, like the showman’s painted cloths in the fair, pictures monsters not visible within; so there is not a line in the tract respecting the suppression of the fair. Yet “Coming events cast their shadows before.” 1711. It seems probable that in 1691, or 1694, when the Corporation took steps to limit the period of the fair, that a printed statement of the reasons therefor was issued for the edification of the public mind. At all events during the present year there appeared: “Reasons Formerly published for the Punctual Limiting of Bartholomew Fair to those Three Days to which it is determined by the Royal Grant of it to the City of London. New reprinted with Additions, to prevent a Design set on Foot to procure an Establishment of the said Fair for Fourteen Days. Humbly Addressed to the present Right Honorable the Lord Mayor to the Worshipful Court of Aldermen, and to the Common Council of the said City. London Printed in the year 1711.” 1714. It had become the custom for the stars of Drury Lane, Covent Garden, the Haymarket, Lincoln’s Fields, and Goodman’s Fields theatres to enter into engagements to act in the theatrical booths in Smithfield, and probably also in Southwark; and a rich “benefit” they made, sometimes by acting, but more generally by becoming partners in a company organized for the purposes of the fair. Recruits were brought up from the provincial theatres, and thus became familiar to London audiences.