* In a Bartlemy Fair bill, temp. James II. after the representation of “St. George for England,” wherein is shown how the valiant “saint slew the venomous Dragon,” the public were treated with “the Life and Death of Doctor Foster, (Faustus?) with such curiosity, that his very intrails turns into snakes and sarpints!” ** On the top of the following bill is a woodcut of the “Ladder Dance,” and the “two Famous High German children” vaulting on the tight rope. “At Mr. Barnes's Booth, between the Croton Tavern and the Hospital Gate, with the English Flag flying on the top, you will see Mr. Barnes dancing with a child standing upon his shoulders; also tumbling through hoops, over halberds, over sixteen men's heads, and over a horse with a man on his back, and two boys standing upright upon each arm! With the merry conceits of Pickle Herring and his son Punch.” --but myself and a few heroes stood the brunt of the fray, and saw the Ladder Dance, and excellent vaulting on the slack and tight rope, by Mr. Barnes and the Lady Mary; I had a month's mind to a musick booth; but the reformation of manners having suppressed them all but one, I declined going thither, for fear of being thought an immoral person, and paid my penny to take a peep at the Creation of the World. Then “To the Cloisters ** I went, where the gallants resort, And all sorts and sizes come in for their sport, Whose saucy behaviour and impudent air Proclaim'd them the subjects of Bartlemy Fair! There strutted the sharper and braggart, (a brace!) And there peep'd a goddess with mask on her face! ---- I view'd all the shops where the gamblers did raffle, And saw the young ladies their gentlemen baffle; For though the fine sparks might sometimes have good fate, The shop had the money, the lass had the plate.” * The Lady Mary, the daughter of a noble Italian family, was born in Florence, and immured in a nunnery, but eloped with a Merry Andrew, who taught her his professional tricks. She danced with great dexterity on the rope, from which (when urged by the avarice of her inhuman partner to exhibit during a period of bodily weakness) she fell, and died instantaneously. ** “The Cloister in Bartholomew Fair, a poem, London. Thus ends the ramble, Cousin Corydon! of (Thine, as thy spouse's own,) Ingleberry Griskin. Thanks! worthy chronicler of ancient St. Bartlemy.