** “With a pair of French post boots, under the soles of which are fastened quart-bottles, with their necks downwards, Mr. Macdonald exhibits several feats of activity on the slack wire; after this he poises a wheel on his right toe, on the top of which is placed a spike, whereon is balanced by the edge a pewter-plate; on that a board with sixteen wine-glasses; and on the summit a glass globe, with a wheaten straw erect on the same. He then fixes a sharp- pointed sword on the tip of his nose, on the pommel of which he balances a tobacco-pipe, and on its bowl two eggs erect! With his left forefinger he sustains a chair with a dog sitting in it, and two feathers standing erect on the nobs; and to shew the strength of his wrist, there are two weights of l00 lbs. each fastened to the legs of the chair!” &c. &c. [Illustration: 0165] But his empty quart bottles, with “their necks downwards,” produced him not the price of a full one; his glass globe Louis Ragout valued not the straw that stood erect upon it; and his nose, sustaining on its tip a sharp-pointed sword, put not a morsel into his mouth; so that, finding his wire and trade equally slack, and that he could balance everything but his accounts, he took his French boots and French leave; left his board for his lodging, and his chair for his cheer, hoping to experience better luck at Bartholomew Fair! Posture-master Phillips, * pupil of Joseph Clarke, ** exercises his crooked calling, and becomes hunch-backed, pot-bellied, sharpbreasted, and crippled disjointing arms, shoulders, and legs, and twisting his supple limbs into bows and double knots! * “August 23, 1749, a gallery in Phillips's booth broke down. F our persons were killed and several wounded.” ** Clarke, who lived in the reigns of King James II. and King William, was a terrible torment to his tailors; for when one came to measure him, he contrived to have an enormous hump on his left shoulder, and when the coat was tried on, it had shifted to his right I The tailor apologized for his blunder, took home the garment, altered it, returned, and again attempted to make it fit, when, to his astonishment and dismay, he found his queer customer as straight as an arrow! A legion of tailors came to Adonize him, but he puzzled them all. Hans Buling * displays his monkey's humours, and his own. The Auctioneer of Moorfields ** transfers his book-stall to the cloisters. “Poor Will Ellis” offers for sale his simple “effigie.” *** * A well-known charlatan, who advertised his nostrums, attended by a monkey. ** This grave-looking, spectacled personage, in a rare print by Sutton Nieholls, stands at his book-stall in Moorfields, puffing the contents of his sale catalogue, among which are “The History of Theves;” “English Rogue;” “Aristotle's Masterpiece and “Poems by Rochester