Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2Daniel, George
History
Merrie England in the Olden Time, Vol. 2
Daniel, George
England -- Social life and customs
I am hurried with my entertainment: my fingers are cramped
with writing; and on my return, I find twenty-five letters,
at least, to answer. I shall be at home Tuesday and
Wednesday; can you come up? Do. Very sincerely yours, in a
gallop, Charles Mathews.--P.S. It will be your last chance
of seeing my gallery here” We accepted the invitation, and
spent a delightful day.
What more than a hasty glance can we afford the Wild Indian Warriors;
the Enchanted Skeleton; Comical Joe on his Piggy-Wiggy; the Canadian
Giantess; Toby, the sapient pig; the learned goose; * Doncaster Dick,
the great; Mr. Paap, ** Sieur Borawliski, Thomas Allen, and Lady Morgan
the little; the wonderful child (in spirits) with two heads, three legs,
and four arms (“no white leather, but all real flesh”); the Bonassus,
“whose fascinating powers are most wonderful.” the Chinese Swinish
Philosopher (a rival of Toby!).
* “It tells us the time of day; the day of the month; the
month of the year; takes a hand at whist; and (the
profundity of this goose's intellects!) counts the number of
ladies and gentleman in the room.”
** Mr. Simon Paap was the most diminutive of dwarfs, not
excepting Jeffery Hudson, and the “Little Welchman” who, in
1752, advertised his thirty inches at sixpence a-head. Simon
measured but twenty-eight inches, and weighed only twenty-
seven pounds. Count Borawliski was three feet three inches
high; so was Thomas Allen. Lady Morgan, the “Windsor Fairy,”
was a yard high. Her Ladyship and Allen were thus be-rhymed
by some Bartlemy Fair bard:
“The lady like a fairy queen,
The gentleman of equal stature;
O how curious these dear creatures!
Little bodies! little features!
Hands, feet, and all alike so small,
How wondrous are the works of nature!”
Mrs. Samwell's voltigeurs on the slack-wire, and Tyrolesian stilts; the
Spotted Negro Boy; Hokee Pokee; the learned dog near-sighted, and in
spectacles; the Red Barn Tragedy, and Corder's * execution “done to
the life!” the Indian Jugglers; the Reform Banquet; Mr. Haynes, the
fire-eater; ** the Chinese Conjuror, who swallows fifty needles, which,
after remaining some time in his throat, are pulled out threaded; the
chattering, locomotive, laughing, lissom, light-heeled Flying
Pieman; and the diverting humours of Richardson's clown, Rumfungus
Hook-umsnoolcumwalkrisky? This ark of oddities *** must
“Come like shadows, so depart.”
* A countryman from Hertford, being in the gallery of Covent
Garden Theatre, at the tragedy of Macbeth, and hearing
Duncan demand of Malcolm,
“Is execution done on Cawdor?” exclaimed, “Yes, your honour?
he was hanged this morning.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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