Pepys relates that he went, in the same year, "to Southwark Fair, very dirty, and there saw the puppet-show of Whittington, which was pretty to see; and how that idle thing do work upon people that see it, and even myself too! And thence to Jacob Hall's dancing of the ropes, where I saw such action as I never saw before, and mightily worth seeing; and here took acquaintance with a fellow that carried me to a tavern, whither come the music of this booth, and bye and bye Jacob Hall himself, with whom I had a mind to speak, to hear whether he had ever any mischief by falls in his time. He told me, 'Yes, many, but never to the breaking of a limb;' he seems a mighty strong man. So giving them a bottle or two of wine, I away with Payne, the waterman. He, seeking me at the play, did get a link to light me, and so light me to the Bear, where Bland, my waterman, waited for me with gold and other things he kept for me, to the value of £40 and more, which I had about me, for fear of my pockets being cut. So by link-light through the bridge, it being mighty dark, but still weather, and so home." Jacob Hall was as famous for his handsome face and symmetrical form as for his skill and grace on the rope. He is said to have shared with Harte, the actor, the favours of Nell Gwynne, and afterwards to have been a pensioned favourite of the profligate Countess of Castlemaine. His portrait in Grammont's 'Memoirs' was engraved from an unnamed picture by Van Oost, first said to represent the famous rope-dancer by Ames, in 1748. A passage in one of Davenant's poems affords some information concerning the character of the shows which formed the attraction of the fairs at this period, "Now vaulter good, and dancing lass On rope, and man that cries, Hey, pass! And tumbler young that needs but stoop, Lay head to heel, to creep through hoop; And man in chimney hid to dress Puppet that acts our old Queen Bess, And man that, while the puppets play, Through nose expoundeth what they say; And white oat-eater that does dwell In stable small at sign of Bell, That lifts up hoof to show the pranks Taught by magician styled Banks; And ape led captive still in chain Till he renounce the Pope and Spain; All these on hoof now trudge from town, To cheat poor turnip-eating clown." The preceding chapter will have rendered the allusions intelligible to the reader of the present day.